The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: Catchafire
Quick Pitch: Catchafire matches volunteers and social good organizations for pro bono work.
Genius Idea: Carving out a niche for pro bono work instead of compiling a general volunteer database.
Catchafire founder Rachael Chong is not especially well-suited for building houses. As a physically not-large person, her hoisting power is relatively limited, and she doesn’t consider herself to have any particular carpentry skills. So why, when she had valuable skills in finance and business that she was willing to share, was she tacking on shingles for Habitat for Humanity — a cause she believed in but nonetheless frustrated her?
“People weren’t looking [for volunteers with those skills],” she says. “It made me feel like I couldn’t be in corporate America and give back at the same time, which isn’t true.”
It’s not that social good organizations didn’t need skills like hers — it’s that they weren’t necessarily sure where to look for them. A 2009 survey(.pdf) of 300 nonprofit executives by Deloitte found that 97% of them didn’t know whom within a company to approach about pro bono work. Ninety-five percent of them said they didn’t know which companies to approach.
Chong started to see a solution to this problem as she assigned friends small pro bono projects for a nonprofit she joined after leaving the corporate world. With what she learned from that experience, she launched Catchafire in September.
The website matches professionals who have skills they’d like to volunteer with organizations that need work done. While established volunteer sites like idealist and volunteermatch already had vast databases (VolunteerMatch boasts listings from 79,000 nonprofit organizations), Chong wanted to take a more personal approach that the company has dubbed “eHarmony for volunteering.”
Volunteers fill out profiles that detail their interests and skills, and Catchafire sends them projects that might be a good match.
Catchafire projects span a smaller niche than database-style volunteering websites. They are usually about 30-to-80 hour projects that involve professional skills, can be completed by one person in three months, and have a clear deliverable. Chong, for instance, is currently working on a fundraising plan for an organization called Youth Challenge America.
About 1,700 social good organizations and 10,000 volunteers have registered for the service. Just as Idealist charges U.S.-based organizations per volunteer posting, Catchafire makes money by charging organizations a subscription fee that varies depending on their size.
“It is not uncommon to have your time wasted when volunteering,” Chong says of the decision to make Catchafire a company instead of a nonprofit. “[Paying a subscription fee] shows organizations are willing to put skin in the game to make this worthwhile.”
Image courtesy of istockphoto, BirdofPrey
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
More About: bizspark, Catchafire, idealist, volunteering, volunteermatchFor more Startups coverage:Follow Mashable Startups on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Startups channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Fri, 05 Aug 2011 03:14:28 +0000 at http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/geXTJuualkc/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/04/sparkafire/#comments
Name: Catchafire
Quick Pitch: Catchafire matches volunteers and social good organizations for pro bono work.
Genius Idea: Carving out a niche for pro bono work instead of compiling a general volunteer database.
Catchafire founder Rachael Chong is not especially well-suited for building houses. As a physically not-large person, her hoisting power is relatively limited, and she doesn’t consider herself to have any particular carpentry skills. So why, when she had valuable skills in finance and business that she was willing to share, was she tacking on shingles for Habitat for Humanity — a cause she believed in but nonetheless frustrated her?
“People weren’t looking [for volunteers with those skills],” she says. “It made me feel like I couldn’t be in corporate America and give back at the same time, which isn’t true.”
It’s not that social good organizations didn’t need skills like hers — it’s that they weren’t necessarily sure where to look for them. A 2009 survey(.pdf) of 300 nonprofit executives by Deloitte found that 97% of them didn’t know whom within a company to approach about pro bono work. Ninety-five percent of them said they didn’t know which companies to approach.
Chong started to see a solution to this problem as she assigned friends small pro bono projects for a nonprofit she joined after leaving the corporate world. With what she learned from that experience, she launched Catchafire in September.
The website matches professionals who have skills they’d like to volunteer with organizations that need work done. While established volunteer sites like idealist and volunteermatch already had vast databases (VolunteerMatch boasts listings from 79,000 nonprofit organizations), Chong wanted to take a more personal approach that the company has dubbed “eHarmony for volunteering.”
Volunteers fill out profiles that detail their interests and skills, and Catchafire sends them projects that might be a good match.
Catchafire projects span a smaller niche than database-style volunteering websites. They are usually about 30-to-80 hour projects that involve professional skills, can be completed by one person in three months, and have a clear deliverable. Chong, for instance, is currently working on a fundraising plan for an organization called Youth Challenge America.
About 1,700 social good organizations and 10,000 volunteers have registered for the service. Just as Idealist charges U.S.-based organizations per volunteer posting, Catchafire makes money by charging organizations a subscription fee that varies depending on their size.
“It is not uncommon to have your time wasted when volunteering,” Chong says of the decision to make Catchafire a company instead of a nonprofit. “[Paying a subscription fee] shows organizations are willing to put skin in the game to make this worthwhile.”
Image courtesy of istockphoto, BirdofPrey
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
More About: bizspark, Catchafire, idealist, volunteering, volunteermatchFor more Startups coverage:Follow Mashable Startups on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Startups channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Posted on Fri, 05 Aug 2011 03:14:28 +0000 at http://feeds.mashable.com/~r/Mashable/~3/geXTJuualkc/
Comments: http://mashable.com/2011/08/04/sparkafire/#comments
