HuffPost Innovators Series - Catchafire, LookTel And More (PHOTOS)

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Catchafire: An eHarmony For Volunteering

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Volunteer work often leads to a classic chicken-or-egg problem: nonprofits complain about a lack of volunteers and would-be volunteers complain about the lack of volunteer opportunities. Enter Catchafire, a website launched last fall by former investment banker Rachael Chong, 28. Catchafire works like a recruitment agency: when a volunteer logs onto the site, he or she can input their skills and fields of interest and is then sent an email with relevant opportunities that make the most of these skills. The result is a kind of eHarmony for volunteers. Catchafire charges nonprofits a $100 finder’s fee, which sounds steep, but Chong says the value that nonprofits receive from volunteers is often worth a lot more. But perhaps more importantly, Chong believes Catchafire could change the inefficient relationship between nonprofits and volunteers. “[Charging a fee] makes the nonprofit think of the volunteer as a resource. It makes them think, ‘OK we paid a fee, we should think of the volunteer as a valuable resource instead of something totally expendable.’” “Volunteering cannot be a one-way street,” she says. “Nonprofits can’t think they’re just getting a free resource without giving anything back. Volunteers expect to have a good experience, to find their time valued and to network with others.” -- Sara Yin, Huffington Post Submitted by HuffPost user Sonal Bains:
"Rachael Chong, founder and CEO of Catchafire.org, won't rest until every professional can volunteer their skills and every nonprofit has access to the volunteers they need to make an impact. Catchafire helps nonprofits express their needs as short-term, discrete and individual-based projects that are appealing to busy professionals. Nonprofits and professionals are then matched to each other based on skills, cause interests and time availability."

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Volunteer work often leads to a classic chicken-or-egg problem: nonprofits complain about a lack of volunteers and would-be volunteers complain about the lack of volunteer opportunities.

Enter Catchafire, a website launched last fall by former investment banker Rachael Chong, 28. Catchafire works like a recruitment agency: when a volunteer logs onto the site, he or she can input their skills and fields of interest and is then sent an email with relevant opportunities that make the most of these skills. The result is a kind of eHarmony for volunteers.

Catchafire charges nonprofits a $100 finder’s fee, which sounds steep, but Chong says the value that nonprofits receive from volunteers is often worth a lot more. But perhaps more importantly, Chong believes Catchafire could change the inefficient relationship between nonprofits and volunteers.

“[Charging a fee] makes the nonprofit think of the volunteer as a resource. It makes them think, ‘OK we paid a fee, we should think of the volunteer as a valuable resource instead of something totally expendable.’”

“Volunteering cannot be a one-way street,” she says. “Nonprofits can’t think they’re just getting a free resource without giving anything back. Volunteers expect to have a good experience, to find their time valued and to network with others.” -- Sara Yin, Huffington Post


Submitted by HuffPost user Sonal Bains:
"Rachael Chong, founder and CEO of Catchafire.org, won't rest until every professional can volunteer their skills and every nonprofit has access to the volunteers they need to make an impact. Catchafire helps nonprofits express their needs as short-term, discrete and individual-based projects that are appealing to busy professionals. Nonprofits and professionals are then matched to each other based on skills, cause interests and time availability."

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Comments

[WorldisMorphing]

07:16 PM on 07/04/2010

Rachael Chong is beautiful...

[loki]

04:01 AM on 07/03/2010

The safe plug? would that be just a 50 cent varistor in a normal wall socket? There are companies that have been making this for a long time now. But, the more the merrier when it comes to safety products I always say. It brings the prices down to where normal, or in BPs CEO words " small people" can afford to make their homes safe for their families.

[AContrario]

03:56 AM on 07/03/2010

You can take the banker out of wall street but you can't take greed out of the
banker...Getting fees on volunteering(free work)? It is so socially backward...

I have got a great idea for a business, i m gonna set up a website where companies
's job offers can have prospects not only applying for a job but also bidding for
it,and I will charge a 'small' fee from companies and prospects

[frankcaprafan]

09:51 AM on 07/03/2010

What is it like to live on top of a mountain?

[AContrario]

10:18 AM on 07/03/2010

I don't know you tell me :)

[T Pol]

04:51 PM on 07/02/2010

The gentlemen revising plastics as we know them are innovating in the way I spoke of on another post. We cannot build an economy based on buying "stuff" -- we have to build it on solving the problems we have created by creating and buying "stuff."

The gentleman with the electric plug...ditto, and life-saving, too. That it should have met politic resistance is sickening.

I also love the lady with the GPS for domestic offenders ... it should be broadened to include other violent offenders. Take the 20% thugs committing 80% of the violent crime off the street, and what a safer world it can become.

The device that is a "looking aid" is fantastic, too. Increased self-sufficiencey for the blind and sight-impaired.

All 4 of these solve a problem and can create jobs for many as these tools are manufactured and sold. If the GPS, the electric plug and the LookTel can also be recycled, preferably as directly as possible into new versions of the same, as the plastics will be, then even better.

Catchafire? That sounds like an income stream for one individual that duplicates a free service. I am not impressed.

[leanjhuls2]

07:33 AM on 07/02/2010

The world with recycable plastics. 3rd slide. I hope that will happen someday.

[Blup]

02:09 AM on 07/02/2010

What's so novel or innovative about Catchafire? Uhh....Volunteer Match, Idealist, Global Volunteer Network, ServeNet, SmartVolunteer.....I could go on. I don't understand why catchafire was given funding. There's nothing new about this, except that she's charging money for the service.

[andramada8888888]

01:27 AM on 07/02/2010

Rachael Chong, you are amazing

[sheoples]

12:35 AM on 07/02/2010

bankers are ruthless.

they take your money away with a smile and pat on the back.

[sheoples]

12:25 AM on 07/02/2010

she thinks she's so clever with her con job. I was watching the clip from an interview she did and she said that the reason she decided to go with for profit was b/c she it just so happens to be the only way to make this work on a fast timeline. oh and also b/c it allows them to make profits.

is this what ivy league bankers do now adays? make money by running nicely packaged con jobs? where have i seen this before making money without creating anything real? hmmmm wallstreet and banks come to mind with their fancy derivatives and hedges against hedges.

[sheoples]

12:27 AM on 07/02/2010

here are the clips
http://www.eclips.cornell.edu/entrepreneur.do?id=757&tab=TabClipsPage

[sheoples]

12:19 AM on 07/02/2010

the cancer of our time, greed, has finally even infected something virtuous as volunteering.

this is so wrong on so many levels.

somethings just shouldn't be open to the never ending appetite of corporate greed.

[ptc5010]

02:06 AM on 07/02/2010

You've lost some credibility by posting six times in a row.

[sheoples]

12:11 AM on 07/02/2010

in any case, nice cleavage.

[sheoples]

12:10 AM on 07/02/2010

only an ex banker would think of a way to make money off of volunteers backs. where i come from that's called at best taking advantage of others good will and at worst getting something for nothing.

what type of con job is she running here?

[Vivuldi]

11:11 PM on 07/01/2010

“[Charging a fee] makes the nonprofit think of the volunteer as a resource. It makes them think, ‘OK we paid a fee, we should think of the volunteer as a valuable resource instead of something totally expendable.’”

Really? Yes, Ms. Chong, you are providing some sort of service to the non-profit, volunteer seeking companies but why go as far as charging them an exuberant amount of $100!!! Only from an ex-investment banker which I'm pretty sure she only worked for but didn't run anything. I doubt a 28-year-old who was under 25 at the time was involved in any top level managerial work. Just imagine how many $100's of dollars she would be collecting if the oil spill volunteers are recruited through her alleged service. Thanks, but no thanks.

[sheoples]

12:09 AM on 07/02/2010

2x

no wonder with under 25 year olds in the workings of banking/financing it only gets worse with their short term get rich quick motivations.

[pillstonic]

11:07 PM on 07/01/2010

Volunteers pay about two thousand standard to volunteer overseas on their own expenses so this is just a drop in the bucket of the industry extraction process.

[DeaconJoey]

10:38 PM on 07/01/2010

“[Charging a fee] makes the nonprofit think of the volunteer as a resource. It makes them think, ‘OK we paid a fee, we should think of the volunteer as a valuable resource instead of something totally expendable.’”

What a load of crap. The only thing that amazes me is that somewhere in America, some Angel Investor or Venture Capitalist actually fell for that and gave this woman some money.

Hasn't anyone ever heard of www.volunteermatch.org before?

[sheoples]

12:13 AM on 07/02/2010

2x