As the holiday season approaches, the demand for volunteers across non-profit organizations is reaching its peak. Local nonprofits need more help this time of year than ever. The United Way of Gratiot & Isabella Counties has set up a one-stop-shop to connect volunteers with opportunities to lend a hand during the holidays and year-round.
The United Way of Gratiot & Isabella Counties’s online platform streamlines the process of recruiting volunteers for organizations and finding opportunities for people willing and able to help.
In the fall of 2022, the local United Way implemented a
hub on its website where local groups looking for assistance can post volunteer needs. In turn, community members interested in helping can sign up for the task and the organization is automatically notified of the response.
“We’ve created an online hub so the community has a tool for recruiting volunteers and for people to find opportunities and sign up to volunteer their time,” says Lindsey Lintjer, director of engagement and creative services at United Way of Gratiot & Isabella Counties. “The ultimate goal is for every volunteer opportunity in the area to be posted on the platform. Everything in one place.”
Prior to initiating the hub, Lintjer says their office would receive calls from people interested in volunteering. Connecting people with organizations that have volunteer opportunities was like sending them on a wild goose chase, she said.
The new platform seamlessly connects people to organizations in need, and it’s working. Since launching two years ago, 2,691 people have signed up for openings—filling more than 3,000 volunteer jobs.
The portal is free to use and available to any organization to post a volunteer opening. The hub not only connects individuals with immediate volunteer roles but also serves as a centralized hub for nonprofits across the area.
United Way is encouraging other organizations to join the platform, making it easier for those eager to lend a hand to find opportunities that align with their interests and availability.
“We know volunteers play a vital role in helping our community thrive,” Lintjer shares. “We want to make the process of connecting people to needs in our community easier.”
Utilizing the portal to post a volunteer need is easy. The system is user friendly and simple to navigate. Lintjer helps groups with the onboarding process initially. The number of organizations using the hub continues to grow every week.
Several non-profit organizations have been using the site to recruit volunteers since the beginning.
Life Choices of Central Michigan is an early-adopter, regularly posting volunteer needs on the hub.
“The platform is a great fit for us,” says Kate Conners, president and CEO at Life Choices of Central Michigan. “We realized it would help us connect with volunteers who maybe had not previously connected with our organization. All win-win.”
Life Choices has had good responses to its postings, including a group of employees from the local Meijer store signing up to help distribute diapers at the organization’s monthly Drive Thru Diaper event.
According to the automated report organizations receive from the portal on each volunteer posting, Life Choices has gained 38 volunteers.
Conners describes these as “bonus volunteers,” pointing out that most of these new volunteers would never have connected with their organization if not for the hub.
“I love that we have a community who wants to volunteer,” says Conners. “Now we have a spot where people can see all kinds of opportunities that they would maybe have never considered before.”
The United Way of Gratiot & Isabella Counties is answering the need it recognized a few years ago, connecting volunteers with organizations in need of help.
Any organization that has a need to recruit volunteers, whether it’s short term help for an event or long term assistance, all are welcome to post the opportunities on the hub.
To utilize the volunteer hub, contact Lindsey Lintjer at Lindsey@uwgic.org or call (989) 773-9863.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.