8 Best Volunteer Recruitment Platforms for Nonprofits

Let’s take a moment before we start to really appreciate all the work that nonprofit volunteers do. Without them, there could be no fundraising, charity events or even charitable work. Every single day, they are out there in their local communities, making a difference. Nonprofits simply could not function without them.

If you’re a new nonprofit organization, however, you may be at a loss of how to assemble your own team of volunteer superheroes. Often, new nonprofits are stuck asking their friends and family for help on social media. Thankfully, the modern nonprofit can rely on the aid of volunteer recruitment platforms. These streamline the process of finding recruits for your nonprofit endeavors and are well worth the investment.

Top Volunteer Recruitment Platforms for Nonprofits: Key Features and Benefits

A volunteer recruitment platform is any online tool or service that connects nonprofit organizations with potential volunteers. Many of the platforms do much more than that, however, offering features such as event management, time-tracking and scheduling tools. We’ll provide a quick list of some of the best for you to browse. 

Catchafire

Catachafire’s mission is to connect nonprofits with skilled volunteers for a specific project. The volunteers you’ll find here tend to be specialists in fields like design, IT or marketing. This means that it’s the perfect way to get volunteer experts on a project-to-project basis. If you want high-quality results on a specific project, here’s where you start.

However, this means that Catchafire isn’t as suitable for general volunteer opportunities. The time for project completion may also be variable depending on the schedule of the experts.

Catchafire’s pricing is handled by subscription. The pricing is customizable as per the need of your organization, and the size of the project.

Civic Champs

Civic Champs is a mobile-optimized platform that is designed to make the whole volunteer recruitment process a breeze. It handles recruitment, management, engagement, time tracking, communication and volunteer data management for you - all in one user-friendly app interface. It’s ideal for managing a lot of local volunteers at once.

However, note that beyond the local scale, Civic Champs has limited features to handle large-scale outreach to volunteers. Since it’s handling so much, more of the app is also dedicated to existing volunteer management software, rather than specializing in helping you recruit volunteers.

Pricing for Civic Champs varies depending on the size of your organization. The price range can start as low as $49 a month for small nonprofits. 

Create the Good

Create the Good is a volunteer recruitment platform launched by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). The goal of this platform is to connect volunteers with local opportunities and focuses on nonprofits that support older adults and retirees. For nonprofits with this specialty, it provides an excellent pool of experienced, older volunteers. 

However, its usage is somewhat limited when reaching younger volunteers, or when engaged in spaces outside of the AARP’s purview. Most of its volunteers are amateurs, and it’s not a platform for finding professionals. 

However, one major benefit is that the entire platform is free to use for nonprofits and volunteers alike. 

The LinkedIn Volunteer Marketplace

This list would be incomplete without pointing out that you can actually look for volunteers in the same place many look for employees - on LinkedIn. The Volunteer Marketplace (or, LinkedIn for Nonprofits) helps connect nonprofits with professionals who are seeking volunteer opportunities. The main benefit of searching here is access to LinkedIn’s wide global platform. It’s the ideal place to find not only skilled volunteers, but experts in nonprofit leadership as well. 

However, while you may just find the perfect nonprofit board member here, it’s a less efficient tool for general volunteer work. It’s not the most efficient platform for hiring large numbers of unskilled volunteers.

You have to create a profile and sign up to get started with all the resources available. Pricing will vary depending on the needs of your particular nonprofit and what LinkedIn tools you will be using. Note that nonprofits actually receive a hefty discount on using the LinkedIn Recruiter tool. 

Nextdoor Volunteer Posting

Nextdoor Volunteer Posting is a platform that lets nonprofit organizations post volunteer opportunities to local neighborhoods. The raison d'être of Nextdoor is to help volunteers connect with opportunities in their local area. Therefore if you’re a nonprofit looking to target a particular neighborhood, it’s a great match. This platform is ideal for small community projects and is simple and easy to use.

Of course, this local focus makes Nextdoor less applicable for large-scale recruitment, or for locating particular professional skills. Thankfully, this small-scale nature means that it’s free to get started and begin posting volunteer opportunities. 

Point

Point is a platform that focuses on connecting a new generation of young and ambitious volunteers with the nonprofits that need them. Point has a very easy to use and simple mobile app, and lots of convenient tools for tracking and managing volunteers as well. 

The Point platform tends to be geared towards assembling non-skilled, young volunteers on an event-by-event basis. So if you’re looking for professional skill sets ready to make a long-term commitment, this may not be the platform for your nonprofit. 

Pricing for Point varies depending on the plan you are using. The core plan is free, while the Pro plan costs $99 a month. 

Points of Light

Points of Light is an organization that creates services to help corporations, NGOs and nonprofits find the volunteers they need for success in their endeavors. Points of Light is most notable for their global network that reaches across 38 countries. If you’re looking to find volunteers on a global scale and get strong support for event-driven volunteer programs, this is the place to start. 

Note that Points of Light is generally used to manage large-scale or event-based projects. Smaller nonprofits may find all the options overwhelming here. Generally it's free to post volunteer opportunities, but you will want to contact Points of Light for all the info on pricing. 

VolunteerMatch 

VolunteerMatch is one of the largest volunteer recruitment platforms out there. It offers searchable listing to help nonprofits connect with volunteers and also offers volunteer management tools as well. VolunteerMatch boasts an extensive volunteer database and an easy system to handle potential candidates.

As one of the most used platforms, you may find a lot of competition for volunteers on VolunteerMatch. There is a free version, but its features are quite limited. Pro membership plans will cost more depending on your needs.

Why are Volunteer Recruitment Platforms Important?

So why are all these volunteer programs so important? What value will they bring to your nonprofit? What makes them a better choice than simply trying to manage all your own recruitment? 

There are a few answers to these questions. The first broad category is that of efficiency. With a volunteer recruitment platform, you can reach a broad audience of volunteers right away. And yet, at the same time, you can “slice” that list however you like it, focusing on just the skillset and location of volunteers that you need. You can also access a more diverse list of skills and experiences, to better suit your nonprofit. Many volunteer management platforms also feature some sort of automation, to further make things simpler for you.

There’s also the benefit of visibility. With a good volunteer recruitment platform, volunteers will be reaching out to you as much as you are reaching out to them. This passive influx of volunteers contacting you will be an invaluable source of work power.

Lastly is the benefit brought by volunteer management solutions. Both the recruiting process, and the volunteer management process, are complicated undertakings. Good volunteer recruitment software will provide you with the means to record and save data on every step a volunteer takes with you, reducing errors, confusion and inefficiency. 

Do note that you can also get a separate tool to handle managing your volunteer activities and workflows. It’s beyond the scope of this article, but if you’re looking just for software solutions to build a volunteer management system, make sure to check out things like Bloomerang, Volunteerhub or Volunteer Local - which may have some volunteer recruitment capacity as well.

Once you build up a good team of volunteers, you’ll be building your own network of talent and connections - as invaluable as any recruitment platform. You just need to get to work building that team!