Last Updated on May 14, 2014 by New-Startups Team
Most nonprofits rely on the generosity and support of volunteers to exceed the missions they set forth in their brand guidelines. But the process of recruiting new volunteers is varied amongst various organizations. For some it’s piece of cake for others it’s near impossible, may it be from lack of awareness, poor volunteer management resources or just not being inviting to potential candidates.
Volcally set out to solve this problem, with the mission to change the face of volunteerism across the US independent of an organizations success or lack thereof for recruiting support. Co-founded by Adam Young, Jody Dawson, and Phil Burrows, Volcally is starting out in Charlotte as a platform that helps people get involved, make a difference, and get rewarded for volunteering in their local community.
The concept of Volcally came from co-founder Adam’s recognition of a major pain point for a local charity organization he volunteered for. “The organization was really struggling to identity and recruit volunteers to help them do more so that they could meet their mission of helping people around Charlotte that suffer from chronic illnesses. The Volcally concept was formalized soon after in an effort and commitment to fix the problem and make a difference.”
Adam and his fellow team have produced a way for volunteers to quickly see opportunities to help. Propelled with gamification Volcally incentivizes acts of support with discounts and gift cards from local businesses. Thus smothering any thoughts of the act of volunteering being a burden to one of an enjoyable activity. Not only do rewards follow with using Volcally, but also nonprofits get direct access to local volunteer skill sets they highly need.
But how does the platform come together? Local businesses are connected with an opportunity to give back to the community by providing monetary donations through the portal. The donations are then converted into points that can be used on the platform. Each nonprofit gets the privilege of utilizing monthly budget points to use to bid for the support of volunteers. Once a project is completed by a nonprofit using the system the points are transferred to the members that were involved which can then be redeemed for rewards or the member can choose to donate the points back to the nonprofit to continue the cycle.
With a dedicated user base and a first start in Charlotte the hope is an energetic connected community of volunteers, a super-charged local economy, and most importantly, a strengthened network of local charities that are enabled to make a bigger impact on society with their work will begin to be built.