Charity Guide

Charity Guide is a tax-exempt, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization in the United States dedicated to inspiring and facilitating volunteer opportunities through an approach known as flexible volunteerism. Its website, CharityGuide.org[1], offers a list of volunteer opportunities, service projects and volunteer vacation ideas that are designed to be entirely flexible and immediately actionable by would-be volunteers. Charity Guide is based in Wilmette, Illinois

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Approach to volunteerism

Based on the premise that many would-be volunteers have hectic and unpredictable schedules, making it difficult for them to commit to traditional, regular volunteer schedules, Charity Guide focuses on listing flexible volunteer opportunities through which people can help a cause of their choosing in as little as 15 minutes. Also known as “Volunteering On-Demand,” the approach seeks to give busy people a way to help a cause any time, from anywhere, without having to commit to a schedule or register in advance. In that way, Charity Guide uses the Internet to shift volunteerism from the traditional, organizationally led model to one that is self-directed by the volunteer. The result makes it possible, for example, for:

• busy office workers to volunteer during lunch breaks
• busy college students to volunteer between classes
• busy parents to volunteer after their kids go to sleep
• busy business travelers to volunteer from their hotel rooms

To promote its volunteer opportunities, Charity Guide uses search engine optimization and other Internet marketing techniques. Most volunteers find Charity Guide listings by searching on related topics on Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines.

Topic areas

CharityGuide.org lists volunteer opportunities, service projects and volunteer vacations in six areas:

• animal welfare[2]
• children’s issues[3]
• community development[4]
• environmental protection[5]
• health & safety[6]
• poverty & homelessness[7]

For each cause, CharityGuide.org provides service projects to make a difference in 15 minutes, in a few hours (once, or each week), or on volunteer vacations. So, visitors to CharityGuide.org interested in children’s issues, for example, will find volunteer opportunities for helping children in 15 minutes, such as by sending a get-well-soon card to a hospitalized child; in a few hours, such as by making teddy bears for orphans; or on vacation, such as by volunteering at a camp for special-needs children.

Volunteer vacations

Charity Guide offers a diverse listing of volunteer vacations[8] for each topic of interest in its directory. These listings are where volunteers can find myriad opportunities for making a difference in anywhere between 1 and 4 weeks, with links to specific opportunities throughout the world. Examples include opportunities to rescue orphaned chimpanzees in Uganda, to help on environmental research projects in Slovakia, or to build homes for the homeless around the globe.

History

Charity Guide was founded in 2000 by internet marketing pioneer Michael Organ, who now serves as executive director. After an 20-year career in marketing and advertising, including 9 years at management consultancy Accenture, Organ launched Charity Guide with the goal of inspiring a million acts of kindness a year. Organ is also the founder of IssueMarketing.com, which helps non-profit organizations and cause marketers to leverage the internet to advocate for their cause.

Charity Guide currently serves more than 1.2 million would-be volunteers per year, primarily in the United States.

References

See also

Volunteer Vacation