About

Skills based volunteering is becoming more in demand for nonprofits who seek to expand the impact of volunteers and do more with fewer resources and for volunteers who seek to apply their skills to give back and improve their communities.  HandsOn Greater Richmond wants to help our nonprofit partners develop skills-based volunteer opportunities and facilitate the volunteer connections to complete these important initiatives. 

Skills Connect is a system that helps nonprofits develop skills-based volunteer opportunities that are well scoped and structured projects.  One of the biggest challenges nonprofits face for skills-based initiatives is scoping appropriate projects. The skills-based project wizard guides nonprofits through the process of identifying opportunities that are well defined and sized and will accomplish a key goal. Further, it allows volunteers to express interest and provides tools for the nonprofit to accept or decline the volunteer based on the skills needed for the project and the skills of the volunteer.

How the Program Works 

Instructions for Nonprofit Partners to create a project: 

• Visit the Create a Project page and go through the three steps. 

• Project is submitted to the Skills Connect team to review and approve.   

• Once approved, the request becomes a public Volunteer Opportunity and Volunteers can then express interest  

• Nonprofit Partner staff review the volunteers who have expressed interest and view the skills that they have identified in their profile. Staff may reach out to volunteers to ensure that they are a good fit for the project.  Next, they can approve or decline those volunteers.    

• Please tell us about your experience by filling out this brief survey.

      

The Volunteer Experience

How does it work for Volunteers? 

• Approved Volunteer Opportunities show up as active, searchable volunteer opportunities as well as listings on the Skills Connect page.    

• These Volunteer Opportunities require a skill for project completion; therefore, volunteers must have this skill in their profile to be considered for the project.

• Volunteers can express interest in the Volunteer Opportunity and will receive confirmation or decline emails based on the nonprofit's selections.

      

Ready to get started?

log into your partner portal and choose the skills connect menu option.