Taproot Foundation Starts Online Matchmaker for Charities Seeking Pro Bono Help

Nicole Wallace at the Chronicle of Philanthropy: “The Taproot Foundation has created an online marketplace it hopes will become the Match.com of pro bono, linking skilled volunteers with nonprofits that need assistance in areas like marketing, database design, and strategic planning.
The new site, Taproot+, allows nonprofits to describe projects needing help. Taproot Foundation employees will review proposals and help improve any unclear project descriptions….
People looking to share their skills can browse projects on the site. Some charities ask for in-person help, while other projects can use volunteers working remotely. In some cases, Taproot will post the projects on sites run by partner organizations, like the LinkedIn for Volunteers, to help find the right volunteer. As the site grows, the group plans to work closely with other pro bono organizations, like NPower and DataKind.
“We want to make sure that we’re helping on the front end,” says Ms. Hamburg. “But once that project description is created, we want to make sure that the nonprofit is accessing the best talent out there, no matter where it is.
After a nonprofit and pro bono volunteer agree to work together, Taproot+ helps them plan the steps of the project and set deadlines for milestones, which are tracked on the site…”