Golden Volunteer Opportunities 4+

Growing up, I did a considerable amount of volunteer work, but over the last 10 years, it has become harder and harder to find easy opportunities to donate a few hours of time to a good cause each month. Well, Problem solved! I really love how this app presents local organized volunteer events - so easy to round up a few friends and head down to the community garden. Hugely helpful and fulfilling, and I’m excited to see what other features they build!

csb2020 - thanks so much! We totally agree with you on local organizers. And we're always excited to meet more/new organizers too, so if you have any suggestions, let us know!

It’s wonderful that your spending time developing an app that is probably not the most lucrative project you could be spending your time on - that’s very noble. I’m in New York City - the largest city in the country- and there was only one organization with a listing. So here’s my feedback: 1) please allow users to see opportunities before signing up - the only explanation for not doing so is that your somehow trying to monetize the collection of emails. I honestly feel duped for giving my email address. 2) Consider renaming your app something with LA or Los Angeles in the title, or at least make it very clear in the description that there is limited opportunities in areas other than _____ Or if you’d just allow people to search opportunities before signing up, the second suggestion wouldn’t be necessary. There’s space for an app like this so if you’re a 501c3 you should write a few grants and you’ll be poppin in no time.

Hi @tontonflaco thanks for the feedback and nice to meet you! A couple things - 1, we never sell your data, as we comply with all major privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA, and 2, we do support local and virtual opportunities not just around the USA, but in every continent globally. Since Golden content is "live inventory", not just "expression of interest" (aka lead generation for nonprofits), the available inventory changes constantly and much of it is private - meaning you'll only see it if you're within the target audience (say of employees of a company or with a specific skill). We'd recommend broadening your search filters and setting alerts, so you'll be the first to know about opportunities that suit your interests. Hope that helps. If you do appreciate the community we support, we'd appreciate you considering modifying your review to be more favorable, so we can continue to deliver and improve the experience for others. Thanks again!

Your team needs to go back and redo the listing process from the ground up. The organization I was going to create listings for, and most other organizations, have created standardized listings for volunteer sites. I was going to put some listings up, but here’s why I won’t be doing so:

You split the listing section into three very short sections, with the third being “vibe.” First of all the character limit is incredibly short for the first two sections, I can’t even get 1/3rd of the information I need in there. Also, I’m a millennial and I have to say the “vibe” section is incredibly lame and a weak approach at trying to seem hip to set yourselves apart from the competition, not to mention you can only fit, what, 60 characters?

The time section is annoying as well, lots of opportunities are ongoing and at random intervals and don’t have a set timeframe, not allowing me to continue without setting a timeframe is infuriating.

Pardon any grammatical errors this was written from my phone, but I seriously hope you take these suggestions into consideration because the app itself is a good concept but the execution certainly needs work. Deleting the app for now but will hopefully be back later on when things have been fixed.

Hi there - thanks for your note. We very much appreciate your feedback because we constantly are working to better serve your needs.

A couple notes and a question:

1. We keep the initial sections short based on analysis showing that volunteers are 55% more likely to sign up for Opportunities with descriptions under a certain length. We have a "Pro Tips" section later on that has an unlimited character length for further info.

2. The "Vibe" section is focused on setting expectations accurately. Volunteers on Golden sign up a 2nd time 4x as often as other platforms, and one of the reasons (the main one being that our NPO partners are awesome is obviously the biggest) is that we have tailored the "Vibe" section to ensure that volunteers know what they're getting in to.

3. Time Section - I think I understand this to mean that you have openings for volunteers to come in whenever they want? If so, that's fantastic. We've designed the formatting for partners who have more strict schedules, but I'd love your feedback to make it better.

If you're up to it, you can reach me at steve@goldenvolunteer.com.

We very much appreciate you taking the time to reach us.

Steve Sherrill
Chief Operating Officer