VolunteerMatch And The Walmart Foundation Team Up To Help Nonprofits Mobilize Volunteers In The Fight Against Hunger

[Jessi Copeland]

Today VolunteerMatch, the web's largest volunteer engagement network, and the Walmart Foundation announced a new partnership to help nonprofit organizations engage volunteers in the critical fight against hunger.

According to a December 2010 U.S. Department of Agriculture report, 50 million Americans live in households that have a hard time getting enough to eat, including 17 million children. Despite growing demand and scarce resources, nonprofit organizations are often on the front lines of the fight against hunger—providing meal delivery, food banks, nutritional literacy programs, public assistance and more.

With funding from the Walmart Foundation as part of its "Fighting Hunger Together" initiative, VolunteerMatch will help hunger-related organizations tap into its network of millions of volunteers to mobilize supporters across the nation. Through a program mix of training, knowledge sharing and web services, participating nonprofits will get the support they need to deploy, manage and expand an effective volunteer program. 

Highlights of the partnership include:

• A series of free web-based trainings covering the critical components of a healthy volunteer program for hunger-related organizations, such as transforming seasonal interest from volunteers into year-round engagement, using social media to recruit and retain volunteers, developing best practices around program evaluation, and engaging skilled and pro bono volunteers;
• Support, training and knowledge sharing at national and regional hunger-related conferences to identify best practices and encourage volunteer coordinators to connect with each other;
• An innovative map of U.S. hunger needs and hunger-related volunteer op... designed to increase the visibility of volunteer needs at hunger-related organizations and make it easier for the community to respond.

"Every year VolunteerMatch helps millions of good people get more involved within their community," said Greg Baldwin. "We are proud to be stepping up in the fight against hunger to help make it easier for thousands of local nonprofits to find the volunteer support they need."

"A critical element of the fight against hunger is getting communities active and engaged to help their neighbors," said Julie Gehrki of the Walmart Foundation. "We’re proud to support VolunteerMatch as they help broaden the movement, connecting volunteers to local hunger relief agencies in communities across the country that are busier than ever helping Americans put food on the table—it will take a commitment by everyone to truly end hunger."

To learn more about Fighting Hunger Together at VolunteerMatch, visit:
http://www.volunteermatch.org/fightinghunger

 

About Philanthropy at Walmart
Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are proud to support initiatives that are helping people live better around the globe. In May 2010, Walmart and its Foundation made a historic pledge of $2 billion through 2015 to fight hunger in the U.S. The Walmart Foundation also supports education, workforce development, environmental sustainability, and health and wellness initiatives. To learn more, visit www.walmartfoundation.org.

About VolunteerMatch
VolunteerMatch is the Web's largest volunteer engagement network, with more than 80,000 participating nonprofits, 150 network partners and 8 million visitors each year. Founded in 1998, VolunteerMatch offers solutions to make it easier for individuals, nonprofits and companies to make a difference. Since its launch, VolunteerMatch has helped nonprofits attract more than $2 billion worth of volunteer services. VolunteerMatch is a two-time Webby Award winner, a Smithsonian inductee, and has been recognized for its work by The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Time, Oprah Winfrey and Presidents Clinton and Bush. To learn more, visit www.volunteermatch.org.

SOURCE VolunteerMatch