Each year, we have nonprofits ask about our application, approval, and project process. We want to take a few moments and outline what we try to make that look like every year.
Our Process
1. Application Process
The application process generally opens the first week or two in July and applications are open on our website for 30 days. We try to get the word out via social media, news media, our newsletter, and our website.
A representative from our organization team reaches out to each applicant to get more information about the project and make sure we understand the needs.
2. Approval Process
The approval process has multiple steps but this is basically what we do:
Confirm that the nonprofits meet the basic qualification guidelines. Those that do not are immediately placed in the “no” pile.
Examine each project’s needs to determine feasibility. If it is clear the project is not feasible for whatever reason, those applications are rejected. The ones that are deemed feasible or possible, are put in the “maybe” pile of applications.
Examine each “maybe” nonprofit to see what they currently use to meet their needs. We use that information to prioritize the projects. How do we prioritize? Let’s take a website project for example since those are the most common requests. A nonprofit with no website or a site that is so badly outdated that it isn’t functional gets put to the top of the list.
Sometimes after this process we still have questions about the feasibility of some projects, so we do more research.
Once we have a firm list of nonprofits we feel we can accept, we notify the nonprofits that they are either accepted, rejected, or put on a wait list.
3. Project Process
Once we have a pretty firm list of nonprofits, we first notify the “Yes” projects. Then we notify the definite “no” projects. Last, we notify what is usually only a few remaining “maybe” projects to tell them no, but that if we have a development, their status could change.
The approved nonprofits are sent a form asking them to let us know who will be attending from their organization that weekend and their contact information.
It is during this time that we open volunteer applications once we have a good idea of the skills needed for each project.
We are working to improve the project process, but generally it involves the team project manager reaching out in the couple of weeks before the event to get even more clarification and start making plans for the project.
The project manager is now the liaison between GiveCamp and the nonprofit. They make sure that the nonprofit is providing needed information and that the team members are staying on task. Often times, our project manager also doubles as a team member if their skills make that possible.