[This continues my preparation for my Central America 2017 Project. If you landed on this post first, I suggest you go back to the first post in the series. You’ll see the whole process for arranging a volunteer abroad adventure.]
From last week, I got a handful of leads, and one specific social enterprise from my posts on my Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter posts. Not bad, but not enough. Now I turn to the databases of nonprofits and for-profit social enterprises. My goal is to build a list of 10-12 specific organizations that I can vet, with the ultimate goal of contacting 2-3 of them to find out if they would welcome my pro bono business consulting.
I write about this part in the book in much more detail, but I’m going to start this step with a simple Google search; not to find specific organizations yet, but rather to get a feel for what’s out there, and what search terms turn up the best results. Consider this an initial reconnoitering.
Reconnoiter the Space with an Initial Search
Based on my Social Enterprise Ask Profile, I built this search request on the Google Advanced Search screen.
This search turned up 981,000 results. Waaay too many for me to slog through. However, spending maybe 30-45 minutes with a scan of these results will give me a better understanding of what kinds of work nonprofits are doing in my Ask Profile area.
As I slog through the results, I keep in mind these ideas.
- None of the content will be written for me, as a Lean Volunteer. Nearly all the content I come across will describe the mission and nature of the programs these organizations run, mostly aimed at donors or potential funders. Again, as Lean Volunteers, we’re not going to work on programs, just on behind-the-scenes capacity building and business processes. And we’re not funders. So don’t get distracted. Keep your focus on answering the question: does this seem like an organization I would like to help? Don’t expect this content to answer this question directly.
- If I find an organization or program that excites me, what keywords do they use to describe it? For example, as a business professional, you might call something “business process improvement” but find that these nonprofits call that “capacity building”. Keep note of their jargon.
After 30 -60 minutes or so, stop. Just…stop. Sit back and think about what you’ve learned, and then review your Social Enterprise Ask Profile to see if anything needs tweaking, or changing.
Search for “Good Fit” Enterprises on Online Databases
Ultimately, your goal is to find a “good fit” between what you want to do and what a enterprise offers you. Don’t expect a perfect fit, but if you keep your criteria somewhat broad and flexible, you will find a good fit.
In this phase, we’ll search on the sites and databases that deal with volunteer matching, volunteer jobs, for-profit social enterprise job boards, and nonprofit job boards. Our strategy will be to two fold.
- Search, when possible, on the criteria in your Social Enterprise Ask Profile. Here’s mine. And so my searchable criteria will be “Costa Rica”, “education”, and “women”.
- If you don’t find a close match, read anyway to see if the programs any given organization offer feel good to you.
Start searching on some of the volunteer job listing databases I have listed at on the Lean Volunteer Resource Page.
As I explain on the that page, these are databases of jobs (full time paid, part time paid, and volunteer) that organizations are currently posting for. Much more in the book about this, but I’ll search through a few of these using the terms I’ve gathered from my Google search above and from my Ask Profile. Again, these volunteer opportunities won’t describe what you as a Lean Volunteer want to do – most are for program-related volunteer positions, or paid staff jobs that expect multiple year commitments. My goal in this step is simply to come up with a list of maybe 10 nonprofits that fit my Social Enterprise Ask Profile. I will assume, for now, that OF COURSE they want my free business consulting!
I’ll just go down the list as presented on the Resources page on Jan 2017, until I find 10 different organizations.
Great Non Profits. I like to start with Great Nonprofits because it has hundreds of nonprofits, all US based (so I know any operations in foreign countries have at least some ability to speak English). The profiles here give good high level information which lets me make some initial choices, and they list URLs so I can read more. One thing you can’t do with GreatNonProfits is search by country. For that, I simply created an Advanced Search for my country, restricting the search to greatnonprofits.org. Like this:
Put “costa rica” (or your target country) in the “this exact word or phrase” field, and then “greatnonprofits.org” in the “Site or Domain” field. This will search for “costa rica” only on the greatnonprofits.org database. Then just peruse the results!
So I searched and found 3 potentials.
Rolling Tally (we’ll keep this as we go)
- Rasur Foundation International, education
- Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children, medical care for kids
- Global Exploration for Educators, cultural exchange for US teachers
International Volunteer HQ has an operation in Costa Rica. I happen to know IVHQ well. Based in New Zealand, they serve as an aggregator and “quality assurer” of independent nonprofits around the world. Their partner in Costa Rica seems to offer 7 different programs but none dealing with women entrepreneurs. Not ideal, but I’ll note them down because Costa Rica is more important to me, as a criterion, than the specific population I want to serve. Again, their write up is aimed at volunteers for programs, not for Lean Volunteer types. But you know as well as I do that they have business needs, since they’re running 7 programs and supporting 40-80 new volunteers every month. The IVHQ site doesn’t name the Costa Rican nonprofit by name, but with a little digging I find out it’s called Maximo Nivel.
Rolling Tally
- Rasur Foundation International, education
- Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children, medical care for kids
- Global Exploration for Educators, cultural exchange for US teachers
- Maximo Nivel, 7 programs including Education.
The next source, MovingWorlds.org, doesn’t seem to have any current opportunities in Costa Rica, but they have one in Panama, one in Nicaragua, and 2 in Guatemala. Since I really want to go to Costa Rica, I’ll skip this source for now. I really like what MovingWorlds.org is doing, and I had a great conversation with Mark, one of the co-founders, on the phone and am impressed with their work.
Next up is UniversalGiving.org. They are similar to IVHQ in that they are an aggregator of nonprofits, and it looks like they have a partner in Costa Rica, Global Volunteer Network (GVN) Foundation. Looks like GVN has 6 programs, including Education which may or may not have anything to do with women entrepreneurs. So I’ll note them as #2. Again, not a perfect match for my Ask Profile, but it IS in Costa Rica.
Rolling Tally
- Rasur Foundation International, education
- Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children, medical care for kids
- Global Exploration for Educators, cultural exchange for US teachers
- Maximo Nivel, 7 programs including Education.
- Global Volunteer Network (GVN) Foundation, Education
Next on the list is International Wanderer. They’re showing one opportunity for teaching drama to kids, which could be fun although I really want to focus on women entrepreneurs. So I think I’ll pass on this one for now. Interestingly, I found more information about GVN on this site.
“At GVN we align with the idea of ‘local solutions to local problems’, so we work with local community organizations in each country. We believe that local communities are in the best position to determine their needs, and we provide volunteers to help them achieve their goals.”
I wonder if that could include connecting me with a group that serves women entrepreneur? So learning moment! Since we as Lean Volunteers are trying to do something that the world of nonprofits is NOT set up to do, we need to read between the lines on all this. It may be that an email to the Exec Director, or Country Director, of GVN Foundation, explaining what I’m offering, will turn a light on and I might get a resounding “Yes, please!” So I’ll just note that GVN could provide a list of candidates.
Rolling Tally
- Rasur Foundation International, education
- Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children, medical care for kids
- Global Exploration for Educators, cultural exchange for US teachers
- Maximo Nivel, 7 programs including Education.
- Global Volunteer Network (GVN) Foundation, Education (and GVN sounds more interesting now)
Next stop on the list….GlobalGiving.com! Click on “give” to find organizations around the world that want to raise money for their social causes. I found 29 organizations in Costa Rica. In looking over the list, I find a few that look promising. Corcovado Foundation provides microfunding to local communities in Osa Peninsula, which is on the southwest coast (not my ideal location but it’s on the coast and helping entrepreneurs). The Banco de Tiempo ACI Costa Rica looks interesting too. They offer an alternative to the current economic system based on solidarity through exchange of services, activities, eventually as payment. I could see how women entrepreneurs might find this useful. I also found an organization that I think I could offer strategic help with, Asociacion Estrategia Siglo XXI para El Desarrollo del Conocimiento y La Innovacion. Their goal is to “facilitate a variety of science, technology and innovation (ST&I) projects that foster the production of groundbreaking knowledge.” Since I’m a tech guy, of sorts, that could be really fun.
So I take 3 more from Global Giving.
Rolling Tally
- Rasur Foundation International, education
- Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children, medical care for kids
- Global Exploration for Educators, cultural exchange for US teachers
- Maximo Nivel, 7 programs including Education.
- Global Volunteer Network (GVN) Foundation, Education
- Corcovado Foundation, microfunding on SW coast
- Banco de Tiempo ACI, alternative funding and banking
- Asociacion Estrategia Siglo XXI para El Desarrollo del Conocimiento y La Innovacion. Science, Tech and Innovation training.
I also note that the Global Giving site has a lot of interesting projects that don’t have to do with my Profile, like helping turtles and rainforests. I can always come back if I change my mind.
Next stop.. Idealist.org A huge database of nonprofit job and volunteer needs. I have lots of filters, but since I’m searching for an organization, not a job/volunteer position type, I can leave most of them in the “All” default. The ones I do check are “International Volunteers Welcome”, “Volunteer positions”, and then I type in “Costa Rica”. From that, I get 110 volunteer positions (as of my Jan 2017 search). As I scan through those, I choose to pull out 3 that sound closest to what I’m looking for.
- ELI International Volunteers is in Guanacaste and offers many services to women, including entrepreneurial work. A hit!
- Love Volunteers sets up short term English teaching volunteer opportunities in Guanacaste.
- Integrated Learning Experiences Central America “INLEXCA is calling out to individuals interested in helping small microfinance businesses in Costa Rica for a minimum of four weeks. Livelihood opportunities in the country are limited, and a steady source of income can be a real worry for a lot of families. Through our small business program, you will help cooperatives with the marketing of local handicrafts. Get the chance to share your experience and provide a fresh perspective on running a business. Your role also includes assisting in workshops given by co-ops, helping staff with logistics, helping establish new partnerships, and designing promotional materials.” Sounds interesting.
Final Tally
- Rasur Foundation International, education
- Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children, medical care for kids
- Global Exploration for Educators, cultural exchange for US teachers
- Maximo Nivel, 7 programs including Education.
- Global Volunteer Network (GVN) Foundation, Education
- Corcovado Foundation, microfunding on SW coast
- Banco de Tiempo ACI, alternative funding and banking
- Asociacion Estrategia Siglo XXI para El Desarrollo del Conocimiento y La Innovacion. Science, Tech and Innovation training.
- ELI International Volunteers
- Love Volunteers
- Integrated Learning Experiences Central America
- Proyecto Montezuma
I got #9 from my social media request, which at the time of this writing has turned up just just one specific organization.
Others may turn up, but I’ll stick with this list of 9 for now.
And that takes care of Step 2c. We’ve come up with a list of possible organizations to consider. More may exist, and our social media and offline talks may turn up better ones, but this is where we start. Next step is to use Guidestar.org or CharityNavigator.org to find out more about these organizations, and if they fit in our Lean Volunteer sweet spot.
For much more useful insight into how all this works, please sign up for a discounted copy of my book when I release it, The Lean Volunteer: Traveling The World While Doing Good With Your Business Expertise.
Any questions or comments on how I’m doing this?
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