VP, Volunteer Engagement

About Catchafire

Catchafire is a full service, on-demand solution designed to address the wide-ranging and complex needs of nonprofits by connecting them with talented pro bono professionals. We partner with major funders (read more here) to provide unlimited access to Catchafire to tens of thousands of nonprofits ready to invest in the growth of their organizations and the impact of their service. 

Catchafire has delivered over $236M in services to nonprofits, has facilitated over 1.2M hours of volunteering with over 60,000 matches, and we’re tracking to deliver $1B annually in services within 5 years. We have achieved ~40+% year over year revenue growth over the past several years and are poised for accelerated revenue and impact growth by scaling our foundation business.

Our mission is simple: catalyze positive social change by building a stronger nonprofit sector fueled by talent abundance. Here are some ways to get to know us better:

• Read our 2022 Impact Report

• See how our nonprofits have been serving their communities through COVID-19

• Get to know some of our Nonprofits more deeply

• Get to know our Nonprofit programming through our webinars

Catchafire is a remote-first workplace. We provide accommodations to help with home office set up. All roles are remote full time (unless stated in job description), with the expectation that the employee is willing and able to travel periodically as deemed necessary and beneficial.

Catchafire is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We are also welcoming to any reasonable accommodations that can be made for candidates in our hiring process. 

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide sponsorship for employment at this time.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Catchafire’s mission to help nonprofits build their capacity and impact is powered by a community of thousands of active skills-based volunteers who are professionals in their domain. As our demand from nonprofits for expert help grows, we’re looking for a dedicated leader to grow this community, strengthen the relationships within it, and be the advocate for our volunteer community. 

The VP, Volunteer Engagement will be responsible for ensuring the diversity of our volunteer base and growing our volunteer community via grassroots efforts as well as partnerships. They will ensure that we have high quality volunteers who have a breadth and depth of expertise and are engaged on our platform. In addition to ensuring volunteers are active on our platform, the VP of Volunteer Engagement will build and cultivate a community for our skills-based volunteers.  This individual will also act as an advocate for our volunteer users both internally and externally. They will work with Volunteer Managers from our nonprofits to better understand their needs so Catchafire can improve how we source volunteers and design the matching experience. 

As a member of our Executive Leadership Team (ELT), the VP, Volunteer Engagement will provide a strategic vision for the future of our volunteer community and collaborate with other senior leaders in our organization to ensure that our sales, marketing, growth, and product strategies are all aligned with this vision. Setting the vision will also entail understanding the competitive landscape for volunteerism, making recommendations about how to navigate the competitive landscape, and integrating this with the vision of Catchafire to chart a strategic path forward.

This role will report directly to our CEO.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the Volunteer Engagement function at Catchafire and function as the Subject Matter Expert within our organization all things related to our volunteer community.

• Track, analyze, and report on impact metrics of volunteer engagement activities and events. Set and track objectives and key results each quarter.

• Recruit, maintain, and grow a diverse community of volunteers who are actively engaged.

• Ensure the supply of volunteers on our platform matches demand from nonprofits. 

• Remove obstacles that nonprofit volunteer managers face regarding volunteer quality, application volume, etc.

• Develop a curriculum to educate, on-board and set our volunteers up for success, with an eye on strategic decisions that will affect large numbers of volunteers at once.

• Execute onboarding programming and events for volunteers both online and in person. Manage event logistics including planning, execution and follow-up. 

• Identify, cultivate, and motivate volunteer “super users” to assist nonprofits and utilize for case studies, speaking engagements and feedback.

• Communicate directly with volunteers facing challenges to ensure high quality volunteer & nonprofit experience.

• Identify targets and build partnerships with organizations who can provide skills-based volunteers across our most needed skills areas.

• Lead our strategic partnerships, including LinkedIn in order to build awareness of our volunteer opportunities and to source volunteers.

• Represent Catchafire at conferences and events where we can build brand awareness and network with potential partners.

• Educate and inform internal teams on volunteer best practices and typical user profiles.

• Be able to travel 20% of the time because you will be responsible for establishing a volunteer presence in 10 states that we have deemed as focus geographies.

KEY ATTRIBUTES 

• Intentional and inclusive leader: Over the years you have developed an effective and intentional leadership style that is true to your own personality. You have invested time in learning about how to build a diverse and inclusive team, and are a committed student in progressively learning how to do this better. You manage to people’s strengths, and you are able to build a department.

• Creative and data-driven problem solver: You think through problems methodically before prescribing a solution. You can zoom out and see the bigger picture, abstracting trends & patterns from sets of occurrences. When things go wrong, you’re always level-headed. You create new solutions when you don’t have the right tools available and new processes that will minimize future problems.

• Effective communicator & relationship builder: You’re empathetic and able to communicate clearly through any channel. You can connect the dots to benefit Catchafire’s larger vision. Your passion for Catchafire is clear to those who hear you speak. You want to deeply understand the nonprofit sector, our nonprofit and volunteer users, and what critical problems our product is solving. 

• Entrepreneurial systems thinker: You’re always thinking of new ideas to test or ways to contribute to the team and end user. You structure your work in a systematic, scalable way.  You think about solutions from all perspectives considering the business and user needs as well as technical feasibility.

EXPERIENCE

• 10+ years of relevant experience, including building and leading a function or department

• Experience in training, learning & development, product evangelism or sales, corporate social responsibility (CSR), or high-level volunteer management

• Experience building strategic relationships that drive audience and customer engagement.

• Experience forging partnership relationships and driving to target outcomes

• Experience building community and engaging others 

• Exceptional presentation and verbal and written communications skills that enable you to both pitch Catchafire to partners and communicate your vision and strategic process to your internal stakeholders

• Commitment, experience OR interest in the social good sector. Though prior experience in the social good sector is not required, we are seeking individuals looking to learn deeply about this space and quickly progress into thought leaders

• Familiarity with and a commitment to continued learning and development in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) issues and topics through professional and/or personal spaces.  This experience might include: Understanding of DEI issues within the Philanthropy and Nonprofit sectors. Experience in partnering or working with underrepresented or marginalized groups and/or the organizations that support them.

The salary range for this position is $156,000 - 195,000, commensurate with experience. All employees are eligible for annual performance-based salary increases. We also offer a comprehensive benefits plan including medical, dental, vision, parenting benefits, flexible spending account options, unlimited PTO, professional development, and an employee assistance program (EAP) and 401(k) retirement plan.