Challenge

In 2015, more than 1 million people sought asylum in Germany, a dramatic 30% increase from the previous year¹. In the face of a striking humanitarian crisis, many Germans wanted to help, but didn’t know how.

Story

Inspired by Germans willingness to do more good, in August 2015 Malte Bedürftig founded GoVolunteer as an online platform to connect people and corporations to volunteering projects and social initiatives. At GoVolunteer.com, anyone can easily find a social project matching their skills and interests and get involved. Since 2015, GoVolunteer has grown in size and scope and connected 250,000 unique users to more than 3,500 volunteer opportunities in 250 cities across Germany.

“We want to make volunteering part of everyone’s daily life – and Google is the perfect accelerator, because it already is part of everyone’s daily life.”

Dominique Prescher, Head of Communication, GoVolunteer

Impact of Google for Nonprofits

What started as a small project of a group of friends developed into a start-up nonprofit. In less than four years, GoVolunteer has employed more than 200 staff members and volunteers, scaled operations across three countries, and kicked-off a new corporate volunteering initiative. “At the beginning, there was no organization”- says Malte. “We were a group of people who wanted to help others, inspired by the dream of changing things. But then we started to grow. We needed a structure for the team to work together, as well as online visibility”. We are happy to know that Google for Nonprofits has been a good partner throughout this fantastic journey!

Google Workspace for Nonprofits is fostering a culture of collaboration at GoVolunteer, improving operational efficiency. Here are a few examples:

• At GoVolunteer, volunteers and employees communicate with external partners on Gmail with a custom @govolunteer.com address, resulting in professional and trusted communications. Brand awareness is essential for any nonprofit looking to grow and scale their impact.
• GoVolunteer’s blog writers can access a brand book, blog guidelines, and how-to-documents in a Drive folder. Once they write a blog article, they add it to the folder and share it with a proof-reader for final review before the publication. This smooth process ensures brand consistency across all external communications.
• Google Forms supports the development of a new program, called Active Newcomers. Active Newcomers promotes the inclusion of refugees in Germany by involving them in social impact projects aligned to their skills and passions. Newcomers can fill in a Form online to express their interest in volunteering and to share their expertise. After that, they are paired to a GoVolunteer coach. By reviewing the information in advance, coaches can prepare and provide a better and more efficient service to newcomers.

Google Ad Grants increased GoVolunteer website traffic by 30%, resulting in a 15% growth in projects matched with volunteers. It’s an important visibility tool for a nonprofit working to make volunteering opportunities easy to find online.

1. Source: destatis.de