Volunteer and Skilled Placement Matching
Connect your organisation with volunteers who have the skills you actually need
Volunteer Matching explained
Volunteers are only useful when their skills match a specific need and someone manages them properly. We connect organisations with volunteers who bring a defined skill, whether that is accounting, monitoring and evaluation, communications, teaching, engineering or clinical practice, and we help both sides agree what the placement will achieve before it begins.
We deliver this service across 8 countries: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, working from our office in Nairobi.
Who this is for
- Organisations that need specialised skills they cannot fund permanently
- International and diaspora volunteers looking for genuine placements
- Universities and colleges arranging internships and field placements
- Companies running employee volunteering and skills-based giving programmes
Matching skills to a defined need
The placements that work are the ones where the organisation can name the task before the volunteer arrives. We start by helping you describe the need concretely, for example setting up a basic accounting system, preparing a monitoring and evaluation framework, producing a communications pack, or training a team of community health workers.
A named task lets us identify volunteers with the right experience, agree a duration, and define what a completed placement looks like. It also protects the volunteer from arriving to find that nobody has decided what they should do.
Volunteers, interns and corporate teams
We match three broad groups: individual volunteers and interns, including diaspora professionals who can contribute remotely; corporate teams running volunteering or team-building programmes; and students from universities and colleges needing supervised field placements in development work.
For corporate volunteering we help design the programme so that it delivers something the organisation genuinely needs, rather than a one-day event that creates work for the host organisation to manage afterwards.
Managing placements so they last
We advise both parties on supervision, safeguarding, expectations, working hours, transport and expenses, and on what the volunteer is not expected to do. Getting these details clear at the start prevents nearly all of the misunderstandings that end placements early.
Where a volunteer performs well, organisations frequently keep the relationship going remotely, which is often more valuable than the original placement. We record that interest in the directory so that readers can see which organisations host volunteers and in which disciplines.
What you receive
- Volunteer need assessment and role description
- Matching with individual, diaspora or corporate volunteers
- Introduction and expectation-setting for both parties
- Guidance on supervision, safeguarding and expenses
- Listing as a volunteer-hosting organisation in the directory
Other services
Volunteer Matching: common questions
Can volunteers be placed remotely?
Yes. Remote placements work well for accounting, design, communications, research, grant writing and monitoring and evaluation, and they avoid travel costs entirely.
Do you charge volunteers to find placements?
Our service is to the organisation and, for corporate programmes, to the company. Volunteers approach organisations directly and any costs relating to a placement are agreed between the volunteer and the host organisation.
Can you help with a corporate volunteering day?
Yes. We identify an organisation with a genuine one-day or multi-day need and help design the activity so that it produces something useful for the host rather than unplanned work.
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