This is where your Catchafire journey starts! Take a look around our Find A Project page, browse for opportunities, and read below for how to apply.
Search for Open Projects
On our Find A Project page, you can filter and search all of our open opportunities a few different ways:
By the engagement length (fully scoped projects with a multi-week commitment or 1-hour phone consultations)
By the causes you're passionate about
By the skills you want to share
Tip: To update the automated filters for Skill and Cause area, visit your "Project Preferences" within your Settings.
Phone Consultations Versus Fully Scoped Projects
Projects are fully scoped and range anywhere from 5 to 50 hours. Projects are great if you're ready to do something for a nonprofit - like design a logo or build a new Salesforce database.
Phone consultations require just 1 hour of your time. Calls are great if you're willing to discuss something with a nonprofit - like brainstorming a name for a new program, or choosing the right platform to build their website on. They're a much smaller commitment than working on a full project.
Your Application
Once you've found an opportunity that speaks to you, get started by clicking on the project and selecting the yellow "Apply Now" button.
1. Prerequisites
The first step of the application is to select whether or not you meet the prerequisites for the project. We highly encourage you only apply for projects where you have the requested background. That said, if you're interested in an opportunity where you do not, make sure you elaborate on what else you bring to the table to account for that experience later in your application.
2. Your Profile
This section will usually be automatically populated from the information you entered in your Personal Profile settings or when you registered for your account. If not, make sure you enter here and include a photo of yourself, short biography, and resume, which you can manually enter or choose to import from LinkedIn.
Tip: You'll be able to skip this step using our Quick Apply feature. After submitting your first Catchafire project application, you'll be able to select "Quick Apply" instead of "Apply Now," and jump directly into the next section, Qualifications.
3. Your Qualifications
For each project application, you'll need to answer two questions for the Organization: 1) why you’re qualified for the project and 2) why you’re drawn to their cause.
You only have 100 words for each response, so be concise! You can highlight similar projects you’ve completed in the past, current skills that you're utilizing throughout your day job, as well as connect your experience to why you chose this particular Organization. Our partners are extremely mission-driven, so they love to hear about how your personal story and/or passion connects to their cause!
4. Final Review
Lastly, you'll also have the opportunity to upload or link to samples of relevant past work. Doing so will help provide Organizations with an additional sense of your skills, experience, and accomplishments.
Before submitting your application you will have a chance to review all of your materials. Please note that language within your application that is inaccurate, defamatory, or abusive will be investigated.
Once everything looks correct, hit apply and your application will be sent to the nonprofit's team for review!
Next Steps
If the Organization is interested in working together after reading through your application, you will receive an email with instructions for either scheduling your 1-hour consultation call, or a short interview for longer-term projects. You should hear back from an application either way within about a week of applying!
To make the most out of your Catchafire application experience, we recommend the following:
Apply to multiple projects: We encourage you to apply to multiple projects for best chances of a match, but no more than 5 at one time so you have sufficient time to track their progress and schedule interviews.
Share relevant work samples if possible: If you've worked on a similar project before, we recommend including work samples as attachments in your project application. You can also send samples after applying to a project using your Catchafire message portal!
Retract any applications that no longer fit: If you can’t commit to the project any more, or you have found something that better aligns with your interests, you can always retract your application on your dashboard by clicking "Retract."
Monitor your dashboard: You will always receive both an email and dashboard notification when an action has been taken on your application. Make sure you track your progress so you don't miss any important news!