For the past five months, the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands (CFVI) has been providing 150 nonprofit organizations in the Territory with access to Catchafire, an online platform that matches nonprofits with skilled professionals who want to donate their time and talents to help with organizational needs such as marketing, IT, coaching, financial planning, communications and much more. CFVI is partnering with Catchafire to provide access to the service through January 2021, allowing the nonprofits to match with pro bono professionals all over the U.S. and around the world on a wide range of projects.
Catchafire can assist with more than 130 types of projects in a variety of categories. Each project is scoped out with useful steps, expectations, and recommended timelines that eliminate the time an organization would typically spend writing up instructions for a volunteer.
“We’ve watched nonprofits across the Territory use Catchafire to meet a wide range of needs – from leadership coaching to data analysis to graphic design,” said CFVI President Dee Baecher-Brown. “We’re looking forward to seeing how much can be accomplished through this impactful partnership over the next year as we continue to build forward here in the Virgin Islands.”
Since the program’s launch in September of last year, volunteers have donated over 1,100 hours to USVI nonprofits, saving the nonprofits more than $225,000. “So far the Catchafire experience has been amazing!” said Rashida Lester, Director of Programs at My S.I.S.T.A.H.S. Keeper, Inc. in St. Croix. “It is almost surreal that a small organization like ours can receive so much valuable and priceless assistance in so many critical areas. We are working with a number of volunteers on a variety of projects, including website usability audit, logo design, and program assessments. We ‘caught the fire’ right away and have saved so much time and money,” she said.