Since the presidential election earlier this month, Golden has had double the normal level of usage by volunteers each day. A representative indicated the company sees the huge increase in volunteers seeking the site as a combination of people wanting to focus on something positive after the contentious election and the normal holiday volunteerism. Volunteers in the hundreds or thousands are visiting the site daily from every state in the U.S.
Golden helps volunteers find existing opportunities to help in their communities. Volunteer organizations can also register with the site to attract volunteers and to see who’s coming to a specific event. There is no charge for volunteers to register and volunteer organizations can sign on for the basic recruitment features at no cost.
Golden volunteer opportunities are not skills-based. To be listed, an opportunity must be open to anyone age 13 or above without a criminal history. Volunteer organizations with premium monthly cost plans can list private opportunities to affiliates whose members may have desired skills. According to the site, “Golden exists to make it as easy as possible for anyone to volunteer.” If volunteers can see an opportunity on their screen, they are assured they can show up to help.
Golden encourages organizations to be open to allow more community members to participate. Golden also promotes the use of high school students as volunteers in order to give students the chance to experience the personal and societal benefits of volunteerism.
Premium paid monthly Golden levels for organizations include features such as API (application program interface), custom user permissions and data points, and the opportunity to review key performance insights (KPIs). The extra-cost features are for groups that want to manage productivity of external and internal teams, observe volunteer engagement trends in their own organization, curate opportunities on their own, or use custom features to grow their organizations.
Golden also has an optional background check for organizations to screen volunteers, which, according to Golden founder Sam Fankuchen, is historically a painful but at times advisable part of the volunteering process. Golden’s background check, which can be done from within the app, includes federal criminal, county criminal, sex offender, watch list (formerly “terrorist watch list,” identity, and document checks).
The driving purpose for Golden as a company is to promote community volunteerism by letting organizations list their opportunities for free to automate recruiting, signups, tracking, and re-engagement.
