Earlier this year, Connecticut Community Foundation introduced an exciting capacity-building tool for local nonprofit organizations: Catchafire. A powerful, national online platform, Catchafire connects skilled volunteers with nonprofits that have a broad range of needs, from finance to human resources to marketing and much, much more. Catchafire volunteers provide pro bono professional services to complete projects important to each organization’s growth—and to help Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills thrive.
The Foundation has invested in the Catchafire platform to assist up to 150 of its grantee organizations in their work. Since the launch of the Catchafire program in March 2018, 39 local organizations have posted 72 project needs on the platform, and skilled volunteers from all over the country have donated 1,429 total hours of their time on those projects ! Nonprofits have used Catchafire for a variety of projects, from creating a new logo to website development to employee handbooks. The estimated combined value of the services donated thus far is more than $240,000.
Just ask Joshua Perry, deputy director of Connecticut Legal Services (CLS), how invaluable Catchafire has been. (Perry is pictured above.)
In this six-minute audio recording, he describes the plight of a Waterbury woman on the brink of homelessness, and how CLS is making huge strides with the help of Catchafire to improve its services, reach and effectiveness for people like her.
Ultimately, as Perry says, CLS aims to seize on opportunities to make more of “the small changes, the little tipping points, that make extraordinary differences in the lives of the vulnerable people” that they serve—with a big boost from Catchafire.
Listen to Joshua Perry describe the Connecticut Legal Services story:
