VolunteerLA will mobilize Angelenos to volunteer and create long-lasting change.

County of Los Angeles

City of Los Angeles

Mayor Garcetti, in partnership with the Mayor’s Fund, formed the Mayor’s Office of Volunteer Engagement (MOVE) in late 2017 to lift and strengthen volunteerism in the city and region. MOVE’s mission is to strengthen L.A.’s culture of service by making volunteer opportunities accessible and meaningful, by building collaborations that inspire citizen engagement, and by creating long-lasting change around issues that Angelenos care about.

Benefits of volunteering can include higher overall civic engagement, improved health, skills development, and lower criminal activity. Volunteering makes our communities stronger and more resilient. Corporate-based volunteerism builds employee culture and is a key component to corporate social responsibility efforts.

In May, MOVE will launch the VolunteerLA platform, an online resource that includes a curated list of volunteer opportunities in order to easily connect Angelenos to opportunities that are available in local communities across the region and that build on a diverse collection of skills. The volunteer opportunities featured on the site will represent the best of Los Angeles with MOVE’s vetted nonprofit partners posting opportunities as they become available. The platform will be powered by Golden, the leading volunteer mobile app. The Golden app features technical capabilities that will allow MOVE to capture valuable data to best inform how to grow volunteerism in the city and the region. Golden aims to solve one key challenge of volunteering — recruiting and converting volunteers — by making signing up easy and fun with clear, engaging descriptions and real-time logistics (like automated sign-in). In addition, Golden includes a backend dashboard that tracks key metrics and analytics, including economic value of volunteer time logged, percentage of new versus returning volunteers, interests and search terms, and a zip code heat map.

The platform will also serve as a place to tell the story of the great work being done by volunteers from nonprofits, corporations and institutions across the city and region, and will provide space to acknowledge and thank partners.

MOVE has also convened a Nonprofit Council and Corporate Council of leading nonprofit organizations and companies from across the city to come together to support VolunteerLA. These groups serve as key advisors and give input on how MOVE can best support corporate programs and the needs of nonprofits in the region. Going forward, the Nonprofit Council and Corporate Council will partner with MOVE to launch other programs to strengthen the city’s culture of volunteerism.

Through VolunteerLA, we can establish Los Angeles as the national example of how government, nonprofits, foundations, and companies can partner to productively address our local issues together.

VolunteerLA will tell the story of what’s unique about LA — highlighting the organizations that benefit and contribute to the fabric of the city. Our partners represent the best of the nonprofit sector and provide opportunities across a diverse range of issue areas and communities. VolunteerLA will appeal to all Angelenos, aged 5 to 95. The platform and accompanying campaign will be optimistic and engaging, with compelling imagery and big calls to action.

Our Corporate Council, which will be key partner in raising awareness about VolunteerLA, is made of up leaders from a diverse range of industries.

In addition to the Nonprofit and Corporate Councils, we will leverage additional partners and networks to engage Angelenos in VolunteerLA including the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, the Mayor’s field representatives, city departments like Recreation and Parks and the Central Library, the Mayor’s Youth Council, LA City employees, including retired public servants and more.

VolunteerLA will inspire Angelenos to engage through its brand and will make volunteering easier by creating the infrastructure to connect, but it will also allow us to track real-time data and create a robust city-wide volunteer recognition program by leveraging the power of the Mayor’s Office alongside social media tools.

Our goal is to drive both the quantity (total Angelenos engaged) and consistency (multiple instances of engagement per year) of volunteering in the city and region to not only meet but to exceed the national average. To help reach LA2050’s goal of a 65% volunteer rate by the year 2050, we aim to raise the volunteer participation rate from 19% to 26% over the next 5 years.

The key performance indicators we will use to evaluate our progress and track our success, include:

* Total number of volunteering opportunities available per week

* Total number of open volunteering slots per week

* % of open volunteering slots filled

* Total volunteers per month

* Total unique volunteers per month

* Retention rate

* Virality - how many volunteers each volunteer invites to join them

VolunteerLA will also strive to support the nonprofit community by helping to ensure that its needs are met through meaningful volunteer engagement. We will look at the percentage of available spots filled and monitor the ‘take rate’ of posted opportunities to give organizations feedback on how opportunities are presented.

VolunteerLA will grow to be the central hub for volunteerism in the region and will offer a variety of programs to support service in the city, such as nonprofit capacity building, centralized training around relevant issues, service learning projects in partnership with LAUSD and a mayoral volunteer recognition program.

As we grow the VolunteerLA platform, we can establish Los Angeles as the model of how government, nonprofits, foundations, and companies can partner to productively address our local issues together using technology and collaboration.