We’re here to help you use Golden the right way. Please read and follow these guidelines for making your opportunity Golden. If you have trouble or need help, drop us a line at support@goldenvolunteer.com.
An “open” (public audience) Golden Opportunity must:
Be open to anyone 13 years or older without a criminal record, without requiring specific skills
Allow for several volunteers to engage together
Be repeatable in the future or with some sort of regularity
Have an organization stakeholder who is able to rate each volunteer 1 – 5 stars after he or she completes a session
Note: private audience opportunities don’t need to conform to the above guidelines
A Golden Opportunity should:
Relate to your organization’s clear mission or vision, so volunteers will identify with a sense of purpose
Be structured to offer inviting, creative, and achievable tasks for volunteers to perform, so they will recognize their contributions and be compelled to be productive
Provide some sort of social interaction and peer group that will encourage volunteers to identify with the act of volunteering beyond just completing the task at hand
Required information:
Be willing to accept Golden’s standard background check, and not perform a redundant screening process
Provide an emergency contact
List a specific location for each activity
Provide reasonable on-site supervision and insurance as applicable
Pro tips:
Imagine the most playful way to work toward your mission, and capture it in your Golden Opportunity
Find ways to encourage volunteers to invite their friends to participate
Tidiness, organization, and leadership inspire confidence and encourage retention over time
Golden Opportunities are:
effortless
genuine
inviting
playful
human
contributory
creative
aspirational
Golden Opportunities are not:
Burdensome
Hand-outs
Mundane
Tedious
Guilt-inducing
Self-righteous
Superficial
Pacifistic
The best images are:
Horizontal (6.4:3.6 aspect ratio)
Colorful but not overwhelming
Depict the context or activities of your organization
Here are two examples:
Sam Fankuchen
Prior to Golden, Sam worked in corporate innovation at Penske and as Managing Director of Applico, where he helped Google, HP, Disney and others launch new platform businesses.
Before that, he founded Pinwheel, which became the most comprehensive database of volunteer jobs open to anyone in San Francisco, and a peer counseling program that has served thousands of high school students.
Sam serves on the Board of Directors for the United Nations Volunteer Groups Alliance, as Technology Editor of the Engage Journal, and Executive Judge of the Webby and Anthem Awards, in addition to his involvement with the Gates Foundation’s Greater Giving Summit and Giving Tuesday’s thought leadership committees on AI, Corporate Giving, and Volunteering.
Sam received MA & BA degrees from Stanford, where he studied Social Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior, and Design Thinking.