The Daily Tell

For thousands of jobseekers in the nonprofit and volunteer sector, Idealist.org is the number one destination to find opportunities to make a world a better place. A project of the nonprofit group Action Without Borders, Idealist.org is a comprehensive website featuring job and volunteering listings, event announcements, and networking opportunities. Idealist.org gives nonprofits an opportunity to showcase their work and connect with similar-minded organizations and individuals. Idealist.org also hosts job fairs and networking conferences for the nonprofit sector.

A large percentage of Idealist.org’s budget comes from small fees the website charges organizations for job postings. Not surprisingly, the economic meltdown of 2008 has had a devastating effect on this portion of Idealist.org’s budget. Nonprofit groups went through extensive hiring freezes, and cut back on posting job listings. As a result, Idealist found its budget nearly cut in half, leaving them in the red for $100,000 a month. For sixteen long months, Idealist.org has managed to survive on a leaner budget, but they are now at a fiscal breaking point.

Idealist.org is now reaching out to the community that they have assisted for more than fifteen years. The organization is calling on anyone whom Idealist has helped find a job or volunteer opportunity, or has simply been inspired to make a difference in this troubled world. Idealist has set a fiscal goal of $500,000 to stabilize the website. The team at Idealist is seeking to diversify its revenue stream so it will never face this fiscal crisis again. But Idealist cannot achieve this goal without your help. To date, more than 6,100 Idealist supporters have stepped forward, raising an impressive $200,000.

$500,000 may seem to be a lofty goal. But Idealist.org is a complex, multi-purpose site that connects 70,000 people with 90,000 organizations around the world, with information in English, Spanish, and French. Idealist also holds dozens of events across North America, including nonprofit career fairs, graduate school fairs, and global volunteer fairs. To hold all these projects together, teams in New York, Portland, Oregon, and Buenos Aires work hard to maintain Idealist.org, Idealistas.org, and Idealiste.org, ensure the integrity of the organizations featured on the websites, reply to tens of thousands of emails, and write and publish resources for the benefit of nonprofit workers and volunteers.

By donating to Idealist.org, you can play a small but crucial part in the gradual recovery of our battered world economy, as Idealist.org continues to help thousands of people locate jobs and volunteer opportunities. By helping to put people to work in areas where the need is greatest, Idealist.org is a proven source of hope and economic opportunity. When you donate to Idealist.org, you’re not just donating to a single organization. You’re helping to sustain the entire network of nonprofit organizations.