We intermediaries are good at finding the right professional support for your projects. We have a broad network of specialists for specific areas of support. We are constantly expanding this network and preparing the supporters (pro bono volunteers) for their tasks.
Intermediaries ensure that the volunteers placed have the necessary qualifications. We support the requesting organizations in clearly defining and structuring their needs. At the beginning of the collaboration between non-profit and forprofit, guidance can be very helpful. Sometimes we even refer to this as “translation work”, as the working realities and conditions are often very different on both sides. Good preparation is therefore particularly important – especially recording and describing the requirements as precisely as possible. Describing your organization and its area of activity, which the pro bono volunteers indirectly support, is also an important building block. Together, we describe the goal of the collaboration and other relevant factors. We help you to draw up a schedule and pay attention to the availability on both sides. Intermediaries have a lot of experience in this type of project support.
The need for free support services for organizations is constantly growing and with the development and professionalization of the civil society sector, the tasks are also becoming more complex. At the same time, there are more and more freelancers and company employees who want to get involved in society. Intermediaries have the expertise and infrastructure to bring both groups together.
We have tried and tested workflows for initiating pro bono collaborations. Some Intermediaries accompany the “matching” very closely and then release the two partners into independent cooperation. Others accompany the entire process of the actual cooperation. Once the support has been completed, we evaluate the results and interview the partners to find out where we can improve processes.
The number of people who can be involved in such a collaboration varies greatly. Youvo, for example, makes sure that there are the same number of people at the table from both the organization and the pro bono volunteers. At UPJ Pro Bono Legal Consulting, one contact person from an organization often has to deal with a whole team of lawyers who bring their different expertise and experience to the table. In addition to individual consultations, the Schmid Foundation also offers workshops in which one volunteer supports several Organizations with similar issues at the same time.
Intermediaries support you on your way to a successful pro bono collaboration: We enter into an exchange with the contact persons in your organizations to identify your individual requirements and priorities. Our goal is to find the best possible “match” – i.e. to match the requirements of your respective projects with the skills of the available pro bono volunteers. If necessary, we will provide further information or share experiences to prepare you and the pro bono volunteers for the collaboration.
