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Altruize: Connecting Students to At-Home Volunteer Opportunities

The volunteering app has teamed up with March of Dimes to help students get verified volunteer hours by making cloth mask coverings

27.04.2020 | by Reve Fisher
Photo by Vera Davidova on Unsplash
Photo by Vera Davidova on Unsplash

Altruize, the first app to accurately track and verify volunteer activities, is partnering with March of Dimes to give students the opportunity to volunteer while social distancing.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, high school students throughout the US were preparing for internships and volunteer opportunities. By helping their communities, these teenagers are also given an opportunity to further their skill set, explore different careers and increase their chances to obtain scholarship funds and be accepted to their top-choice universities.

With social distancing and stay-at-home measures in place, virtually all of these opportunities have been cancelled or delayed.

After a conversation with Altruize founder Nicole Sdao, Patricia Gentry, director of volunteer engagement and mobilisation of March of Dimes, realised the two organisations could team up to help students get verified volunteer hours that could be done from home.

“When Nicole reached out to let me know that students are facing struggles fulfilling their service hours and are having trouble finding opportunities, we recognised that the March of Dimes could meet this need by asking students to help make cloth mask coverings,” she said in a statement. “We could meet the students’ needs and the students could help us meet a community need through this initiative. The use of the Altruize app will help us track and verify those efforts, so the students can prove their impact.”

To use the Altruize app normally, users need to register themselves and the organisation they wish to serve; record their volunteering activities and request verification; and share their work with their school, employer or organisation. The new collaboration allows users to register with March of Dimes to make cloth mask coverings.

March of Dimes will verify the volunteer efforts, and the users can either distribute the mask coverings on their own or send them to the March of Dimes fulfilment centre in Dansville, New York.

“This is a great opportunity for students who are still in need of volunteer and community service hours whether for graduation requirements or for scholarship applications and college admissions,” said Altruize founder and CEO Nicole Sdao. “To have an organisation like the March of Dimes verify the students’ volunteer time is very impressive to college admission officials and scholarship boards.

“The hours will be logged and verified, all through the Altruize App, so no matter where you live, you can have a huge impact on the health and safety of those affected by COVID-19.”

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