New Utah volunteer site launches

The latest volunteer conglomerate website based in Utah, UtahVolunteers.org, will allow anyone to post volunteer opportunities, with one exception. No posts are accepted from organizations that discriminate against any group of people.

Utah Volunteers is dedicated to promoting equality for everyone, said Robert Henline, the managing director of the Utah Volunteers and a QSaltLake columnist.

“I believe that equality is an integral component of a free society and I choose to put my efforts into helping organizations that share that basic value,” Henline said.

While he admits there are plenty of helpful organizations that have some discriminatory policies, Henline said he would not donate his time to those organizations.

In addition to focusing on organizations that do not discriminate, the new website is designed to help organizations that do not have large budgets and are not able to advertise for volunteers, Henline said.

“We wanted to create an organization to help the smaller organizations,” Henline said. “We wanted to create an opportunity for those that don’t have all the resources to find volunteers.”

Utah Volunteers is in no way associated with the Utah Commission on Volunteers, he said. The site is specifically designed for smaller organizations.

“We’re not trying to target United Way here,” Henline said.

Registration is extremely simple for those that are looking for volunteers and for those looking to lend a hand. The registration process to post a volunteer opportunity is clearly labeled and takes only a matter of minutes. After a post is submitted it will be reviewed to ensure it adheres to the standards outlined. Provided the post follows all the guidelines, it will show up on the site with little delay. The site will help sort all of the possible volunteer opportunities by location, activity type and organization.

“I’ve found it best to keep it simple,” Henline, who builds volunteer database sites for a living, said. “With today’s technology we can put huge amounts of information on the site. But I like to keep it simple.”

To ensure that no organizations that discriminate are included on the site, a validation check will be performed, Henline said. This is also designed to ensure that no fraudulent or dishonest organizations are allowed to post on the site.

The site has only been live for about a week, and participation is slowly growing, Henline said. There is a need for volunteers and there are many people looking for an opportunity to help, he said. This site is designed to pair those groups of people together.

“We want to bridge the gap of people who need volunteers, and people who want to volunteer,” Henline said.