The Extraordinaries, Inc. announced today the launch of the world's first micro-volunteering network at www.Sparked.com. Aimed at millions of professionals who don't volunteer - the majority of whom cite lack of time as the main reason - Sparked allows employees to use their skills to complete brief volunteer projects for nonprofits online, whenever they have a few moments to spare. It's an easy, turnkey solution for online employee volunteering.

"Large corporations and small businesses alike have been looking for a way to more easily engage their employees, create community goodwill, and use their professional skills to promote social good," says Jacob Colker, CEO and Co-Founder of The Extraordinaries. "We developed Sparked specifically to fill that need." Through the convenience of the Internet, and in collaboration with peers and co-workers, micro-volunteers help nonprofits design logos, review job descriptions, brainstorm new product ideas, give feedback on new website designs, develop media relations strategies, and much more.

"The combination of technology and service is a bolder response to civic engagement; paving the way for the next generation of skill based volunteerism," says Nicole Robinson, VP of the Kraft Foods Foundation, whose employees were some of the first to volunteer using Sparked. "Like many Americans, our employees have a passion to give back and tapping their talents through micro-volunteering is indeed an innovative approach," she continues, calling the response she's received from participants "overwhelmingly positive."

Teams from technology giant Google began micro-volunteering this past Tuesday. And, teams from SAP are set to start using the system in the next two weeks. "Micro-volunteering complements our longstanding traditional volunteer program through an on-demand platform that brings targeted, high-impact experiences straight to the employee, on their desktop or mobile device," says Sirima Sataman, Vice President - Corporate Social Responsibility of SAP. "This approach will inspire creative thinking, teamwork and will serve as an outlet for our employees to share their unique professional expertise with the non-profit sector."

Hundreds of nonprofits from all over the globe have already begun to increase capacity by leveraging Sparked's talented pool of volunteers, including the Grameen Foundation, Surfrider Foundation, the United Way, the American Red Cross, Room to Read, and First Aid Corps. "Sparked.com is challenging the status quo by helping nonprofits unlock the possibilities of crowd-sourced volunteer solutions," said Greg Baldwin, president of VolunteerMatch. "It is an exciting development and we are eager to help it succeed."

In today's economy, where almost a third of the nonprofits in America have had to lay off staff and one in five has been forced to reduce services due to funding cuts (according to The Economist), free help from qualified professionals is more valuable than ever. "Our staff needed business cards, but we didn't have the budget to hire a professional graphic designer," says Mason Brock of the Surfrider Foundation's Portland Chapter. "I posted a challenge to Sparked with our logo and an explanation of what the cards would be used for, and within a week a micro-volunteer had come up with a beautiful, custom design, ready to go to print." Brock and his Surfrider Foundation colleagues from around the country have reached out to micro-volunteers over the past few months for tagline generation, T-shirt design, website critique, social media guidance, and strategy help.

Among the hundreds of successful examples include website search engine optimization help for Accountability Counsel, third-world water well drilling research for a Masaai village in Kenya, copywriting edits for the SETI Institute, focus group reactions to a new website design for Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence, catchy tag-line development for the United Way, media research for the Grameen Foundation, and more.

"Skills-based employee volunteering is a core part of any successful CSR program, but companies still struggle to get their employees to engage," says Colker of the product. "Sparked makes skills-based volunteering as easy as using Facebook - resulting in a significant increase in engagement, 100% reporting capture, online collaboration between international teams, and unprecedented free PR through our social media integration tools," he continues, saying that "Sparked finally brings employee volunteering into the digital age."

About The Extraordinaries
Founded in July of 2008, The Extraordinaries is a for-profit social enterprise with headquarters in San Francisco, CA, whose tools have been used by over 150,000 people to micro-volunteer for nonprofits worldwide since January of 2009. The Extraordinaries are recipients of a 2009 Echoing Green Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship, a 2009 United Nations World Youth Summit Award, a 2009 Knight Foundation Community Grant Award, and a 2009 Ashoka Changemaker's Award. Further, Jacob Colker, co-founder of the Extraordinaries, is a 2010 Young Laureate of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise. Additionally, The Extraordinaries are backed by an amazing investment team including Kapor Capital (Stephen DeBerry, Mitch Kapor, and Freada Klein-Kapor), True Ventures, Alan Webber, James Currier, Stan Chudnovsky, Ariel Poler, and Esther Dyson.

Additional Press Contacts

Individual User:
Deb Carlen of Sonoma, California, 707-939-1215, dkcarlen@comcast.net

Corporate Contact:
Evan Welsh (for Sirima Sataman) at SAP, 610-203-9742, evan.welsh@sap.com

Corporate Contact:
Julia Fernandez (for Nicole Robinson) at Kraft Foods, 847-646-4538, news@kraft.com

Industry Expert:
Robert Rosenthal (for Greg Baldwin) at VolunteerMatch, rrosenthal@volunteermatch.org

Nonprofit User:
Mason Brock, Surfrider Foundation Portland, 248-249-0782, mason.brock@oregonsurfrider.org

Sparked

Sparked

Sparked.com is a website where employees of the world’s best companies complete micro-volunteering projects for nonprofits, online.

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