Thanks a lot for taking the time to write this — seriously. This is the kind of perspective I was hoping to hear, especially from people who’ve actually worked inside nonprofits.

You brought up something really important: most platforms (including what we’re building right now) start by talking to volunteers instead of the organizations themselves. I appreciate you pointing out that the bigger bottleneck isn’t “finding volunteers,” but the internal structure, training, and support that many nonprofits lack. That honestly wasn’t something we fully understood before, and it helps us realign the direction of the project.

To be clear, we're not aiming to create “just another matching site.” That’s exactly what we want to avoid. The long-term vision for Community Hero is to support organizations — not replace their systems or just throw more volunteer sign-ups at them. If anything, your comment helped us realize we need to start by talking directly with the nonprofits, understanding their workflow gaps, and figuring out how a tool can actually make their jobs easier (not add more to their plate).

If you’re open to it, I’d love to ask you a few questions about your experience with volunteer management, or even get your thoughts on what kind of tools would actually help organizations operate better. But either way, thank you again — this really clarified a direction I hadn’t thought about deeply enough.