Search is essential for discovering nonprofits and opportunities in your program to support through giving or volunteering. With search, we ensure that your program content is easily available and searchable by all participants.
Permissions
Anyone with access to your goodness program can search for nonprofits, volunteer events, and giving opportunities.
Searching for nonprofits
To search for nonprofits, you can select Search in the top navigation bar or use the search on My Dashboard. Alternatively, when you select Make a Donation from the top menu, you can search for both giving opportunities and nonprofits simultaneously.
How nonprofits display in results depends on three factors:
- User's search location.
- Amount of donations the nonprofit has received.
- How close the nonprofit's name is to the search term used.
The results are ordered by the most relevant, based on these factors. Exact matches of the nonprofit name will appear first in the results. You can select Filters to narrow down your search by country, state/province and category/subcategory.
Searching for volunteer or giving opportunities
The search experience is similar for both volunteering and giving.
- To search or browse volunteer opportunities, select Volunteer on the top navigation bar.
- To search or browse giving opportunities, select Make a Donation in the navigation bar.
Search
Enter details in the search bar at the top of the page to find an opportunity. Your search results are ranked based on a relevancy algorithm. Events or nonprofits that are located nearest your search location, and have start dates in the near future, will appear first in the order.
By default, the search location is what is set in the user's profile. If absent, it will use the location in tax receipts, followed by the location provided in your company's demographic file. You can also select the search location button above the search results to update it.
Quick Links
Quick links for opportunities are available under the search bar. They represent a saved set of filters that have been shared by administrators. Employees are quickly directed to similar or tagged opportunities.
Featured Opportunities
Featured opportunities are also displayed on this page. Opportunities can be featured for employee groups based on their demographic data. Show all will display all featured opportunities.
Browse All
Opportunities in the Browse All section are also returned based on location and relevance. Select Show all if you would like to explore more and filter results.
FAQs
How is my default location set?
The default search location is based on the location specified in the users profile. If a search location is not specified, but address information is used to populate a user's contact details, search will use that address information to set the location. If neither are specified, search will use your site's instance country for a default location.
What are ongoing opportunities?
Ongoing opportunities do not have an end date. These opportunities are typically long-term, relationship-based opportunities such as volunteering for a year to help design and develop a nonprofit's website.
What are remote or virtual opportunities?
Remote and virtual opportunities are created with no location set. These opportunities are typically online, such as improving a nonprofits mapping service by adding location data to it. To be considered as having a location, volunteer opportunity creators must set and confirm a valid location on the volunteer opportunity creation form.
How can I find past volunteer opportunities?
Past results appear in the search results the same as future events, but if they ended a long time ago (in a galaxy far far away), they may be pushed lower in the relevancy rankings. If you've signed up for these events already and are looking to track time, you can find them from the Volunteering section of your profile.
Terms and results
What search terms can be used?
You can search with most terms and the site will return results which contain a match within the volunteer opportunity title, description, nonprofit name, skills, interests or characteristics tags. Most special characters will not be included in the search term, with the exception of the hashtag (#) as it can be used as a flexible hashtag system to organize content.
How are the default set of search results determined?
The results included on the volunteering search landing page are populated as though you've just made a search without a keyword term within that volunteer opportunity type (events, ongoing, or remote). They are ordered based on the same algorithm as the results page, and this algorithm takes into account your search location.
How are my search results ranked?
Your search results are ranked based on a relevancy algorithm. Results which are close to your search location and with start dates in the reasonably-near future will tend to appear at the top. Results which are more distant in time and space will tend to appear further down.
When searching from the Make a Donation page, giving opportunities related to your search will always appear first, followed by nonprofits, unless there are no giving opportunities available.
I just created a volunteer opportunity and I can't find it in search results. Why?
When you create a new volunteer opportunity, there is a maximum 15-minute period before the next round of indexing makes it searchable. These opportunities can still be found via direct link.
How soon will new content show up in search (e.g. adding or editing an opportunity)?
On average, it takes 5-10 minutes before users can see the new content/changes in search.
Can I search for a nonprofit using their government ID or charity number?
Yes. This is the most exact way to find an organization because no two organizations will ever have the same government ID number. Searching by this number is a good trick for those hard to find nonprofits.
You can often find the number located on the nonprofit's website, usually in the About Us page. It’s also listed on donation receipts. See below for more information on registration numbers by country.
- United States: 9-digit identification number called an EIN (Employer Identification Number) issued by the IRS. Some U.S. charities may be chapters of larger parent organizations, and may use that parent's charity status and EIN.
- Canada: Business number issued by the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency). It will look something like 123456789RR0001.
- United Kingdom: Registration number between 4 and 7 digits.
- Ireland: CHY reference number between 3 and 6 digits.
- Australia: 11-digit ABN (Australian Business Number).
Why are there so many organizations with a similar name?
Some nonprofits may appear multiple times in the search results. These additional results may be for regional chapters of a larger organization, or they may be for projects created by that nonprofit. A “project” is a dedicated fundraising appeal for something specific that nonprofit is doing.
How do I change my search location for a nonprofit?
- Enter the nonprofit name or a keyword in search.
- When the results appear, select the Near [your location] button located below the search bar. The location defaults to your profile location.
- Enter a specific city or address to find the nonprofit.
- Select Search. The recommended locations will appear.
- Choose to search with that new location this one time, or select the checkbox to set it as your default location.
Will eligible and ineligible nonprofits display in search?
Yes. By default, both eligible and ineligible nonprofits are displayed. As a program leader, you can choose whether to show all nonprofits or only those nonprofits eligible in your program. To learn more, go to Manage, located in the top-right corner. Then navigate to Site Settings > Cause Search Settings.
If you still have questions that have not been answered, contact the Client Technical Support team.