LinkedIn has added a new feature called Volunteer Marketplace. This feature allows users to search for volunteer opportunities that have a need for certain skill sets. This past August, LinkedIn let users express an interest in opportunities within their profile page.
Interested users could be contacted for positions, but could not actively search for them. A LinkedIn spokesperson said that over 600,000 people have expressed interest in opportunities and more than 3 million users have added volunteer experience and cause to their profile since 2011.
LinkedIn is launching the marketplace with 500 postings today and will add more in the next few weeks. Non-profits and other organizations can post volunteer openings or board seats in the same way that job postings are posted. These new postings cost only 10% of what a job posting costs on LinkedIn. Revenues will be plugged back into the program.
The problem is that Volunteer Marketplace may not be visible to users because the search for opportunities is not in the navigation bar. It can only be accessed by visiting the marketplace at LinkedIn.com and clicking on the volunteer opportunities. It will appear in the “Jobs You May Be Interested In” tab. There are also direct links to the opportunities at volunteer.LinkedIn.com and nonprofit.LinkedIn.com.
