The story of Joevolunteer.com

JoeVolunteer is named both in honor of its visionary, and the fact that any 'ole, "Joe," can volunteer and make a difference in the lives of others.

JoeVolunteer started with a fellow by the name of Joe Polish (the guy on the left in the pic) going to a nursing home in the the Phoenix, AZ area. He was there to visit a good friend for their birthday party, which was attended by dozens of friends and family.

While there, Joe noticed a lonely soul that looked like they needed a friend. Well, there are a lot of people that would be thrilled to talk with this person, hear them out and let them know that someone cares.

The PROBLEM--those volunteers didn't know about this lonely person, and wouldn't know how to get started in helping them. 

This got the wheels turning in his head (we should mention that Joe is a marketing genius) that there should be a great, easily accessible way to connect volunteers with organizations and people in need.

Joe shared this on his popular podcast, "I Love Marketing," with his hundreds of thousands of listeners, and invited someone to start the process of making a connector like this possible.

One of the listeners, Chip Franks, heard that and it resonated with him. He has a son with Down Syndrome and had visited nursing homes with his kids for impromptu, "hug stations," and had seen the same exact situation with nursing homes.  The background picture you're seeing now is actually a picture taken from one of these visits.

Chip wrote a plan, built this website, and got this enormous project underway with the blessings, guidance, and a LOT of help from Joe and his incredible group of friends.

With this vision for a volunteer website, we will be working with a major player in the mobile app business to set up our outrageously cool interface that will allow our Joes (hopefully cool volunteers like you) to connect with organizations that need help, in real time. We'll also be able to match your preferences (say, if you'd like to work at a homeless shelter for instance) with the needs of the organizations. You'll also be able to rate your experience with them, so the worthy places can get the help they need.

At this point, we're in our infancy, but make no mistake--JoeVolunteer, with your help, is going to make a dent in the freaking universe.

If you're interested in becoming a part of the movement, click on 'volunteer,' to receive updates as we get rolling.

Your first task as a Joe? Help spread the word! Click on the, um...Spread the Word section to do that. If you give our Facebook page a, "like," and invite your noble, like-minded friends to like us and check out our operation, we'd be very, very appreciative.

If you're an organization that needs volunteers (non-profits and charities, please), click on that and give us your info. We'd love to talk to you--and hopefully send some Joes your way soon!

Together, we're going to help change the world and make it a kinder place.

Thank you. Really.