by Bill Smith from the St. Louis Post Dispatch
Washington University and the University of Missouri at St. Louis have gone into the online matchmaking business. What’s that – WU and UMSL competing with Match.com in the Internet dating game?
Well, not exactly.
Over the past several months, the universities have joined with the United Way of Greater St. Louis, the Regional Arts Commission and several other local groups to form a different kind of online dating service.
The aim, ultimately, is not romance, at least not in the traditional sense. Instead, the new group hopes to pair local nonprofits with men and women interested in serving on their boards.
Dubbed BoardLinkStL, the service recently launched its own Web site. So far, 30 area nonprofits and more than 100 potential board members have filled out online surveys. Organizers hope that number will swell to 200 agencies and 300 individuals by the end of BoardLinkStL’s first year.
As part of an online questionnaire directed to nonprofits, the site asks the organizations what they are looking for in new board members. The site also asks the organizations how they hope to diversify their membership in such areas as geography, religious affiliation, gender and ethnicity.
A separate questionnaire, for potential board candidates, asks them to list their skills and areas of interest. Interest areas range from international health to crime prevention to civil rights.
The information is then used to get the best possible matches between nonprofits and potential directors.
Lasting relationships
Rick Skinner with the United Way of Greater St. Louis and Barbara E. Levin with Washington University say the similarities between BoardLinkStl and online dating services are intentional.
But Levin says BoardLinkStl will mark its success not on its number of short-term matches, but on the development of strong, lasting relationships.
“We want marriages, and we want long marriages,” she said.
Skinner and Levin say area nonprofits see BoardLinkStl as a way to attract fresh faces into public service.
Jennifer Estes, president of Metropolis St. Louis, was among the first to register on the BoardLinkStl Web site.
She said she is looking to join a group that works with children, possibly economically disadvantaged or disabled.
In her role at Metropolis, Estes says, she works to “get young people engaged in the community.”
“This could be a huge asset, a tremendous tool to get young people involved,” she said of the new group.
She said a nonprofit already has contacted her via e-mail, hoping to explore a match.
Martha Uhlhorn has served as chair of Paraquad for the past four years. The nonprofit offers a wide range of services to people with disabilities in the St. Louis area.
Uhlhorn says that while the group has had little trouble attracting board members with disabilities, it has had significant difficulty attracting ethnic minorities. That, she said, is a major reason why Paraquad’s board decided to join BoardLinkStL about two weeks ago.
She also said BoardLinkStl’s training programs are critical to a successful match. “There are a lot of people who would like to volunteer, but they don’t know exactly what that means,” Uhlhorn said.
As part of its program, BoardLinkStl offers what it calls “readiness to serve” and “readiness to recruit” workshops for both nonprofits and potential board members.
BoardLinkStl’s Levin and Skinner say the organization charges a nominal fee for its services to help pay for the program. For prospective board members, registration is $50, which includes access to the Web site and workshops for one year.
The registration cost for a nonprofit ranges from $100 to $300, depending on the size of the organization’s budget.
Organizers say the group is still in its infancy and no matches have been made.
Other groups involved in the program are Family Support Council/Family Resource Center, Nonprofit Services Consortium, FOCUS St. Louis and Volunteer Lawyers & Accountants For the Arts. Information on the program is available at the group’s Web site at www.boardlinkstl.org or by calling the United Way at 800-VOLUNTEER, FOCUS St. Louis at 314-622-1250, Ext. 117, or Levin at Washington University at 314-935-6661.
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