idealist.org

Tips for Better Search Results

General Tips

In every search screen, each field you fill in will make your search more specific, so use as many fields as you need to find exactly what you are looking for.

For example: you can enter only New York to find all organizations in the state of New York; or you can add Female and Spanish, to find organizations serving Spanish-speaking women in New York.

Spelling matters! You will only find entries that match the letters or numbers you enter. However, the system is not case sensitive: a capital A is the same as a little a.

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Age

Find services or volunteer opportunities for a particular age group, such as peer-to-peer tutoring for middle school students or meal delivery for senior citizens.

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Area of Focus

Using area of focus eliminates some of the guessing involved in a search by keyword. Organizations entering information into this system have been asked to describe themselves and their services, volunteer opportunities, events, material, internships and jobs using these same categories.

You need only choose an area of focus to find those organizations that described themselves that way. If you are unable to find an appropriate area of focus, the Mission, Service, Volunteer, Event, Material, Internship or Job description keyword searches give you greater flexibility.

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Dates

Leaving these fields alone will find all options that match your other criteria, regardless of date. However, if you know you will only be available in the summer, you may want to specify that date range so as to limit your search to those opportunities which fit your schedule.

To enter a single date use the same date for both Begin and End date.

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Gender

Specify gender if you are looking for services (such as shelters for battered women, girls' sports programs or mentoring for boys) or volunteer opportunities (such as female mentors for girls or male camp counselors for boys) that are gender-specific.

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Description

This keyword search allows you to find entries by matching words that organizations used to describe their Mission, Services, Volunteer Opportunities, Events, Material, Internships and Jobs.

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Language

Use this to match services, volunteer opportunities, events, internships, material and jobs in your language. If you do not find your language listed, try entering it as a keyword in the description field.

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Media Type

If you know what media you are looking for, enter it here to find only materials or publications in that media.

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Organization Name

The organization name is searchable by keyword, so you need only enter part of the name in order to find it. For example: If the organization is Amnesty International, you can enter only Amnesty and still find it. If you enter only International, you will find all organizations who include international in their title. If you are searching for a particular chapter of a national or international organization, use their location to narrow your search. For example: United Way Anchorage to find the United Way of Anchorage .

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Skills Needed

Match the skills you have with the skills organizations need for their volunteer opportunities, internships or jobs. If you do not find your skill listed, try entering it as a keyword in the description field.

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Title

The title is searchable by keyword, so you need only enter part of the name in order to find it. For example: if you are looking for something on adoption, using adoption as a possible title word may yield publications dealing with adoption. To further optimize your search, use adopt rather than adoption, since adopt will find all matches with either word, while adoption will only find those which match the longer word.

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