(Morristown, NJ), May 2012 – When Carol McKinney, the Executive Director of VMC, learned about YouGiveGoods – she was ecstatic.  “An important part of VMC’s mission is to advise nonprofit organizations on best practices to help them both strategically and with their day-to-day operations.  We work directly with more than 700 non-profit organizations, and we are always seeking to identify innovative practices to introduce to our service community.”

The YouGiveGoods website is easy to navigate and very effective,” notes McKinney.”  “The company has developed innovative technology that hunger organizations and animal shelters can use to help them both with their day to day operations and for their long term planning while also providing volunteers and donors with an amazing mechanism for food donations.”

Patrick O’Neill, CEO of YouGiveGoods, remarked “When we met Carol and learned about VMC’s mission, we knew it would be great to partner with them.  It’s a terrific organization. With nearly 40 years of community engagement, they enjoy enormous credibility within the nonprofit community, and they really understand the need for these organizations to continue to find ways to do more with fewer resources.”  O’Neill continued, “Since we launched our website last September, activity at our website, YouGiveGoods.com has grown quickly.  We’ve gotten great feedback from everyone who has used it.   Now that we’ve demonstrated that our system works so well, our main task is to spread the word about what we have developed.   We anticipate that VMC is going to help us do that in a really big way.”

Carol McKinney echoes that sentiment. “What YouGiveGoods has developed is so well thought through.  It offers benefits not only to nonprofit organizations but to anyone looking to help these organizations.  You can tell that Patrick and the rest of the YouGiveGoods team are dedicated to finding ways for their technology to make a positive impact, and we believe this is only the tip of the iceberg with clothing, toys, healthcare items and schools supplies on the horizon.”

Volunteer Management Centers works with not-for-profit agencies, including government and faith-based organizations, throughout northern and central New Jersey.  VMC achieves its mission to “purposefully connect volunteers and organizations to solve our community needs” by:

• Recruiting, referring and recognizing volunteers;
• Publicizing volunteer needs & events;
• Providing training/facilitation/consulting services to improve the effectiveness of not-for-profit organizations, including its nationally-recognized Board Leadership Institute;
• Creating collaborative CHAINs of agencies to maximize their resources;
• Effectively engaging corporate groups in community volunteer projects;
• Working with charities to determine their leadership and hands-on volunteer needs;
• Aiding homebound seniors and permanently disabled persons through its Friendship at Heart Programs, offering daily phone calls and weekly visits to reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation;
• Presenting volunteer programs at schools and sponsoring youth group projects; and
• Providing IT hardware/software/web/networking support to charities and refurbishing donated computers for free redistribution to those in need.

More information about VMC can be found at www.vmcnj.org.

YouGiveGoods is a socially conscious company founded with the purpose of making it as simple as possible to start and promote drives that support charities and organizations that help those in need—such as food pantries, animal shelters, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters.

“By welcoming people to purchase food and other goods online at YouGiveGoods.com, and handling the collection and shipment of those goods directly through distributors, we allow people to contribute to those in need without leaving home,” said Patrick O’Neill.  “Our technology and delivery system does it all.  People select goods that organizations most often need and we get those goods delivered in an organized, efficient way. YouGiveGoods.com dramatically reduces the amount of time spent managing traditional drives, at the same time reducing the fuel consumed to make the entire process more green,” he said.

“The ultimate goal of YouGiveGoods is to be an integral partner with people and organizations across the country who want to help others and to allow more people to help through our website—it’s really that simple,” said O’Neill. “For us, VMC is a perfect fit.”

YouGiveGoods is based in Mendham, NJ and is owned and operated by a group of people who strongly believe in the importance of helping others in need. It was developed to allow people and organizations to send goods more efficiently and effectively to food pantries, animal shelters, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and other organizations across the country.   The innovative

e-commerce platform is designed to inspire people to give and help others.  Visit YouGiveGoods.com.