In case you haven’t been following our blog religiously this year, we’ve been learning a lot  about best practices for matchmaking between social change projects and people with specialized skill sets. We recently brought together organizations that have a lot of matchmaking experience to chat about some of their lessons learned. A huge thanks to those who joined, including:

• Eddie Avila and Laura of Rising Voices (Global Voices Online) | Twitter: @barrioflores @zigzagrailroad @risingvoices

• Chris Michael and Bryan of WITNESS | Twitter: @witnesschris @tech_wit

• Claudia Natera of Alternativas y Capacidades | Twitter: @pokeopina

• Heidi Massey of Realized Worth for Sparked| Twitter: HeidiEKMassey

• Marc Maxson – Innovation Consultant, Global Giving (with Amy Cooper)| Twitter: @MarcMaxson

• Shari Ilsen – Senior Online Communications Manager, VolunteerMatch | Twitter: @Silsen

• Justyna Krol – Digital Engagement and Innovation Consultant, UNDP Europe and the CIS, Bratislava Regional Centre & Edgeryders) | Twitter: @JustynaKrol

• George Hodge (UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre) | Twitter: @lurglomond @hurilabs

• Becky Hurwitz of the engine room & MIT Center for Civic Media | Twitter: @bxhrz

It was a great mix of people who are thinking about incorporating matchmaking into their programs and people who have been working hard at it for a while. One of the highlights for me was seeing individuals who hadn’t met before, but do really similar work, exchange notes about their experiences. The conversation also surfaced a lot of interesting tidbits about what works for connecting advocates to (non-financial) resources. To look through those tidbits, head over to our working list of best practices, which we’ve just updated with notes from the call. It’s a perpetual draft – and you can access it here: www.theengineroom.org/matchmaking.

Thanks again to everyone who joined!