Changemaker U limits the number of locations students can choose from for two main reasons. First, Changemaker U believes that context matters. Contextual knowledge can facilitate communication between students and organizations. Students who are familiar with the culture and context in which a nonprofit exists better understand its motivations, goals, and unique challenges, resulting in work that is both more personal for the students and more appropriate for the project and organization.

For example, a student living in Southern California is more likely to approach a project related to water conservation with existing contextual knowledge than a student who has only ever lived in the Pacific Northwest (conceding that there are, of course, exceptions).

Second, a key facet of Changemaker U’s mission is to improve the visibility of smaller nonprofit organizations that lack access to resources enjoyed by bigger, wealthier, and better-known national or global organizations.

However, if students have a particular cause or organization in mind that they would like to collaborate with, which is not located in their school or home state or has not joined the Changemaker U platform, we heartily encourage them to reach out to the organizations of their choice to initiate collaboration outside of our platform. We promise not to gatekeep volunteering and charity for any organization.

If that has been your experience, we sincerely apologize. Whether this has already come to pass, or you are being cautious about a future project, be assured that we will take any information you share with us very seriously.

First, know that you have the right to withdraw from a project at any time, regardless of the project’s progress or the organization’s expectations. You may also block the organization in question. Your information will no longer be visible to any of the organization’s representatives, and your profile will display the same error code as profiles that were deleted or expired.

If an emergency or crime has occurred, please call 911 to report the situation to the police and address the incident as quickly as possible. When you are able, please submit a report through Changemaker U so that we are also aware of the situation and can respond accordingly.

If no crime or emergency has taken place, but you’ve had a bad experience due to the behavior of the organization you were working with, you can also submit a report through Changemaker U. We will review, investigate, and permanently file these reports regardless of outcome. Changemaker U investigates and resolves incidents to the best of our ability without involving student reporters. Nonprofit members agree to a contract of rules outlining requirements for legal and ethical behavior. If we find that one of the member organizations breached that contract, we will ban the organization and any representatives associated with the account. Representatives who are found to have breached our policies are banned. However, if other representatives manage the organization’s account, the organization may be allowed to retain its membership status.

When an organization has not been found to have violated its agreement, but reaches a certain number of student complaints, we may also ban them from the site as a precaution. You can submit a report here, or you can find a “Submit a Report of Complaint” button on the nonprofit organization profile page.

Part of the reason we do not allow an exchange of payment is that Changemaker U’s mission is to give a fair chance to organizations that cannot afford to pay for services. This includes fledgling nonprofits that have not yet gained a foothold, as well as successful, established organizations that operate on slim margins. An offer of payment by organizations that can afford to pay will skew the odds in their favor and deprive smaller nonprofits of opportunities. Any offer or promise of payment at any time is an explicit breach of the contract signed by all member nonprofits. Accepting such an offer is a breach of the student member contract.

However, after you complete a project, organizations may choose to leave a tip. The organization may not disclose the tip amount before the project’s completion. Neither party may disclose the amount on Changemaker U or anywhere else online.

Organizations that may elect to offer paid employment or internship opportunities to students after the project’s completion.

Changemaker U recognizes that not all members support every cause featured on the site, and that seeing some of the organizations included in the Changemaker U nonprofit directory may even cause distress for certain users. We apologize if this is the case, and ask that you take the time to read our reasoning.

First, Changemaker U is a secular, apolitical organization that serves diverse communities nationwide. For this reason, it neither adopts nor enforces the doctrine of any particular religion or political party among the charitable organizations it hosts, nor does it automatically reject charity sponsored by religious or political organizations. Some organizations featured may support causes that are not in alignment with the religious or political beliefs of all users.

However, we have constructed the nonprofit vetting process such that both religious organizations and political entities may participate on the condition that their organization’s proceeds benefit third parties and are not used for self-promotion or directed towards causes that infringe upon the autonomy or Constitutional rights of others, or that cause direct and intentional harm.

For example, a Catholic church-sponsored nonprofit that runs a soup kitchen and donation center would be permitted to join the Changemaker U platform, while one that fights to require public schools to teach Catholic doctrine would not. A political organization may promote general political literacy in its state, but may not promote policies that suppress voting, or donate funds to political campaigns. Changemaker U nonprofits that breach these agreements are removed from the directory and banned from membership, and under certain circumstances may also incur litigation.

Second, despite these protections, we understand that we cannot curate a directory that aligns with every user’s beliefs, and that some organizations that do not uphold their agreement may slip through the cracks.

On the Causes page, you will notice that each nonprofit featured in the gallery has a small eye icon below the “save” and “share” icons. By clicking this icon, users can hide selected nonprofits from view. Users with hidden nonprofits will not be able to see them on the Causes page, and their projects will not appear on the Projects Gallery page. This function is also available on the Nonprofit Profile pages. Users can view and manage a list of hidden organizations from their Settings page.

The Nonprofit Profile pages include a “report organization” button located at the bottom of the profile. If you have found that one of the Changemaker U nonprofits has violated its agreement, acted unlawfully, or otherwise engaged in unethical practices, we encourage you to submit a report, which we will review and file permanently regardless of the outcome.

There are a couple of reasons why you may not be able to find the nonprofit you are looking for in our directory, but the following are the most likely:

1. It has not signed up to become a Changemaker U member. 

2. It did not fulfill the requirements to become a Changemaker U member.

3. It is listed in the directory by a slightly different name.

4. It is not located within your location constraints (for students).

If you are passionate about a particular organization that you cannot access through our platform, we encourage you to reach out to them directly. Or, send them a link and let them know they should sign up!