Any WP type themes for this?

[Systreg]

I'm thinking about putting a site on Volunteers.org.uk

I've had a look for themes, but can't find anything. Not sure what sort of theme I'm supposed to be looking for, I did find membership themes but that seems to be if you want members to subscribe to things like getting your sports tips etc.

The theme would be for a site like WorkAway.info, where people requiring volunteers have a page that lists details of their project and needs, and after registering on the site and paying a yearly membership fee, volunteers can then contact hosts through an internal messaging system on the site to ask about volunteering there.

I would need a similar theme where people can register on the site, have profiles that hosts can view, and the ability for hosts/volunteers to leave reviews for each other after doing their placement.

The theme must have a PayPal payment option for membership, but it would be free to start with.

As an example, you can see a list of WorkAway volunteering opportunities on this page, so you can see the structure of a hosts page.

Does anyone know of any out of the box themes, that could be used for a site similar to WorkAway?

Cheers.

 

[TheLeadGuy]

I spotted a theme that seemed like it would be a good fit for what you are looking for.

Will have a search through my history today and post a link

 

[Helmuts]

Hi, a while ago I purchased Jobmoster theme at ThemeForest: https://themeforest.net/item/jobmonster-job-board-wordpress-theme/10965446 .. seemed to be a fine WP solution.

.. later on moved to niceboard.co (much more expensive solution.. I think I have an custom 'business' package).. this is the backend for jobs.it.com (waiting to be launched, when I find the right person to do it together with)

all the success!! Helmuts

 

[Systreg]

Thanks @Helmuts and @TheLeadGuy for the email with the theme link, will have a good look through those later on, cheers.

 

[Systreg]

Spent all day again today looking for a theme that might work, complete waste of time, not a single theme out of hundreds I've looked at are suitable.

I was hoping a job theme like the one posted by Helmuts might have worked, but those work the wrong way round, because job related sites are set up so that you charge the job poster a listing fee, and job seekers don't pay to apply for the job.

For a site that I want, it would be the other way round, hosts would post their voluntary work requirements free of charge, and it's the volunteers who would pay to use the site to be able to contact hosts.

Looks like this is going to be a non starter.

 

[Adam H]

Reliance on specifically designed themes will be a nightmare long term, Over the last 15 years I can honestly say that the people that have used pre-built themes with specific functionality, have pretty much all come to the conclusion sortly after that its not suitable and end up having it semi-custom made or fully custom made.

Themes built to purpose are harder to customise while keeping up with updates and security fixes ( if the dev's even bother to do either ), alot of the time the code is bloated to hell because they are catering for a vast array of uses within the subset. It's just not worth it if you believe the project will actually get any kind of momentum.

You'd be better of using a clean base theme, maybe a page builder if you really have to like Elementor to move things on design wise quickly, adding plugins for specific functionality which you can update/replace over time if/when is needed.

Over time you can then use Advanced custom fields, custom post type UI and/or do it manually with custom functions and you are not restricted so much.

 

[Systreg]

Have you tried looking at plugins for the required functionality rather than themes?

No, I didn't know there were plugins for doing the type of functions that I would need, I thought there were just themes. Most sites I've ever had were basic and made with html, so I'm not up on plugin stuff, and I'd struggle with it.

I've had problems before with WP, and that's just with uploading the themes, messing things up and having to reinstall, then getting locked out, so I gave up with that site and haven't used WP for years now.

Also, it seems weird that you would expect volunteers to pay to discover potential volunteer opportunities.

If event organisers aren't willing to pay to list available volunteer opportunities, volunteers are even less likely to want to pay to give up their time for free.

This type of volunteering isn't like local volunteering in your own town or a normal job site listing, where the employer rightly pays to list a job, and people can apply for it at no cost.

In the volunteering niche I was going to aim at, it might be a host who has an animal rescue that they run on their own, and wants much needed help, or someone bought some land in France, to start their own permaculture project, and they want help clearing the land, starting a food forest, and help with any animals they may have, or help rebuilding some ruins in to a home and volunteer accommodation.

Volunteers generally do 3-5 hours per day (varies at different hosts), and the host generally provide 2 or 3 meals per day if you do 5 hours (or more at some places). If only doing 1-3 hours, volunteers are usually responsible for their own food/meals. Hosts may provide accommodation in a camper van, tent, yurt, caravan, or room in their house, if there's a house there (often not), but a lot of volunteers travelling in Europe use their own camper vans, or travel with their own tents for camping on the hosts land.

Maybe you're thinking more of local volunteering, say I was living in London and wanted to volunteer, and a local food bank wanted volunteers, I'd go and help out and then go home each day.

With the type of volunteer positions this is aimed at, they're mostly people who are taking a year or two out to learn different things, just because they like helping others, and you also get a lot of students who might be studying agriculture, for example, and you'll find those volunteering at farms to get real life experience in their chosen field of study.

With regards to charging fees, you have to factor in that if you had 1,000 hosts listing volunteer positions on a site (there are over 50,000 in 162 countries on WorkAway), and if there are 100,000 volunteers looking for positions (there are a LOT more than that worldwide), it would make more sense to charge the volunteers, and that's how it works on the big sites like WorkAway.info and WorldPackers.com as examples.

If you look at host pages on WorkAway, then scroll to the bottom to read reviews left, you can click on the name of the volunteer (if not set to private) who left the review, and their profiles shows which countries they're intending to visit, and you'll often see 10 countries in Europe, or volunteer in a number of EU countries and then go to South America to more places, so paying €49 per year is a no brainer for a volunteer to be able to contact any host worldwide.