matchie

Inspiration

We kept hearing the same two things: Vancouver nonprofits are desperate for volunteers, and BC high schoolers have a mandatory 30-hour graduation requirement with nowhere good to go. Every existing platform — Idealist, VolunteerMatch, Catchafire — was built for professionals. They ask about skills and expertise. A 16-year-old who's never had a job reads that and closes the tab. We talked to Vancouver nonprofit coordinators and heard the same thing repeatedly: they don't need a resume, they need someone willing to show up and come back. Nobody was connecting these two groups efficiently. Matchie is that connection

What it does

Matchie matches high school students to Vancouver volunteer opportunities based on who they are, not what they know. Students complete a short quiz — energy level, social setting, task type, motivation, skills they want to gain — and get matched to real local nonprofits in plain language. Instead of "seeking volunteers for capacity building initiatives," they see "chill, creative, small-group work." Nonprofits get a steady pipeline of willing, motivated students. Students get opportunities that actually fit their vibe.

How we built it

Built with React, Tailwind, and TypeScript on the frontend, Node.js and Express on the backend, MongoDB for our database, and Clerk for auth. We used Groq for fast AI inference, Nomic Embed for semantic matching between student profiles and nonprofit listings, and ElevenLabs for voice. Deployed on Vercel.

Challenges we ran into

The hardest part was resisting the temptation to build what every other platform already built. Skill-based matching is intuitive to design — but it's the wrong solution for this demographic. Reframing the entire matching logic around interest and vibe instead of experience required rethinking every design decision from the ground up.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Talking directly to Vancouver nonprofit coordinators and letting that shape the product. Most platforms are built by people who've never asked a nonprofit what they actually need. We did, and it completely changed our approach. We're also proud of keeping the UI genuinely simple — something a first-time volunteer with no tech experience could navigate without help.

What we learned

That the problem was never motivation. High schoolers want to volunteer. Nonprofits want volunteers. The gap is purely in the matching layer — and fixing that layer doesn't require rebuilding everything, it just requires asking better questions.

What's next for Matchie

Peer visibility so students can see when friends are attending the same opportunity. Hour tracking and downloadable certificates for the graduation requirement. School integration so counsellors can monitor student progress. And expanding beyond Vancouver to serve BC's nonprofit sector more broadly.

Built With

• and-clerk-for-auth.-we-used-groq-for-fast-ai-inference
• and-typescript-on-the-frontend
• clerk
• css
• elevenlabs
• embed
• express.js
• groq
• mongodb
• mongodb-for-our-database
• node.js
• node.js-and-express-on-the-backend
• nomic
• nomic-embed-for-semantic-matching-between-student-profiles-and-nonprofit-listings
• react
• tailwind
• typescript
• vercel