Volunteer platform supporting humanitarian projects for people affected by the war in Ukraine & anti-war activists.

Role: Operations Manager, 2023-2024

Context

20-50 of incoming requests per week, distributed contributors, and urgent timelines. Fragmented intake and coordination created delays. No single view of status or priorities. High drop‑off for volunteers.

Objective: compress time‑to‑action, improve matching/retention, and give leaders a single source of truth.

Results

• Supported 700+ projects with clearer ownership and faster handoffs.
• Cut average response time ~7 days → ~32 hours.
• Improved volunteer–project matching ~30%; 90‑day retention +~18%.
• Data freshness - outdated records per month <10% for 700+ projects and 50+ published volunteer tasks.

What I did

• Designed a single intake and triage flow with clear routing rules and SLAs.
• Built a support-team workflow and schedule with an on-call rotation, topic-based support scripts, and leader/volunteer onboarding guides.
• Introduced weekly sprints and a simple delivery board for priorities and blockers.
• Set up partner workflows and follow‑ups, created lightweight KPI dashboards.
• Addressed data‑quality drift with automated checks and monthly cleanups (hired and managed a junior automation specialist).
• Led an SEO/Ads refresh that lifted user engagement, initiated humanitarian leaders support circles (chat + meetups)
• Secured a pro bono cybersecurity audit that saved $15k
• Implemented psychological‑safety norms, sponsored personal therapy sessions, and captured after‑action improvements.

Key learnings