NetWork Volunteers

To create meaningful volunteer experiences that build investment in, commitment to, and capacity of the Greater New Orleans area and its community organizations

Since opening our doors in 2014, NetWork Volunteers has had an increasing impact on New Orleans and its community organizations and residents. Our volunteers haved worked all over the Greater New Orleans area on a variety of social issues and projects such as Arts and Culture, Education, Environmental Sustainability, Faith-Based, Housing and Homelessness and Neighborhood Development. Each volunteer we work with has an average $123.32 philanthropic impact on New Orleans!
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In 2011, after years of volunteering and working to help with the rebuilding of New Orleans, Teddy Nathan and Zach Cheney began formulating an idea for a different kind of nonprofit. Their idea was simple: To create an organization that could help provide long-term support to the area’s nonprofits by creating awe-inspiring volunteer experiences.
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​Nathan came to New Orleans in 2006, exactly one year after Hurricane Katrina, to attend Tulane University. He quickly started volunteering at a variety of nonprofits and was blown away by the work and dedication of those organizations to rebuild New Orleans. That dedication had a strong impact on Nathan, prompting him to volunteer for a range of efforts from rebuilding houses, to after-school tutoring for children and adults. He also completed a term with the AmeriCorps Literacy Alliance and ran a student-led youth recreation program at a local community center.
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After graduating, Nathan was awarded a Mayoral Fellowship with the Landrieu administration in New Orleans where he was able to continue his passion for the city and worked on a variety of the administration’s partnership projects, including the creation of ServeNOLA and Office Neighborhood Engagement. He later went on to manage community partnerships at Tulane.
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Amidst all of this, Nathan realized a few things. He understood the immense power and potential New Orleans’ nonprofits and volunteers had in the city’s rebuilding. As time went on, he saw a disconnect between the needs of the nonprofits and the means available to them. The nonprofits were feeling the disconnect as well. More resources and people, eager to help, were coming into New Orleans, but at the time there was no streamlined process for them to connect with the organizations. Nathan felt there had to be a way to bring all factors together to benefit all involved including, more importantly, New Orleans.
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​At the same time, Cheney was gaining his volunteer experience during his service in triage centers in Baton Rouge and Houston following hurricanes Katrina and Gustav. After graduating from LSU in 2009, Cheney moved to New Orleans, where he honed his skills in the hospitality and tourism industry and developed a strong base in customer service. In his experiences, he too saw lost potential time and time again of groups wanting to make a difference but weren’t exactly sure how.
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By chance, Nathan and Cheney met in 2011 and quickly realized that they each felt a commitment to help continue New Orleans’ growth and progress. Cheney’s expertise in the tourism industry and, Nathan’s extensive background in the local nonprofit sector, made for an ideal combination to connect volunteers with New Orleans. A combination that would not only benefit the volunteers, but the city as a whole.
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​The two immediately began fundraising and piloting their services for a variety of volunteer groups and shortly after Nathan and Cheney were accepted into the 2013 Propeller Social Venture Accelerator Fellows program. It was there that they were able to put the pieces together to officially open their doors for business on January 1, 2014.
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Since that date, NetWork Volunteers has worked with over 14,000 volunteers from all over New Orleans and the world. These volunteers have dedicated more than 70,000 hours of service to over 85 different non-profits, with a local philanthropic impact of almost $1.8 million.

NOLA Day of Service Program
Serve and Learn
Community Connection