1. SMALL THINGS
CHANGE NEIGHBORHOODS
NeighborLinkNetwork.org
Andrew Hoffman - andrew@nlfw.org

2. Think: Volunteer Management tool that bridges the gap between the unmet needs in a community and neighbors
looking to help.
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NeighborLink is a faith-based, grassroots volunteer mobilization model that developed a web-based platform
which helps vulnerable homeowners and community organizations find assistance with their needs from volunteers
throughout the community. NeighborLink is operated by an independent 501(c)3 organization in each city it operates in.
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To those seeking assistance: NL is a tool to amplify their need to those who are willing to help
To those seeking opportunities: NL is a tool to fulfill their God-given calling to love their neighbors through service
AFFILIATES
DeKalb County, IN
Indianapolis, IN
Porter County, IN
CURRENT NEIGHBORLINK
NETWORK MEMBERS
Fort Wayne, IN
Liberty County, GA
Van Wert, OH
Evansville, IN
Philadelphia, PA
Owensboro, KY
NON-AFFILIATES

3. OUR MISSION
To provide practical, neighbor-to-neighbor expressions of God’s love.

4. OUR VISION
To see our model empower churches in any city in the US to
engage in neighborhood & community development through
practical acts of service.

5. THE TEAM
Andrew Hoffman
Executive Director: NeighborLink Fort Wayne
NeighborLink Network
Former ad agency account executive turned NL director in
2008 after two years of volunteering. Responsible for
launching the NL model in 9 cities the last 5 years.
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Successfully developed & launched NL’s own
CrowdFunding platform that has seen over $20,000
raised for projects in FW in 18 months.
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Believes that social innovation & the power of a healthy
neighborhood can transform communities.
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BS in Management from Huntington University
Currently pursuing MBA at Taylor University
Starting Jan ‘14
Board of Directors
NL Network Leaders
Volunteer Mobilization Director
John Barce
NL Co-Founder & Board President
Partner - Barrett & McNagny Law Firm
Each of the 9 current NeighborLink Network members
are independent non-profits that have their own board
of directors and leadership structures.
We’re in the process of hiring a church/volunteer
mobilization director who will be perfecting and
implementing our model of engagement.
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Brett Meyer
Lead NL Web Architect & Developer
Senior Software Engineer - Red Hat
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Joe Johns
Director of Missional Living
Fellowship Missionary Church
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Gwyn Eastom
Treasurer
BKD CPAs & Advisors

6. OPPORTUNITY
To see our model eliminate the barriers between neighbors in need and the neighbors
who are looking for opportunities to help. We want to see churches & compassionate
neighbors throughout the US become better neighbors.

7. PROBLEM
There are barriers between neighbors in need and the
neighbors who are looking for opportunities to help.
Neighbors In Need
Neighbors Looking To Help
Our city’s neighborhoods are full of seniors,
people with disabilities, and people facing
life’s circumstances who live on fixed-incomes.
Many fall through the cracks of traditional
social services because there are no programs
to meet their needs.
These vulnerable neighbors lack physical and
financial resources, the community of people
needed to thrive and/or alternative housing
solutions. They don’t always know who to ask
for help or feel ashamed to ask those they
know.
Thousands of people every year in the same
neighborhoods look for low barrier-to-entry
opportunities to volunteer for, or meaningful
projects to fund.
These volunteers would help one of their
neighbors if they knew who needed help, but
are often disconnected. They also don’t want to
make large upfront commitments to traditional
volunteer organizations.

8. PRODUCT - WEB PLATFORM
Connects Neighbors In Need with Neighbors Looking to Help
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Current
Platform
A resource for projects/needs that fall through the cracks of
traditional social services or governmental agencies.
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A resource for those neighbors willing to help out who are willing to
go through our volunteer registration process.
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Each NL Network member site is managed by an executive director or
support staff.
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First website launched in 2002. New website launches in Jan ’14.
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New Platform
Coming in 2014
Over 1,000 registered members representing 78 different local
volunteer communities in Fort Wayne alone. Product active in 9 US
cities.
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Volunteers self-selected, organized, and completed over 3,000
projects in Fort Wayne since 2003. Close to 4,000 Nationwide.
NeighborLinkFortWayne.org

9. PRODUCT - CROWDFUNDING
Developed internally & launched in May 2012 in Fort Wayne.
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Gives us & our volunteers the ability to create fundraising
campaigns for specific projects.
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Raised over $20,000 for project expenses to date. Represents
90% of our project expenses during same time.
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85% of those donors are new members to NeighborLink.
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Looking to monetize our model by licensing our tool to other
nonprofit organizations in 2014. We’ll use the funds to work on
future web development projects.

10. PRODUCT - MOBILE
Android App Version 1 will go live in 1st Quarter 2014
iPhone App Version 1 will go live in 3rd Quarter 2014
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Initial rollout for each version will be for Affiliates Only. Modifying for nonaffiliates will require more time.
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V.1 Focus will be on enhancing the volunteer experience.
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Features:
• Project posting & management
• Add photos to projects
• Communicate with other volunteers
• Find projects close by - GPS mapping feature
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Mobile is a major part of our vision for the future in an effort to
continually eliminate barriers between neighbors.

11. MARKET SIZE
289
1,650
300+
Cities With Over 100,000 People
Number of Mega Churches in US
Number of CCDA.org Members
Cities or Counties in the US that have more than
100,000 total people is our initial target based on
the 9 cities/counties we currently serve.
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The reality is that every city in the US has needs
that fall through the cracks of social services and
churches/volunteers who are looking to help their
neighbors.
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Number is based on 2010 Census Data & Our
Current Members.
Churches are our main volunteer source and mega
churches that have 2,000 or more weekly visitors
are most likely to have the capacity to launch our
model internally as a ministry/program of their own.
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They have the funding, the staff leadership, and the
community of volunteers with the right motivations
necessary to sustain the model.
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Number is from The Leadership Network
Christian Community Development Association is a
network of faith-based community development
organizations around the US involved in the
restoration of low-income and broken communities.
We have had several members either launch a
NeighborLink in their community or show interest in
doing so.
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There are currently 300+ members in that network
that could either launch or connect us to others in
their communities who could launch a
NeighborLink .
http://leadnet.org/blog/post-preview/3276

12. USER ACQUISITION
NETWORK MEMBERS
CROWDFUNDING
INDIVIDUAL NEIGHBORLINKS
To date, all new NeighborLink affiliates & nonaffiliates have come to us through word of mouth.
Our target audience with our crowd funding tool is all
nonprofit organizations that are turning to popular
sites such as Indie GoGo and FundMe to facilitate
their individual fundraising goals.
The must-have staff person in each city that launches
a NeighborLink is a vital key to the success of
implementation. Without a passionate and
competent leader building relationships with project
and volunteer sources, NeighborLink isn’t
sustainable. The work we do to vet the leadership of
each new NeighborLink before we launch their
website is what makes us so successful.
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Major faith-related, community development, and
volunteerism conferences will be a large part of our
strategy to roll out the NeighborLink model
nationally.
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We want to license our platform to them for a 1-time
upfront cost and a yearly maintenance fee rather than
the per transaction cost many comparable crowd
funding platforms use.
WE RELY HEAVILY ON THE FOLLOWING:
SOCIAL MEDIA
DIGITAL STORYTELLING THROUGH VIDEO PRODUCTION
LOCAL RELATIONSHIP BUILDING WITH PROJECT & VOLUNTEER SOURCES
PR CAMPAIGNS - LOCAL & NATIONAL
WORD OF MOUTH
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Volunteerism is driven by social influences just like
anything else. We target large (1,500+ members)
churches early and often as our main driving
partners. Once users are online, we have
communication tools and notifications that allow
users to influence their peers to engage with them.
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The more projects that get done, the more that get
posted as word spreads of this resource throughout
a community.

13. BUSINESS MODEL
NETWORK MEMBERS
AFFILIATES
Our aim with affiliates is to give them the tool for
only the cost of getting a new site up and going
with our developer. We want to give the model
freely to those being called by God to start the
model as it was intended in their community.
$500 startup cost
$500 year in fees
NON-AFFILIATES
Non-affiliates usually want to embrace 85% of our
model as it is and we want to honor their vision by
allowing them to do things differently and
customizing their website. They pay for their
autonomy & for their own edits using our web
developer.
$1,500 startup cost
$1,000 - crowdfunding tool
Edits - Estimated at time of launch
$500 year in fees
CROWDFUNDING
INDIVIDUAL NEIGHBORLINKS
We’re not exactly sure what we’ll charge for our
crowd funding tool yet. Early conversations
with local Fort Wayne nonprofits are telling us
that a $2,000 upfront cost and $500 yearly in
licensing fees is a good place to start.
Each affiliate or non-affiliate is responsible for
their own operational funding. Traditional
forms of nonprofit funding such as grants,
fundraisers, and private donations are the
bulk of funding.
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The crowd funding tool for each of our
locations has proven to be a major success
when it comes to funding projects. This will
only continue to increase and make the case
to our operational funders that we need more
to do more behind the scenes to boost
engagement.

14. ACCOMPLISHMENTS
First Website Launched in Fort Wayne, IN
Spent the first few years building a base of core volunteers
who routinely did 50-100 projects a year for the first 5 years.
2008
Completely Rebuilt Web Platform
We rebuilt from the ground up to better prepare for the
future and to keep up with the demands on our local
organizations and the growth of the Network. We were
at 5 NLs at this point.
2009
2003
2013
2010
2014
User Tools & Mobile App
We worked with a community development organization in St. Louis
who loved our model, but challenged us to think beyond its current
boundaries.
Updated our look to better tell the NeighborLink story & make the website
easier to navigate. We launched the 2nd NeighborLink in Porter County &
began understanding what it took to grow outward.
We went from 262 - 494 - 725 - 935 completed projects in
Fort Wayne with only one staff member, which proved to us
that our model of leveraging technology works. We also
added Network members in Evansville, Owensborro,
Philadelphia, Liberty County in Georgia.
2012
Launched our First Non-Affiliate in St. Louis
Re-Designed Identity & Launched our First Affiliate
in Porter County, IN
935 Completed Projects in FW &
4 New Network Members Added
We have a long list of user experience tools to build. Tool
sharing, small communities, event planning, etc. We also
see the need to explore mobile even further than we’ve done
so far.
Developing Platform #3 & NL Indianapolis
Our users and the pace of technology development are pushing us to rebuild
our platform again in order to serve the Network. It’s going to allow us to do
much greater things in the years to come. We also launched in Indianapolis,
the largest city to use our model exactly how we intended it to be.

15. what we need & why
$25,000
Consultants
We know we have a good thing
going here, but it could always be
better. We need smart, focused, and
experienced business and tech
minds to really explore our model
with us. Learn where we’ve been,
what we’re doing, and to analyze
our vision for NeighborLink’s future.
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We Always Have a Need
for These Volunteers:
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Software developers
Front-end designers
Graphic designers
Mobile developers
Creative storytellers
This amount keeps our team and process the
same as it is now, but allows us to get there a
WHOLE lot faster. We grind out every last dollar
and favor to stay true to the vision of making this
one of the easiest ways to find meaningful
service opportunities.
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How Funds Will Be Used:
• Hire freelance front-end & back-end
developers
• Hire our mobile app developer to get it
implemented into IOS & help get it to our NonAffiliates faster.
• Packaging of our crowd funding tool as a
stand alone product & go to market with it.
• Re-development of the Network Website
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Impact:
• Reduced development time by 9-12 months
• A complete web platform will help us bring in
new Network members, quicker.
• We can begin to generate income off crowd
funding tool that can sustain web
development needs.
$90,000
We have a vision to produce enough web
development work to hire a full-time
software developer and a team of creative
freelancers. We’re 10 years in and just
getting started. Our website is what makes
this all work, and we’re not going to realize
its full potential without a web developer
coming on staff.
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How Funds Will Be Used:
• Hire missionally-minded software
developer
• Budget for graphic design
• Budget for freelance front-end developer
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Impact:
• Constant website improvements & feature
rollout
• Faster tech support for the website &
Network
$200,000
At this level it gives us the opportunity to
hire the additional staff members to drive
the sales and service component of
launching the Network nationally at scale.
We could go from 10 - 100 cities much
quicker.
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How Funds Will Be Used:
• To Do everything else plus:
• Hire inside sales person
• Hire tech support & training staff
• Budget for travel & implementation needs
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Impact:
• Gives us the ability to have a team
dedicated solely to the development &
implementation of our web-based model
without the distractions of running a local
Affiliate as well.

16. CONTACT US
NeighborLinkNetwork.org
Andrew Hoffman - andrew@nlfw.org
260.710.7611