Tips and Tricks for Businesses on Match My Project

Are you a supplier or local company keen to support your local community?

The Match My Project platform is an online marketplace where community organisations and groups can ask for help for their projects from our supply chain. Local companies can also post their jobs and free resources on the platform.

Here are some things to think about when using Match My Project:

When signing up for an account, DO:

  • Sign up with accurate information about your organisation
  • Wait for an email to set up your password and access your account, once the contracting authority has accepted your registration.
  • Add colleagues to your account as additional users. 
  • Check the Directory for community projects that you can match to.
  • Post your own resources for Community Organisations to request – especially if there aren’t any community projects that meet your requirements.

When reviewing a project and matching, DO: 

  • Check information that is relevant to the project, for example, does it require a DBS check if working on site? If the building is leased, are the relevant permissions in place to undertake any work? etc.
  • Verify internally that your organisation can meet the specific requirements mentioned before matching
  • Contact the Community Organisation about their requirements before making an offer to support their project.
    • Ensure that you’re both aligned on the project scope and outcomes (e.g. do they need to see copies of insurance? Names of staff working on the project? Etc). Make sure that you’re happy to go ahead with them as a project partner. 
  • Once a match is made, communicate clearly with the community organisation about timelines and expectations 
  • Be prepared to make a site visit if necessary
  • Ensure that each party agrees and understands its responsibilities and all necessary steps for delivery of the project.
  • Maintain open and honest communication with the community organisation at all times. This will help build long-term relationships.

After completing the Project, DO:

  • Update the project status by leaving feedback. This will mark the project as ‘completed’ and your feedback for the community organisation will be visible to others on the platform. This helps maintain transparency and improves the platform experience for everyone.

The Benefits of Match My Project are: 

  • Place-based Social Value/Impact
  • Builds and strengthens cross-sector relationships
  • An additional tool to access opportunities to deliver Social Value / CSR 
  • Free and easy to use for businesses and organisations 
  • Enhances collaboration between the private and public sector
  • Case Studies and impact can be reported
  • Captures underutilised social value resources/ opportunities
  • Free advertising through social media. 
  • Aids effective contract management 
  • Targeted Social Value delivery to local communities with asks in real-time.
  • Produces qualitative tangible results 
  • Businesses can post offers – work opportunities/ venue hire/ old digital devices
  • Is Agnostic so can be used alongside other Social Value monitoring tools to evidence Social Value delivery.

Helpful videos: