Guidance - Journal

What’s New and What’s Coming

Smarter Tools for Businesses and VCFSEs

At Match My Project, we continually evolve the platform to better support the connections between businesses and VCFSEs. Recent updates, and exciting new features launching soon, aim to make it easier to collaborate, communicate, and track your impact.

Here’s a round-up of what’s live now and what’s on the way, all designed to help you get the most out of Match My Project.

✅ What’s Live Now

1. Clearer Text Fields
Visible character limits have been added to textboxes across the platform to help keep project descriptions and other content focused and easy to understand. This helps ensure clarity for both businesses and VCFSEs during the matching and communication process.

2. More Insightful Signup Data
Additional questions during the sign-up process give us a better understanding of each user’s background and connections. This helps local authorities better map engagement and improves the relevance of matches between businesses and VCFSEs.

3. Save Filters to Save Time
You can now save your favourite filters in both the Directory and Projects pages, making it easier to return to the criteria that matter most to you. Whether you’re a business looking for a specific type of VCFSE project or a VCFSE seeking support in your area, this feature significantly speeds up the process.

🔜 What’s Coming Soon

1. Easier Location Search
Instead of selecting from checkboxes, users will be able to search for locations by name, making it quicker and more intuitive to find relevant projects and organisations.

2. Seamless Login Journey
A more integrated login experience and improved messaging will help both new and existing users access the platform more easily and with greater confidence.

3. Enhanced Directory Tools
We’re introducing improvements to help you keep track of opportunities more effectively:

Flag new and oldest projects in the Directory
Display location information clearly on VCFSE project cards

4. Smoother Matching Experience
To avoid disruption and frustration, we’re introducing changes that:

Prevent VCFSE projects from expiring when they’re under offer
Discourage organisations from sitting on offers indefinitely

This will ensure better communication and faster progression of meaningful collaborations.

5. Improved Communications Tools
Soon, users will be able to:

Include a reason when declining a match request
Authorities will be able to request edits to approved projects
Authorities will be able to resend account creation emails when needed
Supplier will receive clearer guidance on how businesses can manage their offers

6. Enhanced Feedback and Impact Tracking
To better showcase outcomes and support ongoing collaboration:

Businesses will be able to input and verify project data
Completion dates will be recorded at the point of match
Automatic reminders will prompt users to update progress
Projects will remain editable longer than the current 3-month window, allowing more accurate impact reporting.

💬 Final Thoughts

Each of these updates reflects our commitment to strengthening relationships between businesses and VCFSEs, making it easier to collaborate and drive real community impact.

Have questions or ideas to share? We’d love to hear from you:
📩 support@matchmyproject.org

The data download includes information from the activity that happens on an authority’s Match My Project site.

It can be downloaded by Authority Admin and Standard users from the ‘Data download’ subsection of the Account page, accessed from the sidebar.

Structure

This table shows how the data download is laid out. A breakdown of each tab follows below.

Section	Tab names
Overview	1. Overview
Users	2. Users_Community 3. Users_Supplier
Match type 1: Community initiated projects	4. Projects 5. Shortlisted projects 6. Project offers
Match type 2: Supplier in-kind support offers	7. Supplier resource offers 8. Supplier offer requests
Match type 3: Jobs & training opportunities	9. Jobs & training 10. Employment referrals 11. Training referrals 12. Work placement referrals

Section by section breakdown

Section 1: Overview

🗂️ Overview tab

A summary of the activity that has taken place on your site, showing aggregated data for key metrics, for each quarter of the past year and all time.

Section 2: Users

🗂️ Users_Community tab

Contact data, organisation data and login data for each user.

This is created during signup and edited in their Profile. The ‘Created’ and ‘Updated’ columns show when the user was created and when they last updated their details.

🗂️ Users_Supplier tab

As above – Contact data, organisation data and login data for each supplier or business user.

Section 3: Community initiated projects

Three tabs contain data on projects posted by community organisations: Projects, Shortlisted projects, and Project offers.

🗂️ Projects tab

Contains information about projects that community users entered into the ‘Add a Project’ form. For projects that have been matched and beyond, it shows the match date, completed date and feedback.

Here’s a breakdown of the project stages shown in the ‘Status’ column:

Status	Description
Submitted	Awaiting review by the authority
Edits requested	The authority has asked the organisation to edit their project
Awaiting supplier	The project is live in the directory
Supplier offered to complete	The project is under offer, but is still in the directory as the community organisation hasn’t responded to the offer yet
In progress	A match has been made and the project is no longer in the directory
Completed	Both organisations have given feedback

🗂️ Shortlisted projects tab

Shows where suppliers have added community initiated projects to their shortlist of potential projects to support, indicating their interest in completing a project.

Includes the project name, email addresses of the users involved, and the date the project was shortlisted.

🗂️ Project offers tab

A log of all offers sent by supplier users – to complete community initiated projects.

Includes the status of the offer (whether it was accepted/declined) and the date that the offer was sent.

Section 4: Supplier in-kind support offers

There are two tabs related to offers of in-kind support posted by suppliers: Supplier resource offers and Support offer requests.

🗂️ Supplier resource offers tab

Shows the details entered by suppliers submitting an in-kind support offer on the ‘In-kind support offer’ form and the offer status. For offers that have been matched and beyond, it shows the match date, completed date and feedback.

Here’s a breakdown of the labels in the ‘Status’ column:

Status	Description
Submitted	Awaiting review by the authority
Edits requested	The authority has asked the organisation to edit their offer
Awaiting community organisation	The offer is live in the directory
Community organisation has requested the resources on offer	The project is under offer, but is still in the directory as the supplier hasn’t responded to the offer yet
In progress	A match has been made and the project is no longer in the directory
Completed	Both organisations have given feedback

🗂️ Support offer requests tab

A log of all requests made by community organisations, on in-kind support offers. All the information entered on the request form is shown in this tab, including the outcomes of how the community organisation plans to use the resources.

The status of the request is shown in the ‘Status’ column and the date that the request was sent is in the ‘Created’ column.

Section 5: Jobs and training opportunities

🗂️ Jobs & training tab

Contains all the data submitted by supplier on the ‘Employment & training’ offer form when they create a jobs or training opportunity.

You can also track the Status, match and completed dates, number of referrals for each opportunity and status of those referrals.

🗂️ Employment referrals tab, Training referrals tab & Work placement referrals tab

A log of the candidates referred to each opportunity type and when the referral was made.

Thanks for using Match My Project!

Special appreciation goes out to everyone who takes the time to share feedback 🙏

Send your thoughts over to support@matchmyproject.org.

The data download has recently been updated! In this article you’ll find details of the latest changes. For a general overview of the download and how to navigate the tabs, see this guide.

These changes include some upgraded metrics and bring the download in line with the site as a whole, reflecting recent improvements.

1. See more detail about community and supplier users

New columns in the Users_Community and Users_Supplier tabs now include all the information from the sign-up form:

✅ How they heard about Match My Project.

✅ The information to establish any pre-existing relationships with your organisation such as a recent contract, if community organisations have recently received funding from you or recognised funders and if they are a member of the local community & voluntary sector infrastructure body.

Some other changes include:

✅ New activity data for each user showing the number of logins in the past month and average monthly logins in the past 6 months, replacing the login log tab.

✅ For clarity, Charities Commission and Companies House numbers are in separate columns.

2. Keep tabs on key project and offer data

A few important data points have been added to help you understand your matches better.

✅ The match date and completion date has been added. For community initiated projects, these dates are located in the Projects tab, columns AG-AH. For business initiated in-kind support offers, they’re shown in columns Z and AA of the Supplier resource offers tab.

✅ The supplier’s tag for whether the project counts as Social Value or CSR is now displayed in the Project offers and Supplier resource offers tabs in a column called Social value / CSR.

3. Track jobs and training data

There are new tabs help you keep track of all jobs and training opportunities created by businesses.

✅ Jobs & Training lists all opportunities posted by suppliers and

✅ The Referrals tabs list all referrals made by community organisations to jobs, training and work placement opportunities.

4. See new overview data

The aggregated data has been slightly restructured to be more useful.

✅ In the Overview tab, there’s new ‘all time’ data, additional to quarterly data for the current financial year.

5. View and navigate data with ease

We fixed the extra-wide columns.

✅ The resized, standardised columns are easier to work with, prevent too much scrolling and improve readability.

Thanks for using Match My Project!

Special appreciation goes out to everyone who takes the time to share feedback 🙏

Send your thoughts over to support@matchmyproject.org.

Un-blocker (noun). An intervention to remove a barrier. (According to the Match My Project team at least).

We recently rolled out the first phase of ‘un-blocker’ features, small but crucial tweaks to the way Match My Project works, to help people save time and energy – and ultimately create more matches.

These changes were the ones we saw as levers to create the most value for the greatest number of users. They were largely identified by our user groups (our valued inner-circle authority, business and community organisations) and by analysing the most frequently reported queries received by our help desk.

Follow along for the roadblocks 🚧, solutions ✅ and the results ✨ we hope these changes will unlock for you. As always, let us know if you have any feedback.

Signing up

1. New guidance at signup, for success first time

🚧 New users were signing up for the wrong account type, or signing up twice on behalf of their organisation.

✅ Guidance links are available at signup to help people quickly solve any questions they have about signing up.

✅ At the end of the form, there’s a summary of the next steps, to help new users know what to expect.

✨ The easier signup is, the more organisations available to match and the greater impact can be delivered.

2. We binned Twitter to focus on LinkedIn

🚧 Being asked to add their X account details was (understandably) putting off new users.

✅ Now the only social media account information we collect is your LinkedIn account.

✨ Sometimes a step back is a step forward. Follow us on LinkedIn where we celebrate and share the amazing work being done through Match My Project.

3. Suppliers state their contracts, to speed up approval

🚧 Authorities reported difficulties approving businesses, because sometimes they’d have to talk to different teams to understand if they should be on the platform.

✅ To help the authority understand their current relationship with the business signing up, businesses are now asked if they have a current contract with the authority, and the contract title.

4. Tell us how you found us – to help spread the word!

🚧 Authorities didn’t know how organisations heard about Match My Project, or which channels for promoting it were effective.

✅ Both business and community users are asked how they heard about Match My Project.

✨ This should help authorities to promote Match My Project more effectively to their stakeholders and get more organisations on board.

Logging in

5. New guidance on login, for smoother account access

🚧 Users were getting confused by the login process and trying to login to the wrong authority’s site.

✅ It’s now clearer which site users are logging into, with the authority’s name displayed in the guidance text. There are instructions about what to do if you need to login to a different authority, or access more authorities.

✨ The aim: people login successfully first time.

Adding projects and offers

6. Autosave is here!

🚧 Previously when adding a project or offer, you had to click the ‘Save’ button in order to save it. But this wasn’t clear and sometimes people’s login sessions timed out, meaning their work was lost.

✅ Now once you’ve added your title and description, a draft project or offer is automatically saved in My Projects and can be accessed from the project card.

✨ Saved work = saved time.

7. Clearer project summaries – to speed up matching

🚧 Businesses were getting confused because of how projects were being described, taking them longer to find out if a project was relevant to them.

✅ The project title and description questions have been tweaked and good examples added, to help community organisations describe the projects in the best light!

✨ Suppliers save time & community organisations get more matches.

8. Businesses can make their offers clearer by adding add documents

🚧 It was sometimes difficult for community organisations to understand what was on offer because they weren’t able to see it.

✅ Useful documents such as images and product specs can now be added to offers of in kind support.

✨ Clearer information = time saved.

Profile updates

9. Community users can easily update team members

🚧 Previously community organisations couldn’t manage their team very easily. When team members left, you had to contact the help desk so that someone new could take over the account.

✅ Now, users can easily be added and deleted from the Profile page.

✨ Keep your account more secure.

⚙️ New users are invited by email.

⚙️ If you need to delete someone’s account, their projects can be transferred to an existing user.

Authority updates

10. More flexible sorting and less scrolling

🚧 Previously, authority users could only sort through their applications A-Z or Z-A. This made things difficult you needed to view a category that was in the middle of the list, e.g. ‘Edits requested’.

✅ Now clicking the sort buttons cycles through options where there are more than two categories visible.

✨ Find the information you need more quickly and easily.

11. Authorities can see who’s given feedback

🚧 Previously it wasn’t easy for authorities to know who to nudge, for projects that were taking a long time to complete.

✅ Now authorities can see on the project card which organisation has given feedback. They can also see the details of the feedback on the project page.

✨ More visibility, more impact.

⚙️ Feedback details appear immediately.

12. Authorities can reverse matches that can’t be completed

🚧 Previously this was only available on community-led projects and not in kind support offers, meaning some projects were getting ‘stuck’ where organisations had gone into administration, for example.

✅ Authorities have the ability to ‘reverse match’ all matches. The relevant organisations are alerted by email. If the end date hasn’t passed for the project or offer, it is returned to the directory. If the project or offer has expired, the organisation is alerted to update or remove it.

✨ Up to date projects that are easier to track and manage.

13. All matches included in impact data

🚧 Previously the impact section only included information on community-led projects, not matches initiated by suppliers.

✅ ‘Matches’ has replaced ‘Projects supported’

✨ Stakeholders have a full picture of what’s happening.

14. More data points added to your data download

Stay tuned for a guide on how to make the most of your data download.

👀 Un-blockers round 2 is coming this summer – stay tuned!

💡 Have suggestions for future updates? We’d love to hear them. Email us at support@matchmyproject.com.

We’re excited to roll out three impactful updates that will make managing projects and supplier offers even easier. These new features aim to enhance transparency, streamline user management, and improve visibility of resources. Here’s what’s new:

🔍 Real-Time Feedback Visibility for Authorities
Previously, authorities could only see project feedback once both the community organisation and the supplier had submitted their feedback. This sometimes meant authorities were left in the dark if only one side had responded, creating delays and stalled progress.

The Update:
Now, when either the community organisation or the supplier submits feedback, the authority can see it immediately, even while the project remains “In Progress.”

Here’s how it works:
If either the community organisation or the supplier leaves feedback, the project will still show as “In Progress,” but the card will now display a clear message: “In progress – [Community/Supplier] feedback given.” This allows the authority to see that one side has already provided feedback, even if the other hasn’t. These projects will appear at the top of the “In Progress” list, making it easier for authorities to spot where progress has been made and where action might be needed. The feedback will be fully visible to the authority and can be approved for public view as usual.
This change gives authorities better visibility on project momentum and the opportunity to intervene early if support is needed.

🗂️Community Organisations Can Now Transfer Projects and Delete Users
We know staff and volunteer changes are inevitable, and they shouldn’t disrupt your project delivery.

The Update:

Community-based organisations (CBOs) now have the power to delete users from their accounts and transfer ownership of ongoing projects to another user within the organisation. This ensures continuity of communication and smoother transitions when teams evolve.

📤 Suppliers Can Now Add Documents to Their Offers
Suppliers often want to include more detailed descriptions or visuals, such as flyers, product specs, or images, to give CBOs a clearer picture of the support on offer.

The Update:
The Supplier Offer Form now includes a file upload option. Suppliers can attach documents with the same constraints and layout in the CBO project forms.
Once uploaded, the documents will be viewable and downloadable from all related project info pages.
This feature helps CBOS make more informed decisions when choosing offers that suit their needs.

Why These Updates Matter
At Match My Project, our mission is to create a seamless and transparent platform where community groups, suppliers, and local authorities can collaborate confidently. These new tools support that goal by improving communication, ensuring smooth handovers, and making project offers more informative and engaging.
We’re excited to see how you use these features to drive even more impact in your communities!

💡 Have suggestions for future updates? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at support@matchmyproject.com.

1. Select an authority from the Match My Project homepage.

For more information on choosing an authority to sign up with, see below.

2. From the authority landing page, click ‘Sign up’ in the top right corner

3. You can then choose whether to signup as a community organisation or business / supplier.

4. Complete the Sign Up form. Guidance is available for common queries at the top of the page.

5. The authority will review your registration and you will be notified of their decision. If you are accepted, you will be sent a link to finish creating your account. And once logged in, start matching!

Organisation types

Community organisations are voluntary sector organisations – typically charities, social enterprises, unincorporated associations and schools. They can register to access support from businesses for their social impact projects.

Businesses or suppliers can register to support voluntary sector organisations by donating resources such as expertise, materials and funding. These donations can form part of your Social Value or Corporate Social Responsibility.

Authorities are the organisations behind the scenes, using Match My Project with their suppliers and community partners and collecting the data. Please get in touch for a demo to explore how Match My Project could work for your organisation.

Individuals can sign up to Match My Project to access jobs, training and work placement opportunities offered by businesses.

Which authority should I sign up with?

If you already have an existing relationship with an authority, you can sign up with them. If not, you can choose the right authority for you based on location.

In the North West region:

Stockport and Wigan council just cover their boroughs.

Onward works in Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.

Sanctuary works in Warrington, Liverpool and the Wirral.

To check the exact locations an authority operates in, see the list of locations on that authority’s community organisation signup form.

What if I want to signup to multiple authorities?

To access multiple authorities, you’ll need to complete an initial signup with one authority.

After you’ve logged into your account, you can then apply to other authorities through your profile.

To find out how it works, please see this guide.

Guidance

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:

An Introduction to Match My Project for Community Organisations – MMP intro for Community Orgs
An Introduction to Match My Project for Supply-Chain – MMP intro for Businesses
How to post Job and Training Opportunities to Match My Project (Supply-Chain Partners only) – How to post a job
Top Tips for Suppliers using the platform Top Five Tips for Suppliers – Journal

Here are some things to think about when posting projects and using Match My Project.

When signing up for an account, DO…

Sign up with accurate information about your organisation
Wait for an email to access your account, once the contracting authority has accepted your registration
Remember to look and check at whether there are supplier offers that you can match to, which will help your project without having to make a request

When posting a project, DO…

Include information that is relevant to the project, for example, does it require a DBS check if working on site? If the building is leased, do you have relevant permissions to undertake any work? etc.
Think about if your project adds a social, environmental or economic benefit to our customers, communities or society.
Remember that there are other resources available for projects from our suppliers, including time, materials, advice, training and jobs. This isn’t just about funding
Upload a breakdown when asking for funding – with quotes where possible
Ensure your project has a very clear title and description
Highlight whether communities and residents are already engaged in the project
Highlight if projects are time sensitive. Please then upload with as much notice as possible to increase the likelihood of a match. For example, if you have a Christmas activity, then post the project by the end of October
Remember that the “ideal value” of a project is between £1,000 to £3,000. Larger projects have been matched, but this is rare
Be aware that larger requests are less likely to be matched. So, can they be broken down into smaller separate requests and uploaded in stages?
Remember that your project will appear in the ‘Directory’ for Businesses to view
Get ready to receive offers from businesses to complete your projects and respond promptly
Contact the business about your requirements before accepting the offer to ensure you’re both aligned (do you need to see copies of Insurance? Names of staff working on a project? Key contact details? Etc). Make sure that you’re happy to go ahead with them as a project partner
Ensure that each party agrees and understands its responsibilities
Accept the offer

During project matching, DO…

Get started with the project once you’ve accepted an offer from a business. Reach out to them via the contact details provided
Make sure you keep track of the hours, donations and resources that the business is donating during the project. Verify this information with the business as well
Share feedback once the project has completed. You will be able to see your feedback from the business once you’ve given them feedback
Keep track of your progress using your dashboard

…DON’T

Post a project if you don’t have the relevant permissions or can’t provide evidence for it
Apply if you think it’s purely a way to save on budgets

Additional things to consider

Have you thought about other means of support for your project?
Empower other community groups by encouraging them to register and post their own projects
Please note that there is no guarantee of a match on the platform and we don’t have unlimited resources from suppliers
Once a project is complete, please upload your feedback onto the platform to ensure verification of the project can take place and other groups can see what parties are like to work with
Please note that support and resources are limited. All requests will be assessed, but unfortunately making a request doesn’t guarantee a match

Top Tips based on feedback from businesses using MMP

Make your project title specific and clear!

Scenario 1 (Example taken directly from supplier)

A community organisation is requesting mobile devices, computers and tablets

DON’T put your project title as: “Request for mobile devices, computers and tablets for volunteers”

DO put your title as : “10 tablets for volunteers” (this is more specific)

Scenario 2

A community organisation is requesting books for students

DON’T put your project title as: “Reading books for [Community Organisation]’s student reading programme”

DO put your title as: “15 reading books for students”

Reason: The title of the project provides the supplier with a clear understanding of the request from the outset, which can increase the attraction to the request. This is how you win the supplier over, so be specific and concise.

Upload a breakdown when asking for funding!

If you are asking for an item, for example a printer or desk, then:

DO: include the make and model of the item you need

DO: include a quote where possible or link to the item

DON’T: leave this information out

Reasons: Suppliers need to know the financial impact of the request and what exactly the money is being used for.

This ensures that there is no confusion regarding what the community organisation requires.

Break down projects into smaller projects!

If the financial impact of the project is high, break it down into separate projects with each having a financial request of no more than £2,000.

Using Scenario 1:

DON’T write:

Mobile devices, laptops and tablets needed for Volunteers

10 mobile devices, 10 laptops and 10 tablets needed for volunteers across Cambridgeshire to enable them to connect with others and take notes.

DO write:

Project 1

10 mobile devices

To provide 10 volunteers across Cambridgeshire with a mobile device to enable them to connect with others.

Project 2

10 laptops

To provide 10 volunteers across Cambridgeshire with a laptop to enable them to take notes.

Project 3

10 tablets

To provide 10 volunteers across Cambridgeshire with a digital tablet to enable them to create documents.

Reasons: Breaking down the project will give you a greater chance of being matched as the average value of projects that get matched across the platform is £1,100.

More than one supplier can then meet your individual request as opposed to rejecting the request because the financial impact is too great.

Where possible and if your cash flow allows it, consider paying for the project and invoicing for reimbursement.

How this looks practically: If a supplier accepts a project, consider paying for that project then sending the invoice to the supplier to receive reimbursement.

Reason: Once committed to a project suppliers will likely deliver, however, the nuances around your request may be better served by you. Where this is the case, this approach will benefit both parties. Please ensure that you have this documented and agreed prior to the start of the project.

ADDITIONAL TIPS

Provide as much information as possible, especially the cost to get better results!

Here is a blog about top tips for community organisations.