A six-year caregiving gap
still includes leadership, planning, and problem-solving.
The front door isn’t the only door.
Real skills deserve a real opportunity.
Side Door Network connects overlooked talent with meaningful nonprofit projects, then turns the work into evidence employers can trust.
Cedar Rapids pilot Designed to scale wherever talent is being missed.
What paper showsCareer gapOld credentialUnconventional path
What the work provesProject deliveredSkills verifiedReference earned
Ability that is hard to see on paper becomes experience that is hard to ignore.
Why Side Door
Talent gets missed when hiring only looks at paper.
Credentials can be useful. They’re simply not the whole story. Side Door creates a credible way for capability to become visible.
Interactive demo
Watch overlooked ability become visible.
Choose a real-world profile. We’ll show the full path from hiring barrier to credible proof.
PaperAbilityProjectEvidence
What a hiring filter sees
Returning project manager
Six years away from paid work while raising children
Application status: easy to overlook
Step 1 of 4
Sample people, organizations, and results are illustrative.
The model
Three steps. One stronger story.
Map real ability
Build a practical picture of what you know, what you’ve done, and where you want to go.
Do work that matters
Get matched to a scoped project inside a nonprofit that needs your skills.
Leave with proof
Turn completed work into recent experience, verified skills, portfolio evidence, and a reference.
Shared value
One placement. Three kinds of progress.
People gain opportunity.
Recent work, confidence, evidence, and references.
Nonprofits gain capacity.
Skilled help on projects that move the mission forward.
Employers gain signal.
Candidates backed by current, observable work.
Sample projects
Real work, not simulated exercises.
Every placement begins with useful deliverables and ends with documented evidence.
Illustrative project
Volunteer operations system
Project coordination · Airtable · Documentation
Evidence: completed deliverable + supervisor verification
Illustrative project
Donor analytics dashboard
Excel · Power BI · Data cleanup
Evidence: completed deliverable + supervisor verification
Illustrative project
Community website refresh
WordPress · Accessibility · Content
Evidence: completed deliverable + supervisor verification
Start with ability
Your story is bigger than a résumé.
Find the project that lets your work speak for itself.