The organization was founded 1992 under the name
City Cares. They sought an alternate way of doing volunteering, in contrast to established organizations such as the
Points of Light Foundation and its associated
Voluntary Action Centers. In particular, they sought to focus on attracting younger, more business-focused volunteers by offering a single day of service on a per-month basis. In 2004, City Cares renamed itself to the HandsOn Network. and
SAP investments, as well as several with
nonprofit organizations and volunteer groups. Additional corporate sponsors of HandsOn Network included
Home Depot,
Outback Steakhouse,
Cisco Systems,
Ameriquest,
The Coca-Cola Company,
Corporation for National and Community Service,
W.K. Kellog Foundation,
UnitedHealth Group,
Case Foundation,
Singing for Change, and others. In August 2007, HandsOn Network merged with the Points of Light Foundation to form the
Points of Light Institute, the nation's largest network of organizations skilled at mobilizing volunteers to meet important needs in local communities. and its website redirected to
www.pointsoflight.org/handsonnetwork during much of 2019. Its original website, handsonnetwork.org, no longer works and the Points of Light Foundation page about the network was taken down by the Fall of 2019. The individual volunteer centers under the HandsOn Network, such as HandsOn Atlanta, HandsOn Suburban Chicago, HandsOn Twin Cities (Minnesota), HandsOn San Francisco and HandsOn PDX (for the Portland, Oregon Metro area) remain. ==See also==