Idealist Scraper

Scrape Idealist.org — the world's largest directory of volunteer opportunities, nonprofit jobs, internships, events, and mission-driven organizations. Search by keyword, cause area, location, organization type, and remote/on-site/hybrid, or look up specific listings by ID or URL. HTTP-only, no login, no API key, no cookies.

What this actor does

• Two modes: search (keyword + filters across all listing types) and byIds (exact lookup by listing ID or URL)
• 5 listing types in one actor: volunteer opportunities, nonprofit jobs, internships, events, and organizations
• Rich filters: cause area, skill/role focus, organization type, work location (on-site/remote/hybrid), country, U.S. state, "can be done in a day", experience level, job type, education required, sort by best match or newest
• Full listing detail: description, cause areas, skills, salary (jobs), event dates, organization mission and stats
• Empty fields are omitted — every record only contains fields Idealist actually returned

Output per listing

• listingId — Idealist's unique listing ID
• listingType — Volunteer Opportunity / Nonprofit Job / Internship / Event / Organization
• title, description, actionText (short volunteer summary), mission (organizations)
• language — content language of the listing (e.g. en, es)
• isAnonymous — true if the poster chose to hide their identity (volunteer opportunities, jobs, internships)
• organizationId, organizationName, organizationType, organizationUrl
• city, state, stateName, country, countryName
• locationType (On-site / Remote / Hybrid), isRemote, remoteZone
• latitude, longitude
• causeAreas[] — cause/issue areas (e.g. Education, Environment & Sustainability)
• categories[] — skills / focus keywords
• postedAt — ISO 8601 timestamp
• Volunteer-opportunity fields: canBeDoneInADay, welcomesGroups, welcomesFamilies, trainingProvided, stipendProvided, academicCreditAvailable, housingAvailable, welcomes[]
• Job fields: isFullTime, jobTypes[], professionalLevel, educationRequired, salaryMinimum, salaryMaximum, salaryPeriod, salaryCurrency
• Internship fields: payment
• Event fields: eventStartDate, eventEndDate, eventStartTime, eventEndTime, eventTimezone, eventStartsLocal, eventEndsLocal
• Organization fields: isHiring, isSeekingVolunteers, hasUpcomingEvents
• imageUrl, logoUrl
• sourceUrl — canonical Idealist listing/organization URL
• recordType: "listing", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search / byIds
searchQuery	string	education	Free-text keyword, skill, or interest (mode=search)
listingType	string	VOLOP	Volunteer Opportunity / Nonprofit Job / Internship / Event / Organization / Any (mode=search)
orgType	string	–	Nonprofit / Government / Corporation / Consultant / Community Group / Recruiter (mode=search)
locationType	string	–	On-site / Remote / Hybrid (mode=search)
areaOfFocus	string	–	Cause area, e.g. Education, Environment & Sustainability (mode=search)
skill	string	–	Skill / role focus, e.g. Fundraising, Program Management, Social Media (mode=search)
country	string	–	Restrict to a specific country (mode=search)
usState	string	–	Restrict to a specific U.S. state (mode=search)
canBeDoneInADay	boolean	false	Only volunteer opportunities completable in a single day (mode=search)
professionalLevel	string	–	Experience level: Entry Level / Professional / Managerial / Director / Executive (mode=search, jobs)
jobType	string	–	Full-time / Part-time / Temporary / Contract (mode=search, jobs)
education	string	–	Minimum education required, e.g. High School, Four-Year Degree, J.D. (mode=search, jobs)
sortBy	string	relevance	relevance (best match) / newest
listingIds	array	–	Listing IDs or full listing URLs (mode=byIds)
maxItems	int	30	Hard cap on emitted records (1–1000)

Example: education volunteer opportunities

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "education",
  "listingType": "VOLOP",
  "maxItems": 30
}

Example: remote nonprofit jobs in the environment sector

{
  "mode": "search",
  "listingType": "JOB",
  "locationType": "REMOTE",
  "areaOfFocus": "ENVIRONMENT",
  "sortBy": "newest",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: volunteer opportunities you can do in a day, near New York

{
  "mode": "search",
  "listingType": "VOLOP",
  "usState": "NY",
  "canBeDoneInADay": true,
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: entry-level, full-time nonprofit jobs requiring a bachelor's degree

{
  "mode": "search",
  "listingType": "JOB",
  "professionalLevel": "ENTRY_LEVEL",
  "jobType": "FULL_TIME",
  "education": "FOUR_YEAR_DEGREE",
  "skill": "FUNDRAISING",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: look up specific listings by URL

{
  "mode": "byIds",
  "listingIds": [
    "https://www.idealist.org/en/volunteer-opportunity/596b2f716d22498a94825ed15387d6e6-educational-support-volunteer-asovida-asociacion-de-amor-vida-y-salud-ong-antigua-guatemala"
  ]
}

Use cases

• Corporate social responsibility teams — source volunteer opportunities for employee engagement programs
• Nonprofit recruiters — monitor competing nonprofit job postings by cause area or region
• Career sites & aggregators — enrich a social-impact job board with Idealist listings
• Researchers & journalists — analyze trends in nonprofit hiring, cause-area demand, or remote-work adoption in the social sector
• Volunteer-matching platforms — cross-reference opportunities against Idealist's live listing set
• Students & job seekers — bulk-export internships and entry-level nonprofit roles matching specific criteria

FAQ

What data source does this actor use? It queries idealist.org's own public listing search directly, the same data shown on the site's search pages. No login or API key is required.

Is this affiliated with Idealist.org? No — this is an independent, third-party actor that reads Idealist's publicly accessible listing data. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Idealist.org.

What's the difference between the listing types? VOLOP (Volunteer Opportunity) and EVENT are unpaid; JOB and INTERNSHIP may be paid or unpaid depending on the posting; ORG returns organization profiles rather than individual postings.

Why do some records have fewer fields than others? Only fields the source organization actually filled in are included — a listing without a specified salary simply omits the salary fields rather than showing an empty value. Field sets also differ by listingType (e.g. only jobs have salaryMinimum).

How many results can I get per search? Idealist's listing search returns at most 1000 results for any single query/filter combination — this is a limit of the underlying search index, not of this actor. Narrow your searchQuery or filters (cause area, location, organization type) to reach more specific results within that limit.

How fresh is the data? Every run queries Idealist live — there is no caching. Sort by newest to see the most recently posted listings first.

Can I filter to remote-only listings worldwide? Yes — set locationType to Remote without setting country or usState to see remote listings from any location.

Does canBeDoneInADay apply to jobs and internships? No, it's a volunteer-opportunity-specific attribute. It's silently ignored for other listing types.