Guides

The screens inside PinchHitterPool are kept short on purpose. This page is the long version — everything the buttons don't say. One account holds exactly one role: a Service Provider (a person who volunteers, works for pay, or interns) or an Opportunity Provider (an organization or household that recruits, hires, or offers internships).

Five lanes, ten doors, one join screen

The home page shows five lanes. Each has two doors: the side that needs the work done (opens an Opportunity Provider account) and the side that will do it (opens a Service Provider account). All ten doors lead to the same join screen, which reads your choice back and asks only whether you are new or already a member. Your choice carries through sign-in into setup.

Lane	I need it done (organization)	I'll do it (person)
Volunteer & Community Service	I need volunteers — you'll set up your organization and post the volunteer hours you need covered.	I want to volunteer — you'll be listed as a volunteer and can claim hours with organizations near you.
Skilled Projects & Side Hustles	I need skilled help — you'll set up your organization and post the skilled work you need done.	I offer skills — you'll be listed for paid skilled work at the rates you set.
Local Work & Quick Help	I need local help — you'll set up your household or business and post the local help you need.	I want local work — you'll be listed for paid work close to home — shifts, setup and errands.
Global Workforce / Response Pool	Search the pool — you'll search the pool of verified people across every lane.	Join the pool — you'll be listed in the pool so organizations across every lane can find you.
Internships & Early Careers	I'm offering an internship — you'll set up your organization and post an internship — paid, stipend or unpaid, stated up front.	I want an internship — you'll be listed as an intern candidate — you never pay a job fee.

Inside the portal a person's lanes are simply Volunteer, Paid side hustle (skilled work or local help) and Internship — turn on any mix from “My workspace”.

Joining and signing in

Where sign-in happens: on a secure Microsoft page. Use an account you already have — Microsoft, Google or Apple — or an email address with a password (stored by Microsoft, never by PinchHitterPool). PinchHitterPool never sees or holds a password.
New here: press Create my account. After you sign in, a short setup completes your account in the role you chose.
Already a member: press Sign in with the same account you joined with — if you used Apple with Hide My Email, keep using the Apple button.
One email, one account, one role. Signing in through a different provider on the same email reconnects you to your existing account instead of creating a second one. There is no role switch; the wrong door means signing out and starting again, or using another email.
Why nothing shows before you sign in: the portal is gated. Postings and people are visible only to signed-in members, only validated profiles are discoverable, and nothing is published to search engines. Availability varies by location — PinchHitterPool doesn't promise opportunities in any area; inviting people you know is how a local pool grows.

As a person — what happens after you sign in

Volunteers, side-hustlers, skilled professionals, local workers and interns.

Sign in — about a minute.
Your skills & area — the lanes you're open to (Volunteer, Paid side hustle, Internship), up to 5 approved keywords, a 200-character About, and where and when you can work: up to five postal codes, on-site, remote or hybrid, your weekly availability, and for paid work your rate. Deep detail stays on your linked profiles (LinkedIn, Upwork, your website) — PinchHitterPool doesn't host résumés.
Verify — a $1 card check, or where it is offered a $3 government-ID check; or a paid subscriber who knows you vouches for you. Connect LinkedIn as your public-profile proof. Details under Verification.
You're listed — organizations can find you, and you can claim hours on volunteer postings or apply to paid work and internships.

Your dashboard

Your lanes, what is coming up, offers and applications waiting for an answer, anything that needs attention (a lane not chosen, a profile hidden from the pool, no skills or area yet), and your service record — verified hours by lane and your current milestone.

The rest of your portal

Discover finds work · Applications, Offers, Placements track paid work and internships · My schedule lists the hours you've claimed · My workspace holds lanes, skills, rates and availability · Verification shows which checks you've passed · References lets you ask people who know you.

Privacy option: you can show a public alias instead of your real name; search then matches only the alias.

As an organization or household — what happens after you sign in

Businesses, nonprofits, schools, agencies, faith groups, event teams, and households.

Sign in — about a minute.
Your organization — name, type and where it is; a household works too. One account owns one organization; invite collaborators from Settings.
Verify — Google Business Profile for organizations (connect the Google account that manages the listing, or submit the listing's public link for a two-business-day review); a household verifies through its owner.
Post your first need — volunteers, skilled help, local help or an internship. From the “Search the pool” door you land on the pool of verified people instead.

Four doors

Opportunities — every posting, and the only place a new one is created · People — everyone you've worked with, applicants and invitations, with Find people and Invite someone as actions · My organization — details and verification · Billing. Collaborators, incidents, fees and account settings live under Settings.

Your dashboard

What needs you (claims waiting for approval, drafts nobody can see yet, offers waiting for an answer, verification), this week's coverage, your people (current, upcoming and recent), and the service you've received — hours by lane and how many people.

An organization's name must match its verified Google Business Profile — organizations cannot use an alias. Every change by a collaborator is tracked in the activity log.

Verification — what every member needs

1. Sign-in and a verified phone

Microsoft, Google or Apple, or email and password — done the moment you join. Then confirm your phone number by text message; it stays private.

2. A real-person proof — the ID check, or LinkedIn with the $1 card

$1 card validation (together with LinkedIn): a one-time charge on a real card through Stripe — proof of a real person with a real payment method; we keep the name on the card and the billing country, state and postal code (the “Location verified” badge), never the card number or street. $3 government-ID check (where it is offered): photograph your driver's license, state ID or passport and take a selfie; Stripe checks the document is genuine and that it's you. Stripe keeps the images; we record only the result and show an “ID verified” badge. The ID check is enough on its own — no LinkedIn needed. Neither fee is refunded. Can't afford the card? A paid subscriber who knows you can vouch for you instead (after admin review; up to five people each), alongside LinkedIn. Your profile then says “Validated by a subscribing member”. Aged 13–17? A phone and a parent or legal guardian's validation — the guardian must be a verified member. No LinkedIn, card or ID check.

3. Organizations and households

Organizations verify their Google Business Profile — by connecting the Google account that manages it, or by submitting the public listing link for a two-business-day review — and the owner needs a verified phone. Only someone signed in with an email at the organization's own website domain can create or verify an organization; a personal email address uses the household path instead. Households verify through their owner: phone, a checked home address, and the ID check or LinkedIn with the $1 card.

Every member confirms a phone number by text message. It stays encrypted, is shown only to paid subscribers and the platform admin, and is never public.
There is no score and no star rating. A public profile shows each check as verified or not verified on its own. None of them is a background check — PinchHitterPool does not run background checks; both parties do their own final checks.
Only validated profiles are discoverable. Unverified profiles stay private until verification completes.
Outside Stripe's countries, manual payment verification via Google Pay or another vendor is the other route (admin-approved; SoftTelRG LLC reviews every request for compliance with U.S. laws and sanctions).
In limited cases a PinchHitterPool reviewer records a card-level or ID-level result by hand — for example where Stripe is not available, or where the reviewer personally examined a document. The member's verification page says it came from a reviewer; other members see the same badge. Nothing is charged, and no referral point is earned.

What “verified” means here — and what it does not

A badge is a report, not a finding of ours. It says that, at that moment, an independent provider (Stripe, Google, LinkedIn or the SMS provider) returned that result, or that a reviewer recorded what they checked. PinchHitterPool keeps the outcome and a reference and nothing else: never the document, its images or numbers, the selfie, or a card number. We cannot see, re-run, or second-guess the provider's process, and a result is not a promise that it stays true afterwards.
It is not a background check. Not a criminal-record check, credit check, employment or tenant screen, licence check, or a consumer report under the U.S. Fair Credit Reporting Act or any similar law. An organization that wants a background check arranges it from a provider licensed to run one; a PinchHitterPool badge is never a substitute and never a basis for an employment, credit, insurance or housing decision.
It says nothing about intentions. A badge is not an endorsement or guarantee of anyone's identity beyond the check named, or of their character, honesty, skills, safety or future conduct. Both sides make their own decisions and do their own final checks.
Deception is on the person who deceives. Anyone who obtains a badge with a false, altered, stolen or borrowed document, card, account or number, or by impersonating someone, is responsible for that and for its consequences to the people who relied on it; the account is suspended and the finding recorded. PinchHitterPool can withdraw a badge at any time it believes was obtained improperly or has become inaccurate.
Fees buy the attempt. A verification fee covers the provider's work whether or not the check passes and is not refunded. Stripe's page and the card statement show SoftTelRG LLC, the operator of PinchHitterPool. Full text: Terms of Service, section 4 and Privacy Policy, section 4.

Postings, days & hours, and the day-of roster

Creating a posting: from the Opportunities page only. A posting carries a title, lane (volunteer, paid work or internship), pay for paid work (rate or amount, or negotiable), where (on-site, remote or hybrid, with a postal code) and when.
Manage: opening a posting shows its details first, then the actions — Publish, Cancel, Update days & hours.
Days & hours live inside the posting: fixed hours (weekly, monthly or picked dates — Outlook-style recurring) or a flexible need (“any day in this range, N hours needed”), each with how many people are needed per hour.
Sign-up modes: approve (you confirm each claim), open (people join instantly), or invite-only (only people you invited see it). Approve claims one by one or all at once. Reminders go out in-app and by email 24 hours and 2 hours before.
Day-of roster: inside Manage, mark each person Present or Not here and confirm their hours; for paid work confirm the agreed amount at close-out — the job fee goes on your monthly statement. Verified hours unlock certificates.
Late cancellations and no-shows: a cancellation inside 12 hours, or not turning up, is recorded on both parties' permanent records with a severity.
Youth-safe postings: a posting can allow 13+ with guardian consent; those claims are never auto-confirmed.

What it costs — who pays what

Workers, volunteers and interns never pay to work — no job fee, no credit, no commission, ever.
Volunteers: free. Organizations bring on 5 volunteers free every 30 days; $10 per cycle for up to 10, $70 for up to 100; more via support. A started cycle is non-refundable; an unused one is refundable.
Paid work: the organization pays a flat job fee at close-out — $2 minimum, 2% above that, never more than $9 however large the job; first paid hire free; billed once a month. Never a percentage of anyone's earnings.
Internships: hiring an unpaid or stipend intern is free; a paid internship carries the job fee. Reference letter $3, paid by the organization (included with the job fee on a paid internship).
Engagement certificates for volunteer work: $1, paid by the organization, never the volunteer.
Verification: a one-time $1 card validation, or where it is offered a $3 government-ID check; or a paid subscriber's vouch at no cost.
Subscriptions are optional: $3/month for an individual, $12/month for an organization. Subscribe only if and while it is worth it to you. Full page: Pricing.

Internships — paid, stipend or unpaid, stated up front

Offered by organizations only — never a household or an individual. Every posting states paid, stipend or unpaid before anyone applies.
For an unpaid or stipend internship the organization declares that it complies with the internship and labor laws where it takes place; PinchHitterPool shows the declaration, does not verify it, and does not provide legal advice.
Interns never pay a job fee. Hiring an unpaid or stipend intern is free for the organization; a paid internship follows the paid-job rules.
At the end the organization confirms the hours and can issue an internship reference letter ($3 on an unpaid or stipend internship, included with the job fee on a paid one) with verified hours, dates, its note and logo, and a public verify link. Internship hours are counted on their own, never mixed with volunteer or paid hours.
For a person, the Internship lane is off unless you turn it on. Full page: Internships.

Referral points

Invite one person at a time — never a list or an upload. When they join and become discoverable (the same checks that decide whether a profile appears in search), you earn 1 point, worth $0.50.
Redeem as credit against your own subscription, or combine into a $100 gift card at 200 points. Gift-card requests are reviewed by hand for now: PinchHitterPool contacts you and arranges the card from a vendor it chooses (for example a Google Play, Apple or Amazon gift card) that takes no fee out of the reward.
PinchHitterPool never collects, sees or stores tax forms, taxpayer numbers or gift-card codes, and does not give tax advice. Rewards are rewards — never income.
Up to 200 invitations a day and 200 outstanding; one pending invitation per email address, released after 72 hours; one point per invited person for the life of the platform; a vouch never earns a point. Being invited creates no account, and every invitation email carries a one-click “don't invite me again” link. Full page: The invite system.

Messaging

Messages between an organization and a member are chosen from a fixed list of short coordination phrases — there is no free-text box anywhere, which keeps the channel safe for both sides. Each side gets 5 messages per job, shown as a running count. Messages are deleted 90 days after the last one in a conversation; anything you need to keep should live outside the thread.

Verified hours, certificates, milestones and reference letters

Hours are confirmed by the organization you worked with, not self-reported, and counted separately by lane — never added together. Public profiles show counts only; organizations are never named.
Volunteer work can earn an engagement certificate ($1, paid by the organization) with organization-verified hours, the organization's note and logo, and a link or QR code anyone can check. Paid work needs no certificate — its record is the verified hours, jobs and milestones on the profile.
Milestone badges mark 10 → 25 → 40 → 100 → 1,000+ hours. Hours can be exported (CSV) and subscribed to as a calendar feed.
If something goes wrong, either side can raise an incident; the other side responds and the outcome is recorded on both histories. Disputes are never public by default. Abuse leads to suspension, never quiet deletion; you can close your own account at any time.

FAQ

Can one account be both a Service Provider and an Opportunity Provider?

No. One email address holds exactly one account and one role. There is no role switch: if you chose the wrong door, sign out and start again from the join screen, or use a different email for the other role.

Why can't I see any postings or people before I sign in?

The portal is gated on purpose. Postings and people are visible only to signed-in members, only validated profiles are discoverable, and nothing is published to search engines — so every profile you see has passed a real check, and every organization that can see you has passed one too.

Which sign-in accounts work?

Microsoft, Google or Apple, or an email address with a password — all on Microsoft's secure sign-in page. PinchHitterPool never sees or holds a password. Sign in with the same account you joined with; if you used Apple with Hide My Email, keep using the Apple button.

What is the difference between the $1 card check and the $3 government-ID check?

The $1 card validation charges a real card once and proves a real person with a real payment method. The $3 government-ID check, where it is offered, has Stripe verify your driver's license, state ID or passport and match a selfie to it; because it is paid by card it counts as the card check too, and it adds an 'ID verified' badge. Stripe keeps the images; PinchHitterPool records only the result. Neither fee is refunded.

I can't afford a verification check. Can I still be discoverable?

Yes. Your legal guardian (a verified adult member (phone plus the ID check, or LinkedIn with the $1 card)) or a paid subscriber who knows you can vouch for you: you get a short code from your Verification page, they enter it. A legal guardian's vouch is live at once; any other subscriber's vouch is reviewed by a platform admin. Each subscriber can vouch for up to five people and may cancel afterwards — your validation stays. Your profile then says 'Validated by a subscribing member'.

Does LinkedIn count as verification?

LinkedIn is a free public-profile proof: it shows a real public profile exists and that you control it. It does not check a document, so it never replaces the $1 or $3 check. If LinkedIn ever exposes its own verified badge to other services, PinchHitterPool may waive the paid check — until then, the paid check is what keeps bots out.

Do workers, volunteers or interns ever pay to work?

No — no job fee, no credit, no commission, ever. The organization that hires pays a flat job fee on paid work: $2 minimum, 2% above that, never more than $9, first paid hire free, billed monthly. Volunteering and internship hiring are free for volunteers and interns.

What does an organization pay?

Posting is free. Up to 5 volunteers are free every 30 days ($10 per cycle for up to 10, $70 for up to 100). Paid hires carry the flat job fee. Volunteer engagement certificates are $1 each, internship reference letters $3 (included with the job fee on a paid internship). The $12/month organization subscription is optional.

Where is a new posting created?

Only from your Opportunities page. Days and hours are added inside the posting, after you open it with Manage: you see the posting's details first, then Publish, Cancel and Update days & hours.

How do referral points work?

Invite one person at a time. When they join and become discoverable you earn 1 point, worth $0.50 — as credit against your own subscription, or combined into a $100 gift card at 200 points. Gift-card requests are reviewed by hand for now and arranged from a vendor PinchHitterPool chooses that takes no fee out of the reward. Rewards are rewards, never income; PinchHitterPool holds no tax forms.

Is there a rating or a trust score?

No. A public profile shows each check as verified or not verified on its own — email, payment method, location, and, where offered, the ID document — plus verified hours by lane, milestones and reference counts. None of it is a background check; PinchHitterPool does not run background checks, and both parties do their own final checks.

Is a verified badge a background check, or a guarantee about the person?

No. A badge records a point-in-time result from an independent provider — Stripe for the card and government-ID checks, Google for a business listing, LinkedIn for a public profile, the SMS provider for a phone — or, in limited cases, a PinchHitterPool reviewer's record of what they checked. PinchHitterPool keeps only the outcome; it never sees the document, the images or any ID or card number, and it cannot re-run or second-guess the provider. A badge is not a background check, criminal-record check or consumer report, and it says nothing about anyone's intentions or future conduct. Both sides do their own final checks and use their own judgment; anyone who obtains a badge by deception is responsible for that, as the Terms set out.

Can I hide my real name?

Service Providers can use a public alias; search then matches only the alias. Organizations cannot — an organization's name must match its verified Google Business Profile.

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