FAQ

The Spinnen-Netz makes professional opportunities visible in the jungle of the non-profit sector and encourages people with idealistic career aspirations to discover meaningful jobs with social impact. We are a network of like-minded people with vast experience in the five impact areas: Development Cooperation & Development Policy, Sustainability & Climate Protection, Flight, Migration & Integration, Intercultural Education & Science, Social Design. The members from the social sciences and humanities either already work in - mostly temporary - positions, are freelancers, or have just graduated. Temporary employment contracts are particularly typical for the non-profit sector, so members can keep up to date on current offers and trends in the spider network - even in parallel to their current employment.

For people who are looking for a (new) job. Most members currently have a job but keep up to date with labor market developments because of the temporary nature of their contract

For people/organizations looking for new staff, who advertise jobs with us or commission us with the direct approach of recruiting suitable personnel.

For freelancers in the broad fields of consulting, coaching, change management, communication and PR, mediation, moderation, social media and training. In our public pool of freelancers, they can be contacted directly by the client.

• Thematically focused job portal: The Spinnen-Netz is a professional and at the same time personal network with a hand-picked job portal. Every day, we compile interesting or (informally) circulating jobs and job inquiries from NGOs, foundations, the public sector and educational institutions and feed it in the job portal for our members.
• Contacts and background knowledge to employer organizations: Members move in a protected space and get in touch with other members who work for one of the job-advertising  organizations. We offer informal background information on vacancies, traineeships, assignments, internships and training, as well as preliminary contacts for applications.
• Exchange in the thematically appropriate network: The network offers exchange formats (Spinn.Bars meet-up’s and workshops) on thematic and methodological trends in the non-profit sector and introduces employers in a meet & greet format.
• Consulting: We provide job-specific experiential knowledge such as information on starting a job, salary negotiations, starting a business, fee structure and contracts in development cooperation, and future perspectives, among others, in our five areas of impact.
• Mentoring: The Spinnen-Netz offers an ongoing mentoring program with more professionally experienced mentors.
• Shared values and mutual trust form the basis of our interactive network.

Here you can register. Briefly mention in the field how you discovered the Spinnen-Netz. Alternatively,   you can ask another spider network member to recommend you via e-mail to info@spinnen-netz.de.

Important: To make sure that the network and you are a good match, check the following aspects for yourself. The professional goals of the members should match one of the five fields of action of the Spinnen-Netz: Development Cooperation, Sustainability & Climate Protection, Migration & Integration, Intercultural Education & Science, Social Design. Important to us is an open-minded, diversity-sensitive attitude.

If you are a member, just send the name and email address of the member you want to recommend to info@spinnen-netz.de with a short addendum why you want to recommend this person.

Freelancers from the fields of consulting, coaching, change management, mediation, moderation, and training can present themselves publicly in our freelancer pool and are thus  directly approachable by potential and new clients. There is a lively exchange among each other - for example at the regular Freelancer Lunches.

If you are a freelancer, you can check the box "I am a freelancer" in "Edit profile data". By doing so, you create a publicly visible profile, so that clients can contact you directly. The public profile is different from the internal spider network profile. If you want to be contacted by clients, you must provide an email and/or homepage!

Networking works when information is shared. On the one hand, for a confidential exchange before applying to an employer for whom someone else has already worked. On the other hand, we can only contact you directly on behalf of employers looking for personnel if your professional experience and skills are presented/viewable in your profile. The profile data can only be viewed in the internal area and will be deleted as soon as a person exits the network.

In different formats, we provide job-specific knowledge and experience, such as information on starting a job, salary negotiations, starting a business, future prospects in our five areas of activity, or fee structure and contracts in development cooperation.

At our Spinn.Bars meet-up’s you can meet other members for open or thematic exchange on topics related to our 5 focus areas of DC, sustainability, flight/migration, science and shaping society. For further development and to facilitate your professional entry, we offer workshops or you can sign up for one of the regular “Success Teams” cycles. Freelancers can exchange ideas on various topics of self-employment at the Freelancer Lunch.

You can search for other members using the member search and the context search. Example: Enter "NGO" and "BONN" as keywords. All profiles of members containing these keywords will be listed. When you click on a profile, you can click on "send private message" at the top beneath the username and write to the member directly. . The member will also be informed by email about the new message.

You can also find all member profiles here.

If you see the icon "Network job”, it means that you can find contact persons among the members or network partners who can tell you more about the employer or the organizational culture or the advertised job; either this network job was posted by a member, because the position is at their own employer, or us in the team have checked for you what connection there is to this employer in our network.

The Spinnen-Netz cooperates with an extensive pool of network partners. Approximately 150 experienced employees - in responsible or leading positions of NGOs and foundations or from the university sector - are available as mentors or with background information about their organizations.

Since the network partners know that they meet a very competent and professionally suitable target group in the Spinnen-Netz, they gladly use the offer of references by our office. Besides, they are also usually readily available   for preliminary or informal information. Here is a list of the organizations represented. Names and emails of the network partners can be requested from the office.

A 50 percent reduction in contributions is currently envisaged for the following forms of co-activity. This is done by waiving the second half of the membership fee, usually after review by the office.

1. Mentoring: members with several years of professional experience can accompany younger members as mentors when they start their careers.
2. Co-impacting by taking over certain co-impacting packages according to agreement: Co-activity & organization of new and regular Spinn.Bars or regular involvement in the editing of the job portal or other website areas.
3. Attracting new members: Recruit new members: A successful referral of 1 paying member to the Spinnen-Netz must be actively reported to the office via email in order to receive the discount.

Further forms of cooperation options and opportunities can be requested from the office.

• Have your job offers posted with us: Mail to info@spinnen-netz.de  with your job offer in Word format and acceptance of the cost concept.

• Criteria: the job offer should fit our five areas of activity - i.e., be broadly located in the charitable, non-profit or scientific area.

• In addition, they should fit the content orientation of the Spinnen-Netz.

• Members can also submit job offers from their own organizations.

Forgotten your password? Just click  here to receive a new one. It will be sent to you automatically within seconds.

Still login problems or forgotten password?

1. Click at the top on "Forgot your password?

2. Please enter your EMAIL ADDRESS or USERNAME and let us send you a unique login link automatically.

3. Then an automated email will come to the email address you entered with your username and a LINK, which you have to click on. Please click on "register".

4. Now you come to your profile, and you can enter a NEW PASSWORD 2x in the provided fields AND SAVE IT AT THE BOTTOM.

5. Next log in at the top: with the USERNAME that was given to you in the email and enter your new password by hand.

Important: If the email address or username is lost, please send an email to info@spinnen-netz.de with a request for registration data (check if these are the new procedures, otherwise just take the first line above for now).

If you want to change your profile data or upload a photo, you can do this after logging in at the top of the navigation bar in the "Profile" item. Under "Edit user data", you can upload your photo. Please upload something more personal than a standard, formal job application photo - only the members have access to it! Do not forget to save.  Still experiencing problems? Possibly, the picture file is too large or too small. If it still doesn't work, please email us at info@spinnen-netz.de.

Questions and comments at any time by mail to info@spinnen-netz.de or by phone +49 (0)228-18035150.New e-mail from technical support: support@spinnen-netz.de

The fastest way to contact us is via info@spinnen-netz.de or Mon, Wed, Thu and Fri (current office hours can be found under Contact).

Cancellation is possible up to 14 days before the end of each year. The cancellation period is therefore December 17, and the cancellation becomes effective on December 31 of the year of cancellation. Please send it in writing,  by email with your member’s name, to info@spinnen-netz.de with the subject "Cancellation". However, annual dues are valid until December 31 of the current year and will not be refunded on a pro-rated basis. Your data on the website and in our account management will be deleted at the end of the year (only if you explicitly tell us to do so, we will remove it earlier). In justified, exceptional cases you can suspend your membership. The fee for the dormant membership is 20 € per calendar year.