What kind of places need volunteers

With more volunteers and more volunteer opportunities than any other service, VolunteerMatch is how good people and good causes get connected. Make your corporate volunteering count. We connect companies of all sizes with real-time, community-sourced volunteer opportunities. Learn more. We're partnering with MemberHub on research to give you, volunteers, and other nonprofits insights into the current state of fundraising and volunteering. It just takes 8 minutes to drive more impact for your nonprofit and the other , nonprofits we serve.

JustServe makes signing up for volunteer work a breeze. Once you find an opportunity, sign up for an account on the website and show up at the event when the day comes. Type in the location of your choice to view opportunities. Then, filter the events by age group, volunteer skills, and your own interests. JustServe not only displays one-time events, but it'll show you ongoing opportunities as well. If you ever volunteered, you've probably heard of United Way. This nonprofit organization specializes in giving back to the community, especially in education, healthcare, and fundraising.

United Way connects you with a wide range of opportunities that involve supporting children, gardening, construction, therapy, disaster services, and even working at a food bank.

The huge variety of work makes it simple to use your preexisting skills to help your community. When you search for opportunities, you'll find that United Way in your area sponsors most events. To get involved in volunteer work overseas, make sure to contact your local United Way.

Do Something empowers young people to get involved in their community and fight for social change. The entire organization helped register over , new voters in and even cleaned up a total of 3.

Do Something's movements directly affect the community and make an immediate difference. You don't have to live in a specific area to get involved in its events. Most movements ask you to do your part to help the cause and guide you on how to do so. For example, some events might ask you to clean up litter around you, while others instruct you to collect food for the needy.

Do you have a knack for construction or have an interest in learning about interior design? In either case, you should definitely check out the opportunities at Habitat for Humanity. This organization specializes in building houses for underprivileged people across the United States and around the world. When you search for opportunities, Habitat for Humanity lists its offices in your area. From here, you can select the branch closest to you and sign up for any current or future activities.

On the other hand, you can also search for global opportunities , enabling you to build shelters around the world. Check with yours for details about outdoor volunteering opportunities in your neck of the woods. Most sizable municipalities have at least one centrally located community center. Bigger cities typically have many community centers, some of which — such as youth centers and senior centers — may focus on specific audiences or types of programming.

The multilocation Chicago Youth Centers invite volunteers to:. Visit your local community center or municipal website to learn about volunteer opportunities in your area. You can contribute your time and skills to faith-adjacent projects that align with your values or service priorities regardless of whether you regularly attend worship services for a particular tradition.

Faith groups of all types routinely support or direct local, national, and global charitable activities. The best way to participate in a long-distance disaster relief effort without doing a lot of the organizational grunt work yourself may well involve hitching your efforts to a church, synagogue, or mosque spearheading such an effort.

Every congregation has different priorities, and many smaller houses of worship lack the resources to post all the charitable work they do online. Public funding and user fees only go so far for state and federal park systems.

Their volunteers provide sorely needed maintenance and programming support. Beyond the physical and mental health benefits of volunteering in the great outdoors, park volunteers may have financial incentives to participate. The National Park Service, for example, issues free interagency Volunteer Passes to volunteers who amass more than service hours. Visit Volunteer. Check your official state park system website or state volunteer portal to find opportunities at state-managed parks.

Independently operated and publicly run animal shelters and adoption centers abound, but quality varies widely, with abuse rampant at sketchier facilities. In-shelter volunteer opportunities are often physically demanding — think cleaning cages, carrying litter, and hoisting animals. You may be required to commit to minimum service terms and workloads; the Animal Humane Society requires volunteers to work one two- to four-hour shift per week for one year, for instance.

Food and housing insecurity are facts of life in high-cost urban areas and economically depressed rural areas alike. For example, the Atlanta Community Food Bank invites volunteers to:.

We see horrifying images of natural and human-caused devastation every day on the news and social media. Untrained, unorganized volunteers can do more harm than good in hard-hit areas. Still, opportunities abound.