Volunteer for free, is it possible?

Question

Can anyone tell me of a volunteering organisation that doesnt require you to pay to work with them?

The ones Ive read about all require you to PAY!! can you believe that? I only have my time to give, not money.

If you can help that would be great, thanx.

Answer 1

What area are you in? I know you can do some good in YMCAs, churchs, local schools. Got any retirment centers or rec. centers? Those are usually great spots, too.

Answer 2

some would really require you to pay or to bring out your money for your own personal expenses.. the organization may not have enough to support you completely.. im sure there are some that can support you enough.. so goodluck.. keep that sense of volunteerism burning in your heart..

Answer 3

You can volunteer locally for free.

But if you want to go overseas as a volunteer and not pay, you need to have expertise that is needed in the area, the ability to work in at least two languages, and the flexibility to commit to at least one year overseas.

Here is a web site that can help you learn more about the skills and experience desired by long-term volunteer placement organizations, or organizations that don't charge volunteers but require volunteers to be highly-skilled, and how you can start to gain such experience locally, wherever you are now.

http://www.coyotecommunications.com/volu...

There is a listing of the more-than-30 member organizations of the International Volunteers Program Association (IVPA) that is a good place to find reputable volunteer-for-a-fee programs -- programs where you don't need to have much experience in order to participate, and the placements are just for a few weeks or months:

http://www.volunteerinternational.org/

It's completely reasonable for organizations to charge unskilled people for volunteering overseas, for to charge people who only want to spend a few weeks in an assignment. The goal of organizations working in poor countries is to give the local people jobs and to keep money local, not to give Westerners a feel-good vacation/experience -- hence why short-term placement agencies (in contrast to the aforementioned) charge unskilled volunteers a fee, or require these volunteers to pay their own way (flights, in-country transportation, health insurance, accommodation, food, security, translators, training, staff to create the service opportunities and then to supervise and support the volunteers in their service, liaisons with the police and local officials, etc.).