What are some great volunteer organizations?

Question

What are some great volunteer organizations?

Answer 1

I think The Peace Corps is most well-known, particularly for students headed to college like yourself.

But really, there are many community organizations that you could be involved in without having to sign years of your life away. Find something that matches your interests and/or would relate to the career path you want to take, and go for it. :-)

Answer 2

That depends on what you want to do.

I was a Field Supervisor and a First Call Team Leader in the American Red Cross - Disaster Action Team in Orange County California and in Long Beach California, respectively.  I really enjoyed getting up any time of day or night and going out to help people who were burned out of their apartments or houses or set up a reception center shelter for residents evacuated for a police incident or an industrial accident.  I could use "DR forms" to put people into a motel room, feed them at local restaurants, buy them emergency clothing etc all free to them so they would have a place to stay for the night, and the local Chapter would then take care of their needs for the upcoming week(s) if needed.  But, of course, Red Cross did not pay for our uniforms, gasoline costs, and unless mobilized for a disaster under their DSHR system, we had to buy our own meals.  It was somewhat expensive being a Red Cross volunteer, and we had regular training classes to qualify for our area of interest, but it was fun and really great people volunteer to help people.

I performed trail maintenance in the Cleveland National Forest with Sierra Club in Riverside and Orange Counties of California for a decade.

I restored natural habitat with The Nature Conservancy.

I helped build new homes for very poor people with Habitat For Humanity.

I assisted with the homeless in Clark County Nevada with an organization called Straight From The Streets.

Now I am involved with political organizing and Democracy advocacy through Green Party of the United States.  I am still a life member of Pacific Southwest Railway Museum and a life member of Orange Empire Railway Museum, where we member-volunteers restore, operate, and docent the public with regard to historic railroad equipment in live operation.

I would bet that if you chose a topic that interests you, and "google it" under the name and then organization, such as, if you were interested in fund-raising for museums or the arts, you could write in the search engine "museum fund-raising organizations" or "arts fund-raising organization" and I bet you would see a list of names.  You could also write in your city or location name with the search term.

Good luck!

Answer 3

It depends on what you are looking for, as well as your criteria for what makes an organization "great".

A great volunteer organization, from the volunteer point of view, makes the volunteer feel valued and supported, and the volunteer knows exactly what is expected of him and her. From an outsider's point of view, a great volunteer organization can easily show that it makes a real difference in the community and that volunteers play an essential role in that.

I have loved volunteering for Pro-Choice organizations, for Knowbility.org, for www.tfn.org, for TechSoup.org, and for the Aid Workers Network (www.aidworkers.net), among many others.

If you are looking for a volunteering opportunity and you are in the USA:

VolunteerMatch, http://www.volunteermatch.org

Idealist, http://www.idealist.org

Change.org, http://www.change.org

CraigsList, http://www.craigslist.com

Network for Good, http://www.networkforgood.org

http://www.1-800-volunteer.org/

ServeNet, http://servenet.org/

Also, contact your local volunteer center; you can find this via the Points of Light Foundation web site,

http://www.pointsoflight.org/centers/

Answer 4

Relay For Life. It's a cancer organization.