Local Heroes: Volunteering at Home

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Volunteering Databases

VolunteerMatch is a good starting point to help you decide where to volunteer locally. Allows you to look up volunteer opportunities by zip code, interest, and duration with an extensive listing of environmentally-oriented tasks (www.volunteermatch.org).

Do Something provides a volunteer database that allows searches for environmental opportunities by zip code, a useful FAQ, connections and ideas to start your own projects, and opportunities for small grants. Also contains an “old person” section for teachers and parents (www.dosomething.org).

Idealist.org includes an extensive volunteer database, connections to local nonprofits, financial aid information, internships, and a kids and teens page (www.idealist.org).

Volunteer Programs

Heifer International offers opportunities to learn about sustainable agriculture first hand at three Learning Centers in California, Arkansas and Massachusetts as well as education-oriented community outreach volunteer programs across the nation (www.heifer.org).

Living Lands and Waters accepts volunteers and has paid positions for cleanups along the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. See also their Adopt-a-River Mile program that gets local groups involved in cleaning the Mississippi and Illinois rivers (www.livinglandsandwaters.org).

Sierra Club, the oldest and largest environmental organization in the US, offers members opportunities to volunteer in public education campaigns, cleanups, and other activities through their local newsletters. For information on how to volunteer, see www.sierraclub.org/101.

Another way to look for volunteer opportunities or job opportunities is to contact the state association of nonprofits in the area you are interested in working in. This also gives you a chance to verify that these organizations are legitimate, and the state association will be able to give you this information about any organization in its database. For help, see these organizations:
National Council of Non-Profit Associations, ncna.org
Idealist.org’s non-profit FAQ, nonprofits.org

And remember that volunteering isn’t just about padding a resume or a college application. “It’s important for young people to be involved now, and not just as training for when they’re older,” Lublin says, adding, “Young people are not just leaders of tomorrow, they are the leaders of today.”

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