Volunteerism Fulfills Community,
Individual Needs

Last Updated: June 20, 2024

Experiment with civic volunteerism until you find something you love. Unless you came to this page because you were assigned to community service by a court or because you were required to do service learning for high school or college, you should be giving away your time and your skills for a cause that brings you joy.

You can make your own community better, and a multitude of worthwhile causes deserve your attention. So choose one you like.

Many people like to work with individual adults and children.  That's splendid work and much needed, but on this website, we are all about people in community, so that's what you will find here.

Neighborhood associations and communities rely on volunteerism to meet critical needs. If you are engaged in community improvement work in a neighborhood, consider whether teams of unpaid folks can perform the many tasks you would like to assign an executive director, if only you had the money to hire one.

Best of all from the point of view of the potential volunteer, helping a nonprofit, community organization, or government can meet a host of personal development needs.

These include advancing your job search, giving senior citizen volunteers something challenging to do, getting anyone out of the house, providing a way to meet new friends or even potential dates and mates, and broadening your perspective by exposing you to people, places, and things that are foreign to your everyday experience. 

Volunteering to help your community could add to or enhance your job skill base. For instance, neighborhood and community groups constantly need social media help, writing, event organizing, and fund raising. Many of the more sophisticated neighborhoods need marketing skills as well.

So get busy.  Helping groups do their best work provides some real life satisfaction that is difficult to achieve otherwise.  Often you can see the results of the work that you help organize or perform right away, but progress of your neighborhood over time can bring you so much unexpected joy. 

Questions to Ask Before Deciding Where to Serve

Before you start surfing online, making phone calls, and visiting actual work sites to follow up on your interest in volunteerism, consider which you like best:

• Manual labor with visible results
• Working with people (and if so, whether and how soon results must be apparent)
• Collaborating with others to bring about social or economic change
• A low-stress, low-thinking activity where simply your presence makes a difference
• Opportunities to express your values and beliefs through volunteerism
  

A second category of consideration is what group, geographic area, or virtual territory you want to consider your community. Is it closer to:

• Your geographic area (define the limits)
• Your school or school district
• An interest or hobby group
• Your political affiliation or a group that works toward a cause you believe in
• A particular age group you enjoy, such as elderly or children

Be as certain of your motivation as possible. Are you considering this commitment or specific one-time project because:

• Someone has made you feel that "should" do this
• You want to build your resume, chances of university admission, or financial aid for higher education
• You want to boost your ego
• You enjoy serving other people, even when it isn't always pleasant and you aren't always appreciated
• You're bored and need something to do
• You want to meet potential friends or dates
• You would like to claim experience in a new type of endeavor
• You want to experiment with a new role or identity
• You just care about your neighborhood and you are mature enough to recognize that "someone has to do it."

It's also worthwhile to evaluate honestly your capabilities:

• Can you give reasonable amounts of time to volunteerism? Would your volunteering be regular or periodic, and is that compatible with the needs of the sponsor? Can you be reliable for a charity or do you need the option of making last-minute decisions? Do you travel often?
• What are your physical or energy limitations?
• Are there certain kinds of situations that cause you so much emotional distress you would be ineffective?
• Must your surroundings be pleasant? If so, what are the prospects that you will have a calm and happy environment?
• Can you cope with grouchy volunteers, unhappy clients, or overworked leaders?
• Do you want donate money to the place where you serve? If not, or you can't afford it, will that be awkward?
• Are you good at the types of projects you will be taking on?
• Do the hours, days, location, and any clothing or preparation requirements fit into your lifestyle? If not, are you sure you are willing to change your routine?
• Is it possible to do some of your volunteer work remotely? Will the sponsoring organization give you that flexibility?
• If you are under 21, is there an age requirement? Pick up your phone and check it out. I just don't want you to be discouraged from ever trying community service again if someone puts you down. Many places allow and encourage young people to help out, so there's no need to be upset about those that don't.

Your local United Way, YMCA, library, neighborhood organization, city hall, or place of worship may be able to give you more than enough ideas from which to choose. Radio and TV station websites often feature opportunities too. Join a Facebook group for your neighborhood, or follow a neighborhood leader on X, formerly Twitter. Check out who is posting Instagramphotos of your neighborhood.

If you don't see something really interesting, think of a local organization that you admire. Call them, ask them if they can use your services, and if they aren't able to use your energies, perhaps they know a related cause that could.

Or perhaps you can be their first unpaid helper. You're a good candidate if your schedule is reliable, health and transportation are good, you have a sound education at least at the high school level, you can look people in the eye and say something appropriate, and you've stayed out of trouble and done some worthwhile things in your life.

Although you may not think of working in community organizations or neighborhood associations as volunteer work, commitments to such organizations indeed count as volunteering.  Poke around further on this website if you think becoming more active in such a group might be for you. If needed, you could organize a block unit,  start a neighborhood association, or if you have some relevant background, start a community development corporation.

Online Civic Volunteerism Listings

Or if you do everything on-line, just search among a number of great national and international listings on-line, including:

• Community Built Association, particularly appropriate for this site, as they match professionals and community people to transform the physical environment (page loads slowly),
• Hands On Connect, a huge international volunteerism program of the Points of Light Institute, which has more than 70,000 corporate, non-profit, and faith-based partners in 16 nations (does not seem relevant to community work at first sight, but stay with it),
• VolunteerMatch, a major site,
• idealist.org (which includes many other resources for cause-oriented people such as folks attracted to this site),
• Volunteer World, an attractive site where our international readers who need help should post their volunteer opportunity, and where our visitors who want to serve internationally can search for opportunities
  
• the International Volunteer HQ showing opportunities in Asia, Africa, Central and South America, Mexico, the South Pacific, and Europe
• Two U.S. governmental listings are a site that compiles natural and cultural resource opportunities , and the umbrella agency for AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps VISTA, and Senior Corps, Corporation for National and Community Service.

Some of the Many Pages Relevant to Finding a Community Volunteer Slot

Neighborhood Associations

Senior Citizen Volunteers

Start a Community Garden

How to Fight City Hall

1. Making and Keeping a Good Community
 ›
2. Community Organizations
 › Community-Oriented Volunteering

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