Sign up NOW to volunteer during the holidays
11:25, 6 November 2009
.. Posted in Volunteerism and Volunteer Management.. Link
The scramble is already underway for individuals and groups to find volunteering opportunities for the holidays, and it will get more intense with each day as we get closer to the holidays. If you aren't starting right now to find volunteering activities for the holidays, you probably won't find any once Thanksgiving, Christmas, or whatever holiday it is you want to spend volunteering rolls around. Many nonprofits are already turning people away who want to volunteer during the holidays. Some soup kitchens have volunteers reserving to serve food on Thanksgiving six months or even a year in advance!
Start looking now if you want to volunteer during the holidays. In the USA, you have a plethora of online places to choose from:
- VolunteerMatch
- Idealist/Action Without Borders
- Change.org
- ServeNet
- Network For Good
- 1-800-Volunteer.org
- Do Something
- Volunteer Solutions
- Serve.gov
- arrange to do a blood donation drive with the American Red Cross at your workplace, community of faith, civic group, sports facility, or central site in your neighborhood (note that you can't arrange for them to come tomorrow; give them plenty of notice).
- arrange to do a canned food drive to benefit your nearest food pantry at your workplace, community of faith, civic group, sports facility, or central site in your neighborhood.
- arrange to have a book drive for the local library at your workplace, community of faith, civic group, sports facility, or central site in your neighborhood (however, call the library first, to make sure they accept book donations, and make sure donors understand that their books will probably be sold and the money used to benefit the library, rather than their books becoming a part of the collection)
- contact local nonprofit organizations in your area (stopping by in person is better than calling) and find out what activities you, as an individual, or the group you represent, might be able to do (paint a room? put together book shelves for an on-site library? clean up the exterior and do light yard work at a site?). Be prepared to pay for all items (paint, brushes, tools, shelves, furniture, etc.) yourself or to use your own materials -- nonprofits don't have the budget to pay for those items for your one-day, feel good holiday volunteering experience.
- contact your local chapter of the Salvation Army, Meals on Wheels and the United Way, as well as any hospice organizations or AIDS services organizations in your area, to see if they need food deliverers near or during the holidays.
- Like to sing? Get a group together to serenade volunteers serving food at the local homeless shelter, or people coming in to pick up deliveries for Meals on Wheels, or volunteers at a Habitat for Humanity site. Get permission from the associated nonprofit well in advance -- do NOT just show up. And take no for an answer -- if you are going to be in the way, or your going to delay work too much, your offer may be turned down. You can, ofcourse, also look for opportunities to sing for recipients of service (people in hospice care, people receiving meals at home, etc.) but, again, get permission from the associated nonprofit well in advance -- do NOT just show up.
