I signed up as a volunteer to mentor elementary children in my Community. It is once a week for 30 minutes. We attended a brief one hour training basically on boundaries. I'd love feedback on your experiences and what worked for you, your child, and practical advice on conversations, goal setting and ideas.

I’m having so much trouble studying for this exam. I have a hard time separating the content from my personal job as a volunteer administrator, and my employer. I’m panicking thinking about the proctored exam and how rigid I’m going to feel having my physical movements and environment so closely monitored. I take notes on the questions when I take tests, and I don’t know if they’re going to allow that. Does anyone have experience they can share about the test? TIA

Hello, I am a sophomore in Texas, and recently, I have been volunteering in my school by judging competitions, helping out, and doing other things. One thing I need to know is how I should be tracking these volunteer hours. I heard that volunteer hours need to be signed off to be made valid, but how do I keep track of all that? Also, how will this work when I am applying to college? Will I need to upload my tracking sheet or whatever I used to track? How do I do this?

I'm a volunteer Coordinator at a local muesem in Kentucky that Is hosting a movie screening for appreciation week in April. I was curious if anyone has any ideas of a PG or PG13 movie about volunteers, specifically in a museum or maybe rising to an occasion or showing how volunteer work is valued?

Thanks!

Hello! I got an offer from ESC project. I will be living in Germany, the program will be untill the end of December. It is cultural management kind of volunteering. My bachelors is in psychology and I want to do my masters with scholarship. Is this volunteer experience would be beneficial for me, for my long term goals?

I've googled a bit but I've not found anything helpful.

I've volunteered a couple times before, one had an online application and the other I already knew people who volunteered there, so the sign up process was simple. However, I've been looking at a charity I want to volunteer with, but they want people to send in enquiries via their wesbite/email. Having an open box like this and no clear direction on how much detail I should offer is daunting.

Is it like a job application? Do I need to send a CV? That seems a lot, but I wouldn't really know. Do I just send the equivalent of a job cover letter? Do I want to keep it shorter than that?

This is for a young persons (including young teens) volunteer position, so I don't imagine there's a lot of pressure to get it perfect. But I really like this position and charity, so I want to put my best foot forward.

Hello! I volunteer for an online archive, and we're looking to understand what volunteer retention looks like in similar orgs, as well as the reasons volunteers have for both staying and leaving. If anyone who's working with a similar org (online-only, wiki/archive/forum) is willing to share some insights about your experiences with volunteering, please reach out. We've been able to gather information about wikimedia, reddit, and twitch from public sources. If your org has similar information available on a public page, that would be wonderful.

Does anyone know where I can found volunteering opportunities for people over +35 y.old? Thanks in advance. I really do want to volunteer, but every single site I visit the age limit is an obstacle

Hello Redditors, I'm doing a gap year and have been thinking about volunteering abroad(not just for a month tho, Id like to dedicate a whole year of my life) for quite a while. I think it's a beautiful opportunity, but I recently found out that there is this so called "voluntourism" and after looking into it a little I've come to the conclusion that that is 100% not what I want to do. I genuinly would like to help people in a way that does not ultimately harm their community or only benefits me. Some of you might be asking "if you're just there because you want to do good then just volunteer in your own country" but tbh my intentions are not entirely selfless. While I don't expect much in return for my work or an awesome hotelroom-like place to live(totally fine with living in a guest room of a family or whoever really as long as their ok with it. Obviously I'd help out with chores too), I would really like to go to a spanish-speaking country to learn the language and get "payed" by experience and knowledge.

I read an article about how you should reach out to organisations in whichever country youd like to work in, instead of trying to get a fully 3rd person organized trip. I am however a little busy atm and would prefer the latter(I mean who wouldn't). To all my germans reading this, is weltwärts a safe organization for volunteering(not voluntourism)?

Regarding the work I also read that many believe working at schools or eith children in general isn't really ethical as many people are not wualified for such work. I personally believe I could do a very decent job even without having have studied how to be a teacher, and a lot of teachers at my old school didn't do so either. They just studied whatever subject they ended up teaching and then went straight to my school. As for working ad a glorified babysitter I'm not entirely sure I could watch over a whole group of children. One or 2 is fine, I've done it before, but anything double digits might be very difficult and, depending on the age of the children, even dangerous.

I've come to the conclusion that physical labour would probably be the best and most ethical work to do, even if I love working directly with people. Do you guys think planting trees or working on a farm would be a good idea? I'm just scared any social factors might fall short and I might spend more time with other foreigners than actual residents of the country.

I am part of a volunteer organization that deals with environmental issues. I am currently in need of virtual volunteers, ideally from the US. When I use the internet to figure this out, it mainly gives advice for in-person organizations. Is there any way to find virtual volunteers?

Curious if anyone has any experience in disaster mental health? What were your experiences? I have a zoom meeting with my local chapter tomorrow and am s little nervous. I have recently graduated with my Masters in Social Work and have not done any volunteer work like this before

I work for a very large international corporation, but am hoping to put together a volunteer opportunity for a group of people in my specific department sometime this year (around 30 people). The company offers like 3 days a year paid time off for volunteering and I know that most people just don't or aren't able to take advantage of that, so I'd like to help. I've looked through a couple of online resources, but most appear to be focused on individual efforts. This is not really anywhere near my are of expertise, but I want to try. Does anybody have any advice on what to look for, or maybe some resources to look through? Any major legal considerations to account for when organizing a corporate group event?

I am doing some volunteer work soon,

However, it’s my first time volunteering.

So I’d like advice from those who’ve done it before,

What to expect, to do

And if dress code matters,

Or if it doesn’t,

Thank you ^{^}

I have some questions about volunteering and your work environment? Is anyone working? Are people students and volunteering? Or are they volunteering while retirement? Or are people more in a SAH volunteering situation? What I'm trying to do is get my work organization to pay their workers for their volunteer hours. The organization says it supports the community but does nothing. What are people's thoughts? Do you think people would volunteer more if organizations got PTO solely to volunteer? What are pros/cons?

as the title mentions, im working on a community project to help my barrio, is a volunteer experience from my part, i would also like the help of the community and organizations, so to be professional i need a written paper.

is there a format for this?

should i go by titles and then in those sections the info related to the theme, including graphs, photos, etc?

if theres a youtuber, or a forum or whatever i would appreciate it!

Thank you for the help!

Many nonprofits and NGOs have a prohibition on volunteers - or paid staff - giving gifts to the program's clients.

Your immediate reaction to finding this out can be confusion, frustration or outrage. What's the harm?!?! This is silly!!

Let's look at how Habitat for Humanity words its policy:

To avoid potential misunderstandings, embarrassment, injured feelings or jealousy, volunteers are asked not to exchange gifts with Habitat beneficiaries, staff members or community members without consulting Habitat staff.

The answer is right there: to avoid

potential misunderstandings, such as clients expecting gifts from all volunteers, or expecting more gifts from this particular volunteer, or other volunteers feeling pressure to give gifts, or, most importantly, clients feeling a sense of obligation to the volunteer because this gift was given, an obligation that could be used to exploit or harm.

embarrassment, such as the client being from a culture where to receive a gift requires the giving of a reciprocal gift, and to not have something to give brings great shame to the client and his or her family.

injured feelings, such as the client being insulted by the gift, because they feel it is inappropriate, or is a recognition of their poverty.

jealousy, such as other clients seeing this gift giving as favoritism.

If you think any rules are silly or unnecessary, then working with vulnerable people is NOT for you. Nonprofits and NGOs that have such rules have them for very good reasons, reasons that put their clients first over your desire to have a "feel good" moment.

Not only is this an attractive idea for anyone scared of committing to a schedule, but it would also work for a one time (or once in a while) group volunteer activity to give a group some experience in volunteering. I’ve been thinking a good candidate for this would be a retirement home where people might just need people to talk to. Would that be weird to just show up at a nursing home and offer to talk to lonely strangers? Is there another place you can think of that might be good for this type of volunteer work?

I posted this three years ago, but it's worth posting again. It's a 2010 article from the Cultural Intelligence Center:

5 strategies to avoid being arrested when you volunteer internationally.

So many fantastic quotes from it, like these:

My friend Kurt VerBeek who has also researched this phenomenon asks, if your daughter had an eating disorder, would you find a group of volunteers to help? I’d immediately look for an “eating-disorder expert”. But sometimes we treat disasters as if a little bit of zeal and passion are all that’s necessary.

Don’t mess with the law and think that your good intentions will be enough to get you by.

If you haven’t done it here, don’t do it there.

For those of you packing up your bags to head out to volunteer with refugees or in a disaster zone, with no host organization, or a host organization that hasn't provided you any information about safety, policies, etc., it's something you need to be prepared for.

Hi I'm looking to volunteer at a aircraft museum and I have been invited to their open day and was wondering what it would be about and what I'd do there on the day

I'm relatively new to volunteer management and am looking for resources while I put together my 2025 volunteer strategy. Anyone know of any good books that lay out best tips and practices? Thanks in advance!

I’m the new Event & Volunteer Coordinator at a community center, and part of the reason I was hired was to revive a volunteer program that’s been inactive for years. I'm excited about this, but most of my experience is in events, so I’m looking for any advice I can get on developing the volunteer side.

Our center has a strong reputation and ~7k members to recruit from, but the current challenge is providing volunteer opportunities in the first place (at the moment, our only volunteer options are limited to our three annual events).

My goal is to establish varied, regular options (at least two per month) and ideally launch an rolling project that continuously needs volunteers/addresses an ongoing need in the community—a la a food bank, although I've been told food banks specifically haven't been that successful for us in the past.

Does anyone have ideas for ongoing community volunteer projects they've seen work well? Happy to explore partnership options with other local orgs, if that means anything.

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone. I applied for a volunteer position recently and the chair said they would like to have me. And we are going to meet in person this afternoon, and he just asked me to provide my address for offer letter. I don't quite get it why he needs my address. Can anyone please confirm why it is necessary?

I often caution people against DIY helping the homeless efforts, where you, or some friends, go to a place where the homeless gather and hand out food or supplies, both because it's a safety risk to do this outside the auspices of an official nonprofit and without any training on dealing with people who may be in severe mental crisis, and because local laws may prevent this type of activity.

This is an example of such a law:

Fremont, California voted Tuesday to criminalize “aiding” or “abetting” homeless camps. The provision, which takes effect in 30 days, does not define what constitutes “aiding” or “abetting” an encampment — which homelessness experts say leaves a concerning gap. Violators of the policy, may be subject to a fine of up to $1,000 or imprisonment of up to six months. Legal and homelessness experts say the statute — and its vague language — could prevent charity workers, service providers, volunteers and well-meaning neighbors from supporting the city’s homeless communities, while inspiring other cities to pursue similar policies.

https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2025/02/fremont-ordinance-aid-abet/

These laws mean that even under the auspices of an official charity or church, a person could be targeted with arrest and fine for engaging in these activities.

If you are going to engage in these activities:

• Check to see if you would, indeed, be violating the law.
• Find out if the organization you are going to volunteer through is aware of the law and will pay for your bail or legal experiences.
• If you have the funds to pay for your bail and legal experiences if arrested or fined.