So, you’ve decided it’s time to start volunteering your free time. Congratulations to you. Not only will you get the great feeling that comes from helping others, but volunteering also looks great on scholarship applications and job resumes. Now the only question left is: where do you start? It can be kind of overwhelming. If you’re a member of a local church or synagogue, you may want to check out volunteer opportunities here. Religious organizations often organize groups to help feed the hungry or clothe the homeless – and it’s usually done in your local area, which is nice. If you can’t seem to find a good match through a religious organization (or, if you’re not affiliated with one), there are websites that do a pretty good job of matching you up with a charity.
Here are a few you can check out:
Serve.gov – Serve.gov is a fairly new government initiative in place to help volunteers find opportunities in their local area. What’s unique about Serve.gov is that you can add an opportunity and recruit people in your local area. That means that if you see a need that isn’t being addressed, like the cleanup of a local park, you can add it and potentially find others to help you perform the task.
Charity Navigator – Charity Navigator isn’t exactly a volunteer match up service, but if the two mentioned above don’t work for you, you can always use it to find a charity that is worthy of your valuable time. Charity Navigator grades charities based on their actions and how they spend their money. For example, if an organization only spends 5 percent of the money they get from donations to help others, they would get a very low score (probably one star). On the other hand, charities that spend most of their funds on the cause get a high score (probably four stars). This site is also good to check out a charity you’ve found on Serve.gov or Volunteer Match.
No comments:
Post a Comment