13 Ideas to Get Volunteers Involved in the Community
There are lots of ways your nonprofit can be part of the community. One of the best ways is through community service. Here are 13 volunteer opportunities for you, your staff, and your volunteers to consider:
- Donate food. Bring food to local food pantries.
- Serve food. Contact a soup kitchen or other food-service organization in your area. Some food banks may need extra volunteers during the holidays; they will need
volunteers throughout the year. - Spread the word. Read to children in schools or daycare centers.
- Lend an ear. If someone in your congregation is unable to volunteer their services at a nursing home or senior center, visit their facility to play cards, eat lunch or just have a conversation with them.
- Be a gardener. Plant flowers and plants in parks and on public land. Contact the department that owns the property and needs help putting it together. Reach out to the
city parks and recreation department to see what they need and encourage people to help out by volunteering. - Build a house for a family in need. Partner with an organization such as Habitat for Humanity to help them build a house for a family that is in need.
- Send care packages to troops serving overseas. When a member of your congregation is deployed, you can adopt the unit. Check out organizations like Operation
Shoebox for ideas on how to pack your holiday packages and get them to where they need to go. - Volunteer to help clean up a local park or clean up a community trail. Find out how your local parks and recreation department can help you.
- Offer to cook a meal for a police department or a fire department. Show appreciation for your local heroes by providing a meal. This will be particularly special if
they are having a special event or if it’s a holiday or if a shift is scheduled to run on the third shift. - Adopt a mile. Adopt a section of a busy highway to clean up. Check your state’s transportation department to find out which sections of the highway are available for
adoption. Then make it a priority to clean up the area. - Throw a birthday party for a child whose family is homeless. Go to a local shelter or volunteer with a local nonprofit organization.
- Visit the homebound. Spend time with those who are immobile. Get a group together by signing up to visit and bring food.
- Plan to host a free community children’s event. This is an opportunity for families from all walks of life to have fun and not have to worry about spending money. Go all out by including games, music, inflatables and other fun things to do.
MyVolunteers is a great tool to help you keep track of your volunteers. And MyVolunteers is part of MyCommunity, which exists to build relationships and tools that equip organizations so that they can maximize their impact. Our suite of tools is designed to help organizations of all sizes focus on their mission without worrying about the logistics. We understand the importance of building strong relationships, so we provide the necessary tools to maximize impact and make a difference like our easy-to-use platforms MyDonors and MyVolunteers. Likewise, MyNonprofitCoach equips nonprofits with the training they need to be successful. Schedule a demo for any of our solutions here.
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Source: https://www.signupgenius.com/nonprofit/volunteer-opportunities-ideas.cfm