This is an index of links to major regional and nationwide sites in the U.S. and Canada that provide updated lists of volunteer opportunities at various different organizations. Many of these are third party volunteer databases (they provide information about other organization's volunteer opportunities). Also included are links to indices of local sites, such as volunteer centers and community networks/freenets.
Before you post volunteer opportunities to any of these online database, make sure you are ready to answer e-mails promptly and place volunteers immediately into your orientation process or an actual opportunity.
List of Volunteer Centers by U.S. State
List of Community Networks and FreeNets in the U.S.
Community Networks and FreeNets often have areas to promote local volunteer/service initiatives, and sometimes work in conjunction with local volunteer centers.
U.S. and Canadian Web Sites Promoting Volunteer Opportunities
Action Without Borders
A well-traveled place to post and find volunteer opportunities, including virtual volunteering opportunities, and for volunteers to post about themselves. Offers many other nonprofit resources as well.Amigos de las Americas
Sponsors volunteers, primarily between the ages of 16 - 25, in public health and environmental projects in Mexico and Central and South America.Amizade
Not-for-profit organization with programs that offer a mix of community service and recreation which provide volunteers the opportunity to participate first hand in the culture of the region. Past projects have included building a vocational training center for street children on the Amazon, building additional rooms onto a health clinic in the Bolivian Andes, and doing historic preservation and environmental cleanup in the Greater Yellowstone Area. Volunteers need no special skills, just a willingness to help.Break Away: the Alternative Break Collection
National non-profit organization based at Vanderbilt University, promoting service on the local, regional, national, and international levels through break-oriented programs which immerse students in often vastly different cultures, heightens social awareness, and advocates life-long social action. Break Away promotes alternative break programs through student training, technical assistance, volunteer placement, and publications.Catholic Network of Volunteer Service
A non-profit organization representing more than 180 domestic and international volunteer programs. Learn about the different opportunities CNVS promotes for these programs through the RESPONSE directory.Give Five
Works raise public awareness about the important role that giving and volunteering play in our communities. You might have seen Give Five public service announcements in the newspaper, on TV, or heard them on the radio. The Web site includes Ten Tips for Volunteers, Selecting an Organization to Help, and general information about volunteerism.Global Service Corps
Provides short-term, long-term and college internship programs in Costa Rica, Thailand, or Kenya. These volunteer programs target three primary project areas: Environment, Health and Education.InterAction: The American Council for Voluntary International Action
Nation's largest coalition of international development, disaster relief and refugee assistance agencies. Members include more than 150 US-based non-profit organizations. InterAction was formed in 1984 from the merger of the American Council of Voluntary Agencies for Foreign Service and Private Agencies in International Development. InterAction offers Global Work , a publication with 98 pages of opportunities with 68 international relief and development agencies in 120 countries, including the United States.Make A Difference Day
Each October, sponsored by USA Weekend. Includes a database of volunteer opportunities for Make A Difference Day each Fall.Netday
Effort by a partnership among volunteers and corporations to wire schools in the U.S.A. to the Internet.Peace Corps
Begun by the Kennedy administration in 1961, the Peace Corps places volunteers from the United States into developing countries to help citizens with education, environment, health, business, agriculture and other projects. Former and returning Peace Corps volunteers can also participate in the new Crisis Corps, providing short-term assistance to countries that have experienced natural disasters or a humanitarian crisis.Service Civil International - USA Branch
Founded in the 1920s, SCI has 33 branches and groups in Europe and Asia, and approximately 5,000 volunteers active in 50 countries. SCI has links with many other organizations, worldwide, and holds consultative status with the United Nations. The US branch web site promotes both short term (two-week) and long term (three to 12 month) assignments.VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America)
Now part of the AmeriCorps national service program, VISTA members take on long-term community-related projects, many of them technology focused, and receive a small stipend. The "Friends of VISTA" web site has a listing of VISTA opportunities all over the U.S.Volunteers of America
49 community-based service organizations throughout the U.S. offer more than 160 different programs that help people including children, youth, the elderly, families in crisis, the homeless, people with disabilities or mental illness, and ex-offenders returning to society.
