When I began this blog, I knew I wanted to help people find the right volunteer opportunity – the ones that best fit their skills and talents. However, as I researched this, I was thrilled to find VolunteerMatch, a website dedicated to helping people find volunteer opportunities where they can make a difference.
To easily get started without having to sign up or pay anything (the website is mostly free), you can select the orange “Find Opportunities” button on the home page. This will lead you to a gigantic list of volunteer jobs in your area.
Find a Virtual Volunteer Opportunity
Once you are on the “Find the Best Volunteer Opportunities Near [Your Location]” page, you can select “Virtual” as your opportunity type. This will filter the results for things you can do in the comfort of your own home. If that gives you too many results, try entering a keyword in the “Search” box.
For example, I chose to enter, “Writer,” when I was playing around on this website, and I found over 500 opportunities for me! They had things like Grant Writer, Blogger, and Creative Writer. This gave me plenty of ways to help with my skill!
Pick a Worthy Cause
Want to choose a specific cause to put your efforts toward? Choose the drop-down menu “Cause Areas.” There is a huge number of causes that you can choose from, or you can leave this blank and choose another option to filter your results.
The current “Cause Areas” that you can choose from include:
- Advocacy and Human Rights
- Animals
- Arts and Culture
- Board Development
- Children and Youth
- Community
- Computers and Technology
- Crisis Support
- Disaster Relief
- Education and Literacy
- Emergency and Safety
- Employment
- Environment
- Faith-Based
- Health and Medicine
- Homeless and Housing
- Hunger
- Immigrants and Refugees
- International
- Justice and Legal
- LGBTQ+
- Media and Broadcasting
- People with Disabilities
- Politics
- Race and Ethnicity
- Seniors
- Sports and Recreation
- Veterans and Military Families
- Women
Choose Volunteer Skills
Alternatively or in combination with “Cause Areas,” you can choose “Skills.” This option is incredible because you can match your skills with the right volunteer opportunity.
Each “Skill” option has an even more specific drop-down menu. So, if you wanted to do “Quilting,” for example, you would just go to the skill “Hobbies and Crafts,” and you’d find “Quilting” as an option.
Currently, the following list is available for Skills:
- Academics
- Administrative and Clerical
- Animals and Environment
- Arts
- Business and Management
- Children and Family
- Computers and IT
- Disaster Relief
- Education and Literacy
- Engineering
- Finance
- Food Services and Events
- For-Profit and Nonprofit Development
- Interpersonal
- Language and Culture
- Legal and Advocacy
- Logistics, Supply Chain, and Transportation
- Marketing and Communications
- Music
- Performing Arts
- Sports and Recreation
- Strategy Development and Business
- Trades
Use your professional skills to find awesome volunteer opportunities on this resource hub. For example, if you are a lawyer or know a lot about legal matters, you could look under “Legal and Advocacy” to find jobs that best fit you.
Get creative when searching for skills that match your talents. What can you do? What do you enjoy doing the most?
Filter the Volunteer Opportunity
If you want to filter your options, even more, you can choose “More Filters.” Here, you can choose the “Distance” you want to travel to do your volunteer work or pick an age range for that volunteer opportunity.
For an option near you, enter your zip code in the search box that says “Search City and Zip Code.” I know this is pretty obvious stuff, but I want to share how cool this website really is.
If you are a charity looking for volunteers, you can select, at the top of the website, the option to “Recruit Volunteers.”
As you search for opportunities, you may find virtual volunteering opportunities or some in your local community. One great organization to join is the American Red Cross. You could save lives with your skills, expertise, and hard work.
There is a paid option that you can pick if you desire. You can become a member on the website this way. Currently, the pricing starts at $9.95/month or $99/year. This option is appropriate for charities looking for volunteers.
Conclusion
Overall, I will say that I am impressed with VolunteerMatch. I really like the “Skills” option and the “Search” box. You can easily narrow down your choices this way.
I have found this website to be very helpful and wonderful! This is how I found the volunteer opportunity, Tender Loving Cats, and read about their job opportunities.
Do you know of any websites like this? Have you found a list of charities you would like to share with my readers?
Alternatively, you can leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post. Please reach out today. I’d love to hear from you, and I’d certainly appreciate it if you’d share this blog post on social media or others who could benefit from it.
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