Have you wanted to volunteer but struggled to find the time? As I sit here beginning to write this post, I’ve just returned from volunteering at a nearby federal park. And I remembered when I was first looking for volunteer opportunities, how difficult it seemed.
Why Volunteer?
But first, why would you even want to volunteer? From my personal experience, I can say that volunteering has relieved stress, made me less self-centered, made me feel like I have more time, and provided a way for me to spend time out of my house and in the community without spending money. (I even wrote about how volunteering cured my Sunday scaries!)
Other benefits can include: gaining new skills or knowledge, making new friends, better physical and mental health, giving back to your community, improving self-esteem, lessening loneliness, improving job prospects, and having fun.1 The Mayo Clinic lists the following benefits for those over 60: improving physical and mental health, providing a sense of purpose, and nurturing relationships.2
In the United States, over 75 million people volunteered (formally, through an organization) between September 2022 and September 2023.3 That’s roughly 28% of the U.S. population. That number doesn’t include informal forms of volunteering, such as running errands for neighbors. The number of formal volunteer hours per person has declined, but the number of informal hours has increased.
Challenges of Volunteering
Research shows that 44% of Americans want to volunteer but haven’t found an appropriate opportunity.4 This is very easy for me to believe because you really do have to do a lot of research to find a regular volunteering gig. You have to research volunteer organizations near you, then find out if they have volunteer positions that match your skillset and schedule. Then you have to fill out an application.
An article from the Stanford Center on Longevity outlines three reasons many people don’t volunteer, even when they want to: 1) lack of time and inflexibility of volunteer schedules, 2) lack of interest in volunteer roles, and 3) no one asked them to.5 (That last one is real and pretty funny to me. But it does make sense that sometimes people just don’t know that they can volunteer for an organization.)
During my own search, I discovered that most organizations require weekly shifts and a year-long commitment. Sometimes those shifts are four hours long. You might need to attend a volunteer orientation before even applying to be a volunteer. I looked at many organizations in my county that had volunteering opportunities, but they were often only available during the weekdays, and I work full time. It’s easy, then, to feel as if volunteering is just too hard.
Option 1: Look for One-Time Opportunities
One option for volunteering is to look for individual events. The other is covered in its own section below.
Locally, I’ve found individual volunteer events for:
- County, state, and federal parks (for things like planting, weeding, picking up trash, and trail maintenance)
- Local festivals or fundraising events (such as events put on by animal shelters)
- Marathons (where they need course monitors and assistance with aid stations and check-in)
- Food banks (they often let you sign up for a 2-hour shift anytime, though you certainly can volunteer regularly)
The one downside to these one-time events, I’ve found, is the lack of relationship-building. I started going to events in my community with the hope of expanding my social circle a little, but I’ve yet to make any lasting connections with people through these individual volunteer events. Everyone is really friendly and chatty, no doubt, but you’re unlikely to run into the same people at another event, other than perhaps the volunteer coordinators.
Option 2: Create Your Own Opportunities
Find informal ways to volunteer. Instead of joining an organization, look for ways to improve your community all on your own, without the weekly commitment.
Some examples of informal volunteering might be:
- Help your elderly or disabled neighbors (think yard work, grocery shopping, taking them to medical appointments, walking their dogs, helping with technology)
- Help your neighbors when they travel (offer to collect their mail, water their plants, keep an eye on their house)
- Organize a beach or river clean-up (check out the California Coastal Commission’s webpage on that here: https://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/neighborhoodcleanups.html)
- Organize a book drive (connect with a local used bookstore first to make sure they can take a large donation)
- Be there for your friends (help them move, give them rides to the airport, bring them food when they’re sick)
- Create and run a MeetUp group (there are always people looking for social events, but very few want the trouble of brainstorming and organizing them)
There are lots of way to give back to your community without being affiliated with an organization. Of course, if you need to meet a volunteer hours requirement, then these options won’t be appropriate. But if your goal with volunteering is to be more connected to your local community, to do some good for others, or to pick up some new skills, then an informal opportunity might be right for you.
Volunteering is a Privilege
As stated above, it’s hard to find opportunities to volunteer! And it’s difficult on both ends. Often volunteer coordinators are volunteers themselves and organizations struggle to respond timely to prospective volunteers. I saw this crazy statistic that while 72% of nonprofits view volunteers as essential, only 25% of funders do, and just 0.19% of foundation giving goes towards volunteer engagement.6 Organizations struggle to recruit and keep their volunteers.
This post is not intended to make anyone feel bad about not volunteering. I’ve volunteer only a little myself in the past decade. There’s so much more I could do. But having any time to spare is a privilege. Some people don’t. Others don’t have relevant skills for the volunteering they’d like to do, while some cannot volunteer due to disabilities. Many people are struggling financially, and they have no capacity to give their time to others when they need to first take care of themselves.
I encourage anyone who has the capacity to volunteer—even once a month, or once a year. But as I stated earlier in this post, there are many, selfish, benefits to volunteering. To be in a position to give back to our community is a privileged position to be in. And we should give back, in some way, because we can never know if one day we’ll need someone to give a little back to us.
Sources:
- https://www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/volunteering/why-volunteer/benefits-of-volunteering/ and https://www.nsls.org/blog/unexpected-benefits-volunteering-will-inspire-you
↩︎ - https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/3-health-benefits-of-volunteering ↩︎
- https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2024/11/civic-engagement-and-volunteerism.html ↩︎
- https://volunteerhub.com/blog/what-are-the-biggest-barriers-to-volunteer-engagement-how-do-we-overcome-them ↩︎
- https://longevity.stanford.edu/three-reasons-why-people-dont-volunteer-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/ ↩︎
- See footnote 4. ↩︎
