How can I use the Web to find volunteer opportunities?

Selecting an organization to volunteer for has become easier recently, thanks to a number of Web sites now hosting searchable databases of volunteer opportunities. Below you will find a selection of these resources that will assist you in making a difference in your community.

• Network For Good (http://www.networkforgood.org/volunteer) allows you to search for volunteer opportunities by zip code, distance, and by interest area. You can also search for a specific volunteer opportunity by organization name.

• Volunteer Match (http://www.volunteermatch.org) can be searched by zip code, category, and distance. You can then sign up automatically by email for those volunteer opportunities you are interested in.

• Guidestar (http://www.guidestar.org/classifieds) hosts advertisements for volunteer opportunities (select the term "Volunteer" from the drop-down menu) in addition to its searchable database of nearly one million nonprofit organizations in the United States.

• Idealist (http://www.idealist.org/) posts volunteer opportunities that can be searched by area of focus, project description, country, state, city, skills needed, language needed, and age. You can also indicate the time frame in which you would like to volunteer.

• 1-800-Volunteer.org (http://www.1-800-volunteer.org) can be searched a number of ways, including keyword, zip code, organization, and population served. You can also search by the days and times you would like to volunteer.

• The Foundation Center's Youth in Philanthropy site has an extensive list of links for kids to sites offering ideas for volunteering and getting involved in philanthropy.

There are also several books and articles on voluntarism that may help you in identifying the volunteer project right for you, including:

• Blaustein, Arthur I. Make a Difference: America's Guide to Volunteering and Community Service. Rev. ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2003. Organized by broad field of interest categories, the book lists and describes numerous organizations that offer volunteer opportunities.

• Friedman, Jenny. The Busy Family's Guide to Volunteering. Beltsville, MD: Robins Lane Press, 2003. Explains how families can incorporate volunteering into busy schedules, and how to select activities that are age-appropriate. Specific opportunities and organizations are described in the areas of environmental protection, social action, poverty, and senior centers, to name a few. One chapter is devoted to volunteer vacations.

• Global Work: InterAction's Guide to Volunteer, Internship and Fellowship Opportunities. 4th ed. Washington, DC: InterAction. 2004. Organized alphabetically by agency name, brief profiles describe the opportunities that nearly 100 relief and humanitarian organizations offer. With program and location indexes.

• McMillon, Bill, Doug Cutchins, and Anne Geissinger. Volunteer Vacations: Short-Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others. 8th ed. Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, 2003.

• Pybus, Victoria. The International Directory of Voluntary Work. 8th ed. Oxford, England: Vacation Work, 2003. A directory of international volunteer programs and organizations. Part 1 contains listings for travel abroad opportunities including a separate section for professionals. Part 2 describes part-time volunteer programs in Great Britain and the United States.

• Willsea, Jennifer Sage (ed.) Alternatives to the Peace Corps: A Directory of Global Volunteer Opportunities. 10th ed. Oakland, CA: Food First Books, 2003. A directory of volunteer and community development opportunities in third world countries and the United States. Contents include tips on selecting volunteer programs.

For other books and articles on volunteering in the nonprofit sector, try searching our Catalog of Nonprofit Literature (CNL), the Center's bibliographic database. You could start searching on the subject "Voluntarism--directories".

Many of the books and articles found through CNL can be located in Center Libraries and Cooperating Collections. It is best to call ahead to verify a specific library's holdings. Articles, but not books, can be obtained through interlibrary loan at your local Cooperating Collection.

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