How to volunteer

April 4, 2005 10:29 AM

So I find myself with a surfeit of time for the near future. So I thought maybe I'd volunteer somewhere, not looking for a huge time commitment, maybe 4-6 hours a week. I'm not interested in politics, more like maybe the library, or homeless shelter, or anything really. Are there resources online that would assist me in finding something like this.

Seattle area is where I'm looking.

posted by patrickje to Human Relations (9 answers total)

Best answer: Idealist.org...Seattle Community Network...Seattle.gov

Or just call an specific organization that you are interested in and ask if they take volunteers.
posted by jeanmari at 10:37 AM on April 4, 2005

Best answer: Seattle Works lists a lot of projects that need volunteers from different places in the area.
posted by milkrate at 10:38 AM on April 4, 2005

Toronto has a great database for looking up volunteer opportunities by type or organisation or type of work or available hours. I tried googling for something similar for Seattle but didn't finy anything specific. Volunteermatch.org, however, appears to be a national database that might help.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:41 AM on April 4, 2005

Best answer: I can vouch for jacquilynne's recommendation. Running a non-profit, I usually get three to four people a month from Volunteermatch. It seems to be a good option.
posted by ..ooOOoo....ooOOoo.. at 11:09 AM on April 4, 2005

Response by poster: fantastic, thank you so much
posted by patrickje at 11:29 AM on April 4, 2005

Habitat for Humanity is very rewarding - you help build housing for low-income needy folks. You don't have to have any skills - just time & willingness. My wife liked the experience so much she became a team leader for a women-only crew that built two houses locally.

(would some html guruexplain how to get rid if the bold type afer I do the url;-link?
posted by Pressed Rat at 12:49 PM on April 4, 2005

Response by poster: Just another location seattle.craigslist volunteers I found.
posted by patrickje at 1:12 PM on April 4, 2005

Seattle Animal Shelter has lots of opportunities for volunteers and only requires 4 hours a week.
posted by matildaben at 2:37 PM on April 4, 2005

Pressed Rat - you need to close the link with </a> and not <a/> (which is what you used, according to the page source - the bold then comes from a mish-mash of bad html and matt's automatic tag closer).
posted by andrew cooke at 6:19 PM on April 4, 2005