How to Volunteer

So you want to save the world?

Sure, you’re tackling your career with gusto. Squeezing out-of-town business trips between grocery runs, exercise, and paying the bills. And don’t forget your desire for carefree moments—a night out with girlfriends, reading a ridiculously good book, or taking a long, drawn-out bath with candles and bubbles.

Your desire to impact your community can seem like the icing on the cake, but it’s the life-sweetener without which the end of your days, weeks, and months might taste a little too bland. And self-centered. And not infused with meaning.

So how do you do it all? How do you find the philanthropy to fit your interests? Your time constraints? Your moods and dreams?

Here are some tips for getting started:

1) TIME: Decide whether you want to volunteer your time during the week or on weekends. Is it realistic to commit time each week? Or will it be better to carve out a week or two, all at once?

If a once-a-week or once-a-month schedule seems best, contact a local church, state or city government, the local Big Brothers/Big Sisters program, a public school, soup kitchen, or homeless shelter. The opportunities are limitless, and it is easy to get involved.

One useful Web site for finding a local nonprofit is VolunteerMatch, which allows you to enter your zip code, interest area, and the distance you’re willing to travel. Local nonprofits and other organizations that need volunteers will be listed.

Other Web sites offering information about charities include Volunteering.org and Network for Good.

If you’d like to commit a block of time each year, many churches have mission trips both in the United States and beyond. Organizations like Habitat for Humanity conduct week-long projects as well.

If you are looking for a life-change, you could join an organization like the Peace Corps, which sends people to needy areas of the world for two years. My husband volunteered in the Peace Corps and was stationed in South Africa, near the border of Swaziland, for two years.