October 26, 2022

How to Find the Right Volunteer Opportunity

By: Volunteer Success

Now that you have a handle on your why, when and where, let’s look at how you can actually find your great volunteer opportunity! Make sure to give yourself lots of time for research. Finding a great volunteer role is not that different from finding a paid opportunity; it takes time.

Make sure you have some idea of what you want to do based on the questions you explored in the Why, Where, Who and When articles:
- Why are you volunteering and what do you hope to gain from it? Are there specific causes, skills and interests you want to explore?
- When are you available and how long a commitment can you make?
- Where? Virtual or in-person? And if in-person, how far are you able or willing to travel?
Word-of-mouth is a great way to find volunteer opportunities. Talk to family and friends. Let people know that you are looking for an opportunity to volunteer and ask if anyone has any connections to organizations that might be a good fit for you
Talk to your teachers or guidance counsellor about local opportunities they may be aware of, based on the experiences of previous students.
Go online. You can search for: “volunteer opportunities for youth near me” or even better, “volunteer opportunity with ____ (fill in cause) near me”. For example, volunteer opportunities with animals near me.
Check out opportunities on Volunteer Success using any relevant key words including a cause or location. Once you find a specific opportunity that sounds great for you, click on “I’m interested” and the organization will get a notification and will contact you about next steps.
Contact your local Volunteer Centre if there is one in your community. Many offer on-line volunteer listings for organizations in their area. Check out this page to find one near you.
Once you find an opportunity or an organization that interests you, go to their website to learn more about the organization and the work that they do.
- Find their volunteer page (it may be under Get Involved or Support Us) and get more information about the recruitment process and eligibility requirements.
- Try to find the formal position description that lists the role qualifications and responsibilities. Email the organization to get it if you can’t find it on their website - see How-to Tips for Interviewing and Email Communications

Found something interesting? Go to: How to Apply for Volunteer Roles

Can’t find the right opportunity? Check out: How to Apply for Unadvertised Volunteer Opportunities

Also check out:

How-to Tips for Interviewing and Email Communications

How-to Tips for Working in Your Volunteer Role

How to Troubleshoot Problems in Your Volunteer Role

How to Get a Reference and/or a Paid Job!

Also read…

April 27, 2022

USING VIDEO THROUGHOUT THE VOLUNTEER LIFE CYCLE

By: Better Impact

There is no question that digital transformations have accelerated since the pandemic started. If there is one thing the past year has showed us is that video has been at the center of that transformation, not only for education, connections, marketing, or sales purposes, but in all areas where people and stories are involved. Whether through live Zoom calls, virtual events or webinars and video messaging in general, the use of video has flourished. According to the State of Video Report – 2020 Edition* (now in its seventh year), the use of one-to-one video exploded with an increase from 7% in 2019 to 40% in 2020, representing a 471% increase year over year. And the trend is only going up. Undeniably, video is here to stay. So how can Volunteer Managers adopt and use video? In this article we will examine the ways video can be used throughout the volunteer life cycle and give some examples that you can easily adapt to your own reality. We are also going to discuss the technology needed to create these videos (spoiler alert, you probably already have what you need to create a quality video). Finally, from our experience, we are going to give some tips on how to produce high quality and engaging videos. Lights, camera, action!

June 09, 2022

COVID Learning

By: Rick Nason & Daniel O. Livvarcin

Let’s simply skip all of the platitudes about the challenges of COVID and move straight to the learning; what did you learn about your organization during COVID? As we slowly (and perhaps prematurely) start to see the light at the end of the tunnel for COVID, each and every type of organization, and this especially includes non-profits, should take advantage of the opportunity to debrief the COVID chock and what it taught us about each of our organizations. There are lots of learning opportunities during COVID. Warren Buffett, in an admittedly different context, said that when the tide goes out, you get to see who has been swimming naked. COVID exposed the naked parts (and personnel) of a lot of organizations. However, COVID also exposed a lot of people who were wearing brilliantly and beautifully designed swimwear (to stretch the saying). COVID exposed the fact that organizations had inner strengths that were previously unacknowledged, underappreciated, and likely underutilized.

July 22, 2025

Now Live: Post Your Volunteer Opportunities as Events or Ongoing Roles

By: Volunteer Success

You now have two ways to post opportunities, each designed to better match how volunteers sign up.

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