Have you ever been in a situation where you've relied on the expertise or guidance of others? Have you received:

  • Advice about your career?

  • Help setting up your business?

People have given you their time in exchange for the satisfaction of knowing they helped you.

You can achieve that same satisfaction yourself through volunteering!

A montage of volunteers helping a variety of communities.

What Are Your Skills And Experiences?

What are you good at? What have you learned or experienced that someone else could benefit from hearing about?

A character from The Office making a list in a notebook.

These skills and experiences form a content inventory of what you can offer as a volunteer.

Here are some examples:

  • Resume writing

  • Creating a LinkedIn profile

  • Networking as part of a job search

  • Running your own business

  • Organizing and running an event

Everyone has skills that can be useful as a volunteer. What's in your content inventory?

What Interests You?

Consider who the right audience is.

Volunteers mostly choose causes that they have a personal connection to. Perhaps they have themselves benefitted from the cause in the past, or are connected to the cause through their industry, profession, or location.

A volunteer wearing a lanyard and holding a walkie talkie. Soap bubbles float in the air around her. Photo by ray sangga kusuma on Unsplash

Here are some examples:

  • Arts and culture (eg. a local museum)

  • Entrepreneurship (eg. a program that helps young entrepreneurs)

  • Sports leadership (e.g. coaching)

Keep an open mind about volunteer opportunities. You might surprise yourself and discover a new passion!

What Is Your Time Commitment

Volunteering requires commitment. It can be easy to over promise and under-deliver. Before volunteering consider:

  • Which days of the week are you available?

  • What time of day works best, and for how long at one time?

  • How long can you volunteer for: a week, a month, or longer?

  • Are you available in person, remotely, or both?

Check out this Byte if you plan to volunteer while travelling. 👈

A person looking at a virtual schedule on a computer screen. Photo by Gaining Visuals on Unsplash

Quiz

You decide that you have only 2-3 hours per week to volunteer at most. Is this enough?

An Example Volunteering Plan

Flaticon Icon This is Rowena's volunteering journey!

Rowena just landed a new job and realized she is good at networking.

Flaticon Icon

She likes technology and wants to help others establish careers in this field.

Flaticon Icon She can dedicate one night each week to her plan for the next three months.

Flaticon Icon She found an agency that helps youth learn essential tech and career skills after school! Flaticon Icon

Take Action

A woman says,

You're ready to make a volunteering plan of your own! Ask yourself:

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