How about your local library, especially since you were a book editor. You can probably look online to see what they are looking for in volunteers. I think now there are more opportunities beyond just shelving books. Literacy programs might also be a good fit for you.

They can probably use you at the high school, too. Many groups have "boosters" that feed or outfit the kids, help with events, manage scholarships and grants to the department, etc. And if you have the right role, you can do most of it on your own time, at home.

I work at the food bank and, during school, I read once a week to 2nd graders.

I volunteer with cooking for various groups, but you love dogs, what about something at a shelter?

I used to volunteer about 25 hours a week with the Junior League doing all kinds of projects, everything from helping decorate short term rental apartments for homeless families to legislative lobbying on children's issues. An organization like JL usually yields more opportunities for interesting work----something like friends of the library, forward arts organization, symphony guild, etc. Also, volunteering in those sorts of institutions can lead to an actual job (if you are interested) when your DD goes away to college.

Now I sit on a couple of arts organization boards and am chairing a committee to plan a Tenth anniversary celebration year---special events, scholarship contest, speakers bureau for community groups, school outreach program, and whatever else we come up with!

I volunteer with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Given my family history, it seems some good should come out of all of my experience with grief.

I volunteer with our local humane society. I help socialize animals to make them more adoptable. It's sometimes heartbreaking, but more often very rewarding. I also do pro bono legal work, but prefer the animal gig

With so many organizations in need of volunteers, Youll have plenty of choices. Too long a story to tell about how I volunteered for elder care but I wAnt two say two things. No. 1: In my area, chores like feeding, Dressing, bathing are left to paid & trained staff. Volunteers were used to do crafts, Feed them snacks like juice and cookies, play bingo or other board games so no need to be squeamish. The conversations held with those that had full minds were absolutely amazing, don't know who entertained who. No. 2: the experience I got was Godsent when later on beginning to deal with my own elders. One time my mothers husband, who suffers from Alzheimer's, was sent to live with his son for a few days b/c mom was hospitalized and no one to care for him. Well the first morning he comes out of his room in his underwear and a young granddaughter was horrified and accusing the poor man of being a perv. They didn't know he had soiled undies and needed new ones. The man speaks very soft and has limited speech. Thanks to my experience being around that environment for a time, I was able to calm everybody down and explain the behavior. Had I not volunteered with seniors I might have joined the "you're a Perv" camp. Yep, God sent this opportunity to learn.

I'm a grief volunteer with my local hospice. I do a lot of volunteer work at and through my church, e.g., taking Communion to shut-ins, grocery shopping for homeless meal programs. I'm retired, so I have lots of time and don't need to be paid. :)

One of my favorite topics!

My first attempt at volunteering was at a children's emergency shelter. This was for children who were taken out of their homes due to abuse, neglect, etc. I did 6-8 hours a week, and at that time I was working full time. I loved it at first, loved working with the kids. However, there were some very stressful situations - and some very stressed kids. There was a great set of house parents, but the hours I volunteered, I usually worked with the activities director. So I helped with sports, games, field trips, etc. Some times I would be there to help with a meal before an activity. My biggest problem was I got very attached to the kids and worried about what would happen to them. I saw how the system works and at times it was heartbreaking. Now I mainly try to volunteer through my church or community (the shelter was in the big city near me). Last year was the first time I helped with a big fundraiser - a car show! I am doing that again and my husband is on board with this project. We have a "board" who are putting together the event which will be in October. The car show benefits two community charities. I also help with a food pantry, which is held every few months and in between we work on getting in items and building up stock. In the next few months, I will co-chair the children's shoebox program at our church and then probably my most favorite, an angel tree project that benefits needy children in the community.

Sorry to have written a book - you can see this is a subject near and dear to my heart. I strongly encourage you in this and I can promise you that not only will you be sharing something with others, but you will benefit yourself. Let us know what you end up doing!

Thanks for the ideas and inspiration!

So far tonight I have signed up for an informational meeting for the elementary school gig I mentioned earlier -- that's in about a month -- and I filled out a volunteer form online for our local library. So that's a start, and I think I'll wait and see how these work out before I start signing up for more.

I did look at the Junior League, even though I am slightly worried that these ladies are too fancy for me, but they are no longer taking applications for this year.

DH donates lots of money to a few different charities every year, but I want to actually "get my hands dirty" doing some things...hoping he will do the same when he is semi-retired (at age 54! Eek!) next year.

Like you I have found there are waiting lists at every place I've been interested in volunteering. Try Googling "volunteer (your city)" and see what comes up. And don't dismiss the idea of more paid work. I think women should be financially independent. You just never know what will happen.

Sueb, could one of your dogs qualify as a therapy dog? There are different organizations that coordinate this.

I worked with The Good Dog Foundation. You go through a series of training classes to see if your dog is a good fit for the program. We went to a psychiatric unit at a local hospital, but there are other choices as well. This would be something you could do once a week for a few hours. Although I rarely worked with other volunteers and their dogs because I did a weekend shift, others during the week people worked in pairs. (This is better because if you have to cancel, you know that your partner will be there.)

I am on the car show committee for my Mustang club. We also took care of the 50th anniversary of the Mustang with 4,000 cars as the club as a whole.

If you are politically interested, you could work voter registration or make calls for candidates. DH and I have driven people to the polls on election day. That is actually non-partisan here, and it was really a lot of fun. We met a lot of really nice people who were very grateful for the ride to the polls.

Unfortunately, that is about all my work schedule allows.

Lots of nonprofits can use volunteer grant writers if that is a skill you have.

I have been volunteering on a limited basis since I still work part-time with a local theater group. I only work on nights they have performances, as a volunteer usher, or wherever they need someone behind the scenes. This particular theater supports a group of special needs children in a dance project which has been highly successful. Love working this gig.

Just recently I have started being a mentor in a 5k running group. I don't have to run with the group but once a week, which is fine since I am training myself anyway.

I have also been on several boards. This is the most thankless of any job I ever held. Although I enjoyed serving and in most cases, the board members were great, the people who weren't on the board picked the decisions apart.

DH is retired. I can see him getting frustrated on occasion with spending way too much time at some of his volunteer jobs.

I am currently a CASA volunteer (court appointed special advocate) for children involved in child protection cases. I work with children in a professional capacity as well, but one doesn't need that kind of background to be a CASA. You do kind of have to be an assertive person and familiarity with the child protection system is a plus. You may spend 8 to 10 hours the first month you get a case, but after that it's more like 4 hours at the most. One case may last a year or more and they prefer that kids keep the same CASA throughout.

Like TinaM61 said, it can be depressing/frustrating, because children's protective services often does not work the way we would like it to for the children we are assigned to. I'm not sure I have the stamina to do it for many years, partly because my day job is also sad and frustrating in the same way.

I volunteered for many years at a local shelter in a large city. It was a high-kill shelter, which made the work both very satisfying (because it got animals out of the shelter) but also sometimes high pressure/very sad. Our local shelter here is a very low/virtually no-kill shelter and volunteering there is much more pleasant. You can even volunteer to work at the desk or the gift shop if walking dogs or playing with cats isn't for you.

A fun volunteer job I wanted but never had the time for, was working in the resale shop that provided funds for a local hospital. Part thrift store, part antique store--there were always new things to see and I always thought it would be fun to arrange things, dust and straighten, and just be around people happy to have found a nice vintage lamp or tea set. The older ladies who ran the store seemed like a riot, too.

Where I live there are several community gardens that always need volunteers from planting through frost. Some of them involve helping children, others involve helping seniors, some are just gardening or transporting produce.

If you want to be a NICU volunteer, go ahead and put yourself on the waiting list. People's lives change and active volunteers have to go on hold or move away--you may be called before you think. Our hospital also has a club of people who knit and crochet for hospital patients, including babies. Mostly you do it at home, but the club has get togethers a few times a year where people gather to turn in finished items and just socialize.

Hope you find something that works for you and your schedule. I have found volunteering to be a great way to meet people. Every part of the social spectrum can be found among volunteeers--from judges and doctors and fund managers to tattoo artists, baristas, art students and reiki practitioners. It's lovely to see.

Sue, you could take the guardian ad litem training and serve as an advocate for children one case at a time. You dont need legal experience, just common sense and the desire to speak for the child in his or her best interests in matters such as custody hearings.

I am a Volunteer Long Term Care Ombudsman. In this role, I visit nursing homes and talk to the residents to identify any complaints and/or concerns they have related to the facility.

This has been a very satisfying opportunity, albeit sometimes upsetting given the issues that have been reported to me. But, I have been able to help resolve some of the issues, and even when there are not any issues, I feel that my time is well spent visiting with the residents.

For anyone interested in this role, each state is required to have a State Ombudsman and a training program for volunteers. My training was 40 hours, and the volunteer requirement is visiting one nursing home per week. My visits usually last about an hour.

One GF was volunteering at the library rescuing children's books...she learned how to re-cover them using artwork the children themselves had drawn. She liked it as it was work she could do on her own time whenever she had time. Some volunteer activities don't offer that kind of flexibility.

You could also look into volunteering with the Red Cross on blood drives...registering people, escorting people, and getting them water, coffee and snacks after they donate.

I was volunteering with Dress for Success for awhile and while it's a good organization, it wasn't a good fit for me, (no pun intended), but others I know find it rewarding.

If you want to get more physical, you could always work at Habitat for Humanity. It's fun learning about how to put a house together by actually doing the work. They teach you everything you need to know for whatever task you need, no special skills required.

How could I forget Habitat! Good suggestion, Annie. And another is the Master Gardener program. If you are at all interested in gardening, you can take the course, and then a requirement is that you must put in a certain number of hours in a specified period of time doing volunteer work. Ours is 40 or 50 hours now I believe. Most people knock that out within a couple of weekends at the botanical garden at one of their big events.

The Holiday season is always a good time to get an in-road to volunteering with some group that interests you because there is a call for additional help. Locally there is a group called 'Kids to Love', which is an organization that supports foster kids and getting them ready for school and also supports the foster parents with holiday gifts. They always need help organizing the donations and with distribution around the holidays.

I feel like kind of a slouch when I read of some of the volunteer activities listed above. I volunteer one afternoon a week at my public library. I work at the front desk. I enjoy seeing my neighbors coming in and out and the staff there is great. I'm also on the board of my library. Right now I am head of the Nominating Committee and I don't like it. I'll finish my three year term and switch to something else. It is so hard to find dedicated people to serve. People are willing to be on the board but not willing to roll up their sleeves and get the hard work done. We need people to run the fund raising campaign, write for the newsletter, maintain the mailing list, work on events, etc.

someone will be glad to have you!

I think AnnieD alluded to this but I have found that the fit with the other volunteers is just as important as the task. Volunteer groups have cultures and even the most fascinating experience can be less than satisfying when you are working with a group of people that make you crazy :)

Finding the right volunteer position(s) is very similar to finding the optimal paid position, if you take away a tiny thing like monetary compensation.

I think the first thing is to decide what causes are most important to you, not just what openings you happen to see or hear about. What mission matters to you? And then, toward that mission, how directly do you want to be involved? Do you want to play with the dogs in the shelter, do you want to handle reception at the shelter, do you want to create fundraising programs and PR for the shelter, or do you want to direct the future of the shelter at the board level? They all work toward the same mission but draw on different skills, not to mention some people are most satisfied by direct involvement, and some people like strategic involvement. If you are already significant donor to certain causes, I assume they are important to you; it may be a place to look for starters. In my experience, board positions are offered to those who share the mission but also who have been meaningful donors and commit to continue donating at a certain level. Being on boards can be very satisfying because you can really move the needle, OTOH it is indirect which is a minus, too.

To me, the next question is about the particular organization. Is it well funded, well-run, well organized? Just like in paid work, it is very frustrating to work for a non-profit that does not have its act together. Also, don't assume that just because the mission is charitable, that the people are. Just like in paid work, there is a culture, and it can be nurturing and effective or it can be just as political and back-stabbing as the corporate world.

Lastly, working conditions. You mention going into the city to volunteer. That is probably where the need is, but personally I would hate to commute, and I would want to be in a place that is relatively pleasant surroundings. It may not matter to you. And what about hours? Do you want a fixed schedule, or a fixed responsibility, or something more fluid? At one point my DH and I were having our nanny help our kids with their homework so we could make it to foundation meetings about helping inner-city school kids (presumably with their homework). You probably don't want a schedule that takes away from things you do that you take for granted now.

I would get the word out with your friends, and see what things they are doing. Whatever you do I am sure you will find something rewarding!

I am big into rose growing, and supporting local rose societies and the district society. I am a rose show judge and a Master Consulting Rosarian. I volunteer at rose shows (judging, clerking), am the district representative for the ARS annual survey, give talks to garden clubs and at the local rose garden. I am past-president of my local rose society, and am still on the board. All are on my own time. Any honorariums paid for the talks must be donated by my local society, I cannot accept any fees.

I also volunteer at events in NYC run by Black Girls Code, because I am (or was when I was younger) one. :-)

I was just elected to the alumni board of one of my alma maters.

When I finally get a chance, I want to volunteer at the local food bank and/or at JBJ Soul Kitchen, and become a Master Gardener.

I raise guide dog puppies... enjoy it very much, but will take a little break when our current puppy goes back to get trained/harnessed.... it is time consuming and with a puppy it's a lot of volunteer time inside your home as well as outside, 7 days a week!! so, as a breather, I am in the process of getting my sweet, sweet young dog (who was a previous guide dog puppy and got dismissed from the program for a physical issue) certified as a therapy dog so we can to go a local elementary school for 'reading with dogs', to a couple of local colleges that have 'therapy dog' nights with the students and to a local hospital ... I had been out in public so much with him as a puppy that i know he will do great and will enjoy it -- we will see where it goes....

I love hearing what you all do! Raising therapy dogs! Oh that is wonderful. And working with Hospice - wow, just wow! Sue, you've been given some great suggestions/advice here. I agree with those who have said, find something you love and go with that. Although we also donate to charities, etc. for me that is not enough. I wanted to "give something back", to help others, hand's on. Our time is a valuable thing. Human contact is a valuable thing. Here are a few more thoughts from family and friends who volunteer, I was thinking of what they did. MIL volunteers 1/2 day weekly at the local Children's Hospital - in the gift shop. A couple that are friends of ours (and retired) - he volunteers in the ER and the cancer center (1 day for each per week) at our local teaching hospital and she is a "pink lady" (not pink and really just a source of information for visitors coming to the hospital). She also works a few times a month with random acts of kindness - I hope I have the name right - the one who takes flowers and repurposes them. One of my lunch bunch ladies works a day a week (6 hours I think) for a local doctor who has a clinic for the low income. Just some ideas.

I've run into so many people who are retired and "underemployed". They'd like to do something, but don't know what, where or how to go about it. I've often thought there should be an "Angie's List" which would connect volunteers with organizations in need. Maybe that's what I should do with my spare time...

In CT there is a 211 info line that has information about volunteer organizations for those who need services or are looking for places to volunteer. Also, you could check with your local United Way as they have a lot of insight into volunteer organizations in your region.

Love all the ideas and advice in this thread! I burnt out on volunteering about ten years ago as I was helping do lbgtq support groups, working on a sexual assault helpline and doing a lot of volunteer training for the line. I also trained to do virtual support groups for HIV+ people but it wasn't a good fit as I didn't have good life experience to back up my skills, I think that's the type of situation where living with a chronic disease would be very helpful for a facilitator.

My funnest volunteer gig was walking /socializing retired racing greyhounds. I loved the dogs! It was heartbreaking not to be able to adopt one (it's a no kill rescue, I just really wanted one) and the commute was long so I ended up giving that up while I was pursuing my masters.

Last year I joined a choir and this year I think I will get back into tutoring. I absolutely love kids and was a born teacher, but the job market was too bad to follow my dreams. Maybe next career! I've tutored on and off over the years and always enjoyed it.

Such an inspiring thread, I am so grateful to Sue for starting it. I volunteer for Ronald McDonald House, I dont like the restaurant's food, but I LOVE this aspect of the corporation. As a parent I will never forget my debt to it, I owe it my sanity to it and I pay it back.

I grow several "row for hungry" as there is real need in my community.

I also am an on-call support parent for type 1 diabetic kids at UMaine.

I just came across this website...such a simple thing and can be done any time...even while you're thinking about what kind of volunteer work to do....

More Love Letters

writing letters of love and support via the organization to people in need, or guidelines for doing it randomly...like random acts of kindness.

It kind of reminds me of how, when someone in this community is in need, the outpouring of support is incredible...this is a way to spread it beyond the gw community...

I was a crisis counselor for sexual assault in the past and did children's advocacy in law school. I applied for CASA training through my last employer and a program where they said they were wanting to facilitate community involvement, but when it came time for training, they wouldn't let me take the hours away from work to do it. ??? I always thought I would get back to that after the boys were grown, but I stayed busy volunteering in the schools while they were home. My dad passed at the end of my youngest's senior year in high school and I handled the estate, so I am just now starting to think about whether that is still something I want to do. I recently read that they have an advocate for every child in our county but still want volunteers for future additions, so the need would probably not be high demand.

DH is about to go half-time at work and ease into retirement. We talked about possibly doing Habitat when that day came, but we haven't discussed it recently. I like to do wall finishing and painting. Not sure if I would be good at much else, but would be willing to try.

I volunteer with an arts support group and will probably get involved in their children's outreach program and possibly ushering at events. Right now I have eased into the scholarship committee which only meets about half the year.

I have one director who would like to try to get a fine arts and performing center in our area and has suggested that if I get bored. I know someone who might be able to help corral the right people and she's leaving another position at the end of the year. That would be a major undertaking, but I would love to see it happen. That will at least be a conversation or two to test the waters.

As far as working with the elderly, I would second the comment above. You are not likely to be stuck doing things you are not comfortable with and there are many levels of elder care -- from independent senior living to assisted living and memory care. You could pick one of the more independent settings. So many of them just love having someone to talk to.

I currently work at a trauma hospital. Before that I spent a few years with hospice. Also with Caring Hands & Meals on Wheels.

Just recently attended an orientation meeting for ARF (Animal Rescue Foundation).

I teach Sunday School at our church. It was something I did for many years, then gave it up to do other volunteer work. There was a desperate plea for teachers for middle school this year (it seems like that and high school are the grades that volunteers fear the most.) Now on Sunday nights DH and I head back to church together, where he teaches high school and I teach 7th grade.