What is your main reason for volunteering?
a To make a difference in someone’s life.
b To positively impact my community.
c To stop feeling so guilty all the time!
Find Your Ideal
Volunteer Day
Answer these questions to figure out which
community deeds suit your style.
Friends say they’re envious of your...
a Big heart and caring personality.
b Wild sense of adventure.
c Juggling skills: I always have 10 things happening at once.
What causes are you most passionate about?
a Homelessness, abused children, neglected veterans—
in short, working to end human suffering.
b Anything having to do with the environment or animals.
c They run the gamut: One week it’s breast cancer,
the next it’s childhood obesity.
It’s Saturday afternoon. What are you doing?
a Getting ready to host a dinner party.
b Gardening, horseback riding or hiking.
c Chasing after my kids.
How much time will you commit to?
a A couple of hours a week.
b One day a month.
c A few days a year.
✓Mostly A’s
You’re a jumbo-hearted idealist who
can make a hefty time commitment,
so look for opportunities built
around one-on-one relationships.
Try mentoring homeless or
at-risk youth through StandUp
for Kids ( standupforkids.org) or
delivering food to needy seniors
via Meals on Wheels (mowaa
.org). Look to your skills, too: Great
listeners can answer phones for
suicide-prevention hotlines, word
nerds can write fund-raising
proposals for charities, and
artistic types can teach people with
disabilities how to paint.
✓Mostly B’s
You’re one of Mother Nature’s
biggest fans, so show her some
love: Build and maintain trails
through the American Hiking
Society ( americanhiking.org); start
a pet-food bank for the American
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals ( aspca.org); or join your
local affiliate of Keep America
Beautiful ( kab.org), which stewards
thousands of beautification projects.
For steady but flexible gigs, try
cleanup or planting projects at
community gardens, beaches,
nature centers and animal shelters.
✓Mostly C’s
You’d love any type of volunteer
work, but you barely have a
minute to think about it! Look for
onetime gigs: Check out Habitat for
Humanity ( habitat.org) and help
build a house for a needy family in
your community (there are affiliates
in all 50 states), or run (or walk!)
in a 5K fitness fund-raiser for
Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure
( komen.org). Even your packed
schedule is full of options: Paint a
backdrop for your child’s school
play or donate a bag of gently used
clothing to a women’s shelter.
If you answered...
