General Ideas
- Organize a community blood drive
https://weareblood.org/ways-to-help/host-a-blood-drive/
- Send cards to soldiers serving overseas
http://www.operationwearehere.com/IdeasforSoldiersCardsLetters.html
- Read books or letters to a person who is visually impaired
https://www.voices.com/blog/volunteer_reading_for_the_blind/
- Collect unused makeup and perfume to donate to a center for abused women
https://www.hopealliancetx.org/
- Organize and hold a bake sale for your favorite charity
Helping Children and Schools
- Tutor children during or after school
www.literacycouncil-wc.org
- Donate stuffed animals to children in hospitals
- Organize games and activities for children in hospitals or who are visiting hospitalized relatives
https://supportseton.org/volunteer/
- Knit or crochet baby blankets to be donated to hospitals or homeless shelters
https://www.babyblanketcentral.com/donate-baby-blankets.html
- Collect clothes and supplies to donate to foster parents
https://www.carryinghope.com/about
- Collect used sports equipment to donate to families and after-school programs
- Volunteer at a summer camp for children
- Give free music lessons to schoolchildren
- Become a volunteer teen crisis counselor
https://www.volunteermatch.org/search/opp2427690.jsp
- Organize a summer reading program to encourage kids to read
- Babysit children during a PTA meeting
https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/babysitting/babysitting-child-care-training/babysitting-classes
- Organize a reading hour for children at a local school or library
- Donate used children’s books to a school library
- Volunteer to help with Vacation Bible School or other religious camps
Helping Senior Citizens
www.ageofcentraltx.org
http://www.owbc-tx.org/volunteer/
- Read to residents at a nursing home
- Deliver groceries and meals to elderly neighbors
- Teach computer skills to the elderly
- Drive seniors to doctor appointments
- Mow an elderly neighbor’s lawn
- Host a bingo night for nursing home residents
- Host a holiday meal for senior citizens
- Make birthday cards for the elderly
- Ask residents of a retirement home to tell you about their lives
- Pick up medicine for an elderly neighbor
- Perform a concert or play at a senior center
- Help elderly neighbors clean their homes and organize their belongings
- Rake leaves, shovel snow, or wash windows for a senior citizen
- Deliver cookies to a homebound senior citizen
Helping Animals and the Environment
- Take care of cats and dogs at an animal shelter
http://pets.wilco.org/
- Start a butterfly garden in your community
https://www.thebutterflysite.com/butterfly-garden.html
- Sponsor a recycling contest
- Help create a new walking trail at a nature center or park
- Update the signs along a nature trail
https://www.wilco.org/Departments/Parks-Recreation/Volunteers
- Help raise money to train service dogs
https://www.texvet.org/service-animal
- Participate in the cleanup of a local river, pond, or lake
- Foster animals that shelters don’t have space for
https://www.austinpetsalive.org/
- Organize a spay and neuter your pet program
https://emancipet.org/mobile/
- Campaign for more bike lanes in your town
- Volunteer at a nature camp and teach kids about the environment