GreenYour.com

Green volunteer opportunities abound—whether your motivation is to show your commitment to the earth, learn something new, get the inside track on a potential employer or environmental field, share a skill you have, meet some eco-cronies, make a difference, or simply have fun.

Find it! Green volunteer positions

There's hardly an organization or group out there who wouldn't jump at the chance to get free help. So once you decide what sort of activity you're interested in, you shouldn't have any problem finding someone to put you to work. Regional or local environmental groups, local chapters of national groups, and the environmental office in your municipal government department are natural places to start. Also consider the offices of local or national political candidates whose environmental views match yours. The following websites offer listings of green volunteer opportunities: VolunteerMatch, EnviroLink, Freedom Corps, and Idealist. Below are some groups with nationwide volunteer networks you can join.

How to become a green volunteer

The amount of time you want to spend volunteering and what you'd like to get out of the experience (and give to it) will determine the kind of activity you choose. Don't think that you can only pick one option; feel free to mix and match. Types of volunteer activities include:

• Single-day events: Clean-ups of all kinds and work days rely hugely on helping hands (and legs and backs). Many people make it an annual event to get down and dirty cleaning up local waterways, parks, or roadsides. One of the largest, the Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup, started in 1986 as a beach cleanup along the shores of South Padre Island, Texas. Three years later the cleanup went international to include Canada and Mexico. Since then, more than 6 million volunteers have cleared in excess of 100 million pounds of marine litter from 170,000 miles of beaches and inland waterways. Green gatherings such as green festivals or eco fairs, (both local or national), which are often held around Earth Day, draw upon volunteers for their success as well. Green Festivals organized by Global Exchange and Co-op America, held in several cities across the country, utilizes 1,300 new and veteran volunteers.
• Eco-volunteer vacations: These low-impact trips, in the US and abroad, allow you to contribute to conservation research and eco-projects that benefit the natural areas and communities where you visit. Study the predator-prey relationship between moose and wolves on Isle Royale in Michigan or band penguins in South Africa on an Earthwatch Institute vacation. Or help (carefully) with a captive breeding program of crocodiles, spider monkeys, and macaws in Ecuador with an i to i trip. Charity Guide features many domestic and international eco-volunteer opportunities. Eco-minded newlyweds might want to "honeyteer" after they tie the knot.[1]
• Virtual volunteering: Also called online volunteering or cyber service, this choice allows people to go online from their computers to help with items such as designing a newsletter, updating the group's website, or searching for news articles of interest to the organization. This option opens up the world of volunteering to those with a disability, mobility issues, or busy schedules, who may not be able to travel to the science museum, park, or environmental education center to help out. Less travel also means fewer greenhouse gases emitted, earning this choice a green star.[2]
• A regular fixture: These folks are looking to help on a steady basis (full or part-time) in any of a constellation of jobs. These can include working as an environmental educator, a nature store clerk, a gardener, a docent at a science museum, helping maintain trails, monitoring stream water quality, fundraising, speaking to school kids about conservation issues, helping restore an ecosystem, or working in an organization's office assisting with data entry, membership mailings, media relations, and more. If needed, free training is typically provided by the organization.

Becoming a green volunteer helps you go green because...

• You're working with an organization that's trying to lessen its impact on the earth, restore damage done to the earth, or promote the appreciation or protection of the natural world.

April is a big month for greenies who like to make themselves useful with Earth Day followed up by National Volunteer Week.[3] A little more than a quarter of the population volunteers in the US, which adds up to 60.8 million people who did so between September of 2006 and 2007. From that large pie, a small slice makes up those volunteering for the environment; 1.9 percent according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics who adds animal care within the environment category. But despite an overall decline in volunteerism since 2005, the environment (animal care) category has inched up from 1.6 percent in 2002.[4][5][6] No matter how many people lend a hand to their eco-cause de jour, there are tasks for all age groups—from tykes who can bag litter on a beach cleanup with their family, to teens and twentysomethings looking to gain experience and build their resumes, to octogenarians plus who can lend their skills and knowledge to benefit any green org. Volunteers form the backbone of many nonprofit organizations which is the structure that the majority of environmental groups take.

Efforts by green volunteers aren't just drops in the bucket either; they are making a difference. As of June, 2007, volunteers in the Green Light New Orleans project had replaced more than 3,700 standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs in homes across New Orleans saving 1,467,256 kwh of energy, and cutting 800,660 pounds of carbon emissions.[7] Since its start in 1984, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado have completed 240 trail and habitat projects valued at more than $12.5 million through the efforts of 46,500 volunteers.[8] And in the Motor City, tree planting events every weekend during the spring and fall sponsored by The Greening of Detroit finds 10 to 180 trees being planted in school yards, along neighborhood streets and in community parks.[9]

Corporations are getting their employees into the green volunteer scene as well. In 2007, more than 1,800 GE employees across Asia took the GE ECOmmunity (a program that inspires employees to come up with novel solutions to environmental issues) to heart when they ran 59 different projects to clean rivers, public parks and plant gardens in Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, and Indonesia. In India, 500 GE employees talked to more than 10,000 school children about the necessity of energy and water conservation, waste management and planting trees.[10] On Earth Day 2007, The Timberland Company hosted more than 170 service events worldwide that focused on reforestation, engaging more than 9,000 volunteers.[11]

Tax credits

Though you won't make money volunteering and it may cost you quite a chunk of change if you embark on a long exotic eco-volunteer vacation, you may be able to receive tax deductions from the federal government. Costs associated with your volunteer work such as travel expenses, parking, fees for attending conventions or conferences, or the cost of uniforms and other supplies may be deductible as long as you're not being reimbursed for them already. Check the Internal Revenue Service's Charitable Contributions, Publication 526 for details or consult a tax accountant.[12]

Did you know?

There's even a volunteer eco-air force called LightHawk that has been flying for the environment since 1979. They've completed thousands of missions for hundreds of partners with an average of 700 per year in the US and Central America. Their green goals? To use their birds-eye views to uncover environmental misdeeds like off-road vehicle damage in a designated wilderness area or illegal mining operations.[13] In November, 2007 they responded to San Francisco's Save the Bay's SOS to quickly assess the damage done by an oil tanker spill in the San Francisco Bay and help direct cleaning crews.[14]

External links

• Charity Guide - Making a Match: "Shopping" for a Volunteer Job
• ServiceLeader.org - The Virtual Volunteering Guidebook
• The Green Guide - Volunteer Abroad
• Points of Light Foundation - 50+ Volunteering: Working for Stronger Communities
• Sierra Club - Sierra Club 101: A primer for new volunteers