Volunteers: Where to Find Them, How to Use Them

Aside from knowing that these general categories are going to be the ones who give, what else can you do? Start by contacting companies physically closest to you.

What are you prepared to offer in exchange for the company’s help? (Example: gaining skills, making social and professional contacts, PR opportunities.) What type of help do you need? Are you hoping to use the company as an access point to individual employees, or do you want to recruit employees as a group? How flexible are you about scheduling? What resources above and beyond people are you hoping to get? For example, if the company says, OK, we’re coming to trim your shrubbery, are you expecting volunteers to bring their own tools?