You talk about love and serving others, read about it, feel it, and know that it’s important. Your beliefs have changed your life. You want to bring about changes in your community and world and show that faith is also a principle of ACTION!

Here are some creative volunteer projects great for your faith based group and family members!

Help the Homeless/Hungry

• Help serve food in a soup kitchen
• Conduct a canned food drive
• Collect clothing/hygiene supplies/toys/paper products/blankets to give to a shelter
• Cook casseroles to be served at shelters
• Inspect and sort canned food
• Make sandwiches and bag lunches for homeless children or a shelter
• Organize snacks for walkers during fundraising events
• Teach computer or other job-building skills
• Make welcome baskets for new Habitat for Humanity homeowners
• Grow a vegetable garden and donate some of the food to a shelter
• Glean fresh produce for food pantries
• Collect clothing for goodwill
• Conduct toiletry, mitten, or book drives
• Collect art and school supplies for homeless children
• Sponsor a birthday party for a homeless child
• Have a meal or other benefit to raise money for a shelter
• Research homeless issues with your family and help your friends and neighbors understand the problem as it relates to your community
• Contact and write letters to governmental leaders about the problems surrounding homelessness in your area
• Participate in a Walk or Run and gather pledges to raise funds for food banks and pantries who are feeding the hungry
• Pick up donations and deliver them to shelters
• Make fleece tie blankets
• Adopt a family – give gifts anonymously or holiday gifts, have a friendship with them, have barbecues together
• Share a musical presentation, talent show, or dramatic production
• Work, plant, water, weed and/or harvest in a community garden
• Plan a meal, purchase ingredients, and prepare food for a small group of residents or a family in transitional housing

Find an Opportunity

Assist Children

• Make pillows, cards, games, or stuffed toys for children who are sick in the hospital
• Make booboo bunnies for children to receive at a clinic
• Collect items to make baby bags for poor mothers who recently had a baby – may contain diapers, baby bottles, pacifiers, burp rags, formula, baby food, etc.
• Plan a special event outing or field trip for kids in a low-income preschool
• Help children at an after-school program develop their talents – have rehearsal time and hold a talent show
• Hold a drive to collect sunscreen/flip flops/healthy snacks/school supplies for children
• Teach children a special skill or recipe
• Hold clothing drives and donate clothes to those in need
• Re-paint or rebuild playground equipment
• Teach music lessons to children in need
• Lead a craft project with children that will help elderly in a nursing home
• Have a birthday supply drive to give a child in need the party supplies necessary for a birthday party
• Make, buy, or donate toys for children in orphanages or shelters
• Sort through clothing, toys or books others have donated for children in need
• Play basketball or other sports with children in need
• Donate your hair for children with cancer or other medical conditions
• Put together a baby layette for new moms
• Make a first day of school package with school supplies
• Conduct a fundraiser to help send a child to summer camp
• Make care packages (i.e. sunscreen, stationery) for children at camp
• Write letters to or for sick children
• Organize a teddy bear drive
• Draw pictures for Save the Children
• Donate and sort books, clothes and party supplies for disadvantaged children
• Select and wrap gifts for the holidays

Find an Opportunity

Befriend the Elderly

• Have a “senior” prom at a nursing home
• Have a talent show or musical program for residents at a nursing home
• Make emergency storm packs for elderly in times of need
• Organize a Bingo evening or game night
• Organize a barbecue
• Perform seasonal yard work including weeding, mowing lawns, raking leaves, and shoveling snow for nursing homes
• Give manicures and pedicures
• Have puppet shows
• Plant flowers
• Make decorations for rooms – could make flowers out of tissue paper or construction paper to brighten up a room or attach to wheelchairs or beds
• Clip coupons for seniors – often they are on a tight budget
• Record and write down stories and memories about his/her life
• Label pictures to preserve memories of people and places (using acid-free materials)
• Make cards or write letters for a special older friend
• Play board games with nursing home residents
• Perform a play for residents
• Read a book or the newspaper
• Write letters or send email to their families
• Conduct small home repairs
• Make lap blankets
• Bring your pet to visit

Find an Opportunity

Care for Sick or Disabled People

• Help with setup and decorations and/or cleanup of a party
• Put on a special party with a holiday, birthday or other fun theme
• Have a special story time or reading hour
• Tell funny stories
• Help run an event or cheer and support athletes for the Special Olympics
• Tutor at an after-school program for children with mental retardation
• Deliver meals to people with AIDS
• Do a Walk or Run to educate and raise money for cancer research (or another important disease)
• Sort through donations for families being sheltered from abuse
• Support the Red Cross disaster relief programs in your area
• Do craft projects and wrap gifts for a women's shelter
• Teach arts and crafts to children with disabilities
• Help with painting projects and/or horticulture
• Play soccer or other sports with youth who have developmental disabilities
• Grant “wishes” for children who are sick
• Deliver or serve meals to people who are bedridden or their families
• Make food for families with relatives in the hospital
• Put on a concert for people with disabilities

Find an Opportunity

Respond to the Environment

• Write letters to Congress supporting legislation that helps the environment
• Help clean up shore around lakes, beaches/coasts, river
• Clean up litter on the street or in a park
• Weed in a cemetery or park
• Use more energy-efficient light bulbs
• Work on a community garden or farm
• Clear trails
• Start a compost pile
• Participate in a city cleanup in your local area
• Research about specific environmental issues and present for others in a creative, fun, and educational way
• Recycle!
• Fix a leaky faucet for yourself or a friend
• Look for and promote programs in your area that recycle cell phones, toner cartridges, printers, computers, phone books, etc.
• Learn more about energy efficiency and renewable energy and educate others about insulating their home
• Learn about energy conservation and make daily changes at home, school, and work
• Plant trees and other native species to preserve natural habitats
• Plant flowers and trees in your yard or (with permission) in other public areas
• Come up with creative craft projects out of re-used materials to combine with other volunteer opportunities (ex. helping children, the elderly, or people with disabilities)
• Make sets for dramatic productions out of cardboard boxes and other re-used items

Find an Opportunity

Support the Arts

• Help with family days and other special events
• Help set up exhibits

Take Care of Animals

• Help clean up at a local animal shelter
• Help with a yard sale, bake sale, or lemonade stand and donate the money you earn to an animal organization
• Make items, such as magnets, scarves, or other special animal artwork that you can sell, and donate the proceeds to animals in need
• Protect habitats for endangered animals (see also list of suggestions for helping the Environment)
• Have a dog or cat food drive
• Make a birdbath or birdhouse
• Join an activist network
• Encourage vegetarian diets in schools and distribute materials
• Walk or run to raise money for animals
• Contact legislators and companies about issues affecting animals
• Sponsor a party or festival where friends and the community can learn about animals in need, have fun, and donate money to help them out
• Adopt an endangered species
• Research and teach others about a local shelter, its needs, and ways people can help

Find an Opportunity

International/Culture

• Research and host a party where you educate people about real issues in other countries and ways they can help
• Crochet bandages for people who have leprosy
• Gather supplies, make and send school kits to children in Iraq
• Exchange recipes and cook together with people from different countries
• Share experiences from living in another culture and what you learned
• Sponsor a child living abroad
• Rebuild a bicycle to be sent abroad
• Send a child to school in Tanzania
• Write to a pen pal overseas

Contact your local organizations to find specific, local opportunities for you! Please feel free to login here

Do you have another idea for your faith-based group? Share it with others! Send an email here.

Have you had a great (or perhaps not so good!) volunteering experience with your faith-based group and/or that you would like to share? Maybe a funny story or a really special experience we can all learn from? Tell us about it here.

If you’re looking for even more ideas, visit our Master list for more ideas!

Are you finding some great ideas, but have been unable to carry them out? Our Group FAQs may help explain.

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