Volunteer Opportunity Resource: Idealist.org

By Kate | Permalink | No Comments | February 2nd, 2007 | Trackback

Idealist.org (Action Without Borders) is a site dedicated to connecting “people, organizations, and resources to help build a world where all people can live free and dignified lives… independent of any government, political ideology, or religious creed. Our work is guided by the common desire of our members and supporters to find practical solutions to social and environmental problems, in a spirit of generosity and mutual respect.”

There are sections with non-profit job listings, volunteer opportunities (both local and international), internships, events and campaigns. You can search by country, field (education, environmental, etc) and language needed, and there is also a section of resources for different people – volunteers, teachers, nonprofit managers - such as the non-profit FAQs.

For example, for “Housing and Homelessness” volunteer opportunities in Chicago, there are 25 listings.

Microcredit – in all countries – 11, and for Children and Youth in India – 53.

For career inspiration, have a look at the staff profiles.

One interesting initiative is that to organize start-up meetings during the week of Feb 5 - 11 in communities throughout the world to “help launch a global network of people who want to change their communities and the world by connecting people, ideas, and resources in every possible way.” That’s this upcoming week, so find out what’s going on in your community here.

Idealist came up with a marvelous analogy to illustrate the situation we are in right now and how their work fits into the whole picture:

“Imagine that you woke up one morning and every telephone and computer on earth was unplugged from the wall.

To make all these machines work again, and bring the whole network back to life, three or four billion people would have to plug their phones and computers back into the wall. But before this happens, think about that moment when everyone would be holding a plug in their hand, right before connecting again. At that point there would be no network at all, no one could communicate with anyone else, and yet the whole thing would be so close to coming together.

The situation we are in right now is very similar to that moment. We have in our hands everything we need to create a global network of people who want to build a better world, but to get there, we need to reach out, connect, and plug in.”

Idealist.org is a classic resource – bookmark it and put it at the top of your list!

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