• Sewing or knitting something (masks, blankets, beanies, toys, etc.).
• Making items that can be sold by an organization to raise money for its programs (bird houses, bat houses, little free libraries, artwork).
• Fostering an animal (a dog, a cat, a bird) in lieu of a permanent home or the animal being in a shelter.
• Friendly visitor or health appointment followup/reminder by phone.
• Counting birds in your backyard (though the reporting must be done online).
• Growing vegetables or fruit that can be donated to a food bank that accepts fresh food donations.

Do not limit your search for home-based / in-your-home volunteering to the list of programs on this page. Ask at programs in your own neighborhood, town or city if you can offer your services as an in-your-own-home volunteer, such as contacting

• Animal shelters and breed rescue groups.
• Senior centers.
• Domestic violence shelters.
• Drug treatment centers and sober houses.
• Food banks.

If you have been assigned court-ordered community service

Don't do any of these activities before getting permission to do them. Some courts will NOT accept these home-based activities as community service. Here's advice on volunteering to fulfill a court-order.

Craft-based & letter-writing at-home volunteering opportunities:

Afghans for Afghans (this project was started by three online volunteers who helped with a United Nations project back in 2001)

Shawl Ministry (faith-based Christian volunteering)

Quilts of Valor (QOVs), making quilts for soldiers.

Adopt a Soldier, allows volunteers to send letters and items to soldiers.

Binky Patrol is an organization that provides donated handmade security blankets to children in need. These include kids battling HIV, drug abuse, child abuse, or chronic and terminal illnesses. Volunteers can make blankets in a variety of ways: knitting, crocheting, quilting, or just sewing up a nice piece of fleece fabric. “Binkys” range from two feet square for preemies up to twin bed size, and all sizes in between. The web site has instructions specifically for people completing court-ordered community service.

Knitted Knockers is an non-profit that provides handmade prosthetic breasts to mastectomy patients. They organize knitters to make knitted cotton breasts that are lightweight, comfortable, and most importantly, free to those who need them.

The Mother Bear Project sends knitted teddy bears to children dealing with HIV in emerging nations. They’ve already distributed over 100,000 bears to children in 26 different countries. They welcome all knitters to make bears.

Leggings for Life takes requests from veterinarians and pet owners, for injured and disabled animals that need custom-made clothing and cushions for their special needs. They work to create ongoing partnerships, since assistance items will wear out and need to be replaced.

At Knots of Love, volunteers make crocheted caps for chemo patients, who are often cold in clinics and hospitals, and wigs aren’t comfortable all the time.

Knit-A-Square invites yarn crafters to join in a project that is simple enough for even beginners: knit or crochet an 8-inch square. The collected squares are sent to South Africa, where they are assembled into blankets for orphaned or vulnerable children affected by AIDS. These blankets, along with toys and knitted clothing, go to children in 54 countries. Over 12,000 knitters have contributed already, and you can join them at Facebook

Snuggles Project, part of the Hugs For Homeless Animals, connects good-hearted yarn crafters with animal shelters near them that could use security blankets to comfort animals and make the place feel more homey.

Halos of Hope is a non-profit that collects colorful caps for cancer patients from knitters, crocheters, and seamstresses who donate their time and skills.

Mats for Cats invites crafters to make soft cage liners for cage floors at cat shelters. Mats for Cats is affiliated with the Potsdam Humane Society in Potsdam, New York, but the mats generated are shared with shelters all over, and feral cats as they are identified.

Project Linus gathers homemade blankets for children distributed through hospitals, shelters, and aid agencies. Donated blankets can be sewn, quilted, hand-woven, knitted, or crocheted, but must be high-quality and free of smoke or pet hair.

Feel Better Friends mobilizes volunteers to crochet dolls to resemble a specific child dealing with any traumatic health issue. The dolls have the same hair and eye color as the child, and the hair/wig can be detachable for children going through chemotherapy. The point is make the child feel less “different” because of the health issue.

Knitting Rays of Hope collects handmade knitted, crocheted, or loomed hats to give to babies in neonatal intensive care units and to cancer patients. They have distributed over 2400 hats since 2012.

Animal-based at-home volunteering opportunities:

• Watch the Wild, a program of Nature Abounds: you can observe and report what is taking place in your community, from trees and plants to weather and wildlife activity. "In as little as ten minutes, your observations help us to understand how our eco-systems are changing and helps us to adapt for the future." All you need to do is choose a location or route to observe, whether it be your backyard, a route you drive regularly, or an area that you play, visit, or hike in regularly, sign up to participate, then record your observations and report them to Watch the Wild/Nature Abounds via mail or email.
   
• ebird database, supporting the National Audubon Society. You go "birding" or bird-watching, observing birds with your eye or binoculars, and then enter into the database when, where, and how you went birding, completing a checklist of all the birds seen and heard during the outing.
   
• Call your local humane societies, ASPCA chapters, animal shelters and breed rescue groups, and ask if you could:
   
• Make appropriate food treats for dogs and cats and drop them off at the shelter. You can find a variety of recipes to make treats for dogs and cats online.
   
• Make appropriate bedding for dogs and cats and drop them off at the shelter. You could use scrap materials gathered from your own home and that of neighbors. There are lots of suggestions for making your own dog and cat beds online.
   
• Organize a dog and cat toy drive, or a food and supply drive for the shelter.
   
• Foster a dog or cat. That means you care for the dog or cat in your own home until it is adopted by someone else. You do this through your local humane society, ASPCA, animal shelter, or dog or cat rescue organization. It is a real commitment; if you take in a dog or cat, there is no where else for that animal to go until it is adopted, so don't take on a foster animal unless you can make the commitment needed!
 
• If you want to make a bat house or a bird house or bee house for a wildlife conservation group, contact that group FIRST, before you start building, to ask if they would even want it. A better place to donate such might be a community garden (contact them FIRST before building!).

Food donations

• If you want to grow food for a local food bank, call the food bank FIRST and make sure they accept fresh produce and know all of the guidelines before you invest in the time and effort doing this.
   
• Do NOT make cakes, pies, cookies, muffins and other sweets for any group before calling first and asking, including fire stations, police stations, senior centers, etc. - and don't be surprised if they say no. Some no because they greatly prefer healthy food and are overwhelmed with high-calorie, unhealthy donations. Some say no because they cannot accept such donations.
   
• Food donations are always best done locally but CALL FIRST: family shelters, domestic violence shelters, drug treatment centers and sober houses, food banks. etc.

• regarding followup care.
• to remind about appointments, like breast-cancer screening.
• for a daily or weekly checkup.
• a reminder to take a medication.
• to provide assurance.
• to just have a "friendly visit."

Some courts and schools will NOT count online volunteering or home-based volunteering as part of your community service. You must get permission from them first before you embark on online volunteering or home-based volunteering to meet your community service obligation. It is your responsibility to understand the court's or school's or university's requirements for documenting your community service.

And keep in mind that an organization has every right to fire you / let you go as a volunteer, no matter how urgently you need to complete your community service. They are under no obligation to keep you -- especially if you have missed shifts, violated policies, etc.

Also see

Volunteering in the time of the novel coronavirus/COVID-19: how to find opportunities and how to stay safe, and keep others safe, while volunteering.

Detailed information on Finding Community Service and Volunteering for Teens.

How to Find Volunteering Opportunities, a resource for adults who want to volunteer

Volunteering with Seniors.

Using Your Business Skills for Good - Volunteering Your Business Management Skills, to help people starting or running small businesses / micro enterprises, to help people building businesses in high-poverty areas, and to help people entering or re-entering the work force.

Volunteering In Pursuit of a Medical, Veterinary or Social Work degree / career

Advice for volunteering as a group / volunteering in a group

Creating or Holding a Successful Community Event or Fund Raising Event.

Fund Raising For a Cause or Organization

Volunteering To Help After Major Disasters.

Volunteering with organizations that help animals and wildlife.

How to Make a Difference Internationally/Globally/in Another Country Without Going Abroad

Advice for family volunteering - volunteering by families with children and, related, advice for teaching children compassion & understanding instead of pity with regard to poverty.

You are NOT too young to volunteer! Ways you can volunteer, no matter how young you are

Advice for Finding Volunteer Activities During the Holidays

Details on how to quickly fill a community service obligation from a court or school.

Ideas for Leadership Volunteering Activities
These are more than just do-it-yourself volunteering - these are ideas to create or lead a sustainable, lasting benefit to a community, recruiting others to help and to have a leadership role as a volunteer. These can also be activities for the Girl Scouts Gold Award, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award (U.K.), a mitzvah project, or even scholarship consideration.

Ideas for Creating Your Own Volunteering Activity.

Donating Things Instead of Cash or Time (In-Kind Contributions)

Ideas for Funding Your Volunteering Abroad Trip.

Details on volunteering abroad (volunteering internationally).

Group Volunteering for Atheist and Secular Volunteers

How to complain about your volunteering experience.

How to Get a Job with the United Nations or Other International Humanitarian or Development Organization

Careers Working With Animals (for the benefit of animals)

How you can advocate for an issue important to you

Helping People Address Their Problems with Plastic
How to mobilize a community to clean up plastic bottles, plastic bags and other plastic waste from their environment, and how to reduce their use of such items in the future

The Last Virtual Volunteering Guidebook available for purchase as a paperback & an ebook
This book is for both organizations new to virtual volunteering, as well as for organizations already involving online volunteers who want to improve or expand their programs. The last chapter of the book is especially for online volunteers themselves.