An American volunteering website made Time Magazine’s Top 10 list (of websites, that is) for 2007. Link to Volunteer Match.

I saw some turn of year mentions of UK volunteer opportunities, but don’t think any sites got quite that level of recognition over here. Can anyone prove me wrong?

(Time top 10 courtesy of ephilanthropy.org)

VOLUNTEERS URGENTLY REQUIRED
FOR A COLLECTION in AID of the MS RESEARCH CHARITY
at THE MALL CRIBBS CAUSEWAY near Bristol
on FRIDAY 18^TH and SATURDAY 19^TH JANUARY 2008

The collections will take place all day on both of these days, and if you are able to help for a couple of hours, please contact:

BRIAN PAGINGTON
on Tel: Home 01454 320141
Tel: Mobile 07776 341 601
Please forward this request to anyone you know who might be able to help with these collections.
Thank You

The introduction of the Community Interest Companies (CIC) was intended to provide a way for people to get involved in social enterprise projects intended to benefit local communities. A CIC can be setup and grow safe in the knowledge that what is built for the benefit of the local community will remain in that community.

There is one other factor that distinguishes a CIC from most other organisations. That is the need for people within a community to get involved in the projects. Most people would not volunteer to help a company which has it’s shareholders as it’s primary focus!

But a CIC is different. Volunteers can get involved and help knowing that what they create is for the benefit of their community.

We need volunteers in our local communities. The charities have always needed people to help and the Community Interest Companies will not succeed without people from the community getting involved.

Explosion Entertainments is a CIC with a difference. We provide a way for volunteers from local communities throughout the UK to help their local charitable causes with their fundraising.

We have entertainers of all levels of skills and talents registering on our website making themselves available to help on a voluntary basis. Yes they get publicity for themselves, yes they get a chance to perform in public (all aspiring entertainers need that), but the primary purpose is to help the charitable cause so that it can benefit the local community.

I must add that Explosion Entertainments does not charge anyone for registering, or using entertainers from the website, or anything. We ourselves are volunteers and our primary purpose is to help charitable causes. What we are building is not for ourselves but for the community.

All local communities need volunteers! Find a cause that you are interested in or who need your particular skills and expertise. Offer to help, a few hours a month is better than nothing.

Be a volunteer. Your community needs you!

Welcome to my first ever blog posting! With a partner who loves computers almost as much as he loves me, I have been exposed to the techie bloggers for some time now. At the moment I volunteer for a local (Worcester) community centre, but it wasn’t actually that easy to find voluntary work as I work full time at a university. I absolutely love volunteering - for me it is all about gaining a sense of belonging to a community, for which I must thank Bath Place in Leamington. I increasingly think that I could do so much more, and there seems to be a real shift towards generating income, through the creation of a social enterprise, as a means to become more independent. I’d like to know how anyone else out there took the first plunge into this complex world.

Hi, I am a student currently working for the Mercosur Network in Uruguay, an organization that strives toward the economic integration of the Mercosur region (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil). It is an incredible organization, but there is not too much money to be found in South America for causes such as these. I am attempting to start to fundraise in order to fund more research, conferences, etc… but am completely lost on how to start fundraising internationally. Any ideas/suggestions?