Before I had kids, I spent a good chunk of my time volunteering. Every year, I spent a day as a Bag Buddy for USPS letter carriers, collecting food from the doorsteps of people on their route. I used to donate blood regularly, too - they won't let you do it if you're pregnant so I've spent a good while not being able to in recent years. One of my favorite volunteer activities is Feed My Starving Children. In FMSC, you actually make dry food mixtures for people (especially children) in third world countries. It's only a few hours, but you can make thousands of meals and you work in teams - sometimes you don't know everyone in your team but it's always really fun to get to meet new friends!
After kids? I'm lucky if I can find time to volunteer twice a year on location. My interests have changed, too - I want to do more for moms and babies or young children, because I finally understand exactly how difficult raising kids can be. And I'd like to be able to use my skills and my time to help others in ways that I was helped (or that I would have appreciated being helped). But most of the volunteering I can do nowadays are things that don't require me to be in a physical location at a specific time.
Instead, I volunteer to help others through the internet. When I first started cloth diapering, I found a resource that helped me immensely - called Fluff Love & Cloth Diaper Science. This Facebook group (and accompanying website) helps caregivers establish working wash routines for families that are washing their own cloth diapers. After spending a lot of time learning from the admins of the group and the website itself, I started pitching in to help others. After several months of helping as I could, one of the admins approached me about joining the group in an official capacity. For about a year and a half, I've also been part of The Rebecca Foundation. TRF is a cloth diaper loan organization - helping families cloth diaper their babies in a sustainable and economical way. One of my favorite things about TRF is that we are the only organization that loans cloth diapers to families at no cost to them, and with no term limit on the loan.
More than ninety percent of the volunteer work that I do is remote and online. It makes it easier to balance my time between taking care of my family and taking care of others. I don't volunteer because I want to be admired or recognized for it. I volunteer because it feels good to help other people. Hopefully, my kids will see me making time to give to others and will learn that it's joyful to be generous. There are not only loads of mom-friendly volunteer organizations, there are also countless organizations that need funding. Volunteerism is rewarding whether you can give of yourself, your talents, your time, or your money. It's a win-win - and I hope you can find a way to fit it into your life if you haven't already!
Which organizations do you volunteer with? Why is that cause important to you? Make a case and convince me to support your cause on Twitter @pi3sugarpi3.