Volunteer Opportunities

Direct service is a great way to engage with local community members and fulfill needs for those experiencing hardship and oppression. Through relationships with many local nonprofits, the Lindy Center for Civic Engagement is able to connect students to volunteer opportunities including one-time events and sustained commitments to local nonprofits. If you're looking for a meaningful volunteer opportunity, you've come to the right place; we encourage you to browse the resources listed below and combine your volunteer experiences with our other educational and reflective opportunities to become agents of social change. 

Finding Volunteer Opportunities

As of the summer of 2026, the Lindy Center no longer has the Galaxy civic engagement database. Instead, we are excited to offer updated resources for finding volunteer opportunities on and off campus that match with student interests, schedules, and other considerations. We will share more about new resources soon. In the meantime, here are some suggestions for finding volunteer opportunities: 

• Browse Dragonlink for on-campus service opportunities hosted by student organizations and campus offices. When looking for events, filter by the "Service" theme and/or the "Community Service" category. 
• Use Handshake and filter by "Volunteer" in the Job Type category to find volunteer opportunities from organizations off campus
• For more localized opportunities, browse volunteer opportunities in Philadelphia on Idealist, see local volunteer suggestions like this one from Philadelphia Magazine, and check out opportunities with the city such as the ones listed here under the department of Parks and Recreation (including monthly clean ups)
• If you want to volunteer right away, the following organizations have regular shifts that you can jump into without any orientation: 
  • Sunday Love Project
  • Feast Incarnate at University Lutheran Church
  • Philly House
  • MANNA
  • Broad Street Love
  • Philabundance
  • Cobbs Creek Ambassadors 
• If you are interested in group opportunities for your staff, student organization, or other group, here are some volunteer opportunities that are good for groups: 
  • MANNA
  • Share Food Program
  • Ronald McDonald House
  • Gift of Life Donor House
  • Jewish Relief Agency
  • JFCS
    

For students who are looking to track service hours, such as for a graduate school requirement, you can do that through DragonLink by going to your profile and clicking "Service Hours". 

Finally, if you are a community partner interested in connecting with student volunteers, we encourage you to check out Handshake and consider creating a profile and opportunities there (while it is primarily marketed to employers, you can list volunteer opportunities), or reach out to the Lindy Center for Civic Engagement to chat about other ways to reach students.