What is a Volunteer?

There are volunteers for almost every passion. This means you have plenty of opportunities to volunteer, if that's what your heart desires. Volunteer work is a great way to earn experience while doing great things for people who need it most.

Being a volunteer is something that is done on your own time. As consideration for your generosity, you probably will get to choose when you volunteer and for how long. A lot of volunteer opportunities will even turn into a full-time job, so make sure you're getting to know the people who work there.

Volunteering can take a lot of time because the need for volunteers is never-ending. Most volunteers receive training when they show up instead of earning formal training or education. As long as you're ready to help, many organizations will open their doors to you.

What Does a Volunteer Do

There are certain skills that many volunteers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed compassion, problem-solving skills and time-management skills.

How To Become a Volunteer

If you're interested in becoming a volunteer, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 60.9% of volunteers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 7.5% of volunteers have master's degrees. Even though most volunteers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Volunteer
Top Volunteer Jobs Near You

Volunteer Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a volunteer can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as office assistant, progress to a title such as executive assistant and then eventually end up with the title general manager.

Volunteer

Average Salary for a Volunteer

Volunteers in America make an average salary of $31,227 per year or $15 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $41,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $23,000 per year.
Average Volunteer Salary
$31,227 Yearly
$15.01 hourly

What Am I Worth?

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Roles and Types of Volunteer

The role of a volunteer includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general volunteer responsibilities:

  • Individual caseload of up to 5 visit coach families at foster care agency sites in queens
  • Horticulture - assist in propagation in the greenhouses, water, plant flowers, weed gardens at various sites throughout davenport
  • Duties will be determined in collaboration with the program, but can include clerical support, phone support,

There are several types of volunteer, including:

Coordinator

Role:

As a coordinator, you're in charge of organizing, planning, and executing events or activities properly. That can even include making sure the team that you lead works together efficiently and effectively.

Most coordinators earn a bachelor's degree before even considering this job and a lot of them have prior leadership experience. Either way, you need to make sure you can prove that you can lead a team to pull off an event successfully.

You'll rarely ever need to work overtime as a coordinator but you might expect some overtime during busy periods. Usually, you'll just work a normal 40-hour schedule.

  • Average Salary: $41,599
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Volunteer Coordinator

Role:

A volunteer coordinator is an important figure in any organization that works with volunteers. Volunteer coordinators promote opportunities for volunteers while conveying the mission of their organization through the implementation of an outreach program they design. They screen, hire, and train new members for the team, keep track of all volunteer data, and liaise between the volunteers and the organization.

Volunteer coordinators are responsible for finding the right task for the right volunteer and giving clear instructions about the tasks. They create schedules and keep track of the volunteers' work, design a code of conduct matching the purpose of the organization, and make sure that all activities are carried out according to these guidelines.

Volunteering has its own magic, and a volunteer coordinator has to be passionate about this unique form of human interaction. Excellent communication skills are a must, as well as understanding the power of group work, and possessing the ability to build a strong and functional team.

  • Average Salary: $39,894
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Student Volunteer

Role:

Student volunteers make a difference in society by giving their time and ability to help out in different volunteer activities and in return they develop life skills and become well-minded individuals and get the satisfaction of helping others. Reasons why students volunteer are varied. Some volunteer for networking and meeting new people. If you are looking to meet new people, then volunteering for campus events or fundraisers for a club is a great way of doing it.

Some volunteer to learn new skills, it is a good way to improve your prospective or perspective and learn new things. You get to open up your mind and see how others live or how things are done in your volunteer program. Some volunteer to make a positive impact, as passion for the cause is a huge part of volunteer work. By employing your time and skills, you get to enjoy the satisfaction of doing good.

Some volunteer to boost their resume credentials. It is evident that employers are more likely to hire someone with volunteer experience as opposed to those without at a margin of 27%. Student volunteers are mostly enrolled in college and do not earn anything for their efforts except the satisfaction of a job well done.

  • Average Salary: $29,145
  • Degree: Bachelor's Degree
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States With The Most Volunteer Jobs

Number Of Volunteer Jobs By State

RankStateNumber of JobsAverage Salary
1California420$33,388
2Ohio409$27,004
3Nevada389$32,356
4Texas329$26,768
5Georgia308$24,430
6Illinois299$31,314
7New York289$35,398
8Florida269$21,098
9Pennsylvania241$27,803
10Massachusetts219$26,647
11Minnesota214$27,474
12South Carolina200$24,869
13Michigan179$27,326
14Colorado168$22,560
15Arizona146$26,700
16Wisconsin131$27,911
17New Jersey129$30,842
18Washington120$30,290
19Virginia114$27,600
20North Carolina113$22,894
21Indiana99$28,055
22Missouri89$24,937
23Maryland88$26,046
24Alabama87$22,836
25Utah86$33,337
26Tennessee86$25,070
27Connecticut74$28,237
28Oregon65$40,391
29Iowa62$30,797
30Kentucky56$22,623
31Alaska54$24,602
32Louisiana43$21,526
33Kansas42$28,479
34New Hampshire39$29,778
35Arkansas37$30,325
36Nebraska35$29,547
37Mississippi35$22,937
38West Virginia32$26,390
39Idaho27$31,832
40New Mexico26$27,772
41North Dakota25$28,855
42Oklahoma25$24,650
43Montana24$34,781
44Maine17$38,176
45Rhode Island16$30,673
46Vermont14$32,433
47Wyoming13$35,308
48Hawaii13$26,514
49South Dakota12$25,915
50Delaware9$30,623

Volunteer Education

Volunteer Majors

Business
14.2 %
Psychology
14.0 %
Biology
8.3 %

Volunteer Degrees

Bachelors

60.9 %

Associate

14.5 %

High School Diploma

10.7 %

Top Colleges for Volunteers

1. California State University - Fullerton

Fullerton, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,886

Enrollment

34,637

2. University of Delaware

Newark, DE • Private

In-State Tuition

$13,680

Enrollment

19,060

3. Minnesota State University - Mankato

Mankato, MN • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,184

Enrollment

11,675

4. California State University - San Bernardino

San Bernardino, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,922

Enrollment

17,704

5. SUNY College at Brockport

Brockport, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$8,412

Enrollment

7,015

6. California State University - Dominguez Hills

Carson, CA • Private

In-State Tuition

$6,942

Enrollment

13,871

7. Northern Illinois University

Dekalb, IL • Private

In-State Tuition

$14,617

Enrollment

12,761

8. Inter American University of Puerto Rico Aguadilla

Aguadilla, PR • Private

In-State Tuition

$5,902

Enrollment

3,622

9. Towson University

Towson, MD • Private

In-State Tuition

$9,940

Enrollment

19,623

10. Saint Joseph's College, New York

Brooklyn, NY • Private

In-State Tuition

$27,830

Enrollment

937

Top Skills For a Volunteer

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 12.0% of volunteers listed child care on their resume, but soft skills such as compassion and problem-solving skills are important as well.

  • Child Care, 12.0%
  • Patient Charts, 9.9%
  • Patient Care, 9.5%
  • Front Desk, 9.4%
  • Community Outreach, 9.2%
  • Other Skills, 50.0%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Volunteer Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Volunteer templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Volunteer resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Volunteer diversity

Volunteer Gender Distribution

Female
Female
64%
Male
Male
36%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among volunteers, 64.0% of them are women, while 36.0% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among volunteers is White, which makes up 52.5% of all volunteers.

  • The most common foreign language among volunteers is Spanish at 49.7%.

Online Courses For Volunteer That You May Like

Advertising Disclosure  

1. Essentials of Palliative Care

coursera

This course starts you on your journey of integrating primary palliative care into your daily lives. You will learn what palliative care is, how to communicate with patients, show empathy, and practice difficult conversations. You will learn how to screen for distress and provide psychosocial support. You will learn about goals of care and advance care planning and how to improve your success with having these conversations with patients. Finally, you will explore important cultural...

2. Emergency Care: Pregnancy, Infants, and Children

coursera

Welcome to the final course of lectures in your quest to master EMT basics. In this course, we will cover some of the highest-stress patient populations: pregnant patients and kids, also known as pediatrics. To wrap up your EMT knowledge we will end this course with information about hazmat situations, extricating patients from tight spots and finally how you write a note about your patient care. You will learn to ensure it communicates what your assessment of the patient was, what...

3. Winning Communication Skills for Telephone, Conference Calls

udemy
4.5
(2,358)

Improve Communication Skills - Use the Telephone Effectively! Avoid Phone Etiquette Blunders that Annoy...

Show More Online Courses For Volunteer
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How Do Volunteers Rate Their Jobs?

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Top Volunteer Employers

Most Common Employers For Volunteer

RankCompanyAverage SalaryHourly RateJob Openings
1Ronald McDonald House$40,690$19.56682
2St. Vincent de Paul$36,035$17.32288
3Big Brothers Big Sister$34,433$16.55760
4Boston Children's Hospital$33,315$16.02316
5Kaiser Permanente$32,715$15.73612
6Catholic Charities Health and Human Services$31,797$15.29279
7Boys & Girls Clubs of America$31,184$14.992,330
8Relay Delivery$30,544$14.68803
9The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints$30,468$14.65496
10Peace Corps$30,021$14.43292
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Volunteer Videos

Be a Volunteer - Peace Corps
How to be a Volunteer in every part of Life? - Sadhguru

Becoming a Volunteer FAQs

How Long Does It Take To Become A Volunteer?

It takes one year or less to become a volunteer. That is the time it takes to learn specific volunteer skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education. If you include the normal education requirements to complete a college degree, then it takes 4 to 6 years years to become a volunteer.

What Are Types Of Volunteer Work?

Types of volunteer work include environmental, animal, and social. Here are some details on each of these types of volunteer work:

  • Environmental

Have more questions? See all answers to common community and social services questions.

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Updated April 6, 2023