Find volunteer opportunities in Central Oregon
Find a place to give your time. Volunteer Central Oregon is the regional directory of nonprofits, community groups, and local efforts across Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties and Warm Springs that are looking for volunteers, donors, and partners right now.
Search by name, browse by cause, or pick a letter. Every listing takes you straight to the organization, so you can get involved on your own terms. No account, no login, no middleman.
More ways to get involved
Catalyze Central OregonA new local effort launching soon to connect residents directly with nonprofits.
Volunteer ConversationsRather talk it through with a person? A Central Oregon group building community around volunteering.
DREAMjamA monthly networking group for nonprofit development, events, and marketing staff.
Looking for the old portal? Here's what happened, and why.
Need to update your organization's listing? Check the field reference guide, then email support@volunteercentraloregon.org.
Featured Organizations
The PTO is a non-profit organization that exists for the purpose of supporting the education of children at Silver Rail Elementary School by fostering relationships among the school, parents, and teachers. The PTO seeks to develop a closer connection between school and home by encouraging family involvement and improving the environment at Silver Rail through volunteer and financial support.
Event support (staffing and cheering shifts at school events like the Color Fun Run), riding along with the student Bike Bus, helping run the school-day Mileage Club, Watch D.O.G.S. (dads and father figures volunteering at school), and PTO leadership roles. Commitments range from a one-hour shift to ongoing leadership. All volunteers need a current Bend-La Pine Schools background check.
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Compassionate Canines of Central Oregon is an all-volunteer group, founded in 2001, that brings registered therapy dog teams into hospitals, schools, special needs centers, and nursing homes across the region. It matches teams with places that want visits, and offers education and networking for handlers. There are no membership fees or meetings.
Handlers and their dogs visit hospitals, schools, special needs centers, and care facilities as therapy dog teams. Teams first register through Alliance of Therapy Dogs or Pet Partners, which test the team and set requirements such as a dog at least a year old that has lived with its handler for six months. Compassionate Canines then connects registered teams with visit opportunities and events.
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Central Oregon Pediatric Associates (COPA) is a for-profit pediatric practice, founded in 1976, caring for newborns through teens at clinics in East, West, and South Bend and in Redmond, with behavioral health, allergy, lactation, nutrition, and community health worker support. COPA partners with local organizations serving children, including KIDS Center, MBSEF, Sparrow Clubs, and CASA, and regularly supports community events. After the Silver Rail shooting, its pediatricians shared guidance for parents on talking with children about it.
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NAMI Central Oregon, the local affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, provides free support, education, and advocacy for people living with mental illness and their families, including peer and family support groups, classes, and community presentations that reduce stigma and help people find hope and recovery.
Volunteer roles include support group leaders and class teachers (with NAMI training, often people with lived experience), community presentations and outreach, local advocacy, events and fundraising, grant writing, graphic design and writing, and admin help. Start with the monthly online Volunteer Information Session, held the third Wednesday from 6 to 7 p.m. A background check is required.
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Provides primary care, mental health and dental services regardless of the ability to pay. Sliding scale discounts available to those eligible.
Outreach and event volunteering: representing Mosaic at community events, staffing a booth, set-up and tear-down. Advisory roles: a Fundraising Advisory Council, plus Patient Advisory Councils for Mosaic patients. Workplace groups can take on projects such as assembling weather kits for unhoused and at-risk patients. Board committees are open to non-board members. No clinical volunteer positions are offered.
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Moms Demand Action - Central Oregon
also known as Central Oregon Moms Demand Action; Moms Demand Action Bend
The Central Oregon group of Moms Demand Action has been active in Bend since 2014 as a local group of the Oregon chapter. Its volunteers organize community gatherings such as the annual Wear Orange event each June, meet with lawmakers, and share safe firearm storage education with families. The group proposed and sponsored the candlelight vigil at Drake Park on October 15, 2026, following the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School. Volunteers are easy to spot at events in their red shirts.
Volunteers help with community events and vigils, legislative advocacy (contacting lawmakers, testifying, advocacy days in Salem), Be SMART safe firearm storage education, voter outreach, tabling at local events, and survivor support. Sign up online and check the box to be contacted about opportunities in your community to be connected with the Central Oregon group. Students Demand Action offers a path for high school and college students.
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HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response is an all-volunteer nonprofit that has sent specially trained dog and handler teams to comfort people affected by crises and disasters since 1999. Teams respond at no charge when requested by relief organizations, schools, hospitals, chaplains, and emergency responders, and never self-deploy.
Volunteers serve as certified crisis response canine teams, offering comfort at disasters, school crises, and other traumatic events when an agency requests them, or as team leaders who supervise and support teams on deployment without needing a dog of their own. Handlers and dogs go through crisis response certification, and members are background checked and insured.
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Deschutes Public Library serves all of Deschutes County through branches in Bend, Redmond, Sisters, La Pine, and Sunriver, offering books and media, digital resources, storytimes and youth programs, adult learning and author events, and community spaces. Voter-approved bond projects are expanding and renovating libraries across the county, including a new central library in Bend.
Volunteers help at branches across Deschutes County with materials handling, programs and events, and outreach. There are separate applications for adults and youth ages 12 to 17; after applying, your local branch's volunteer liaison schedules a screening conversation. Teens in grades 6 to 12 can also join the Teen Library Council to plan and lead a mental health project and earn volunteer hours. In-person openings vary, so returning volunteers are sometimes invited first.
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Crook County Fire & Rescue provides fire, emergency medical, and ambulance service from Prineville. Alongside its career crews it relies on volunteer and resident firefighters, and it teaches the community too, including free Stop the Bleed classes in partnership with St. Charles that train residents and workplaces to control life-threatening bleeding.
Volunteer firefighter/EMTs respond to medical calls, crashes, and structural and wildland fires, and can train to drive apparatus and ambulances. A resident program lets volunteers live at a station on rotating shifts with a stipend, and an education program reimburses fire science and paramedicine courses at COCC. Volunteers must be 18+, pass a background check, serve 16 hours a month, and attend monthly training.
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Bend Fire & Rescue is the City of Bend's fire and emergency medical service, answering fire, rescue, and ambulance calls from stations across Bend and the surrounding rural fire district. Alongside its crews, a corps of support volunteers helps carry its prevention and community safety work, from home safety checks for seniors to school visits and community events.
Support volunteers visit seniors' homes to check for fire and fall hazards through Safety Outreach for Seniors, teach prevention programs like smoke alarm and car seat safety, staff the Community Engine and Sparky at school visits and events, run courier routes between stations, help with office work, and support Camp Fire Axe for high schoolers. Training, including CPR, is provided at monthly meetings.
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Partners In Care is Central Oregon's only independent, nonprofit home health and hospice organization, and the state's first hospice service. It provides hospice, home health, palliative care, and bereavement support across Deschutes, Crook, and Jefferson counties, from branches in Bend, Redmond, and La Pine, and runs a hospice house in Bend.
Hospice volunteers offer companionship and support to patients and families through presence, not medical tasks, serving 2–8 hours a month (often 1–3 hours a week) for at least a year. Training includes a meeting with the volunteer coordinator, six hours of self-paced video, and one day of in-person orientation. Other volunteers help with fundraising, community education, and office support. Waiting about a year after a personal loss is recommended.
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The American Red Cross Cascades Region serves Central and Eastern Oregon, responding to home fires and other disasters with shelter, food, and emergency support, collecting lifesaving blood, teaching CPR, first aid, and home fire safety, and supporting military families and veterans. Its work in Central Oregon is powered largely by trained local volunteers.
Volunteer roles include Disaster Action Team responders, blood drive support, home fire safety campaign outreach, CPR/first aid instructors, and shelter workers during emergencies. Background check and orientation required; 18+.
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The High Desert Museum, just south of Bend, is the largest cultural institution in Central and Eastern Oregon and the only museum in the nation devoted to North America's High Desert. Opened in 1982 on 135 acres, it brings together live wildlife, art, history, and the region's Indigenous and pioneer cultures through indoor and outdoor exhibits, living history, bird of prey encounters, and hands-on STEAM programs, camps, and outreach for learners of all ages.
Volunteers support nearly every part of the Museum, from staffing exhibits and leading hands-on activities for visitors to helping school groups on field trips, assisting at Admissions, and interpreting living history and natural history at various sites. Teen-specific roles are available seasonally. Adult volunteers complete a background check and orientation.
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YouthLine is a free, confidential teen-to-teen crisis and help line, a program of Lines for Life, where trained teen volunteers support other young people by phone, text, and chat, with adult clinicians available around the clock.
Teen volunteers are trained to answer YouthLine calls, texts, and chats, offering peer support to other youth with adult supervisors backing them up, and join outreach to spread the word in schools. Extensive training is provided.
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Pet Partners is a national nonprofit, based in Bellevue, Washington, that educates, evaluates, certifies, and insures volunteer therapy animal teams. For nearly 50 years its teams have visited hospitals, schools, and nursing homes, and it registers nine species, from dogs and cats to horses, rabbits, birds, and llamas. Central Oregon handlers can register through Pet Partners and then find local visit opportunities, including through Compassionate Canines of Central Oregon.
Volunteers and their animals become registered therapy animal teams that visit hospitals, schools, care facilities, and people recovering from crises. Handlers take the Therapy Animal Handler Course, complete an in-person team evaluation, and renew every two years. Animals must be at least a year old (six months for small animals), have lived with the handler for six months, and enjoy meeting strangers. Handlers 18 and older pass a background check.
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ClearPath Healthcare, formerly Hospice of Redmond, is a local nonprofit that has cared for Central Oregon families since 1979. Now serving much of Deschutes, Crook, and Jefferson Counties, it provides hospice care, in-home primary care for homebound seniors, and free Transitions support for people facing serious illness, plus grief support open to anyone in the community, special care for veterans, and the Pet Peace of Mind program that cares for patients' pets.
Trained hospice volunteers are part of the care team: offering companionship and respite so family caregivers can rest, sitting vigil, supporting veterans through We Honor Veterans, and helping with grief support. Others help with the Pet Peace of Mind program, community events like the Festival of Trees and Light Up a Life, Camp Sunrise for grieving kids, and office work. No medical background is needed; training is provided.
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Lines for Life is an Oregon nonprofit dedicated to preventing substance use and suicide. It operates free, confidential crisis and support lines, including Oregon's 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, YouthLine for teens and young adults, and support lines for veterans and military families, alongside prevention education and training for communities across the state.
Volunteers answer calls on the in-person crisis line in Portland, supporting people facing suicidal thoughts, substance use issues, and loneliness after extensive training. Minimum age 21, background check and weekly commitment required.
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The National Organization for Victim Advocacy (NOVA), based in Alexandria, Virginia, has led victim services and crisis response in the United States since 1975. It trains and credentials victim advocates, and its Community Crisis Response program trains local and state crisis response teams in trauma mitigation and emotional first aid after critical incidents. NOVA deploys only at the official invitation of an affected community, usually through state or local teams.
People from many backgrounds, including first responders, mental health professionals, school counselors, faith leaders, and victim advocates, take NOVA's 24-hour Basic Community Crisis Response Team training to serve on local or state crisis response teams, offering emotional first aid to communities after traumatic events. Trainings are hosted regionally by local agencies. NOVA also offers victim advocate credentialing and membership.
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St. Charles Health System is Central Oregon's nonprofit health system, operating hospitals in Bend, Redmond, Prineville, and Madras along with family care and specialty clinics, hospice, and community health programs, serving people across the region.
Volunteers serve at St. Charles hospitals and clinics in Bend, Redmond, Prineville, and Madras, greeting and guiding patients and visitors, supporting patient units and waiting areas, staffing gift shops, and helping with hospice and caregiving programs. Teen volunteer opportunities are also offered.
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Stop the Bleed is the American College of Surgeons' national program, run under a license from the U.S. Department of Defense, that teaches everyday people to control life-threatening bleeding before help arrives. Its short, hands-on course covers three techniques: direct pressure, wound packing, and applying a tourniquet. In Central Oregon, St. Charles Health System's trauma program and Crook County Fire & Rescue offer free classes.
Anyone old enough to understand the material can take a free hands-on course and be ready to help in a bleeding emergency. People who have taken an ACS Stop the Bleed course and fall into an approved instructor category, such as medical professionals and first responders, can register as instructors and volunteer to teach classes for schools, workplaces, and community groups.
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Bend Park and Recreation District manages Bend's parks, trails, and recreation facilities, including Juniper Swim & Fitness Center, Larkspur Community Center, and the Deschutes River Trail, and offers year-round sports, fitness, youth, and senior programs for residents of all ages and abilities.
Volunteers coach youth sports, help care for parks and trails through project days (weeding, litter cleanup, trail maintenance), and support recreation programs — including teen-specific roles like Cougar Camp counselors, Junior Lifeguard and Swim Instructor Aides. Teen volunteers must be 12+; volunteers 18+ complete a background check. Applications and orientation are required for most roles.
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Bend-La Pine Schools is the public school district serving Bend, La Pine, Sunriver, and surrounding communities in Deschutes County, with elementary, middle, and high schools, magnet and choice schools like Westside Village and REALMS, and programs such as the Teen Parent Program. Community volunteers help in classrooms, libraries, and at school events throughout the district.
Volunteers support students in schools across the district, helping in classrooms and libraries, chaperoning field trips, mentoring and tutoring, and helping with school events. Volunteers complete the district's volunteer application and background check before starting, then connect with a specific school. Many schools also have parent groups or foundations with their own volunteer roles.
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Clear Mourning is a Bend-based nonprofit working to shift the culture of grief, so people who have experienced profound or traumatic loss can grieve freely and learn to carry their grief into daily life. It offers grief support groups, workshops, yoga and meditation for grief, financial assistance through grief scholarships, and Camp Courage, a free summer day camp in Bend for children ages 5 to 12 who have lost a loved one.
Volunteers help run grief camps for kids, support workshops, support groups, and community events, and assist with outreach and fundraising. Volunteer roles are posted on the volunteer opportunities page.
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Deschutes County Health Services
also known as DCHS; Deschutes County Public Health; Deschutes County Behavioral Health
Deschutes County Health Services (DCHS) provides public health and behavioral health programs county-wide, including public health clinics, school-based health centers, environmental health, crisis services, and outpatient and youth behavioral health. Its Medical Reserve Corps keeps a trained pool of medical and non-medical volunteers ready for health emergencies, disasters, and planned events. After the October 15, 2026 shooting at Silver Rail Elementary, DCHS co-hosted free walk-in crisis support with Bend-La Pine Schools and St. Charles Health System.
Medical Reserve Corps volunteers, both medical and non-medical, support emergency and disaster response, staff pre-planned community events, help with public health and behavioral health outreach and education, and take part in trainings, exercises, and drills. Assignments run from a few hours to several days, and volunteers can accept or decline each one. Residents can also serve on the Public Health and Behavioral Health advisory boards.
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A random selection of organizations, different on every visit
Art Sprouts, Inc.
also known as ASI, Bend for Ukraine, UA&Co. (Ukrainian Alliance of Central Oregon), Kolovita
Bend nonprofit founded by a Kyiv-born art and outdoor educator. Through Art Sprouts it brings art and outdoor education to children who might not otherwise have access, and through Bend for Ukraine and UA&Co. it helps displaced Ukrainian families resettle in Central Oregon while sharing Ukrainian culture with the wider community.
Volunteers help run community cultural events and pop-ups such as Ukrainian holiday celebrations, workshops, and community art installations; support resource fairs for newly arrived families; assist with youth art and outdoor education programs; and lend skills like translation, mentoring, and everyday support to Ukrainian families settling into Central Oregon.
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Cascade Astronomy & Rocketry Academy
also known as CARA; Cascade Astronomy & Rocketry
A Sunriver-based educational nonprofit whose mission is to bring the sights and science of the cosmos to schools and the wider community through astronomy, rocketry, and science education. Founded by Bob Grossfeld, a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador since 1999 and longtime manager of the Oregon Observatory at Sunriver, CARA brings telescope viewing, rocket building and launches, and space science programs to classrooms and community events, and is a partner in the Got Stars, Central Oregon? dark-sky initiative. Its long-range goal is to build a public science center and observatory in Central Oregon. CARA is supported in part by proceeds from Oregon Astronomy & Rocketry and does not yet have a website of its own.
CARA is volunteer-run, so getting involved means pitching in alongside its founders: helping at school and community astronomy and rocketry programs, assisting with telescope viewing and solar observing at outreach events and star parties, supporting rocket building and launch days, and helping plan toward a future public observatory and science center. Reach out through the contact form on the Oregon Astronomy & Rocketry site.
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Seed to Table works to increase health and wellness across Central Oregon through equitable access to locally grown, farm-fresh produce and hands-on farm education. Started in 2013 by Sisters High School graduate Audrey Tehan with the Sisters Science Club, it now runs a four-acre farm in Sisters, grows and distributes produce to people of all income levels, including local food banks, brings thousands of students, including partner classes from Warm Springs, to the farm for nutrition and science education, and manages the Sisters Farmers Market.
Volunteers work alongside staff on the four-acre farm, planting, weeding, harvesting, and washing and packing produce for families and food banks; help with farm field trips for visiting students; staff the Sisters Farmers Market, which Seed to Table manages; and help put on the annual Fall Harvest Dinner. No farming experience needed.
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Tin Pan Theater is downtown Bend's arthouse cinema, a 28-seat historic theater tucked into Tin Pan Alley with old-fashioned red velvet seats, homemade popcorn, and local beer and wine on tap. Owned and operated by BendFilm since 2019, it screens curated independent and international films, documentaries, Oscar contenders, and cult classics daily, hosts special events and outdoor summer screenings, can be rented for private movie parties, and serves as a signature venue of the Bend Film Festival.
Volunteers join BendFilm's crew to help with special screenings, events, and parties at Tin Pan and its outdoor alley and summer screenings, and the theater is a core venue during the Bend Film Festival each October. Volunteering runs through BendFilm, whose perks include two free Tin Pan tickets.
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Bend-based, Christ-centered, nondenominational nonprofit offering hope and community to mothers grieving the death of a child, under any circumstance. Founded by a Bend mother after the loss of her son, it runs 12-week Resurfacing support groups in person and online, plus grief coaching, retreats, and devotionals. Women of every background and faith are welcome.
Mothers who have walked their own grief journey volunteer as support group leaders, guiding other moms through the 12-week Resurfacing program in person and on Zoom. Volunteers also help with retreats, outreach, and connecting grieving moms with local resources.
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Operation Christmas Wishes is a Terrebonne nonprofit that helps local families in need during the holiday season, providing essential items, food, gifts, and support for teens to take part in sports.
Volunteers help gather, sort, wrap, and deliver essential items, food, and gifts to local families during the holiday season, and support its teen sports assistance.
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Rose City Astronomers
also known as RCA
Portland's amateur astronomy club, active since about 1988 and based at OMSI. Members share telescopes, a lending library, a Discord community and a members' dark sky site, and the club runs public outreach star parties, youth astronomy awards and a light pollution school curriculum. Its Central Oregon tie runs deep: most of the organizers of the Oregon Star Party, the long-running summer star party under the dark skies of the Ochoco National Forest east of Prineville, have historically come from Rose City Astronomers.
Members volunteer at public outreach events, sharing their telescopes and the night sky with the public at star parties, schools and community events. Most outreach events start at dusk and run two to three hours. Volunteers join an outreach list and are scheduled by the club's outreach coordinator. Members also help run larger regional gatherings such as the Oregon Star Party.
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Wanderlust Tours is a Bend-based guide company that has led half-day, naturalist-guided outdoor trips around Central Oregon since 1993, from canoe and kayak tours on the Cascade Lakes to lava tube cave explorations and snowshoe outings. Its mission is to share the region's natural and cultural history in a way that builds appreciation for protecting it, and through its Voluntourism program it organizes regular cleanups and restoration days with local nonprofit partners.
Volunteers join Wanderlust Tours' Voluntourism outings: seasonal cleanups of Central Oregon's lava tube caves in spring and the Cascade Lakes in fall, plus restoration projects with local nonprofit partners. Outings are organized for small groups and company teams, and usually end with a refreshing beverage in the high desert.
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The Latino Community Association (LCA) empowers Latino families in Central Oregon to thrive, serving more than 12,000 people a year from offices in Bend, Redmond, Madras, and Prineville. Programs include English and citizenship classes, immigration legal services, health and family support, and computer literacy, alongside cultural events like Latino Fest, Welcoming Week, Día de los Muertos, and Christmas Posadas.
Volunteers provide bilingual support across LCA's programs: translation and interpretation, front-desk and client services, English tutoring, and help at cultural celebrations like Día de los Muertos, Latino Fest, and the Christmas Posadas community dinner, plus flyer distribution in Bend, Redmond, Madras, and Prineville. Spanish/English skills are especially valuable, and board service is also available.
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Furnish Hope is a Bend-based nonprofit furniture bank working to end furniture poverty in Central Oregon. It collects gently used furniture and household essentials and delivers them to individuals and families moving into stable housing, turning empty houses into furnished homes that foster permanency, comfort, and pride. Its boutique resale store, Furnish Hope & Home, along with home staging and design services, helps fund the mission.
Volunteers drive and co-pilot furniture deliveries, connect with recipients as community liaisons, gather and sort donations at the donation center, staff the Furnish Hope & Home resale store, and help remotely with admin work, events, and fundraising. Regular weekly shifts are offered, many roles don't require heavy lifting, and groups can schedule a team volunteer day.
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Bethlehem Inn is Central Oregon's largest emergency shelter, providing a safe place to sleep, three meals a day, and case management for adults and families experiencing homelessness. Since 1999 it has helped thousands of people move toward stable housing through its Next Steps program for adults and Families First program for parents with children, at its Bend campus and its year-round Redmond shelter.
Volunteers prepare and serve meals for residents (on-site or cooked at home), assemble sack lunches, sort donations and staff the clothing room, and help at the front desk at the Bend and Redmond shelters. Roles have different minimum ages, from family-friendly tasks younger kids can join to adult-only positions. A volunteer orientation is required.
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The Alzheimer's Association Oregon & Southwest Washington Chapter, which serves the Central Oregon region, provides free care and support for people living with Alzheimer's and other dementias and their caregivers, including a 24/7 helpline, support groups, and education, while advancing research and advocacy.
Volunteers help plan and run the Walk to End Alzheimer's and other events, lead community education presentations, facilitate support groups after training, and advocate with elected officials.
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You haven't seen them all yet. There are more organizations below.