Region
Volunteer Opportunities in Lake County, Oregon
Matching organizations, in a different order on every visit
Pacific Crest Council, Scouting America
also known as Scouting America, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Crater Lake Council
Pacific Crest Council, Scouting America (formerly the Boy Scouts of America) delivers Scouting programs across central and southern Oregon, including Bend, Redmond, Prineville, and Madras. It was formed in 2024 when the Crater Lake Council and Oregon Trail Council merged. Girls and boys from kindergarten up join Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA, Venturing, and Exploring to build leadership, outdoor skills, and service through local packs, troops, and crews, with summer camp at Camp Makualla on Crescent Lake.
Scouting runs on adult volunteers: den leaders, Cubmasters, and Scoutmasters who lead packs and troops, merit badge counselors who share a skill or career, committee members, and district and council volunteers who train leaders and run events like Pinewood Derbies and University of Scouting. Parents often start by helping their own child's unit. Churches, schools, and civic groups can charter a unit. All adults complete Safeguarding Youth training and a background check.
Herd U Needed a Home Rescue
also known as HUNAH, Herd U Needed A Home Canine Rescue
All-volunteer, foster-based dog rescue specializing in herding breeds such as border collies, heelers, Australian shepherds, kelpies, and McNabs, while also helping other dogs in need. With no shelter, every dog lives in a foster home where it gets individual care, training, and attention until it's matched with the right forever family. Based in Bend with roots on a Lake County ranch.
The biggest need is foster homes for herding dogs waiting to be adopted, ideally from people comfortable with high-energy working breeds. Volunteers also help with dog transport, adoption events, answering adoption and surrender inquiries, and fundraising.
Great Old Broads for Wilderness – Bitterbrush Broadband
also known as Bitterbrush Broads, Bitterbrush Broadband, Great Old Broads for Wilderness Central Oregon
Central and Eastern Oregon chapter ("Broadband") of Great Old Broads for Wilderness, a national organization led by elder women that harnesses the energy and experience of its members to protect and restore wild lands. Formed in 2013, the Bitterbrush Broads focus on advocacy, education, stewardship, and fun: protecting old-growth forests and wildlife habitat, restoring rivers, and addressing climate change, in partnership with groups like Central Oregon LandWatch and Oregon Wild.
Members join about 20 BroadWalk hikes and campouts a year from the Cascade crest to the Owyhee Canyonlands, and 3–5 BroadWorks stewardship projects: monitoring grazing and roads on public lands, restoring habitat, planting natives, and pulling noxious weeds. Others help write public comments and letters, attend BroadChats, and organize advocacy for wild lands.
Oregon Natural Desert Association
also known as ONDA
Oregon Natural Desert Association (ONDA) is a Bend-based nonprofit that has protected, defended, and restored Oregon's high desert public lands, waters, and wildlife since 1987. Nearly half of Oregon is high desert, and ONDA's work spans the Central Oregon backcountry, the John Day River Basin, the Greater Hart-Sheldon region, Steens Mountain, the Owyhee Canyonlands, and the 750-mile Oregon Desert Trail. That's why many of its volunteer projects take Central Oregonians well beyond the region's home counties. It combines conservation advocacy, science-based restoration, and public engagement, with offices in Bend and Portland.
Free spring and fall stewardship trips restore streams, plant willows, and pull old fence from the Central Oregon backcountry to Steens Mountain and the Owyhee, with tools and training provided and no experience needed. Closer to home, volunteers join the Bend office crew, mail the Wild Desert Calendar, staff events like the High Desert Hootenanny, and lend photo, video, and writing skills. Schools, businesses, and groups can volunteer together.
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