Region
Volunteer Opportunities in Sunriver, Oregon
Matching organizations, in a different order on every visit
Central Oregon Volunteer Connect
also known as COVC, Volunteer Connect, Volunteer Central Oregon
Central Oregon Volunteer Connect is a program of Connect Central Oregon representing one of their four pillars - alongside Mentoring, Innovation, and Partnership. It's a regional infrastructure, shaped and stewarded by community leaders over more than two decades connecting organizations, volunteers, emerging leaders, and community energy across Central Oregon. Along with direct partnership outreach across the region, most notably the Connect Central Oregon Volunteer & Board Fair — the in-person event connecting volunteers and organizations face to face, their Volunteer Central Oregon directory allows browsing or searching to find organizations across Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties, and Warm Springs looking for volunteers, donors, and community partners.
Connect Central Oregon is always looking for leaders who want to help connect individuals, groups, and organizations to each other and strengthen our community. One of the most important roles within the entire organization, serving as a "Connector" represents the very purpose of ConnectCO and serves as the primary method of our community engagement...using very literally every resource ConnectCO and its leadership team have to offer.
Connect Central Oregon is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that strengthens communities in Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson counties (plus Warm Springs) by connecting people with volunteer opportunities, board positions, and mentorship. It promotes civic engagement, community leadership, and innovation through platforms like Central Oregon Volunteer Connect.
Volunteers help run CCO's community events, from volunteer and board fairs to robotics and drone expositions, support community media production, and help keep the Volunteer Central Oregon directory accurate by reviewing organization listings. Students and groups are welcome, and CCO can sign off on community service hours.
Think Wild is Central and Eastern Oregon's only public wildlife hospital and conservation center, located on four acres on Bend's east side. Its veterinary staff and volunteers rescue, treat, and release hundreds of injured and orphaned native animals each year, from hummingbirds and flying squirrels to bald eagles and bobcats. Think Wild also runs a wildlife hotline, humane wildlife conflict help, Beaver Works Oregon habitat restoration, and education programs and camps for youth and the community. Found injured or orphaned wildlife? Call the hotline at 541-241-8680 (8am–6pm daily).
Volunteers help in the wildlife hospital with animal care, diet prep, and enclosure upkeep; rescue and transport injured wildlife; care for ambassador animals; support education programs, camps, and community events; and assist with humane wildlife conflict projects. Youth and family volunteering is available for kids and teens, and families and groups can join habitat restoration through Beaver Works Oregon. Training is provided.
SAGE - Senior Advocates for Generational Equity
also known as SAGE
SAGE (Senior Advocates for Generational Equity) helps people over 50 give forward so that younger and future generations can thrive. SAGE members in central Deschutes County volunteer their time and experience with local youth-serving programs and advocate for policies that support children and families.
SAGE offers a range of ways to give forward, including leading or joining discussion groups and workshops, mentoring younger generations, event support, and contributing to special projects. Some opportunities are with SAGE directly, others through partner organizations SAGE promotes in the community.
A nonprofit serving Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson counties through food access, housing stability, child care, and financial services, empowering individuals and families to succeed.
Volunteer opportunities include sorting and packing donated food, supporting warehouse operations, and helping with group service days for corporate and community groups across food, housing, and family support programs.
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.
Girls S.T.E.A.M. Institute
also known as GSI, Girls STEAM Institute
Sunriver-based nonprofit that educates, mentors, and inspires girls ages 13–18 to build personal and professional skills as entrepreneurs and innovators in science, technology, engineering, arts, and math. Through project-based team challenges, often held in immersive virtual reality with mentors from industry, girls develop solutions to real-world problems. Alumni have gone on to MIT, NASA, and Microsoft.
Volunteers mentor teams of girls and young women through STEAM business challenges, share their careers as monthly expert speakers, coach on leadership, finance, and pitching, and help run events, many of them held virtually so you can mentor from anywhere. Teens who've been through the program often come back as junior mentors and interns.
Deschutes Trails Coalition
also known as DTC
The Deschutes Trails Coalition is a partnership of about 30 organizations, including trail user groups, land management agencies, conservation groups, tourism, and local businesses, working together for a future of sustainable trails in Central Oregon. It covers all forms of trail recreation, motorized and non-motorized, on snow and off, and supports partners through small project grants funded in part by visitor giving through Visit Bend's Pledge for the Wild. It is hosted by Discover Your Northwest.
DTC is the best front door for trail volunteering in Central Oregon: it connects volunteers with its partner groups' trail work, from hiking and biking trails to equestrian, Nordic, and wilderness stewardship, through events like Trails on Tap. It also funds partner projects through small grants, including sawyer training and first aid for volunteer trail crews.
100+ Women Who Care Central Oregon
also known as 100+ WWCCO, 100 Women Who Care Central Oregon, 100+ Women Who Care
Giving circle of 100+ Central Oregon women who pool $100 each per quarter to award $10,000+ to a local nonprofit, chosen by member vote after short presentations. Since 2014 it has supported well-known and obscure local charities alike, recently giving $13,630 to Think Wild and funding Every Child Central Oregon's clothing bundles for kids entering foster care.
Members commit $100 and about 90 minutes each quarter. At each meeting they hear three short presentations, vote, and pool their gifts to the winning nonprofit. Any member can nominate and present a local charity she cares about, so it's a powerful way to put a small or lesser-known nonprofit in front of 100+ engaged women. Members can also help with events, outreach, and planning.
The Upper Deschutes River Coalition works to keep the upper Deschutes River basin around Sunriver, La Pine, and Three Rivers healthy, promoting fire-resistant forests, clean and abundant river flows, and protected wildlife habitat, with a focus on wildfire preparedness and defensible space.
Volunteer roles include board and officer positions (President, Treasurer, Board Members) and community outreach helping property owners, including low-income seniors, access wildfire defensible-space assistance. Contact UDRC directly to get involved.
Founded in 1961, the Humane Society of Central Oregon runs Bend's animal shelter, caring for thousands of abandoned, neglected, and stray companion animals each year and never turning an animal away. Beyond adoptions, HSCO reunites lost pets with their families, offers low-cost spay/neuter and wellness care, runs the HOPE Pet Food Bank to help keep pets in their homes, and brings humane education to schools and community events. Its thrift store helps fund the work.
Volunteers work directly with shelter animals and visitors — grooming and enriching cats through the Feline Friends program, walking and socializing adoptable dogs as Canine Companions, greeting shelter visitors, assisting adoption counselors both on-site and at off-site adoption events, and providing clerical support. Volunteers can start as young as 9 with a guardian.
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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