Who Can Volunteer
Volunteer Opportunities for Groups
Matching organizations, in a different order on every visit
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.
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.
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.
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.
Heaven Can Wait 5K is Central Oregon's walk and run for breast cancer awareness, founded in 2000 by breast cancer survivor Charlene Levesque with the Central Oregon Running Klub. Held each fall at Redmond High School, it benefits Sara's Project, the St. Charles Foundation initiative supporting local breast cancer patients, and has raised more than $2 million for education, early detection, and patient support.
Volunteers make race weekend happen, with shifts from Friday through Sunday: bib pickup and registration at FootZone in Bend and in Redmond, Saturday venue setup, and on race day course marshals, water stations, course and finish-line cheerleaders, parking, merchandise, and cleanup. Most shifts run two to three hours, and some roles are open to volunteers as young as 12. Sign up for a shift online.
Kiwanis Club of Prineville
also known as Prineville Kiwanis
The Kiwanis Club of Prineville serves the youth and families of Crook County through volunteer service and grants. Its largest project was the Kiwanis Splash Pad in Stryker Park, built entirely with local donations, and its foundation supports park improvements, school athletics, reading programs, after-school care, and college scholarships.
Members volunteer on hands-on projects like Sleep in Heavenly Peace bed builds, run the community Easter Egg Hunt and bike raffle at the fairgrounds, sell See's Candy for fundraising, and help direct grants to parks, school athletics, reading programs, and scholarships. Newcomers are welcome at Thursday noon meetings.
Rural Oregon Community Foundation
also known as ROCF, Crooked River Roundup Foundation
The Rural Oregon Community Foundation, which also does business as the Crooked River Roundup Foundation, is a Prineville nonprofit dedicated to preserving the Western Way of Life. It awards scholarships to Central Oregon students pursuing careers in ranching, agriculture, farming, rodeo, and animal health, runs youth programs like Boots and Roots for local fourth and fifth graders, and hosts community events such as the Fall Cowboy Gathering of Western music and cowboy poetry. Its annual Dinner & Dance kicks off Crooked River Roundup week.
Volunteers, including many local FFA and 4-H students, help run the foundation's annual Dinner & Dance fundraiser that kicks off Roundup week, and support youth programs like Boots and Roots and community events like the Fall Cowboy Gathering.
High Desert Robotics & Rotors Expositions
also known as HDRex
High Desert Robotics & Rotors Expositions (HDRex), a program of Connect Central Oregon, inspires the next generation of Central Oregon leaders through hands-on robotics and drone experiences. It organizes expositions, workshops, and competitions, including the region's Aerial Drone Competition for middle and high school pilots and programmers, and connects robotics teams, clubs, schools, mentors, and the wider community.
Beaver Works Oregon
also known as Think Wild Beaver Works
Beaver Works Oregon is Think Wild's habitat restoration program, working with land managers and conservation partners across Central and Eastern Oregon to bring back healthy, beaver-supported streams and wetlands. Staff and volunteers build beaver dam analogs, hand-built structures that slow water where beavers are absent, plant native willows and cottonwoods, survey waterways for beaver activity, and help people and beavers share the landscape, making watersheds more resilient to drought and wildfire.
Volunteers build and maintain beaver dam analogs, plant native willows and cottonwoods along streams, harvest willow for propagation, and survey waterways for signs of beaver activity to support long-term research. Projects range from physically demanding backcountry field days to beginner- and family-friendly outings. No experience needed; training, tools, and guidance are provided.
Powell Butte-based diaper bank, founded in 2024, that works through community partnerships to get diapers and hygiene supplies to low-income families in Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson counties, helping parents and caregivers bridge a gap that SNAP and WIC don't cover. Separate from the NeighborImpact/Every Child diaper bank.
Volunteers unload, unpack, repackage, and store diapers, reach out to businesses and groups willing to host diaper drives, and help with fundraising events across Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson counties. Groups can also run their own diaper drives.
Mutual aid group, co-led by Warm Springs tribal members, that works with Tribal Emergency Management to deliver clean drinking water to households on the Warm Springs Reservation while its aging water system is rebuilt. When the 2026 Bench Fire struck, the coalition grew to about 130 volunteers, shifting from quarterly to daily water runs and coordinating supply drives from Portland to Central Oregon.
Volunteers deliver drinking water to households on the reservation, run donation drives and drop-off sites around the region, sort and distribute supplies, and help track changing community needs. People can also join the steering committee, and the coalition especially welcomes Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to get involved.
The Father's Group is a Black-led Central Oregon nonprofit founded by Black fathers concerned about their children's experiences in school and the community. Its programs include the Ujima and Empowered Youth programs, the IDA savings and Drive With Dignity programs, and the DeShaun Adderley Scholarship, and it hosts Central Oregon's Juneteenth celebration while working with schools, police, and city government on equity.
Volunteers help with the Ujima Youth Program, the annual Juneteenth Festival, community event pop-ups, and general needs across The Father's Group's work supporting Black youth and families in Central Oregon. Sign up with the initiative you're interested in, and the team will reach out to plug you in when opportunities come up.
You haven't seen them all yet. There are more organizations below.