Who Can Volunteer
Volunteer Opportunities for School Groups
Matching organizations, in a different order on every visit
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.
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.
Bend-Redmond Habitat for Humanity builds strength, stability, and self-reliance through affordable homeownership for low- to moderate-income families and individuals in Bend and Redmond. Since 1989, the local Habitat affiliate has helped more than 250 families become homeowners and repaired 145 homes, building energy-efficient and net-zero homes alongside future homeowners who invest their own sweat equity. Operated on Christian principles, it also runs the Bend ReStore and serves as fiscal sponsor for community projects like the Central Oregon Tool Library.
Volunteers build homes on new-construction job sites (no experience needed, with full supervision), staff the ReStore, salvage reusable materials on free reclamation crews, mentor future homeowners on budgeting and saving, and serve on committees, at special events, and on the board. Businesses and groups can book team build days. Volunteers 16+ can serve on their own; ages 14–15 alongside a parent or guardian.
Every Child Central Oregon
also known as ECCO, Marked for Love, NeighborImpact Supportive Services, Every Child Oregon
Local affiliate of Every Child Oregon, mobilizing the community to support children and families impacted by foster care in Deschutes, Crook, and Jefferson counties and Warm Springs. It recruits and supports foster families, provides essentials for kids entering care, and runs a regional diaper bank. Founded in 2019 and later operated by Marked for Love, it joined NeighborImpact in July 2026 as the agency's Supportive Services department, keeping its staff, warehouse, and programs.
There are ways to help big and small: assemble Welcome Boxes for kids waiting in a DHS office, put together Family Fun Boxes and Cleaning Kits for foster families, meet specific requests through My NeighbOR, and donate needed items. Adults can also become certified to provide respite care or open their homes as foster parents. Packing projects are great for families, classes, and workplace groups.
The Cascade Relays Foundation is the nonprofit arm of Cascade Relays. It turns event proceeds and race-day volunteer hours into grants for local nonprofits, schools, and community groups, especially in the rural communities along its course routes, and produces the Bend Christmas Parade, St. Patrick's Day Dash, and I Like Pie. Since 2008, Cascade Relays events have given more than $890,000 to over 60 local charities.
Nonprofits, schools, and community groups can become Charity Partners and raise real money by volunteering. Every team in a Cascade Relays event must supply volunteers or "hire" one; Charity Partners fill those shifts, and at season's end each receives a Foundation grant based on the hours its volunteers worked. Partners can bring as few as 5 or as many as 100 volunteers and can propose other fundraising, like selling snacks on the course.
Bend nonprofit that built and maintains the Bend Heroes Memorial in Brooks Park, honoring Bend's fallen veterans from World War I to today, and leads the Parade of Flags on patriotic holidays. It has also championed nine border-to-border veterans memorial highways across Oregon through the state legislature.
On Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, and 9/11, volunteers help install the Parade of Flags, about 275 flags flown over the U.S. Capitol and stitched with veterans' names, along Veterans Memorial Bridge and downtown Bend in the early morning, then take them down in the afternoon. Scouts, JROTC cadets, school teams, families, and anyone else are welcome to help.
A no-kill animal shelter in Prineville serving Crook County, providing adoption, foster, rehoming, and pet assistance services for stray and abandoned animals.
Volunteers help with office work, fundraising and events, dog walking, cat care, kennel cleaning, community outreach, repairs, grantwriting, and photography. Open to volunteers under 18 with a guardian, and accepts court-mandated or school community service hours.
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.
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.
Jefferson County's primary Christmas gift program for kids facing hardship, run for 30+ years by the Madras Kiwanis Club and the Madras High Key Club. Working with Oregon DHS so each family is served once, Operation Rudolph brings gifts to roughly 200 families and 450–600 children a year, from Crooked River Ranch to Warm Springs. With Toys for Tots no longer operating in Central Oregon, the need has grown.
Volunteers wrap hundreds of gifts at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds in December, with drop-in wrapping open to individuals, families, school leadership classes, and groups. Businesses can host gift-tag trees or toy drop boxes, and helpers collect donations from drop sites, shop, sort, and deliver gifts to families.
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.
Sparrow Clubs USA empowers kids to help kids in medical need through compassion, kindness, and sponsored community service. A local school adopts a child facing a medical crisis as its Sparrow, a business sponsor pledges funds, and students earn those funds for the family by completing community service hours in the child's name. Based in Bend, it runs clubs across Central Oregon and beyond.
Students volunteer through their school's Sparrow Club, completing community service projects in their Sparrow's name; every service hour earns sponsor money for the child's family, and the program is free to schools. Teachers and schools can start a club, and businesses can sponsor a Sparrow project or support fundraisers like Dancing with the Central Oregon Stars.
You haven't seen them all yet. There are more organizations below.