Luckily, Rochester has several volunteering clearinghouses that will do the hard work for you, matching you to the charity or non-profit that best suits your schedule, interests, and talents. Best of all, they're now online, which means volunteering is only a click away.

The Volunteer Connection

The largest of the local networks, Volunteer Connection links more than 200 people each month with volunteering opportunities around town. Over the past 20 years, more than 40,000 people have found charities or nonprofits through this clearinghouse, operated by the United Way of Greater Rochester (UWGR).

On the Volunteer Connection website, volunteersolutions.org/uwgr/volunteer, you can browse listings of 154 charities and nonprofits and hundreds of local volunteering events. You can seek out specific agencies or opportunities, or search using more general terms, including dates, locations, or your area of philanthropic interest (such as "Animals & Environment" or "Community Development").

Volunteering events include the usual activities, like stuffing envelopes and mentoring children, and more uncommon projects, like giving accounting advice to a local arts organization or writing articles for a quarterly newsletter aimed at teenage girls.

"It's about more than just good feelings," says Nancy Zawacki, marketing communications director for UWGR. "A lot of these nonprofits looking for volunteers may not normally be able to afford that help. But we can help them get it."

In the fall of 2007, UWGR expanded its efforts, announcing a partnership with Time Warner Cable to launch Campus Connection, a volunteering resource network for local colleges. Like Volunteer Connection, Campus Connection matches students with volunteering projects around town. But because college students are typically low on cash, the program allows students to apply for funds to cover any supplies or out-of-pocket expenses that may be associated with their chosen volunteering projects.

For more information on Volunteer Connection or Campus Connection, visit uwrochester.org or call 242-6498.

RochesterCares

RochesterCares, affiliated with the nationwide Hands On Network, takes a smaller, more concentrated approach to volunteering. All its activities are one-day affairs - sometimes lasting just one or two hours - making this the go-to network for the time-pressed and the indecisive.

"Our mission is to make volunteering something that's painless, short, and sweet," says Dany Galbiati, Board Chair for RochesterCares. "You do your one, or three, or four, or however many hours, and you're free to go, no strings attached. It's quick, it's easy. Volunteering doesn't have to mean long-term commitment."

The clearinghouse works with dozens of Rochester nonprofits, including Alternatives for Battered Women, FoodLink, and the Seneca Park Zoo.

At the beginning of every month, a calendar is posted at rochestercares.org listing all the volunteer opportunities available through RochesterCares that month. (You can also have the schedule delivered to you by e-mail.) Activity listings include contact info for the event's team coordinator; to participate in a given project, just e-mail or call the coordinator (you can do so even the day before the event) and he or she will take care of the rest.

Need an excuse to check it out? On January 19, RochesterCares will hold its annual Martin Luther King Day celebration, featuring multiple volunteering activities around the city. Volunteers will meet up at Town Hall to have breakfast with Mayor Duffy and then disperse to their different projects, regrouping afterward for a post-volunteering party.

For more information on RochesterCares or the Martin Luther King Day event, call the Volunteer Hotline at 428-7231.

The Community Wishbook

The Community Wishbook - found online at communitywishbook.org - is an exhaustive catalogue listing more than 230 local nonprofits' charitable needs.

These include detailed "wish lists" of items needed for donation. Nonprofits might ask for anything from personal items like nail polish or hand lotion, to magazine subscriptions, to children's coloring books. It's perfect for the recovering packrat.

You can search the Wishbook's online database for needy nonprofits by the items you'd like to give away, or by specific charities. Each listing contains a description of the agency, its list of desired items or services, and several forms of contact information. When you find a wish list you can satisfy, just e-mail or call the associated contact person and set up a time to donate.

The Community Wishbook also comes in printed form, available at local libraries, Eastview and Greece Ridge malls, and the free literature section at Tops and other businesses.

For more information, visit communitywishbook.org or call Nona Maurer at 585-225-4226.