Volunteer Opportunities in Winston-Salem
Looking to give back and make a difference? Join us as we explore volunteer opportunities in the Winston-Salem area. Learn about different organizations, how to get involved, and how you can make an impact!
*This list is not intended to be comprehensive. We encourage you to check out the many wonderful organizations around Winston-Salem for additional volunteer opportunities!
Updated October 2023
Samaritan Ministries
MISSION | Samaritan Ministries provides food, shelter, and hope through its soup kitchen, homeless shelter for men, substance abuse recovery program for men experiencing homelessness, and street outreach program.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | Samaritan Ministries needs volunteers to serve in its soup kitchen, pick up donations from partner grocery stores, and fulfill wish lists.
HOLIDAY VOLUNTEERING | Samaritan Ministries’ Annual Penny Campaign starts November 1. The campaign helps spread awareness and raise funds for the hungry and homeless in Winston-Salem. Volunteers can donate online/mail a gift, pick up a jar at Samaritan Ministries’ location to help collect funds or set up an online giving page.
City Lights Ministry
MISSION | City Lights meets the needs of children facing poverty and food insecurity through mobile trucks bringing food, clothes, toys, beds, and an early learning program to their neighborhoods.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | City Lights needs volunteers year-round for clothing closet sorting, its food pantry, building beds, hosting food drives, and more.
HOLIDAY VOLUNTEERING | City Lights needs volunteers to host Christmas Toy Drives.
The Salvation Army
MISSION | The Salvation Army seeks to meet people’s needs by providing shelter, food assistance, rent and utility assistance, elderly care, and worship services.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | The Salvation Army needs volunteers year-round to tutor, mentor, and read to children. It also needs volunteers to help with its food pantry in Kernersville.
HOLIDAY VOLUNTEERING | The Salvation Army needs volunteers to assist with packing toy bags for Angel Tree Children, distributing those bags to families, and ringing bells for its annual Red Kettle Campaign.
Habitat for Humanity
MISSION | Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope by assisting families who do not qualify for traditional mortgages.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | Habitat for Humanity needs volunteers to construct Habitat houses or assist in one of its ReStores.
Second Harvest Food Bank
MISSION | Second Harvest seeks to increase food security by acting as a food source for Northwest North Carolina, supporting services for more than 500 local food assistance programs, educating people about nutrition, and providing culinary training.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | Second Harvest needs volunteers year-round to help with meal prepping, food sorting, work in the gardens, distributing food, and setting up/breaking down food and fund drive events.
HOLIDAY VOLUNTEERING | Second Harvest needs volunteers for its annual Running of the Balls 5K in Greensboro. Volunteer opportunities at the event include handing out cookies and hot cocoa, directing traffic, and helping clean up once the race is done.
Love Out Loud
MISSION | Love Out Loud is a network of non-profits, businesses, and faith groups showing love to the community by partnering with other local community organizations to impact Winston-Salem.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | Love Out Loud partners with numerous organizations with volunteer opportunities you can view on its website.
HOLIDAY VOLUNTEERING | Love Out Loud needs volunteers for its annual Christmas for the City event; numerous volunteer opportunities will become available closer to the event.
SECU Family House
MISSION | SECU provides affordable lodging and support services in a caring environment for referred adult patients and/or their caregivers who travel to Winston-Salem for medical treatment.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | SECU needs volunteers year-round to host wish list drives, prepare and serve meals, assemble welcome bags, play music, and more.
HOLIDAY VOLUNTEERING | SECU needs volunteers to provide cozy care packages and to sing Christmas carols in its Family House living room.
Senior Services
MISSION | Senior Services helps older adults remain at home for as long as possible and leave with dignity by delivering meals, providing personal care in their homes, helping disabled adults, and much more.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | Senior Services needs volunteers year-round to help deliver meals, do one-on-one visits, assist older adults in creating art, maintain the grounds and interior of the Williams Adult Day Center, and more.
HOLIDAY VOLUNTEERING | Senior Services needs donations for Remember in December, its holiday item drive. Senior Services will begin accepting donations on November 30 at its building or any Forsyth County Piedmont Federal Savings Bank branch (look for the big red box).
Ronald McDonald House
MISSION | Ronald McDonald House provides a “home away from home” for families with children receiving treatment in Winston-Salem’s medical facilities.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | Ronald McDonald House needs volunteers year-round to prepare food, assist with hospitality and household chores, interact with families/help with programming, sort donations, and more.
HOLIDAY VOLUNTEERING | Ronald McDonald House needs donations for Santa’s Workshop, a free shopping experience available to any guest family staying at the house during the weeks leading up to Christmas. It also needs volunteers to assemble Luminary Kits and Street Captains to take Luminary orders, pick up kits, and distribute them.
Crisis Control Ministry
MISSION | Crisis Control assists people in crisis to meet essential life needs and to become self-sufficient by providing short-term emergency services including rent/mortgage payments, utility bill assistance, food, and medication.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | Crisis Control needs volunteers year-round to advocate for clients, prepare Crisis Control’s grocery store, help fill orders at Crisis Control’s pharmacy, serve at special events, help in its poverty simulations, and more.
City With Dwellings
MISSION | City With Dwellings helps people move from trauma and homelessness to healing and housing stability through street outreach, day services, a winter emergency shelter, and supportive housing services.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | City With Dwellings needs volunteers year-round to assist with hospitality/events, preparing meals, supporting the recently housed, fundraising, and more.
Forsyth Jail & Prison Ministries
MISSION | Forsyth Jail & Prison Ministries shares Christ’s love and compassion with thousands of incarcerated men and women as a path to new life by providing worship services, Bible studies, a Transition to Work program, and literacy programs.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | The ministry needs volunteers year-round to lead Bible studies and visit with inmates.
HOLIDAY VOLUNTEERING | The ministry needs donations of gifts for the children of inmates for its In the Name of the Father program, which allows inmates to “shop” through donated gifts to select for their children.
World Relief Triad
MISSION | World Relief helps refugees and other immigrants in vulnerable situations rebuild their lives in a new country through immigration legal services, refugee resettlement, job placement, financial literacy training, and ongoing career counseling.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | World Relief needs volunteers year-round for home set-up, interpreters, transportation for clients, citizenship and job classes, and more.
The Shalom Project
MISSION | The Shalom Project serves and supports those in the community who have been systematically disenfranchised and oppressed by providing outreach programming, education, and advocacy.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | Shalom Project needs volunteers year-round to set up and distribute the food in Shalom Project’s pantry, sort clothing donations, serve meals, help with the medical clinic, and assist with fundraising events.
greeNest
MISSION | greeNest provides a vital link in the journey from homelessness to independent living by partnering with agencies in Forsyth County that have case management programs.
YEAR-ROUND VOLUNTEERING | greeNest needs volunteers year-round to sort, organize, and tidy up donations, move and arrange furniture, load and unload household furnishings, plan and help with fundraising events, and more.
