June 2, 2020
Many individuals and businesses are interested in helping their fellow New Yorkers during this crisis. Need for help spans from food banks to medical volunteers, but also includes tutoring school children online or donating pro bono professional services like accounting or consulting to small businesses in need. Below are some ways you can help:
Healthcare Volunteering –
- New York Cares – If you are not a licensed medical professional, you can still help the COVID-19 response through New York Cares.
- EDC NYC – Businesses with the ability to quickly source and/or make needed medical supplies can support the City’s response
Volunteering with Food –
- In It Together NYC– New York City has robust food rescue infrastructure; infrastructure that doesn’t work without volunteers. Our partners tell us that while demand for food is sky high, volunteer turnout is at a record low. As these organizations do essential work to feed families and also ensure everyone’s safety, the same essential services require more volunteers
- God’s Love We Deliver – Cooks and home-delivers nutritious, medically tailored meals for people too sick to shop or cook for themselves. To support the health of our clients, we also provide ongoing nutrition assessment, education, and counseling. God’s Love is a non-sectarian organization serving people in need and their children and caregivers. All of our services are provided free to clients and full of love.
- Invisible Hands Deliver– Join our growing list of volunteers to help deliver groceries and other needed items to at-risk communities in your neighborhood. The work is flexible, so feel free to sign up even if you’re not sure what your life will look like in a week or two.
- NYC Food Bank– Some of the most important work done in the fight to end hunger is performed by volunteers. We rely on the help of volunteers for important jobs like ensuring food doesn’t go to waste, packing meals for our campus pantries, and helping prepare and serve meals to seniors at our Harlem site. Whether you serve solo, as a part of a group, or as a family, there are many ways for you to make an impact
General Volunteering:
- Donate NYC – The City of New York and its partners are committed to providing resources to those affected by COVID-19 crisis. DonateNYC, a program of NYC Department of Sanitation, has resources for individuals, businesses, schools, and agencies to give and receive donated items.
- HelpNow NYC – Help Now NYC has guidance on how New Yorkers can help those affected by COVID-19 through volunteering and donation opportunities. It also can connect New York State licensed medical professionals for potential surge staffing shifts in response to COVID-19.
- NYC Volunteer Taskforce – NYC Service leads the Volunteer Coordination Taskforce (VCTF), a partnership with NYC Emergency Management, New York Cares and other partners to centralize and coordinate volunteer efforts during emergencies.
- MutualAid – Each of us can do a lot to care for our communities during this crisis. MutualAid matches you to groups that can use your skills
- Volunteer Match – Volunteer Match – Find volunteer opportunities based off your strengths (includes helping kids fill out FAFSAs, Social media and communications, singing for hospice patients, etc.
- Volunteer New York – Volunteer New York – Virtual Volunteering opportunities ranging from zooming little kids, online tutoring, to creating boxes for the elderly, etc. )
Skills Based Volunteering –
- Common Impact– is answering our CEO’s call to action by accelerating and expanding our current work on virtual skills-based volunteer models for companies and by creating and sharing resiliency-focused needs assessment and project scoping tools for nonprofits.
Mental Help –
- Stay Home, Reach Out– Are you a creative person? Do you want to make a stranger’s day during a hard time? Stay Home, Reach Out boosts morale by creating a network by sending postcards globally.
Donate Blood –
- New York Blood Center – Give back by giving blood. New York City needs approximately 2,000 people to donate blood every day to maintain its supply
Donate Space –
- NYC Emergency Management: if you own or manage a large space, take the survey to see if you could potentially support the City’s emergency operations
Donate to a Relief Fund:
- NYC COVID Relief Fund– Mayor de Blasio has charged the Mayor’s Fund with activating the COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund to provide resources and support to healthcare workers, essential staff, local small businesses, displaced hourly workers (including immigrant workers) as well as families, youth, and vulnerable New Yorkers.
- Robin Hood Relief Fund– We are helping New Yorkers by supporting the nonprofit organizations on the frontlines. 100 percent of donations will provide emergency support through food, housing, job security and more.
