CSR & Volunteer Opportunities
Individuals working to identify appropriate organizations where they can create impact in the community should utilize this corporate social responsibility (CSR) directory. Below are dynamic organizations that can partner with you on a CSR project. Explore each of the themes below.
Featured Organizations
Hennepin Healthcare
Hennepin Healthcare provides the city and community with unparalleled service: healthcare access to all, level 1 trauma care for adults and children, and expertise in maternal healthcare, addiction, and mental health care. They are neighbors to many patients who desperately need access to quality care, specialty care and patient comfort and care resources to help them maintain a quality of life or live through lifelong illness.
Generosity removes barriers to healthcare access, enhances the patient and family experience, and advances efforts in medical education, clinical research and community health. The Hennepin Healthcare Foundation has the honor of connecting the generosity of the community to the mission of Hennepin Healthcare. To learn more, visit www.hennepinhealthcare.org/doinggood.
Paula Wilhelm
Paula.Wilhelm@hcmed.org
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity
Twin Cities Habitat brings people together to create, preserve, and promote affordable homeownership and advance racial equity in housing.
Kate Loe | VP of Resource Development
kate.loe@tchabitat.org
Greater Twin Cities United Way
You can help meet the urgent needs of people in our community by volunteering your time and talents with Greater Twin Cities United Way! Whether you’re a company looking to organize a corporate volunteer event onsite at your place of business, or an individual or small group looking to give back to your community, we offer volunteer opportunities to work with your schedule and area of interest.
Alan Branch | Business Relationship Officer
Alan.Branch@gtcuw.org
MATTER
Matter launches projects that improve communities. Since 2002, tens of thousands of donors and volunteers have helped grow MATTER into an organization that has distributed over $731 million in restorative aid and is impacting millions of lives around the world. The organization is known for their MATTERbox Volunteer Kit designed to help you launch an impact project in the community.
Victor Salone | Executive Vice President of Business Operations
victor@matter.ngo
Minnesota Humanities Center
The Minnesota Humanities Center strengthens our world by promoting the Humanities and supporting community decision-making in public life. They assist individuals, creators, scholars, and organizations in building a strong, inclusive, and connected society.
Eden Bart | Program Officer
Eden@mnhum.org
The Loppet Foundation
The foundation connects people to the outdoors through experiences that grow community. Located in North Minneapolis, volunteers focused on maximizing our environmental efficiency and sustainability.
Cody Lynch | Development Director
cody.lynch@loppet.org
Midtown Greenway Coalition
The Midtown Greenway Regional Trail is a 5.5-mile long former railroad corridor in south Minneapolis with bicycling and walking trails. It is owned by the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority and the trails are maintained by the City of Minneapolis. The Midtown Greenway Coalition is the grassroots organization that successfully advocated for installation of the Midtown Greenway by public agencies. The Coalition continues to engage our community in protecting, improving, and using the Greenway.
Soren Jensen | Executive Director
soren@midtowngreenway.org
Catholic Charities, St. Paul & Minneapolis
Men, women, children, and families come to Catholic Charities during some of the hardest times in their lives. Catholic Charities serve around 23,000 people annually, regardless of faith, background or circumstance through 29 different programs at over 18 locations including shelters for the unhoused.
HandsOn Twin Cities
For over one hundred years, Hands On Twin Cities has inspired, equipped, and mobilized a movement of people to make a positive difference through community engagement and service.
Health & Wellness
National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) Minnesota
NAMI engages and empowers individuals living with mental illnesses and their families through education, peer-to-peer support groups, suicide prevention, a helpline, and legislative advocacy. As a grassroots non-profit, they rely on the support and dedication of volunteers. Whether you are interested in lending a hand for a few hours or leading a support group for years, NAMI Minnesota looks forward to talking with you about ways to be involved.
Girls on the Run
At Girls on the Run Minnesota, teaching critical life skills is the cornerstone of their research-based programs. Meeting in small teams, trained volunteer coaches inspire girls of all abilities to strengthen confidence and other important life skills through dynamic, interactive lessons and physical activity.
YMCA
YMCA of the North is committed to strengthening community by empowering young people, improving the health and well-being of people of all ages and inspiring action in and across communities. Ys across the country is providing emergency services, including childcare for essential workers, food for kids without access to school meals, safe virtual learning spaces, shelter for people who need it the most and outreach to isolated seniors.
YWCA
YWCA Minneapolis lives by a mission of eliminating racism and empowering women and girls through our high-quality programs and events. YWCA Minneapolis is an organization with a 130-year history of enthusiastic advocacy and equity-centered programs focused on racial justice, early childhood education, youth development and wellness.
Letters of Love Global
Letters of Love is a unique organization with a simple mission: spread love to children who are fighting a battle no child ever should. In its essence, it was created as an opportunity for youth to make a real, palpable difference in the lives of pediatric patients. The nonprofit spreads the message that simple, kind words can truly change the trajectory of someone's day, week, or life and encourages its thousands of members not only to write cards for Letters of Love but to write letters to the ones they love. Run by Youth for Youth, Letters of Love supports thousands of high school and college-aged members from 18 countries. By partnering with countless youth organizations and businesses, our 30 youth volunteers have spearheaded and directed this incredible growth. With the tagline "You are never too young to make a difference," the organization is growing remarkably, with thousands of young people changing the world with kindness, one card at a time.
info@lettersofloveglobal.com
Hunger Relief
People Serving People
People Serving People is the largest and most comprehensive emergency shelter for families experiencing homelessness in Minnesota and a dedicated leader in homelessness prevention. The meal program is one of the largest operations, both in the number of people it serves each day and in the number of people needed to keep it running smoothly. Help ensure meals get to families on time by either serving meals in the dining hall (‘Meal Service’) or bringing meals to families in their rooms at the downtown shelter location (‘Meal Delivery’).
Meals on Wheels
Meals on Wheels is a community-based service that provides fresh, nutritious meals delivered directly to the homes of seniors and individuals with disabilities throughout the Twin Cities. In addition to regularly providing healthy foods, caring volunteers provide social connection that helps meal recipients remain living independently in their own homes.
Open Arms
Open Arms grows vegetables and herbs for their kitchen and Community Supported Agriculture program at multiple urban farm sites in the Twin Cities. By turning vacant lots into vibrant gardens, Open Arms is transforming underutilized urban spaces into healthy food to nourish the community. Open Farms engages volunteers and the community in agricultural issues while providing the best nourishment possible to our clients living with life-threatening illnesses.
Education
BestPrep
BestPrep provides educational programs to students in grade 4-12. Since 1976, BestPrep has impacted more than 2 million students across Minnesota providing educators with resources to ensure that students are career ready and financially capable. More than 5,000 volunteers participate annually providing mock interviews, classroom speakers, online mentorships, and more.
CreateMpls
CreateMpls is dedicated to preparing students in underrepresented communities for rewarding careers, by removing barriers and providing accessible STEM learning programs at no cost to the students or families. Volunteer in the classroom working directly with students or implement strategic engagement endeavors with staff and other volunteers.
Neighborhood House
They are a multi-service agency, providing wrap-around services for people in need. Neighborhood House helps people with basic needs, education, multiple youth programs, and health and well-being. All of our programs are offered for free to participants.
Arts
Art Buddies
Art Buddies pairs kind adults with children from the Twin Cities’ highest needs schools for creative one-to-one mentorship programs. Mentors and students work together to create a one-of-a-kind character and costume based on the child’s imagination and values — along the way, we spark imagination and build confidence. With the help and guidance from their creative mentors, kids are able to build a foundation of confidence in creativity.
Pillsbury United Theater
From the Makers Series to Chicago Avenue Project and Naked Stages, PILLSBURY HOUSE + THEATRE brings audiences closer—to the edge, to the actors, to affordable adventurous theatre, to fellow audience members, and to a strong, vibrant community. Now in its 34th year, the theatre continues to inspire enduring change towards a just society. An integral part of Pillsbury United Communities, one of the largest human services organizations in the state, Pillsbury House + Theatre demonstrates that the highest quality art is an integral part of all healthy communities, winning community trust, accolades and awards across the metro and nationally.
Asian Media Access
The mission of Asian Media Access is to connect the disconnected, and is dedicated to using multimedia arts, technology and community organizing as tools for social betterment.
Theater MU
Theater Mu produces great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the Asian American experience.
Housing & Unsheltered
Sharing & Caring Hands
Sharing & Caring Hands offers support for struggling families and to enable those who want to improve their lives. Their money management, case management, and resources to deal with the unique issues each family is facing. Volunteer Job-Seekers come regularly to help residents search for employment. Families stay an average of three months and parents and children are connected with resources to help them become stable. Services include Transitional housing, laundry facility, tutor, job search assistance.
Avenues for Youth
Avenues for Youth partners with youth experiencing homelessness to achieve their dreams. For more than 27 years, Avenues has supported youth ages 16-24 in Hennepin County. Whether a young person needs someplace to stay for just one night, or a year and a half, Avenues support youth to find their path out of homelessness. We do that by providing a stable home, building trusting relationships, and navigating the youth’s education, career, health and wellness and housing.
Simpson Housing Services
The mission of Simpson Housing Services is to house, support and advocate for people experiencing homelessness. In response to unmet community needs, Simpson’s services have grown to include five key programs: overnight shelter; supportive housing programs for youth, single adults, and families; and developmental and educational services for children of families in their Family Housing Program.
Union Gospel Mission
They are a Christian ministry dedicated to serving men, women, and children facing homelessness, poverty, and addiction in our community. Volunteering with the Union Gospel Mission Twin Cities provides the opportunity to reach out to people experiencing homelessness.
Families
Pinky Swear Foundation
Just before nine-year-old Mitch passed away from bone cancer, he made his dad pinky swear promise to always help kids with cancer – even after he was gone. Since then, Pinky Swear Foundation continues to support kids with cancer and their families with everyday expenses including housing, food, and transportation.
Tickets For Kids
Tickets for Kids provides at-risk children with experiences that inspire hope, dreams, and achievements for a lifetime. They provide free access for low-income and at-risk kids to attend the arts, cultural, educational, and athletic venues of their community.
Park Place
They exist to close the opportunity gap for Latine youth in Minneapolis. They believe in creating encouraging spaces for kids, families, and community through relationship by offering a multitude of before and after-school programs, as well as community events.
Pillsbury United Communities
Pillsbury United Communities co-creates enduring change toward a just society. Built with and for the people we serve, our united system of programs, neighborhood centers, and social enterprises empowers individuals and families across the region to own their future on their own terms.
Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio (CLUES)
CLUES is Minnesota largest Latino-led nonprofit organization. Their programs focus on Latino individuals and families, yet their experience and capabilities enable them to serve individuals and families from all walks of life including new immigrants and low-income families who dream of a better future. Services include volunteering for pop-up shelf, mentoring Latino youth through YA program and teaching English.
Aging
Friends & Co
Their mission is a world where every older adult thrives in a meaningful relationship. Friends & Co has services that foster meaningful connections for everyone. Services include coffee talk, phone conversations and visiting companions.
Lyngblomsten
Lyngblomsten serves older adults and their families through healthcare, housing, and community-based services. Partnered in ministry with more than two dozen Christian congregations across the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota, Lyngblomsten provides a continuum of care that meets the needs of adults as they travel the later years of their life’s journey. Their services nurture the whole person—body, mind, and spirit.
Sustainability
Friends of the Mississippi River
Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR) engages people to protect, restore and enhance the Mississippi River and its watershed in the Twin Cities region. Annually, over 3,500 local river stewards get their hands dirty through FMR cleanups, storm drain stenciling outings, invasive species removals and other habitat restoration activities.
Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board
Bring your group together to make a lasting impact in the Minneapolis Parks! Groups ranging in size from 5–30 volunteers can take part in one-time service projects that support the health and beauty of our gardens and natural areas.
From planting bulbs or picking up litter to mulching beds or removing invasive buckthorn, every project contributes to the vitality of our parks city-wide.
Conservation Corps Minnesota & Iowa
Conservation Corps Minnesota & Iowa (CCMI) engages youth and young adults in programs and initiatives that improve access to outdoor recreation, restore natural habitat, protect waterways, and respond to community needs and natural disasters. CCMI’s mission is to cultivate a community of emerging leaders in service to people and the planet.
Green Cities Accord
Green Cities Accord fosters climate resilient communities through investments in tree canopy infrastructure. Green Cities Accord is a nonprofit organization focused on increasing funding to enhance urban tree canopy. Green Cities Accord fosters public-private partnerships for the protection and expansion of urban tree canopy infrastructure to enhance the lives of people living in cities today and for future generations.
Green Crew
Green Crew is a dynamic, youth driven environmental leadership and conservation service initiative launched in January 2022 as a partnership between the Minnesota Valley Chapter of the Izaak Walton League and BSA Venturing programs. This vibrant organization empowers young environmentalists to take charge, designing, planning, and implementing action projects—while adults serve as supportive advisors.
Over just three years, Green Crew has grown significantly, with approximately 50 student members engaged in dozens of community wide environmental efforts expected to mobilize more than 2,000 volunteers in a single year. Their work garnered national attention through the New York Times “50 States, 50 Fixes” series, spotlighting how Minnesota teens are combating climate anxiety with hands on action.
People with Health Conditions or Impairments
The Arc Minnesota
The Arc promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, actively supporting them and their families in a lifetime of full inclusion. The Arc Minnesota involves volunteers in all aspects of the organization to support their mission.
Autism Society of Minnesota
The Autism Society of Minnesota (AuSM) enhances the lives of individuals and families affected by autism spectrum disorder. AuSM serves Minnesotans, throughout their lives, with a fundamental commitment to advocacy, education, support, collaboration, and community building.
Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota
The Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota (EFMN) offers services for people with epilepsy and seizures across Minnesota and eastern North Dakota. Their programs educate, connect, and empower individuals and families throughout their epilepsy journey. Volunteers help with kids at summer camp, office tasks, or at fundraising events.
Fraser
Fraser is nationally recognized for autism, mental/behavioral health and disability services for individuals of all ages. The Minnesota nonprofit is uniquely positioned to serve those with intellectual or developmental disabilities and co-occurring autism or mental health issues, through healthcare, housing, education, employment, and support programs, across the lifespan. Our mission is to build a community of inclusion that allows all people to belong and thrive.
