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Make a real difference. You can help provide essential resources and enrichment opportunities to public school students in Pasadena, Altadena, and Sierra Madre. Your support helps the Pasadena Educational Foundation to achieve excellence and equity in the Pasadena Unified School District. Visit: https://pasedfoundation.org/support/donate/

PATH provides meals to their residents in interim housing. When groups sign up to provide meals, it helps PATH focus its resources on providing housing and support services for their residents. Their male veterans in West LA love to have home-cooked meals from volunteers. Shifts are currently available at their West LA site. They understand not everyone is comfortable with on-site volunteering. If you want to support the male veterans, ask them about sponsoring a meal through a meal delivery service or catering! For more info, visit: https://app.betterimpact.com/PublicOrganization/f36ff9d2-7476-4797-8747-b7487cbd57aa/1

PATH provides meals to their residents in interim housing. When groups sign up to provide meals, it helps PATH focus its resources on providing housing and support services for their residents. Their male veterans in West LA love to have home-cooked meals from volunteers. Shifts are currently available at their West LA site. They understand not everyone is comfortable with on-site volunteering. If you want to support the male veterans, ask them about sponsoring a meal through a meal delivery service or catering! For more info, visit: https://app.betterimpact.com/PublicOrganization/f36ff9d2-7476-4797-8747-b7487cbd57aa/2

Every week, PATH moves dozens of previously homeless families off the streets and into homes. Help their new residents feel safe and comfortable in their new home by providing a "Welcome Home Kit" filled with basic home goods, kitchen items, and cleaning supplies. Welcome Home Kits are critical, especially amidst all the uncertainty of the pandemic. These kits not only meet the families’ essential needs, but they can help start their journey of having a new place to call home! Please check out their Welcome Home Wishlist to help support! Urgent Needs:Bedding, Home goods (laundry hamper, bath mat, shower caddy), Kitchen items (pots & pans, dishes, utensils), Hygiene items (soap, shampoo, toothpaste), Cleaning supplies, School Supplies, Target gift cards. *For health and safety reasons, all Welcome Home items must be new & unopened* For more info: https://app.betterimpact.com/PublicOrganization/f36ff9d2-7476-4797-8747-b7487cbd57aa/1

As you shop for personal hygiene items, pick up a few extra supplies to help individuals currently experiencing homelessness. Urgent Needs: Hand sanitizer, Soap & shampoo, Cleansing wipes, Socks & cold weather clothing*, Blankets*, Non-perishable snacks & bottled water. *For health and safety reasons, all Care Kit items must be new & unopened. For more info: https://app.betterimpact.com/PublicOrganization/f36ff9d2-7476-4797-8747-b7487cbd57aa/1

Thank you for considering a gift to PATH. Your support helps them provide critical resources and services to those experiencing homelessness in the community. All gifts can be designated towards a specific PATH region. There are various ways to give, so please consider supporting PATH! Visit: https://epath.networkforgood.com/projects/52177-support-path

Volunteers help to accomplish Project Angel Food’s mission in a variety of ways. Even one day, or a few hours, of volunteering can make a world of difference to the community's most vulnerable neighbors. Since 1989, Project Angel Food has delivered over 13 million meals to more than 22,000 critically ill people. Their volunteers not only help with preparing meals and delivering them, and also folding and stuffing letters, beading bracelets, and calling clients to see how they’re doing. Volunteers can sign up on their own, with a group of friends, family or co-workers. They can spend one day, or many years, in service to our community. We have some volunteers who started in high school or college and have now been with us for 10, 15 and even 20 years, and are bringing their children with them now. To schedule a volunteering session, visit: https://www.angelfood.org/delivery/volunteers/individuals-and-groups

Project Minnie provides pet food and supplies to homeless pets and their homeless parents in Venice, CA on the Venice Boardwalk and at Safe Place for Youth. Visit: https://www.projectminnie.org/donate

Project Ropa is a nonprofit organization restoring dignity and empowering the lives of people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles by providing clean clothes, hygiene essentials, and employment opportunities while reducing textile waste and minimizing our carbon footprint. Now, because of the health threats posed by the coronavirus, the need to overcome those challenges has become ever greater. When even one person doesn’t have access to proper hygiene, the health of the entire community is at risk. That is where you can help! Donate the clothing and hygiene items to help Project Ropa! Visit: https://www.projectropa.org/get-involved/

Help create hygiene kits for Project Ropa to directly distribute to people experiencing homelessness in the Los Angeles area. This is a great activity for children to get involved with. They are looking for assistance creating hygiene kits to distribute to our unhoused neighbors. This can be done remotely by putting together items in a ziploc bag, tote bag or reusable grocery bag. Please note: Items for the hygiene kits will not be provided by them. They recommend reaching out to your network of friends and family to source the items. All items can be travel-size or full-size. Items to include in the kits are: Essentials - Shampoo, Toothpaste and toothbrush, Soap, Body lotion, Shaving cream, Razor. Nice to Have - Deodorant, Q-Tips, Band-Aids, Hand sanitizer, Disinfecting wipes, Travel-size facial tissue pack, Toilet pape, Lip balm, Sunscreen, Dental floss, Hair bands, Conditioner. Drop Offs are by appointment only! Visit: https://www.projectropa.org/get-involved/

Financial support from foundations, corporations, organizations, and individuals allows Reading to Kids to maintain and expand the reading club program, purchase teacher-selected books for elementary school libraries in low-income communities, and fund book donations directly to children to aid them in developing their own home libraries. Visit: https://readingtokids.org/HowToHelp/HelpDonate.php

Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1970, Samaritan’s Purse has helped meet needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ. The organization serves the Church worldwide to promote the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Visit: https://www.samaritanspurse.org/our-ministry/donate-online/?utm_source=Ggl&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=m_YGGM-B23V&utm_content=DonateSitelink&gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwx_eiBhBGEiwA15gLN41q_1vm1RQuPVUp33SEkB-cDNPsGvaWdewZcZThwrwlCmhizLSERhoC9zoQAvD_BwE

Onshore Volunteers are an essential part of ensuring funding for Sea Shepherd campaigns and carrying Sea Shepherd’s mission to the general public. Their campaign leaders, directors and other staff cannot be everywhere at once, so their OSVs help bring Sea Shepherd’s important message to as many corners of North America as they can. The OSVs arrange participation in events, help to manage and transport merchandise and informational materials, and interact with the public. Without funding and public awareness, Sea Shepherd cannot do the work that they do. They are wholly funded by donations, not corporate sponsors or political interest groups. Their vested interest is in the welfare and preservation of ocean wildlife. There is no other group or movement like Sea Shepherd, and their OSVs must reflect that uniqueness in the effort that they put into their Onshore Volunteer program. Visit: https://seashepherd.org/get-involved/onshore-volunteer/

They are looking for navigators, sailors, engineers, electricians, carpenters, welders, cooks, medics or nurses, small boat operators, photographers, videographers, electronics technicians, radio and antenna technicians, and even a few unskilled but dedicated Ocean Defenders. Visit: https://seashepherd.org/get-involved/crewing-at-sea/

Self Help Graphics is guided by their values driven mission of Spirituality and Creative Heart, Social Consciousness, Integrity, Innovation and Accessibility. If you’ve ever attended their programs, workshops, exhibitions and special events, you know that corazón (heart), culture and community, are at the core of what they do for artists of color, individuals, youth and families. Consider donating to support their mission and programs! Visit: https://www.selfhelpgraphics.com/donate

Please consider supporting Starr Ranch. Your donation will help them: Enroll students in their Field Ecology and Junior Biologist programs, now in their second decade of giving insight into nature and imparting valuable practical skills, support their seasonal restoration and education staff – recent college graduates from all over the country who come to live and work at Starr Ranch for 6-10 months to learn about their innovative approaches to restoration, wildlife research, and education, remove invasive plant species – without the use of toxic chemicals – in preparation to restore rare habitats such as coastal sage scrub, which is found only here in Southern California, increase the quality of the viewing experience of Starr Ranch's webcams – their broadcasts heard 'round the world, and maintain Starr Ranch. This includes twelve buildings, eight vehicles, two tractors plus implements, and 18 miles of roads. Most importantly, it will help preserve this special place. From all of the folks at Starr Ranch, thank you! Visit: https://act.audubon.org/a/support-starr-ranch

Dedicated birders who would like banding experience are invited to apply to become volunteer banders for a MAPS (Mapping Avian Productivity and Survivorship) station at the Starr Ranch Bird Observatory. MAPS is a growing network of hundreds of songbird banding stations in North America run by the Institute for Bird Populations (IBP). Long term banding data from MAPS stations help track changes in populations and migration patterns. In 2005, they became part of an international monitoring network that tracks birds in their wintering grounds, MoSI (Monitoreo de Sobrevivencia Invernal) with stations from Mexico to Columbia (and Starr Ranch!). Visit: https://starrranch.org/volunteer/

Besides bird banding, Starr Ranch manages other songbird monitoring projects that utilize volunteer citizen scientists who are trained by ornithologists. Monitoring usually targets rare species and habitats such as coastal sage scrub but they also use songbirds as indicators of restoration success and climate change. New monitoring projects help them make decisions on which invasive plant species they will work to control. Below are some current songbird monitoring projects that utilize citizen science volunteers: Songbirds of Starr Ranch Coastal Sage Scrub, Effects of Coastal Sage Scrub Restoration on Songbirds, Effects of the Streambank Weed, Periwinkle, on Songbirds, and Songbird Phenology in Coastal Sage Scrub and Riparian Woodlands. If you would like to volunteer or would like to learn more about Starr Ranch songbird monitoring projects, please contact Sandy DeSimone (sdesimone@audubon.org) at 949-858-0309. Visit: https://starrranch.org/volunteer/

In spring 2004 Starr Ranch Sanctuary trained volunteers to assist their biologists with a long-term study that examined the effects of artichoke thistle control and coastal sage scrub restoration on small mammals (and songbirds). The goal of this project was to produce estimates of small mammal species composition, richness, diversity, and abundance in their paired restoration and pristine coastal sage scrub monitoring sites as well as over a chronosequence of sites of increasing restoration age. Data collected through 2010 indicated a negative effect of artichoke thistle and a positive effect of restoration, so this small mammal study is currently inactive. Monitoring responses to actions or lack of actions remains the key strategy for resource management in a changing climate. Currently Starr Ranch biologists train citizen science volunteers to help them monitor wildlife that serve as good indicators of habitat quality and help them decide which invasive species they will work to control. These are long term projects that will also aid in detection of shifts in wildlife populations that may be associated with a changing climate. Current wildlife monitoring projects include: Aquatic Vertebrates of Bell Creek (fish, reptiles and amphibians), Perennial Pools of Bell Creek, Effects of the Streambank Weed, Periwinkle, on Small Mammals and Invertebrates, and Phenology of Butterflies (and Plants) of Coastal Sage Scrub and Riparian Woodland. If you would like to volunteer with our wildlife monitoring projects, please contact Sandy DeSimone (sdesimone@audubon.org) at 949-858-0309. Visit: https://starrranch.org/volunteer/

In partnership with the Reserve at Rancho Mission Viejo and the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), Starr Ranch runs a volunteer fire watch. Each year since 2008 volunteers are trained in late summer by the OCFA to deter arson and report behaviors that could lead to fires and to detect fires quickly if they start. Volunteers work in pairs during Red Flag Warnings, periods of high winds and dry conditions, usually in the fall. Lookout locations are at the edges of south Orange County preserved land from Starr Ranch south to the Reserve at Rancho Mission Viejo. Visit: https://starrranch.org/volunteer/