New York Cares

One star because this organization is the WORST. The lion's share of the volunteers NEED to be here because of a need for vocational credits and they aren't too happy about it especially if it's on a Saturday. You will find yourself being yelled at by 19-year-olds at a project.. No one at New York Cares EVER answers the phone if you want to lodge a complaint about an individual or even to tell them that a company no longer exists. Team leaders often don't answer cancellation emails and put you down as present at a location. Would not recommend.

Dr. Reinsman is an angel 😇 who cares about you. I felt so comfortable with him and he is so informative. He's my Doc. Keep up the good work! 😃

I was a volunteer and I went to the St. John’s cathedral as requested. As I proceeded down stairs into the kitchen, I said “hello “ and NO response. The team leader came in 6 minutes later ( as I stood there and every treated me as I was invisible). I said my name and said that I am waiting on so and so. She said I am she and walked away so I waited about 4 more minutes and left. I looked at my account and it has No Show. Of course they didn’t see me or better yet, didn’t acknowledge me.

Great organization that is affiliated with a lot of nonprofit organizations, schools and churches, etc. I remember the time when this organization had 65 thousand active members. I have been amazed at how much energy and power is generated when people get together to empower those in need. Before covid, I tried out many different types of projects including but not limited to walking goats on Governors Island, food rescue, soup kitchens, reading for children in shelters and doing sports with people of all abilities. I'm hoping that things will be back to normal again and the projects that allow us to combine workout and volunteer work will come back. Before covid, the volunteers used to be able to surf, swim and run with people of all abilities. There used to be opportunities to go bowling in the Special Olympics building. Occasionally team leads would not show up or be late but no big deal. Some of us have been through the team leader training so whenever that kind of thing happened, we were able to step in and sub for those days. We all went with the flow and kept things rolling. Nowadays most of the projects are food-related. I occasionally see some that are related to education. The only project I can make myself available for at this time is the early AM soup kitchen but this does not stop me from being amazed at the collective power of the New York Cares volunteers. Just know that if you have 3 no-shows within a 6 months period, your account will be deactivated.

A great organization for volunteering in New York City. No matter your interests or availability, you'll be able to find volunteer events that work for you. If you are looking for ways to help out the community, then I'd definitely recommend New York Cares. The volunteer events are well-run, there are numerous ones to choose from, and the other volunteers are a joy to work with. Overall, a great organization working for the benefit of NYC!

Great place to start volunteering, their website has an easy UI and the staff are really nice.

Signed up with NY Cares when I was unemployed. There is always a variety of projects you can do that's located in all 5 boroughs. All days, all times. You can even eventually become a team leader and run your own project. Awesome experience and glad I joined.

I'm so glad that I signed up to volunteer through this organization. I met lot of cool people and had lot of fun. Can't wait to have more free time to do this more often. :D I do suggest that you consider volunteering with kids. They are very observant, sweet and polite children. So you won't have problem doing activities with them most of time.