Volunteer
Every girl we reach, a volunteer helped get her there.
Orchestrating an evening like the Change Make*Hers Gala takes hundreds of hours and dozens of people pulling in the same direction. So does every camp, clinic and community booth we run across Idaho. Volunteers are the engine behind all of it, and usually the first face a family meets.
If you have a free Saturday, a team at work looking for something real to do, or service hours to fill, there is a place here where you will be genuinely useful and, we think, genuinely glad you came.
- All year
- Camps, clinics, community events, and one big night every February
- 4 ways
- To help, from a two-hour booth shift to skills-based work from home
- $0
- Volunteering costs you nothing. Screening and training are on us.
- 7
- Committees, several seated by people who started with a single shift
Why it matters
Volunteers are the engine. Everything you see us do runs on them.
Nearly every dollar that comes in goes back out as a scholarship, a grant, a camp place or a clinic. Volunteers are what turn that money into a morning a girl remembers: the people setting up at six, the ones at the registration table who learn her name, the ones still there at the end stacking chairs and laughing about it.
They are also our front line. For most families who meet this Foundation, a volunteer is the Foundation, because a volunteer is the part of it they actually talk to.
We design the day for you, too. You will know what the job is before you say yes, you will have someone to ask when you are unsure, and you will be put alongside people rather than on your own. You will meet others who care about the same thing, you will see exactly what your hours bought, and we fully intend for you to enjoy it enough to come back.
Where we need people
Four ways in. Pick whichever one sounds like you.
One form covers all of them. Tell us what appeals and when you are around, and our Volunteer Coordinator will come back with the specifics as each one gets close.
The 2027 gala
One evening in February, and the day around it. The biggest single call we make all year, and the usual first step for people who want to see the organization before committing to anything longer.
- Setup and room turn
- Registration and check-in
- Auction spotting and runners
- Teardown, which is where the real friendships get made
Camps and clinics
Game On! camps and our clinics run across the year and across the state. These are the shifts where you are actually around the girls the Foundation exists for, which most people find is the one that sticks.
- Station help and small-group support
- Check-in, gear and water
- Photography and capturing the day
- Coaches and former athletes especially welcome
Booths and community events
Tabling at community days, school events, National Girls and Women in Sports Day and anywhere else we are invited. Short shifts, often a couple of hours, and genuinely useful.
- Staffing a booth and talking to families
- Setup and breakdown
- Handing out information and signing people up
- Good for a first time out
Behind the scenes
Work that never happens at an event. If your professional skill is useful to a small organization, it is useful here, and these roles are often remote and on your own schedule.
- Writing, design and photography
- Data, spreadsheets and research
- Translation
- Event planning and logistics
For companies and teams
Bring your team. We will give them something to actually do.
Plenty of companies have volunteer hours to use and nowhere good to spend them. A corporate team day here is not a photo opportunity with an oversized check. It is a clinic that runs because your people showed up, or a gala floor that gets turned over in forty minutes instead of two hours.
We can take a team of five or a team of forty, and we will tell you honestly which of our events suits the size and the date you have in mind.
Three things companies usually ask
- Can you certify our hours?Yes. Tell us what your program needs and in what format, and we will sign it.
- Does this count as a partnership?It does not have to. Volunteering is free and carries no expectation that you will sponsor anything. If you do want the year-round relationship, that is a separate and very welcome conversation.
- Will our giving be matched?Many Idaho employers match employee donations and some match volunteer hours with a grant. We can help you find out.
See employer matching for how the dollars side works.
Getting you ready
Everything you need to start, and all of it on us.
- A background checkRun through Sterling Volunteers for anyone who will be around young people. The Foundation pays for it. There is no volunteer-paid option and no split, because keeping girls safe is our job to fund, not yours.
- SafeSport trainingVolunteers complete Abuse Awareness and Prevention Essentials. Anyone working directly with children completes the full SafeSport Trained course. Covered too, and genuinely worth having.
- A short conversationNot an interview. Our Volunteer Coordinator will want to know what you enjoy and what you would rather skip, so we can put you somewhere you will want to come back to.
Under eighteen and looking for service hours? You are welcome, and the form has a branch for you. A parent or guardian signs off, the screening requirements work differently, and we will put you with an adult volunteer rather than on your own. Tell us what your school needs documented and we will do it properly.
Questions about any of this before you sign up: volunteer@taylorlead.com.
Where it can go
Plenty of people here started with one shift.
A single Saturday is a complete and welcome contribution, and for many people that is exactly what it stays. But the door onward is genuinely open, and a good number of the names on our committees page walked through it this way.
One shift
You work an event. You see what the organization is actually like from the inside, which is information you cannot get from a website.
A regular
You come back. You start getting asked for by name, you know where the supplies are, and newer volunteers start asking you questions.
A committee
Five of our seven committees are seating now and none of them publish a ceiling. This is where volunteers who want a say in the work tend to land.
Further
Committee chair, the board, or leading a program area. Slower, and it is not for everyone, but it starts in the same place.
One form, all of it
Tell us when you are free and what you enjoy.
It takes about three minutes. You are not committing to anything by filling it in, and you will hear from a person rather than an autoresponder.
volunteer@taylorlead.com · The Taylor LEAD Foundation, Boise, Idaho