Volunteer
We are 100% volunteer-managed and -operated so we are always in need of people willing to lend a hand. Please consider sharing your knowledge, skills, talents, interests, and time with us! Together we can help keep Iowa pets with the families who love them, and out of shelters.
Volunteer opportunities include:
Support patrons who utilize the Pet Pantry and Paws for Life programs. Duties include answering the phone, filling pet food orders and carrying them to their cars, and helping new clients fill out applications. Orders can vary from 3 to 33 pounds. This is a great one-time opportunity, however, we would love to have a consistent volunteer support this effort one Saturday per month. A Board Member from The Pet Project will always be on-site to support and answer questions. The pace of this opportunity is dependent on the number of patrons picking up that day. There may be times where it is very busy, and others where it is calmer. This is a great opportunity to interact directly with the clients we serve, knowing you are helping keep their pets safe, fed, and loved.
Choose your time commitment ranging from 2-5 hours.
Like any business, we have administrative work that needs taken care of each week to keep operations moving smoothly. We call clients each week to clarify information; we file; we check to make sure we are not running low on anything before the next Saturday; and we enter information into our computer system. Office helpers would work from 1pm-4pm on Wednesdays or during our open hours on Saturday, but could be flexible with scheduling.
We need your help organizing our applications! This volunteer opportunity will scan our current applications into our server so that we can efficiently look up and manage current and past clients. Listen to your favorite podcast, radio station or audio book while helping keep our operations running smoothly!
Time commitment and time of week is flexible.
As an all-volunteer-run organization, we participate in and host several fundraising and awareness events each year. We need individuals committed to serving on our Fundraising Committee to help with idea generation, event planning and event execution. If you’re a party planner by nature, this role is for you! Committee meetings typically meet 1-2 times per month on weekday evenings.
It takes a lot of dough to support the animals in our community, and we need help submitting grants. This work includes scouting new grant opportunities, writing, proofing and submitting grant applications. Whether you’re currently an expert writer or looking for experience, we will help train you if you’re willing to help!
We have partners who generously donate food to our programs, and need on-call volunteers to help transport food when the need arises. Volunteers would need a large car, SUV or van and the ability to lift 30+ pounds. Pick-ups would take place in the DSM area, unloading at the The Pet Project office.
Is your workplace passionate about supporting pets in our communities? Would you be willing to lead an awareness/food drive at your place of work? We have everything you need to get started — donation barrels, signage, flyers, etc. We can even help you identify a fun team building activity to do during your drive! Host your drive as long as needed — we recommend at least two weeks.
If you love computers, configuring wifi, supporting email servers and QuickBooks, we could use your help! In order to fill orders and keep our operations running smoothly, we rely on several back-end programs and applications. This opportunity is perfect for someone who has a few hours a month to help ensure we are running as effectively as possible.