Frequently asked questions

ServeLocal connects volunteers with community service opportunities in the greater New Haven, Connecticut area — currently everything within about 30 miles of the city.

Volunteers can browse opportunities, save sessions to a calendar, log their service hours, and message the organizations they work with. Nonprofits can post events and recruit volunteers directly.

No — browsing opportunities and the nonprofit directory is open to everyone.

You need a free account to save sessions to your calendar, log service hours, and send or receive messages.

Yes. ServeLocal is free for both volunteers and organizations.

Open Find Opportunities. You can search by keyword and filter by cause area, virtual-only, and family-friendly.

Switch to the Map view to see everything plotted within the 30-mile radius, colour-coded by category.

Each listing shows how often it runs — One-time, Weekly, Biweekly, Monthly, or Flexible — so you can tell a single event apart from an ongoing commitment before you sign up.

Open any opportunity, pick a date from its calendar, and choose Add to My Calendar. Saved sessions appear under Calendar in your dashboard, grouped by month.

Go to Service Log in your dashboard and choose New Entry. Record the date, hours served, organization, and a description. Entries can be edited or deleted later, and your dashboard totals update automatically.

Create an account and choose Organization as your account type. From the organization dashboard, use Add Event to publish an event — it appears on the public Find Opportunities page immediately.

Find Volunteers lets you write one outreach message about your organization and send it to any volunteer's inbox with a single click. Volunteers you've already contacted are marked so you don't repeat yourself.

Yes. Open Settings and use the Account type card to switch. Your account and data are kept — only the dashboard you land on changes.

Volunteers and organizations share the same inbox, so a message sent from either side lands in the other's Messages section. You'll see an unread badge in the sidebar and a notification when a new message arrives.

The registry is built from the IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File and lists every active 501(c)(3) within roughly 30 miles of New Haven. Phone numbers and websites are drawn from organizations' own IRS Form 990 filings where available.

Organizations tied to public schools — PTAs, PTOs, booster clubs, district education foundations, and charter schools — are excluded from the directory.

Events posted by organizations through ServeLocal are real and current.

The platform also ships with a set of sample listings for well-known local nonprofits so the site isn't empty. Those are illustrative — always confirm details with the organization using the contact information on the listing before showing up.