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Read what each role actually requires before you apply.

Not every role suits everyone, and a mentor who leaves partway does real, measurable harm. So this page leads with what each role actually demands, including the reasons we will turn you down.

Open roles

Choose by what you can actually sustain, not by how much you want to help

Highest bar · largest effect

Mentor — One Steady Adult

Three-year minimum, roughly two hours a fortnight. Full background screening, twelve hours of training, monthly supervision with a licensed social worker. This is the only role where we actively talk people out of applying.

  • We decline: anyone who can only commit one year
  • We decline: anyone processing a recent major loss of their own
  • We decline: anyone framing this as rescuing a child
  • We do not mind: no parenting experience, not “good with kids,” quiet
Apply to mentor

Drop-in · no commitment

Thursday night bag packing

Thursdays, 18:30–20:30, at the warehouse, packing and loading Friday's bags. No background check required (no child contact), come once, bring friends, bring your own kids aged 12 and up. It is the easiest thing to join and the one we are most short on.

Needed every week

One school year · remote works

Scholar tutor

Academic or field-specific support for a Semper Scholar. One hour a week, remote is fine, one school year. Especially needed: STEM coursework, writing, and anyone who can read a financial aid document. That last one is badly underrated.

Apply to tutor

Monthly · screening required

Kinship respite carer

One afternoon a month with the children in a kinship household so the caregiver can see a doctor or simply rest. About half of kinship caregivers are over sixty; that afternoon is not a perk, it is the line between sustainable and not. Full screening and first-aid certification required.

Apply for respite

Pro bono · project-based

Skills-based volunteers

Currently short of: family law and guardianship attorneys, CPAs, Spanish and Vietnamese translators, and someone who can build a data pipeline.

Talk to us

Governance · three-year term

Board directors

Unpaid, four meetings a year plus committee work. We prioritise adults with lived experience of foster care, kinship care or childhood poverty; current school district staff; and a CPA for the audit committee.

Express interest
Volunteers sorting canned food donations at a distribution centre.

The screening

About six weeks from application to first meeting.

We know it is slow. We pay for the screening, not you. Charging volunteers would filter out low-income applicants without filtering out anyone with bad intent.

  1. Week 1 — application and a first call

    Twenty minutes, mostly about whether the time commitment is realistic. Not about how much you want to help.

  2. Weeks 2–4 — background checks

    National and state criminal records, sex offender registry, driving record, three verified non-family references.

  3. Week 4 — structured interview

    Ninety minutes with a licensed social worker, including scenario questions on boundaries, disappointment and exit planning.

  4. Week 5 — twelve hours of training

    Trauma-informed practice, mandated reporting, cultural humility, and an entire module on not trying to be a parent.

  5. Week 6 — matching and first meeting

    Matched by a social worker. The child has a veto. Staff are present at the first meeting.

Apply

A short form. A real person reads it.

We reply within five business days, including when the answer is no. Declined applicants are told why. Most organisations skip that step, but “we do not think the timing is right for you” is better than silence.

If three years is not available to you right now Pack bags on Thursday, or become a monthly donor. Both are genuinely useful and neither puts a child at risk of your departure. An honest read of your own capacity is itself a form of protection.

Volunteer application

Companies & campuses

What we can do together, and what we will decline

Highest return

Turn on employee matching

If you already run a matching program, add us to the list and remind staff once. Cost is close to zero and it usually outperforms any single corporate sponsorship. If you do not run one, we can share how other employers structured theirs.

Team days that help

Bring the team to Thursday packing

The one corporate volunteer day we welcome: it needs no staff escort, the output is measurable in boxes, and it involves no child contact. We do not host team days that require photographs of children.

Campus chapters

A chapter can run a whole Backpack Drop

Fundraising, procurement and school liaison. A student chapter can run a local Backpack Drop end to end. We supply the operating manual, purchasing channels and compliance support. It is the only locally autonomous operation we permit.

Sponsorship conditions we decline Any that require filming, interviewing or featuring a child we serve. Any that require a corporate logo on an item a child carries. Any that request family lists or case details. Any that require distribution to hit a date set by a marketing calendar. We have been asked all of these and declined all of these.

Legacy giving

The only money whose time horizon matches the word always

A three-year mentor commitment requires us to be confident about year three on the day we make it. Legacy gifts are the only funds that support that kind of planning. They let us hold places for children who have not been nominated yet.

Common forms

  • A fixed sum or a percentage of the residue in a will
  • Naming us a retirement account beneficiary, usually the most tax-efficient route
  • Life insurance beneficiary designation
  • A charitable remainder trust

How we handle it

  • No legacy society, no plaques, no recognition dinners
  • Telling us is optional and does not change how often we contact you
  • We do not draft wills or recommend attorneys. Use your own adviser
  • Bequests default to unrestricted unless you specify otherwise
Request legacy information