Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteers are critical to the operation and success of NextStep. We need volunteers to dismantle computers, receive donations, rebuild computers, staff the ReUse stores, work in our offices, offer education to our community, and provide technical support and training to marginalized populations. If you have a particular skill, we can probably use your help.

Here is a list of some of the things people do for us:

Pick up donations
Sort and match donated items
Check and clean parts and systems
Recreate whole systems from donated parts
Help people select a system that matches their needs
Work in NextStep ReUse Stores sorting software, arranging systems, receiving money
Dismantle electronic hardware to keep e-waste out of the landfills
Participate in computer round-ups in rural communities
Maintain our facilities
Find new donors of equipment and software

The Benefits of Volunteering

You’re helping the community by providing technology to lower income, disenfranchised people in Oregon and elsewhere. You get access to reusable technology at low or no cost. All volunteer training programs include an Internet ready PC or Macintosh computer.
You can also: Provide a computer for someone who can't afford one;
Enjoy the challenge of making old computers and other electronics work again;
Learn about fundraising and grant writing! Work with and learn about electronic devices you have never seen before;
Keep obsolete electronics out of landfills;
Work with other friendly and dedicated volunteers;
Protect our environment from the hazards of electronics waste in our environment.

How to Become a Volunteer

Regular volunteer orientations are scheduled every Saturday at 1:00pm. Please come and learn about NextStep, and how you can be a part of our project! Call 541-686-2366, ext. 122 to reserve a spot. Fill out and sign our volunteer registration, agreement and waiver forms and start making a difference right away!

Pay us a visit and tell us about your skills and interests. Directions to our facility can be found here. Map

Business Volunteering

Several times a year groups of employees from a wide range of local businesses come in and do projects for us. The vice president of a bank came in one day because he’d heard we needed monitors palletized, and he said he needed a good work out (he got one). NextStep employees were very impressed that the vice president of a bank came in and hefted computer monitors right alongside of them! More recently, two groups of employees came in and completely repainted our receiving area—and they did a beautiful job. An employee volunteer program is a company-supported effort to leverage organizational resources for and engage employees in projects that target real community needs.

Mobilize your business to support volunteer service and civic engagement at NextStep! Large or small, your business can benefit from business volunteering at NextStep Recycling. Whether you organize a small group to work for Earth Day or America Recycles Day (Nov. 15), take on a project your employees are excited about, or develop an employee volunteer program that allows for employee release time for volunteering, business and volunteering with NextStep go together!

We have partnered with a variety of local businesses including, Levi Strauss, Invitrogen, EWEB, Pacific Federal Credit Union, Best Buy, SELCO Credit Union, Wal-Mart and more! Your employees will learn to work together in a new way, find common ground, solve problems together, and take pride in their community involvement.

81.7% of corporations focus their employee volunteer programs on core business functions
52% stress a commitment to community service in their corporate mission statement to help build a cooperative corporate culture
58% use their employee volunteer program for recruiting and retaining employees
(courtesy of Points of Light Foundation)

Contact Janet Ellis, our Volunteer Coordinator, for volunteer opportunity projects at NextStep! 541-686-2366, ext. 122, or email: janet.ellis@nextsteprecycling.org

Volunteer