Volunteer with ECHO North America

Work locally, impact globally!

At ECHO, our work depends on volunteers who are passionate about our mission and have a servant’s heart. With your time, talent and hard work, we can provide hope and hunger solutions for millions of people around the world.

How to get Started

1) Register & Complete Orientation
  • After creating an account, open the “Qualifications” tab (upper-right menu).
  • Complete the online orientation, including the Liability Waiver and Code of Conduct.
  • Once finished, you’ll be able to view and sign up for available volunteer shifts.
2) Name Tags

You’ll receive a temporary name tag at your first shift. To request a permanent name tag, visit the Volunteer Coordinator’s office in the Welcome & Resource Center office and complete the Volunteer Name Tag Request form.

3) Track Your Hours

Check in before each shift as well as check out. To add additional hours, select “Track Hours” from the upper-right menu in the Volunteer Portal. This helps us accurately record attendance and service hours.

Go To The Volunteer Portal
For all questions, please email volunteers@echonet.org or call (239) 567-3313
Volunteer Coordinator: Laurana Gonzalez 

Volunteer Opportunities

GLOBAL FARM

(ECHO Florida)
Good with your hands? Help agricultural staff and interns with gardening, light construction, planting, weeding, caring for animals, and more. Like to teach & inspire? Find out more about becoming a volunteer tour docent.

Maintenance

(ECHO Florida)
If you’re skilled in a trade or consider yourself an overall “handyman,” we could use your help! Tasks may include odd jobs, maintenance, farm work, and more.

Inside Work

(ECHO Florida)
Passionate about ECHO’s mission but prefer to serve inside? From clerical work, housekeeping, and anything in between, your helping hands make ECHO’s mission possible!
hours of Volunteer service at the ECHO North America Impact Center in the past year
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individual volunteers invested their time last year at the ECHO Global Farm
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Frequently Asked Questions

If you were a volunteer at ECHO before Aug 2022, your information was imported from the old system when we set up the new portal. All you need to do is enter your email, click “Forgot Password,” and create a new one through the link they will send to your email.

The portal is designed to be as intuitive and user friendly as possible, but you may run into issues with it at some point. The Volunteer Coordinator is available to assist you with any questions and walk you through the different functionalities. Just let us know at volunteers@echonet.org if you have any problems with your account.

Once you’ve logged into your portal you can add hours by checking in while you are here to volunteer for a shift or adding custom hours afterwards under your profile > track hours > add custom hours.

When you first log in, you will be taken to your dashboard, which features a lifetime total count of the hours you have logged with this portal.

All of your previous volunteer data is stored in our old system. We still have access to the records of your hard work, but that information didn’t come over to the new system. This one only shows your lifetime hours from the point that your new account was created.

Work ranges from indoor and outdoor opportunities to light manual activity (like envelope stuffing or manning a registration table) to hard physical labor (like chainsawing, mulching, or chopping bananas). We will never ask you to perform a task that you are not comfortable with; and are very conscious of safety training to ensure tasks are completed with proper safety procedures. For more information about a specific opportunity’s work level, see the opportunity description.

Whatever will make you comfortable, bearing in mind your working conditions. If you are working indoors, you may want a light sweater. If you are working outdoors in full sun, you’ll want a reusable water bottle, hat, sunglasses, extra t-shirt for the ride home, and a snack or packed lunch.

Please do! The more the merrier 🙂 Just have them create their own volunteer portal account and take the virtual orientation before they come on the farm with you. For friends that are visiting from out of town (and this will be their only interaction with ECHO), please contact volunteers@echonet.org with the particulars of your request.

Great! Work teams often are able to make the biggest impact. Check out our Work Team page for more specific information.

Sure! Kids ages 16 and up should create their own volunteer portal account and can sign up for opportunities and work on their own. Kids under 16 will need to work directly with you at all times. Add their volunteer hours to your time at the end of your shift.

Unfortunately, we don't have accommodations for individuals or groups smaller than eight at this time.

We can't allow camping for legal reasons, though there are several nearby campgrounds, RV parks, and hotels that would serve your needs. A complete list of recommendations is available in our work team manual.

If you are able to coordinate a trip with some friends - at least eight people - we may be able to provide housing. More information can be found on our work team page.