Find an opportunity
Everything published is at needs.kanuhawaii.org , under Find Opportunities. No account, no sign-in, no paywall.
Narrowing it down
The filter panel sits beside the results on a wide screen and behind a Filters button on a phone, which carries a count of how many are on. Reset clears them.
| Filter | What it does |
|---|---|
| Island | Which island the work happens on, including Remote. An opportunity can list more than one. |
| Cause | What it is in aid of: environmental conservation, food insecurity, keiki, kupuna, and sixteen others. |
| Activity type | What you would actually be doing. Beach and ocean, warehouse, teaching and training, admin and clerical, and so on. Not the same question as the cause. |
| Good For | Who it suits: families, teens, kupuna, groups, visitors, accessible, resume builder, and more. |
| Organization | Everything from one organization. |
| Date type | One-time, recurring, or open ended. |
| Commitment | One-time, or ongoing. |
| Dates | A start and an end date. Only today onwards is offered, because an opportunity in the past is not one you can join. |
| Mālama Hawaiʻi | Organizations certified to host visiting volunteers. See the programme. |
| Search | Free text across titles and descriptions. |
Cause and activity are the two worth combining. “Environmental Conservation” is a large pile; that plus “Physical Labor” is an afternoon you will enjoy or one you will not.
Results sort by Upcoming unless you switch to Popular. Twenty load at a time and the rest arrive as you scroll, with a running “showing X of Y” underneath.
Three ways to look at the same results
Buttons in the toolbar switch between them, and the filters apply to all three.
- Cards, the default.
- Map, which plots everything with an address and clusters the pins where they crowd.
- Calendar, month by month, where it is switched on. It expands recurring opportunities into their individual dates, and a date range you drag across filters the list.
Your filters are in the address bar
Every filter is written into the URL as you set it, which makes a filtered list something you can bookmark, send to somebody, or put on a page.
https://needs.kanuhawaii.org/needs?island=oahu&cause=food-insecurityCopy the address once the results look right. Organizations building a link deliberately will want the full parameter list.
Reading a listing
An opportunity page tells you the things that decide whether you can go:
- When, which is either a single date and time, a repeating pattern, or ongoing with no fixed date
- Where, from a street address with a map down to “the location varies”, which means ask
- Who can come, including any minimum age, and whether a younger volunteer can attend with a chaperone
- What is expected, drawn from a list the organizer ticked: closed toed shoes, sun protection, own transportation, a background check, a waiver to sign
- How long a shift runs, how many volunteers they are hoping for, and how many places are left when there is a limit
If something is not answered on the page, the contact email on it reaches the organizer directly.
Share buttons on each listing post it to Facebook or X, open an email about it, or copy the link. Each opportunity page carries its own title, description, and image, so a pasted link unfurls as the opportunity rather than as a bare URL.
Saving things for later
The heart on any opportunity keeps it in Saved Needs on your profile, and My Favorites in the header brings the list back. It needs an account, and pressing it while signed out opens the sign-in box rather than losing what you pressed. It is the difference between finding something good on a phone at a bus stop and finding it again that evening.
Organizations
Organizations in the header lists everyone posting here, and each has a public page with everything it has published. Useful when you have volunteered somewhere once and want to go back.