L.I.G.H.T. FOR CHARITY™ (‘Long Island Giving Help Together For Charity’) is my column where I shine a light on a different Long Island-based charity each month.
For this column, I’m writing about the Long Island Volunteer Center. The Long Island Volunteer Center, an affiliate of Points of Light, is a not-for-profit organization that supports volunteer service through a variety of meaningful initiatives. It was founded in 1992 by Joan Imhof.
The Long Island Volunteer Center is the regional center for volunteerism on Long Island. The charity provides a central hub for individuals and groups to connect directly with nonprofit organizations, raising the profile of volunteerism in the region and increasing the number of new volunteers to meet community needs. It engages and mobilizes volunteers through an online resource and referral system called VolunteerEasy, along with a variety of volunteer programs that serve Long Islanders.
One of the charity’s programs is ‘Long Island Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster,’ which is a coalition of non-profit, government, and for-profit organizations in Nassau and Suffolk counties committed to working together in the areas of disaster preparedness, response,
and recovery.
Members of this program support each other through collaborative planning efforts to identify potential needs of disaster victims and to develop coordinated, efficient delivery of the resources and services needed.
Another program the charity offers is the Martin Luther King Jr. National Day of Service, which promotes anti-poverty and educational programming and also provides emergency preparedness kit assembly projects to benefit vulnerable people.
The Long Island Volunteer Center also administers various award programs. For example, the President’s Volunteer Service Award ceremony honors people whose volunteer service has positively impacted communities and inspired others to take action.
In 2025, 26 students aged 9 to 17 received awards for their volunteer efforts totaling 4,365 hours across 43 nonprofit and community-based organizations. The charity also administers the Beacon of Hope Award, which recognizes individuals who go above and beyond to meet the needs of Long Island communities in the wake of disasters and emergencies.
Each recipient must embody the true spirit of community, commitment to service, and active citizenship, while selflessly contributing to
relief and recovery efforts. Past recipients have come from a variety of nonprofit organizations across Long Island.
The Long Island Volunteer Center is in need of ready, willing, and able volunteers. It offers many opportunities for individuals and groups to volunteer, including through working with animals, youth, health and mental health organizations, seniors, veterans, emergency services and disaster organizations, hunger and homelessness organizations, and more. Individuals can also join teams to collaborate across the volunteer spectrum.
If you aren’t in a position to donate time, you can also support the charity’s volunteer work by making a charitable donation directly to the
organization.
For more information, you can visit Long Island Volunteer Center’s website at www.longislandvolunteercenter.org.
Kayla Donnenfeld is a senior at Roslyn High School.
