Tonight, celebrate the opening of the 30th annual Asian American International Film Festival, check out Chronicle Books' new (second time around) digs at the Metreon, or find a nonprofit board of directors on which to serve. more ›

Friend of SFist Olivia Warnecke spent her morning volunteering at Glide Memorial Church as part of their annual Grocery Bag Giveaway. Here's what she had to say: more ›

Been thinking about volunteering? Have valuable skills to offer? Always wondered what it's like to be on a "board of directors?" Then hit up The Board Match 2011 tomorrow evening and find the nonprofit of your dreams. Choose from over 170 Bay Area organizations, large and small, focusing on everything from the environment to arts to youth. They need you. more ›

On Christmas Eve, Lefty O'Doul's collected 15,000 toys for the annual Firefighters Toy Program, and many more toys were dropped off at local fire stations or picked up and delivered for free by Luxor Cab throughout December. more ›

Update: Help a Mother Out received such a huge response that they've ended their donation drive. Help a Mother Out is having a donation drive through September 20 at the following locations: Natural Resources, 1367 Valencia St. (SF), Junior Gym, 101 South B Street (San Mateo), and Cubes & Crayons, 154 E. Dana Street (Mountain View). Donations being accepted include more ›

As we pointed out, First Lady Michelle Obama was in town yesterday to promote voulenteering. You know, working for a good cause pro bono? Donating your time and elbow grease Similar to writing for a blog? That stuff. Anyway, what we want to know is, did she inspire you to give back to your community? more ›

In an effort to promote "volunteerism," First Ladies Michelle Obama and Maria Shriver kicked off a national community service campaign today (United We Serve) at the playground of Bret Harte Elementary School. But Obama wasn't just talk; she joined more than 500 local volunteers to redo the school's playground. The new kid-space will include "an edible garden that will have a farmer's market stand where kids and seniors can sell vegetables to raise money for the school," reports NBC Bay Area. The playground is is expected to be completed by 5 p.m. today. (Say what you will about the Obama administraion, you would never have found Laura Bush doing manual labor in the Bayview-Hunter's Point hood.) more ›

Kicking off the United We Serve summer service initiative, First Lady Michelle Obama, as well as a gaggle of Cabinet secretaries and senior administration officials, will visit San Francisco on Monday to promote volunteering. And while her do-gooding event in San Francisco is closed off to the public and press -- along with KaBOOM!, she will help construct a public playground at Bret Harte Public Elementary School -- you can still lend your time and effort to a needy cause, one that won't involve getting frisked by secret service agents. Check out All for Good to find out more about different projects in the Bay Area that need a few good hands. more ›

With Thanksgiving a little over a week away, and before we list the top restaurants for turkey dinners, remember that the SF Food Bank needs you help. With over 300 tons of food (!) moved through their warehouse every week, this fine local organization needs assistance sorting and packaging meals for distribution. more ›

What started out yesterday morning as a PG-13, innocent little fender bender has now turned into our very own R-rated environmental disaster. Smashing. Here's a summary of today's oil spill-related chaos, followed by volunteering and clean-up information. -- Today Gavin Newsom sent down word from wherever he's recovering from his hangover -- we kid. sort of -- that SF will get litigious on the agency or persons responsible for the 58,000 gallons of oil... more ›

Way back when, in days of yore, Alex Tourk and Gavin Newsom were friends and worked on projects together, like San Francisco Connect. And so they decided to that in order to get people to join in and volunteer, they needed to come up with an advertising campaign. Which they did. And guess what tag line they came up with for Project Connect? "Volunteering is Sexy." Guess what new advertising campaign is going live this week? more ›