Volunteer
All you need is paper and something colorful.
Anyone can help. Draw a card at your kitchen table, run a bake sale, write a story, or start a chapter at your school. Log what you do and we'll keep track of your hours.
Ways to help
Four ways in
Pick one, pick all of them, or start with whichever is closest to your kitchen table.
Make hospital cards
Draw, color, and write cards that get delivered to kids in treatment. All you need is paper and something colorful.
Fundraise
Run a bake sale, an art auction, or a lemonade stand. We will help you plan it and share it.
Write for the blog
Share your experience, or help other volunteers turn their notes into a published story.
Outreach & chapters
Bring Hearts4Hands to your school, connect us with a hospital, or help run a local chapter.
The main event
How to make a card
There's no wrong way to do this. But a few small things make a card much better to open from a hospital bed.
Yes please
- Lots of color. Fill the paper corner to corner — bright beats tidy.
- Something to look at twice: a joke, a maze, a tiny animal hiding in the corner.
- A short, warm note. Two sentences is plenty.
- Your first name at the bottom, and your age if you want to.
Please skip
- Glitter. Hospitals ask us not to send it, and it gets everywhere.
- “Get well soon.” Some kids are in treatment a long time, and it can land like a deadline.
- Anything naming a specific illness or treatment.
- Religious messages — we can't know what each family believes.
- Your address, phone number, email, or last name.
None of these are rules to trip you up. They're just what hospitals have asked us for.
What you need
- Paper or card stock — construction paper is great
- Crayons, markers, or colored pencils
- An envelope, once your cards are done
That's the whole list. If you don't have card stock, folded printer paper works fine.
How to send it
- 1. Photograph your finished cards. A phone photo on a table is perfect.
- 2. Upload the photo with your hours in the form below.
- 3. We'll email you the current mailing address, and you pop them in the post.
Please wait for that email before mailing anything — the address changes depending on which hospital we're delivering to next.
Recognition
Volunteer awards
Plenty of students volunteer with us for a service award. That's a good reason, and we'll help you get there.
Here's how it works. You log your hours honestly and upload proof of what you made. An adult on our team reviews them. Approved hours go into a running total we keep for you, so when you need a record, we have one.
The Presidential Volunteer Service Award recognizes hours of service over a year. These are the tiers we track toward:
50
hours
Bronze
75
hours
Silver
100
hours
Gold
One caution: thresholds vary by age bracket and by year, so treat these as a guide. We confirm the current numbers with you before anything gets submitted.
We also can't hand out awards ourselves — no volunteer group can. What we do is track your hours, certify that we saw the work, and help with the paperwork.
Sign up · log hours
Tell us what you did
New here? Fill this in and leave the hours at zero. Already made something? Add your hours and a photo.
Trouble with the form? Email us at hello@hearts4hands.org and we'll log it by hand.
Questions
Things people ask
Do I need to be a certain age?
No. We have volunteers in elementary school and volunteers in college. If you're under 18, check with a parent or guardian before you sign up, and ask them to help with the mailing part.
Can I volunteer from outside the US?
Yes. Our volunteers are students all over the world. Making cards, fundraising, writing, and outreach all work from anywhere. Volunteer awards have their own eligibility rules, though — email us at hello@hearts4hands.org and we'll walk through them with you before you count on one.
How long until my hours are approved?
A person reviews every submission, so it isn't instant. Give it a couple of weeks. If you have a school deadline coming up, say so in the notes and we'll try to get to yours first.
What if I don't have a printer or scanner?
A phone photo is perfect. Lay your cards out on a table, get them all in the frame, and upload that. Nothing needs to be printed to volunteer with us.
Can my school club participate?
Yes, and it's our favorite way to do this. One person can submit on behalf of the group, or everyone can log their own hours separately — whichever makes award tracking easier for you. Email us and we'll send a plan for running a card drive.
What happens to my email address?
We use it to confirm your submission, send you the mailing address, and answer questions about your hours. That's all. We don't sell it or sign you up for anything you didn't ask for.
Still wondering something?
Ask us anything