Congressional Award Volunteer Hours You Can Do From Home

The Silver Medal needs 200 hours of service over at least 12 months. The Gold Medal needs 400 hours over at least 24. For a lot of students the hard part is not motivation. It is getting a ride somewhere every week.

You can do a lot of your service from home. But first, the rules, because they decide what counts.

What counts as Voluntary Public Service

Service for the Congressional Award must:

• Be unpaid. No paid jobs or paid internships.
• Not earn class credit or meet a graduation requirement.
• Help the public. Volunteering at a private business, like a law firm or a private studio, does not count. Volunteering at a 501(c)(3) nonprofit usually does.
• Be non-partisan. No political campaigns, elected officials' offices, or 501(c)(4) groups.
• Be mostly direct service. At least 75% of your hours must be time spent actually helping people. Planning, training, meetings, and fundraising can be at most 25%.

If an organization charges a fee to take part, it only counts if it offers financial aid for people who cannot pay.

Service you can do from home

1. Tutor a kid online

This is the one we know best, so we will be direct about it. Online tutoring is direct service, it happens every week, and it builds the kind of long relationship that makes a great Congressional Award story.

At Learn To Be, volunteer tutors meet 1-on-1 with kids from under-resourced families over video. The tutoring is free for families. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and we log every session automatically, so your service hours are tracked without a spreadsheet. You pick a schedule that works for you.

2. Read to younger kids or seniors over video

Libraries and senior centers often run virtual reading programs. Reading aloud is direct service if you are the one doing it.

3. Transcribe historical records

The Library of Congress and the National Archives run volunteer projects where you type up handwritten documents so that anyone can search them. Check with your Advisor that the project you pick fits your goal.

4. Write letters to service members or seniors

Many nonprofits collect letters for deployed troops, veterans, and people in nursing homes. Writing the letters is direct service. Organizing a letter drive is mostly indirect, so watch the 25% limit.

5. Translate for a nonprofit

If you speak two languages, local nonprofits often need flyers, forms, and websites translated.

Mix in-person and at-home service

You can set an umbrella goal that covers several activities. For example: "Help kids in my community succeed in school." Under that goal you could tutor online twice a week and help at a library reading event once a month. That keeps you active every month, which matters because a month only counts if you log at least 1 hour in it.

Keep a record from day one

Remember that nothing before your registration day counts. Register first, then start. Log every activity with the date and hours, or pick an activity that logs it for you. You can see how close you are to each level with our free hour tracker.

The expedition can be virtual too

If travel is hard for you, the program also accepts a virtual Expedition or Exploration. You choose one or more places to explore, complete a set of activities about them, like touring a museum online or cooking a dish from that culture, and write about what you learned. You must pick either virtual or in-person for a submission. You cannot mix them.

Start this week

If you want a service activity that is meaningful, flexible, and tracked for you, apply to be a volunteer tutor. A kid is waiting for someone like you.