#1 Make time to volunteer
It may sound silly, but the most important step in volunteering as a family is making time to do it. After looking at your monthly family calendar, decide on an amount of time to give to volunteering – two hours on Saturday afternoon, for example, or two nights once a month. If there are no blocks of time available, consider reprioritizing your commitments, deciding what can be eliminated to allow for volunteering.

#2 Volunteer during your family vacation
One way to carve out time is to combine volunteer work with a family vacation. For example, you may be able to link up with a church group that is rehabilitating houses in a part of the country you’d like to visit. You can contribute your time and talents where they’re needed and see the area you are visiting from a local – and personal – perspective.

#3 Create a donating allowance
In addition to a weekly spending allowance, your family could have a weekly donating allowance – an amount to be donated to a philanthropic organization. Making a group decision to support an organization helping needy children or animals, for example, lets the whole family become engaged in causes that excite them. To take this one step further, visit the various charities together see the work firsthand. This hands-on experience could contribute to a lifetime of volunteerism and involvement.

#4 Hold a "dinner table foundation" meeting
Turn off the TV, let the answering machine catch your phone calls and gather around the table for a family meeting to discuss where you’d like to contribute your time, talents and money as a group. Bring to the meeting suggestions for charities or community service projects to get involved in. Talk about these different ideas and vote for one your family would like to support. Then, when you have the time as a family, volunteer together and let your family see first-hand how their efforts make a difference.

#5 Volunteer locally
The simplest, but most rewarding, volunteer projects can be found right in your neighborhood doing the things that you do on a regular basis. Instead of spending the afternoon in the park playing Frisbee, spend your time in the park planting flowers or painting murals.

#6 Share your passion
We all have different talents and interests. Family members will be more likely to enjoy the volunteering if they can use their special gifts. Computer whiz? Teach senior citizens how to communicate with their grandchildren through the Internet. Love to sing? Entertain at a nursing home. Avid readers feel right at home helping their neighborhood librarian.

#7 Volunteer where you can – at work
If you work for or own a business that doesn’t sponsor volunteer opportunities, consider proposing such a program for employees and their families. Companies that support volunteering say it reaps payoffs in good community relations and great employee loyalty. Small businesses can facilitate volunteerism by joining with others to promote a service project.

#8 Offer your leftovers to the needy
Many families enjoy cooking together. Give this a charitable twist by taking an extra pie or tin of cookies to a neighbor who is a shut-in and stay to visit. Or find a soup kitchen or feeding program that welcomes pre- made casseroles or sandwiches. Note that agencies serving the poor may be inundated with volunteer offers at Thanksgiving and Christmas but get little interest at other times of the year. It’s a good bet that your local food pantry could use your help more in June than December. And it’s often easier to volunteer during summer vacation.

#9 Give the gifts that give back
Gift-giving days and rituals are perfect opportunities to demonstrate your charitable values. When you and your family buy gifts for each other, you can also help your favorite charities. Gift shops at your local zoo, aquarium or historic site, for example, provide an array of gift items with proceeds going to support the organizations. You can also donate unopened gifts you don’t want or need or buy extra gifts for charities.

#10 Make a difference – literally
If you and other family members like to sew or knit, schedule time to sit together and create something that you can donate, as a family, to someone in need. Children’s hospitals, for example, often welcome colorful quilts for their patients, and nursing home residents appreciate handcrafted lap blankets.