It is true that some charities make poor use of the skills and experience of volunteers, especially the skills of older people.

I am reminded of the many talented older people who have volunteered to assist indigenous and under whatever direction is thought required. It has been reported in the media from time to time, but I am not aware of the outcome. Some (possibly NGOs and activists) imagine volunteering might affect the flow of Guvvy dollars received, but that is fanciful and probably only a knock-back excuse. There is a lot of defending of territory in some quarters and unnecessary conflict/redundancy among helping bodies. -Unhealthy competition for Guvvy dollars.

For myself, I am content to volunteer at the sharp end, delivery. If the available opportunities dried up for some reason I would simply do something elsewhere.

There are hundreds of older people who live alone and forgotten by their relatives. Take a packet of scones (I can cook) and have a cup of tea and a chat with them. Most appreciated. Local churches always have something in place to help people. Growing fruit and veg and dropping off some of the abundance on Sunday is another thing I do. I am not a church goer. The churches play a vital role they play in the community helping folks.

Volunteering doesn't have to take place in any formally organised setting either. There are plenty of opportunities to take part in the cooperative endeavour that is your local community. Maybe start by helping out cleaning the local creek surrounds when scheduled.

ConservativeHippie,
I live very close to two NFP charities that have enormous national flavor. One is the Cancer council and the other a medical center for indigenous patients.
Both receive massive incomes from both the general public and government sources.
It is a regular event to see them parading their new cars (all take homes with removable magnetic ID emblems) all with fuel supplied and judging by their clothing and attire generally well paid.
I also see the thin edge hard core volunteers at the coal face working hard to gather in enough to pay these hanger ons.
A recent statement by Tim (whatever his name is, ex dep. prime ministers brother) says that they spent upwards of 40% (hundreds of millions of dollars or advertising, promotions and fund raising events chasing more donations.
Mate if you are going to volunteer your time do it with someone like Meals on Wheels or your local soup kitchen feeding then street kids and derelicts and stuff the organized multinational charities.

There's a lot of changes going on recently with jobseekers and 'Work for the Dole', and I'm sure it's having an effect on traditional volunteering areas.

A lot of these charities now have a lot more people able to assist them.
I have a housemate who went to a church to do work for the dole a few months back and they were actually complaining that they had too many people helping.

Many jobseekers choose to go to churches and places like Salvation army stores to do work for the dole as the only other work for the dole options are also "Community Service", where people are ordered by the courts or chose to do community service in place of a fine..

Some of these jobs are terrible and don't do anything for the dignity of the unemployed person or help them gain better skills or paid employment - which isn't that bad in the case of community service but not appropriate for work for the dole.

Imagine working in a paralysis-tick infested swamp using roundup (known carcinigen) to kill weeds around large high voltage power lines, with known criminals, and this is the price of not gaining employment.

The system needs to be overhauled.

You can always rely on the bigoted redneck to "see" and "know" whats going on in the indigenous community. Must see it all from his front porch.

There are a lot of worthwhile charities doing good work here in Australia and overseas. It is a two way street, volunteering can also give one a great deal of satisfaction, where seeing the end result.

Tim Costello (Brother of Peter) is the name of the fellow you couldn't put his full name too Chris. Tim is the CEO of 'World Vision' and one of Australia's finest individuals.

Example of search charities and not for profits,

http://www.acnc.gov.au/RN52B75Q?ID=8DD83DD0-F1AF-4168-8973-624339B8C744&noleft=1

It is to be expected that anyone who considering a donation should be able to make an informed choice, part of which would be being able to access information of how much of the donation might finally reach the claimed clientele of the charity.

Also, some charities are vastly over-subscribed when compared with the priorities in the subject field. One might wonder for instance, if donating to a charity affecting women's cancer health is the goal, whether it is better to put the dollars into (say) broader gynaecological health (cancer) research, than the common fall-back of breast cancer, which must be embarrassed by the success of it marketing campaign.

Unfortunately the Australian government site does not seem to provide the coverage and depth of useful information of Charity Navigator, US,

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

Thinking of the comments of Armchair Critic, I am not sure what the future of more unemployed as a result of technology and globalisation might bring. Where people want to remain engaged and useful in the community they may well have to consider developing skills in demand. Any who slack off during their younger years will find it difficult to break out of deep ruts of their own making.

Just talking about things generally and not reflecting on anything others have said, there is plenty of the dangerous, dirty and disgusting work usually performed by men such as farmers, that is rejected outright by the unemployed and definitely out for prisoners, who have expensively protected rights of course.

Whoops, my editing often fails when I am in a rush.