Volunteer Administrative & Operations Assistant

Help Build an Organization That Prevents Outdoor Emergencies

We are a volunteer-driven nonprofit dedicated to reducing outdoor trauma, injuries, rescues, and deaths through prevention, preparedness, education, and collaboration. We believe many outdoor emergencies are predictable, and our mission is to help prevent them before they happen while helping preserve public access to parks, trails, and public lands.

You do NOT have to be a hiker to volunteer in this role. This is an administrative and operations position. We're looking for someone with strong organizational and administrative abilities who enjoys helping an organization succeed behind the scenes. Your ability to organize projects, improve systems, coordinate volunteers, and keep work moving forward is far more important than outdoor experience.

This is one of the most important volunteer positions within PSAR. The person who fills this role will work closely with leadership and become an important part of building the organization as we continue to grow.

About the Opportunity

Every growing nonprofit eventually reaches a point where someone is needed to help connect all the moving pieces.

PSAR has reached that point.

Over the past several years we've been developing educational programs, articles, volunteer initiatives, partnerships, fundraising plans, community projects, and organizational infrastructure. As these efforts continue to grow, we're looking for someone who enjoys helping an organization become more organized, more efficient, and more effective.

This isn't a position where you'll perform the same task every day.

Instead, you'll become one of the people who helps keep the entire organization moving forward.

Some days you may organize Google Drive, update project trackers, or help onboard new volunteers. Other days you may coordinate meetings, follow up with volunteers, improve internal systems, assist with fundraising projects, research information, or help leadership prioritize important initiatives.

If you've ever found yourself becoming the person who naturally creates order, builds better systems, keeps projects organized, and enjoys helping other people succeed, there's a good chance you'll enjoy this role.

The Kind of Person Who Will Thrive

This opportunity is ideal for someone who genuinely enjoys organization.

You may be the person who naturally creates spreadsheets before anyone asks, develops better filing systems, follows up on unfinished projects, or sees opportunities to improve how an organization operates. You probably enjoy solving problems, bringing structure to complex situations, and helping other people become more successful.

You're dependable.

You communicate professionally.

You take pride in following through.

You don't wait to be reminded about every task, and you enjoy finding practical ways to make work easier for everyone involved.

Most importantly, you enjoy helping build something meaningful.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities will vary as the organization grows and may include:

• Assisting with the day-to-day administration and operations of the organization
• Organizing Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Gmail, and shared resources
• Coordinating volunteer projects and helping keep initiatives moving forward
• Following up with volunteers, applicants, partners, and committee members
• Assisting with volunteer onboarding
• Maintaining project trackers and organizational spreadsheets
• Scheduling meetings and preparing agendas and meeting notes
• Developing templates, procedures, and internal documentation
• Researching information for organizational projects
• Communicating professionally through email and phone
• Helping leadership coordinate multiple projects simultaneously
• Identifying opportunities to improve organizational systems and workflows
• Assisting wherever additional support is needed

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role isn't measured simply by completing tasks.

Success means helping the organization operate better every month.

Projects continue moving forward without getting stuck.

Volunteers know where to find information.

Important follow-ups happen consistently.

Organizational knowledge becomes easier to access.

Leadership spends more time building educational programs and partnerships because strong administrative systems are supporting the day-to-day work.

The systems and processes you help create may continue benefiting the organization for years to come.

Preferred Experience

We're interested in people with experience in areas such as:

• Administrative support
• Executive assistant work
• Office management
• Operations support
• Project coordination
• Project management
• Volunteer coordination
• Business administration
• Nonprofit administration
• Google Workspace (Google Docs, Sheets, Drive, Gmail, Calendar)
• Professional communication
• Research
• Documentation
• Spreadsheet management
• Process improvement

You don't need experience in every area. Strong organizational ability, initiative, reliability, and a willingness to learn are just as important.

Time Commitment

We're looking for someone who can contribute approximately 20 or more hours each week and also weekend work (many volunteers work weekends to catchup from the week). There is a lot of flexbility however.

Scheduling is flexible, although regular weekday availability is important because you'll be communicating with volunteers and helping projects continue moving forward.

We recognize this is a significant volunteer commitment. A one-year commitment would make a tremendous contribution to the organization, and we'd be excited to find someone interested in becoming a long-term member of the team.

This opportunity may be especially appealing to retired professionals, semi-retired professionals, executive assistants, office managers, administrative professionals, project coordinators, business owners, nonprofit volunteers, and individuals who work from home with a flexible schedule.

Why Volunteer With PSAR?

Helping build a nonprofit from the ground up is a rare opportunity.

Your work will directly support efforts to reduce preventable outdoor trauma, injuries, rescues, and deaths through education and prevention. You'll help create systems that support volunteers, improve organizational efficiency, and strengthen the foundation of an organization whose goal is to make a lasting difference.

If you enjoy meaningful work, solving organizational challenges, and helping build something that serves the public, we'd love to hear from you.