Or you could just throw your sleeping bag in the car, drive to a nearby park, and for as little as US$150, spend a week in the wilderness rebuilding trails with other nature-lovers.
Here are some tips on how to find a volunteer vacation on a budget -- along with some sample trips.
Tips: "Flight and accommodations are your two most expensive pieces of this," said Doug Cutchins, co-author of Volunteer Vacations: Short-Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others, just out in its 10th edition from Chicago Review Press. "So domestic volunteer vacations are always cheaper than international."
Robert Rosenthal, a spokesman for VolunteerMatch, a national non-profit organization, agreed that volunteering close to home is not only cheaper, but also serves important domestic needs.
"It's hard to argue that somewhere in Costa Rica is in more need than communities like Detroit," he said.
Rosenthal said an important tradeoff is that when you pay more money in fees to take part in a volunteer vacation, "you get other people doing the logistics.
"Budget equals having to do more of the work yourself."
VolunteerMatch operates a website at http://www.volunteermatch.org with a database of opportunities and groups.
Paying for your trip: Many organizations encourage participants to find "sponsors." Often this amounts to little more than a form letter you e-mail to everyone you know asking them to donate money.
If you can't afford a trip this year, save money to take the trip next year.
Or, if you are a student, instead of asking grandma to write a cheque, perhaps you can work off a loan by devoting a few weekends or a week to helping her with a project -- a garage sale, basement cleanup or getting her garden in shape for spring.
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