Volunteer Odyssey’s Origin

Dr. Sarah Petschonek founded Volunteer Odyssey based on two landmark projects. In 2012, Sarah had a window of time to devote to volunteering. She spent 30 days volunteering with 30 different nonprofits in Memphis and documenting that journey online. It was a rewarding experience, but a very difficult one in terms of lining up quality volunteer opportunities. Curious whether this problem existed elsewhere, she traveled across the country researching volunteer opportunities in other cities and learning best practices. Dr. Petschonek brought that knowledge back to Memphis and began Volunteer Odyssey.

Our organization originally began in 2013 as a program for Job Seekers, and has grown tremendously since that time. Now Volunteer Odyssey focuses on matching all volunteers to their ideal volunteer opportunities in the Memphis community. Volunteer Odyssey has grown to include 50+ non-profit partners including Shelby Farms, MIFA, and Clean Memphis. We also help thousands of volunteers and have an exclusive platform that connects volunteers to service opportunities and tracks their impact. We’ve secured media partnerships with Commercial Appeal, High Ground News, and I Love Memphis. In addition, Volunteer Odyssey has also been named as the exclusive volunteer partner for cityCURRENT and for the University of Memphis.