Volunteer opportunities:A few hours a week is all it takes to make dreams come true. By becoming a Big Sister, you can be the confidant and friend who encourages a girl to do more, try harder and become greater than she ever imagined. We offer both One-to-One and Group Mentoring programs to meet the developmental needs of girls and provide a range of opportunities for women to be Big Sisters. All mentoring relationships share a fundamental purpose: to nurture girls' innate strengths and cultivate the confidence, competence, and caring they need to make their dreams a reality. Our program options allow women the flexibility to volunteer near where they work or where they live.

Donation opportunities:When you make a donation to Big Sister, more than 80 cents of every dollar goes directly to our mentoring programs for girls. We manage our operating expenses so our cost per girl served is low – about $1,000 per girl. There are many ways to donate, including tax-deductible donations of used clothing or household items to the Big Brother Big Sister Foundation. If you'd like to make a monetary donation, please visit our website, or send check or money order to: Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, 161 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02115.

Volunteer opportunities:Volunteer your professional skills and make a bigger impact! Common Impact (www.commonimpact.org) is a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to make it easy for companies and their employees to act on a desire to strengthen their local communities. We believe that community engagement should be strategic – which for us means leveraging the valuable technology, marketing and human resources talents that reside in the world's leading companies. To learn more about getting your department or company involved in fun, project-based volunteer opportunities with local nonprofits that fit around your busy schedule, please contact Lesley Edwards at ledwards@commonimpact.org or 617-868-1014.

Donation opportunities:Make a monetary or in-kind donation to Common Impact and have a transformative impact on the social sector. For every $1 you donate to our programs, we generate $7 dollars in net new resources for high-potential nonprofits. Your support makes a critical difference in ensuring that education, food, housing and healthcare are available to everyone in our community. To make an online donation please visit: http://www.commonimpact.org/go/donate. To learn more about the different ways you can give to Common Impact, please contact Sameen Saeed at ssaeed@commonimpact.org or 617-868-0150.