Welcome!
We organize over 2000 ways for you to get involved every year – from working on service projects at our headquarters to helping us collect materials for food, book, and school supply drives, to joining us for school beautification projects, and much more! Below, you will find a summary of each of our programs – whether you’re interested in volunteering, contributing money or items, or co-producing a service event with us – there is truly a place for everyone at Big Sunday!
One more thing: We have participants of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. They come from all kinds of different neighborhoods, and we do work in all kinds of different neighborhoods, too. People take part in Big Sunday projects through schools, faith groups, businesses, clubs, as families and as individuals. Whoever you are, whatever you do, we can use your help.
You see, at Big Sunday, we feel there’s lots of work to be done – but we get so much more accomplished, and have so much more fun, when we do it all together.
Questions? Check out our FAQ’s!
More questions? Get in touch! Shoot us an email at [email protected] or call us at 323-549-9944 to speak to a real, live, friendly person.
Big Sunday Programs Overview
Volunteer – we produce hundreds of events every year for folks of all backgrounds and demographics to get together and work on all kinds of service projects. For more about these events and how to get involved, visit the main volunteer page!
TM@10 is our special Thursday morning get-together. Each week we do a special service project for one of our nonprofit partners. We’ve done all kinds of projects, for all kinds of groups. Even better – and in the classic Big Sunday mode – it’s a great way for people to get together to meet new people, and work together while helping someone else. And, of course, to eat! Most projects take place at our offices on Melrose. Click the link for our upcoming schedule.
Art Tuesday@10 is back! Over the summer many people enjoyed joining us to make beautiful, cheerful and unique mosaic suns to brighten up nonprofits around town. These cool projects are the brainchild of our old friend Cathy Weiss and will be led by Cathy and our own Vicky Walter. The events will take place at our new Big Sunday headquarters on Tuesdays 10am-12pm.
AW@10 previously known as “2W@10,” these special events are each Wednesday where we do fun activities to help local nonprofits. And what’s extra special about these Wednesday events? Our guests of honor are wonderful and fun volunteers with some developmental challenges who want to give back and help others, in groups and as individuals. The accessible activities we do on Wednesdays are specifically designed with these guests in mind, so that everyone can participate and have fun volunteering – because we believe very strongly that absolutely everyone has something to give. People of ALL ability levels are invited to join us on Wednesdays! All we ask is that you show up ready to be part of a community of helpful people!
Monthly on Melrose is our hugely popular series of workshops, collections, performances and parties to benefit our nonprofit partners. Most of these events are held at our offices on Melrose Avenue in L.A. and includes our MLK Day Clothing Drive & Community Breakfast, Valentine-Making, Bingo-Playing Community Dinner, Wild ‘n Wooly April, Vet’s Night & Dinner, Big Sunday’s Greatest Hits, Books n’ Brunch, Back to School Drive, Spooky Sunday, Thanksgiving Stuffing event, and of course, our Annual Holiday Party & Singalong. All ages are always welcome, and these events are always free.
We’re All in the Same Boat Project – We host a big group of underserved and deserving folks on special cruises through San Pedro Harbor. Many of these nice people have never been on a boat before! We need volunteers to host, be friendly, hand out donuts, enjoy one another and enjoy the ride. We call it the We’re All in the Same Boat Project and everyone has exactly one job: To meet one new person. We host 6-8 of these each year. All ages welcome.
The Big Sunday Holiday Volunteering and Giving Opportunities List is posted every year on November 1. It includes more than 400 ways (!) to help during the holiday season, from serving Thanksgiving Dinner, to buying toys for kids at Christmas, to singing to elderly folks at Hanukkah.
The Big Sunday Summer List is a lot like the Holiday List, but for the summer! Lots of folks have a little extra time during the summer that they’d like to use to give back. So, on June 1st we post the annual Big Sunday Summer List, which includes over 200 giving and helping opportunities for people of all ages, all over town.
Services – In addition to our volunteer events, we run a variety of other programs aimed at helping people and assisting others who want to help people. If you want to help but don’t have time to volunteer, contributing funds or materials to one of these programs is a great option!
the BIGlist is our special online list of good items that nice folks in the Big Sunday community want to give away. We’ve posted everything from SubZero refrigerators to computers to a basset hound! All items are free to any school or nonprofit. Whatever you have, there’s a worthy group out there that would love it. The nonprofit will come to you and pick the item up, and give you a tax receipt, too. If you have things you’d like to give away, please contact [email protected].
The End of the Month Club was started when we discovered that many hard-working people, right here in our community, worry about where their next meal will come from. Today, more and more people are turning to food pantries, yet for many pantries, keeping the shelves stocked has become increasingly difficult. With this in mind, Big Sunday sponsors a food drive to collect a different non-perishable food for a local food pantry every month. Food is usually given away on the third Wednesday of the month.
Special2 – This popular program (pronounced “Special Squared”) is for people who are having a special occasion (a wedding, bar mitzvah, quinceanera, birthday, etc.) and, rather than gifts, want the proceeds to go towards a charity. We’ll work with you to create a special project that is age-appropriate, impactful and fun.
The Big Sunday Emergency Fund – Our special way to respond quickly to nice folks who don’t have a safety net who are in a bind. This fund helps them get over the hump; over the years it has helped provide everything from new appliances to medical care to travel expenses. We work closely with our nonprofit partners. Most weeks we are trying to meet at least one new emergency need.
TGIW! (Thank God It’s Work!) – This program helps people of all ages and backgrounds who are anxious to work, but are having trouble finding a job. We provide temporary paid work to folks either at Big Sunday or one of our nonprofit partners. Participants have included nice and talented folks who have had trouble finding work because they’ve been laid off; their company has closed; their field has shrunk; they are older; they are entering the job market after many years; they are a starving artist; they have a felony; they’re having bad luck.
Corporate Days of Service are popular ways for companies to give back to their community, while at the same time building team spirit within their own organization. Big Sunday is available for hire by corporate groups looking to plan service events that are meaningful, impactful, and fun. We have a proud track record with these days, and have planned all kinds of events events for groups of all sizes in the US and Europe. We can also plan multiple events simultaneously.
Big Sunday is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. Big Sunday projects have no religious or political agenda, and there is never any charge for volunteers to participate. Big Sunday is completely underwritten by cash and in-kind donations.