Green volunteering in San Francisco

Last updated: May 21, 2024

San Francisco has a lot of amazing green spaces and community organizations working to build solidarity and climate resilience.

Many of them welcome volunteers regularly. These volunteer events are a great way to get outside, meet people, get involved in a specific community, and learn more about local ecology.

This list below is an overview of regularly volunteering events I know about here in the city. It’s very unofficial.

For each of the events below check on their official organization website before going. Most require an RSVP, and many are subject to cancellation for inclement weather (sometimes rain, sometimes wind).

If you have any edits to this list please let me know! Email me at the address in the footer of the website or submit a pull request on Github.

Also thanks to Garden for the Environment’s Get Up! staff and program for introducing me to most of these. ilu

Organizations with regular volunteer days

Native plants & habitats

  • Alemany Farm (Southeastern SF) - Native plant habitat on first Monday and third Sunday of the month, 1-4:30pm; and native habitat restoration on third Saturdays 10am-12:30pm
  • Dragonspunk GRO - Calibird Pollinator Sanctuary (Bayview-Hunters Point) - Saturdays from 11:30am-2:30pm
  • Garden for the Environment (Inner Sunset) - Weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10am-3pm, with a break for lunch from 12-1pm
  • Glen Park Greenway (Glen Park) - Weekly on Saturdays from 9am-12pm
  • Hummingbird Farm (Excelsior) - Weekly on Wednesday 4-7pm, Thursday 9a-12pm, Sunday 11am-2pm. Full calendar for Poder here
  • Sutro Stewards (Mount Sutro) - every Wednesday working in the nursery 9:30-11:30am; every Thursday planting and weeding on the mountain 9:30-11:30am; First and third Saturdays trail and habitat stewardship 8:45am-12:30pm

Food growing

  • Alemany Farm (Southeastern SF) - Monday and Saturday afternoons from 1-5pm
  • CommunityGrows (Western Addition) - First and third Fridays at Koshland Community Garden from 10am-12pm; Fourth Wednesdays from 1:30-3:30pm at Rosa Parks Elementary School.
  • Dragonspunk GRO (Bayview-Hunters Point) - Saturdays from 11:30am-2:30pm
  • Florence Fang Community Farm (Bayview-Hunters Point) - Saturdays from 10am-1pm
  • Garden for the Environment (Inner Sunset) - Weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10am-3pm, with a break for lunch from 12-1pm
  • Hummingbird Farm (Excelsior) - Weekly on Wednesday 4-7pm, Thursday 9a-12pm, Sunday 11am-2pm. Full calendar for Poder here
  • Tenderloin People’s Garden (Tenderloin) - Saturdays from 10am-1pm

City/County & national parks

  • Gardens of Golden Gate Park (Golden Gate Park) - This volunteering is a heavier lift then with community organizations (requires background check, online application, and sometimes an ongoing commitment). But an option if you’re interested; includes Conservatory of Flowers, Japanese Tea Garden, and Botanical Garden.
  • Presidio - Nursery (Presidio) - First Saturday of month 10am-1pm open to all; Weekly on Wednesdays with ongoing commitment (see site for more details).
  • Presidio - Habitat Steward, Forest Steward (Presidio) - Habitat stewards meet every Saturday and on the first and third Wednesdays of month from 9am-12pm. Forest stewards meet every Friday and the second and fourth Wednesdays from 9am-12pm.

Organizations with time-to-time events

Calendar

This Google Calendar has most events described above. Be sure to visit the organization’s site in the description to RSVP and know when events are moved or cancelled! The calendar below is not regularly updated.