Do good in Zurich

Zurich is Switzerland's largest city and a quiet but consistent centre of civic engagement. Its nonprofit landscape mixes established welfare institutions — Caritas Schweiz, Schweizerisches Rotes Kreuz, Heilsarmee, Pro Senectute — with smaller initiatives focused on refugee integration, urban homelessness, climate action and youth education. The directory currently lists a smaller number of Zurich-based opportunities than German hubs of similar size; rather than dilute the page with unrelated listings, we keep the surface small and only include opportunities whose source organisations are publicly verifiable.

If you live in Zurich or the surrounding Kanton, there are several practical ways to help. The most common are: volunteering locally a few hours per week with a listed organisation, making a one-off or recurring donation to a registered Swiss organisation, or offering professional skills pro bono. Legal advice, tutoring (Deutschkurse for newcomers), bookkeeping and design are particularly in demand at smaller initiatives.

Many Zurich-based organisations welcome volunteers in both German and English. Where a project explicitly requires Swiss German or French, the listing usually mentions it. If you plan to donate, check the organization's own donation page for details about receipts, tax information and accepted payment methods.

All listings on this page link directly to the source organisation. doing-good.org does not process donations, take commissions or act as an intermediary. Listings are aggregated from public NGO platforms and a curated list of established Swiss charities, reviewed before publishing and refreshed daily. If you run a Zurich-based nonprofit and would like to appear here, you can submit your opportunity at no cost.