Volunteer: be part of bringing the next generation of couch surfing to life
Couchers.org is built and run by a passionate team of volunteers, with everyone contributing their professional skills in their spare time.
We are always looking for more people to join us, in positions such as software engineering, data science, operations, design, marketing, finance, events, volunteer coordination and more!
Volunteering with Couchers means contributing to something meaningful — building a platform that helps people connect in genuine, non-transactional ways. We get to focus on projects that help real people, with priorities shaped by our community — not by shareholders or profit motives. We care deeply about what we're doing and about the people we do it with. We're always glad to welcome volunteers and do our best to make your experience enriching and worthwhile. We focus especially on:
Professional & personal development: Volunteering with Couchers offers a chance to build your skills alongside a diverse, global team of smart, committed volunteers. Our volunteers come from a wide range of backgrounds — from top tech companies to startups, and from all over the world. Whether you're looking to deepen your expertise or explore something new, you'll find opportunities to learn, contribute, and grow in a collaborative, international, real-world environment.
Have fun & grow your network: Our volunteers share a passion for the project and a belief in its mission, and come from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. We create space for connection through casual virtual events and community chats, and have big plans for in-person meetups to bring volunteers and alumni together. It's a chance to connect with thoughtful, like-minded people while contributing to something meaningful.
Build real things that matter to the world: At Couchers, volunteers don't just watch from the sidelines — they take ownership of meaningful work. Whether you're contributing to the platform, shaping community initiatives, or improving internal systems, you'll have the chance to make independent contributions that directly impact our mission. It's a great opportunity to apply your skills in a real-world setting, explore new challenges, and grow by doing. And while we're a volunteer-led team, we're always happy to support your professional goals however we can — whether that's feedback, a reference, or helping showcase your work.
Leadership & ownership: Our volunteers take a leadership role to see complex projects to completion, taking ownership of projects and tasks and learning how to get things done effectively in resourceful and innovative ways.
Remote work: All work is done remotely, with everyone working to their own schedules. We have a couple of regular calls each week where team members can connect, align on priorities, and get unblocked. We try to maintain great documentation and are always working to improve our asynchronous practices to make the remote experience as smooth as possible.
We value being highly collaborative in order to learn and develop together while being honest and transparent, kind, welcoming, and enthusiastic. Our team is made up of dedicated, thoughtful people who take ownership of their work and share a common goal of supporting the couch surfing community while having fun along the way.
You can read more about our Mission & Values here.
Our experience shows that the single most important quality in a successful volunteer is the grit to take full ownership of a project and push it through to completion. This means identifying what needs to be done (in the intersection of what you want to do and what is the highest priority for Couchers at a given time), then starting the work without waiting for perfect instructions, and never being afraid to ping people if you get stuck. Being productive in any dynamic organization — Couchers included — requires navigating some level of confusion and chaos. We look for self-starters who don't let things fall through the cracks and are willing to push through the noise to make things happen.
In addition to this, we look for volunteers that balance having a level of seniority in their area, having experience and skills that match what we need, an understanding and past experience with couch surfing, as well as just being a fun friendly person that we would like to work with.
Our volunteer recruiting process has evolved through the years as our project has matured and we've gained more experience.
Ideally, the process looks like this:
You apply via one of the defined open "positions" below, filling out the application form.
We'll review your application and if your profile seems appropriate, we schedule a quick Zoom call to get to know each other.
After accepting the position, we'll send you some volunteer agreements and then get you onboarded with the people you're going to directly work with.
In reality however, this process is rarely as smooth as it sounds. It takes considerable effort from our all-volunteer team, and like anything else at Couchers we do not always have a lot of bandwidth for recruiting. This means that we tend to recruit in waves: we will sometimes do a volunteer drive and schedule a lot of intro calls, and at other times we put our heads down to work with our current team.
If you are motivated, really want to contribute, and you have the seniority and skills we are looking for, we encourage you to think about how you could directly help us out on our active priority projects and how we could onboard you easily. If we see that you are a good fit for our current priorities and are motivated, in other words if it seems it wouldn't take a lot of effort from our side, we are much more likely to schedule a chat soon!
Want to help but don't see anything listed for you? Fill out this form
One of the best ways to get involved is to become a Community Builder for your local Couchers community. You can even do this in addition to volunteering in a different role. A Community Builder is an ambassador to the community who helps support, moderate, and grow the community. Learn more here. If this sounds like something you're interested in, fill out the form here:
Read about Our Plan and Our Mission & Values.
You can see our current and past volunteers on our team page.