How to Plan a Volunteer Vacation - Frommer's writer Melinda Quintera offers 6 steps to help would be volunteers plan their next trip and include some way to help others; another article by Quintera, Volunteer Vacations in India

Student Travel: Volunteer Abroad - article provides information and links on a number of volunteer travel opportunities (including several links for organizations not aimed at students), travel information, suggested reading, and related articles, by Kathleen Crislip of About.com

GlobeAware - "adventures in service" are 1 - 2 week vacations in South America and Asia; programs vary: helping villagers in Costa Rica, working with Buddhist monks in Thailand in a number of capacities, teaching basic English and working with children in Vietnam are several of the outreach programs through GlobeAware.org

Cross-Cultural Solutions - 16 different placements in 10 different countries working with local people on community objectives; they are a not-for-profit organization with no political or religious affiliations, crossculturalsolutions.org

United Planet - "the ultimate educational adventure" offers volunteer and learning journeys. The web site lets you search for the kind of help you'd like to give (for example teaching, health care, building/labor, etc.) and where (China, India, Romania, Ghana, and others) and how long (1 - 51 weeks); non-profit, unitedplanet.org

responsible travel - "holidays that give the world a break" includes reviews by real travelers and lots of choices for travel with a purpose, responsibletravel.com

i-to-i- "Meaningful Travel" - volunteer travel opportunities for those wanting to learn how to work abroad (25 different countries) and to teach English as a Second Language; volunteers can choose between such projects as working with community, children, building homes, and conservation, i-to-i.com

Global Volunteers - opportunities abroad and within the US to work on some aspect of community development for 1, 2, or 3 week stints, globalvolunteers.org

Be The Cause - this site has information about helping in local communities through 'compassion cells" and offers an annual service vacation to to a third world country such as India; an interesting and inspiring feature is the blogs, articles, and albums of those who have participated, bethecause.org

"More Americans Take Volunteer Vacations" - ABC News International's Gigi Stone Reports on this philanthropic trend  (article includes video); people who have tried it say no matter how little you can do, it just feels good and, hey, it's tax deductible, too! abcnews.go.com