I make my own infomercials for the internet… but making commericals for TV is a different game altogether.,

It's stressful though — there is high turnover because of the hours vs. the amount of pay.

You can be a mentor without it being your job — lots of kids need mentors.

(At first I thought you were talking about being a youth pastor)

In particular, find out who in your community encourages or requires community service. Ask kids to run small grade-level or school/church/team wide drive for the items you're looking for. Do it in advance so you can bank the bulk of the items for the coming year and fill in as necessary. 5 kids with 20 friends each bringing 1 school item equals 10 filled backpacks. Get a whole school involved and you may be able to cover your program for the year and attract new donations.

Also consider getting volunteers involved in more direct ways. People who are invested in a program are more likely to support it financially.

I run a small non-profit and I've been spreading the word about our program to supply gently used sports uniforms and footwear to kids in rural Mexico. I was just contacted by a family whose 4th grader is interested in running a drive at his school as part of a run for class office. Apparently it's a tradition at his school to prove one's leadership through such a project. I know he won't be able to supply a very large part of what we need, but every little bit helps and the publicity we'll get out of it will be very valuable. We'll run a thank-you in the newspaper, put his face on our website and benefit from the word-of-mouth publicity at his school.

I'm on my second match, and it's been a lot of fun. Even though at times you may not realize the impact that you are making, it's all of the little moments that make it worthwhile.

I also volunteer through my volunteer center to tutor children at the library and work at the local children's shelter. I've found the most variety through the volunteer center:
http://www.handsonnetwork.org/our-network/
http://www.pointsoflight.org/c.....center.cfm
http://national.unitedway.org

It all depends on the type of time commitment, and what you are looking for in a program. If you are looking for a one-on-one match, then I would suggest that Big Brothers is a very good program. If you are looking for general mentoring opportunities, I think your volunteer center may be able to help you find stuff that will have a shorter time frame to get started. In both cases with Big Brothers, it did take quite a bit of time before I was matched, and a longer time in order to build a relationship with my match.

Good luck!