I already know you need to volunteer with underserved people for med school. However, there’s other non-clinical places such as boys and girls town, etc volunteering available for me. Would med schools care that I decided to help a smaller organization vs Salvation armies or soup kitchens? In the end does it just come down to passions and the thoughts that count compared to working in a more well known location?
The name of the organization you choose to give your time to doesn’t especially matter. If you want to work with a local, lesser known charity–go for it. Pick a cause that you feel strongly about and volunteer there. (Just make sure it’s a human cause, not , say, the local animal shelter. Not that there’s anything wrong with volunteering to help animals. You can do that too, if you want, but it shouldn’t be your primary volunteer activity.)
There’s a place on your AMCAS and AACOMAS applications to explain what the organization does.
D1–who won awards for her paintings during high school-- was volunteer tutor (and peer mentor) for a local arts education organization. The organization provided academic and SAT tutoring for at risk urban teenagers. Students who participated in tutoring and other activities received “credits” that could be traded for art lessons & supplies or music lessons & instrument rentals.
Frankly I think it’s wiser to volunteer at a smaller org as you will be able to have a larger impact to write about on your application. If I had volunteered at an established free clinic (this is back in the pre-obamacare days - they’ll probably have a resurgence in the next few years) instead of a newly formed one, I wouldn’t have had even half the exposures to elements of clinical practice and experiences that I did.