Help seed annas-archive.org, which provides free access to a vast repository of academic papers, research articles, and scientific books

boinc.berkeley.edu and foldingathome.org to contribute to scientific computations

iNaturalist was already mentioned.

Zooniverse is a great citizen science project.

*I see you said no campus stuff, but look at local colleges for drug studies or brain imaging studies. There's usually some criteria they need participants to meet- diagnosed with (x) or no history of (y)- but some are quick and compensate with cash.

or logging the animals I see in nature or something

iNaturalist is a great way to contribute in this way:
https://www.inaturalist.org/

Just be sure to go into your settings and change the default license to something less restrictive (or whatever you're comfortable with).

It was introduced to me by a zoologist that specializes in Reptiles and I know it's a tool that researchers (or anyone depending on the license of the observation) can use.

Probably donate to your local food bank more often.