Paying thousands to volunteer abroad & ignoring same opportunities at home

Late last year, I did an all-day training for a state fish and wildlife department – a government agency – about how to better engage volunteers: how to better design tasks for a variety of volunteers, to better support volunteers, to better track what they are doing and to recruit – not just recruiting volunteers to get tasks done, but also to recruit in order to reach a variety of communities and people. The people I taught were a mix of biologists and long-time volunteer leaders who had never had training in volunteer management.

(read more about my consulting services and training work)

Before doing this type of intensive, specialized training, I do a lot of research to look at what similar organizations might be doing, trends that the client might want to consider, etc. One of the things that struck me as I was researching state fish and wildlife departments all over the USA was how many activities these agencies have for volunteers that people will pay thousands to go do in another country: building and repairing fish and wildlife habitats, counting wildlife, reporting on habitat conditions and more.

I thought about how this is true of so many other agencies as well: there are nonprofits and government programs all over the USA that will help people learn English, that help refugees navigate their new homes, that help people better understand the risks associated with HIV/AIDS, that help people who have lost their home, that help impoverished women with maternal health and infant care, and on and on – yet, people are willing to pay thousands of dollars for voluntourism experiences that make them feel like they are helping refugees, helping children, helping people at risk, etc., rather than participating in these programs just around the corner – or, at least, in their own country.

I don’t like voluntourism, where people pay money to go to another country and feel like they are helping people or the environment in just a few weeks, and I blog about my distaste frequently. So many – not all, but so many – are scams: a supposed wildlife sanctuary captures wild animals and puts them into enclosures and then sells voluntourism experiences, bringing in foreigners to “help.” A supposed orphanage is full of children who have parents, but the parents are paid to keep their children in the “orphanage” so that foreigners will pay large sums of money to come from overseas and “help.” The organizations take anyone who can pay – they don’t need anyone with actual skills or expertise because, supposedly, no one locally can do this “work”, so they must bring in anyone from abroad with “a good heart.” Sure, there are some worthwhile organizations for short-term volunteering abroad – and I list them on this free resource on my web site. But most are, to me, loathsome.

But I also am puzzled as to why so many nonprofits and government agencies in the USA – and other countries – do such a lousy job of talking about their volunteering opportunities. When I told the state agency I was training that people pay thousands of dollars to go do in, say, Kenya, many of the same volunteering tasks that this state agency struggles to find volunteering activities for, they were stunned. But it’s true!

Have a look at some of those shiny, heart-warming voluntourism sites. I’m not going to link to them here, but trust me, they are easy to find on Google or Bing. Look at photos on their sites, the language they use – look how much fun they make volunteering sound, or how they make volunteering sound like a challenge worthy of traveling thousands of miles for – and paying top dollar to experience. Now look at your organization’s web site: how does your agency talk about volunteers and the activities they do? Don’t oversell your program, but do recognize that any activity that allows volunteers to be outside, to be very physical, or to interact with clients are highly desired by many people. What you may see as just more work to do they may see as an opportunity to make a real difference in a cause they care about deeply.

Here’s more of my advice on volunteer recruitment:

And here’s more of my blogs regarding voluntourism and Westerners going to help abroad:

My voluntourism-related & ethics-related blogs (and how I define scam)

Read more about my consulting services and training work.

4 thoughts on “Paying thousands to volunteer abroad & ignoring same opportunities at home

  1. Jane Garthson

    Reminds me of when I was volunteering in therapeutic riding and trying to recruit volunteers. Get to be around horses, get exercise, make friends, feel good about helping people with disabilities – but some were too busy paying to go to a gym and get exercise! I sometimes thought we should pay for ads in gym locker rooms.

    Now I’m with a land trust, and have learned what wonderful volunteer opportunities they provide for people who like to be out in nature and learn or share learning about nature. But there’s very low awareness since most land trusts have very little money for marketing.

    I have been following your blogs on voluntourism and learned a lot. I won’t be taken in by these scams thanks to you.

    Reply
  2. jcravens Post author

    Thank you so much for replying, Jane. It’s always great to hear from you. If there was a therapeutic riding nonprofit around me now that needed volunteers, I would definitely sign up! And I’d be happy to do a freebie for your land trust and review your online messaging and tell you some easy ways to increase recruitment….

    Reply
    1. Jane Garthson

      18 therapeutic riding centres in Oregon! Don’t know if any are near Portland. It’s an area I’d love to visit; please change presidents. https://www.nchpad.org/Directories/Organizations/USA/Oregon

      My land trust, IMHO, needs to redo its web site to make volunteering FAR easier to find. We don’t need you to tell us that. But we are crazy busy in a good way – many landowners contacting us about possible donations or easements, and not enough staff to keep up with everything that needs doing on our key program of land securement. But generally, I find very low awareness of what land trusts in general do; I think the sector needs some sector-wide awareness building. And right now Canada lacks a national organization, so as one of the biggest in Canada we are also taking a lead role in national advocacy (and getting amazing results). Right now I don’t think the staff can focus on volunteer recruitment, though they have set up a wonderful partnership with a service club to meet a lot of our monitoring needs. I’m Secretary chair of governance (Oak Ridges Moraine Land Trust) so somewhat removed from that work (my health doesn’t permit swamp walks).

      Reply
      1. jcravens Post author

        What about a volunteer to help with your web site?
        And to help promote information about your organization to Subreddits? And Craigslist? And your Facebook page? And relevant Facebook groups? And tweet about your organization? And post Instragram messages? There are oh so many volunteers who would LOVE to do this kind of work for you.

        Reply

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