Labor laws regarding volunteering vary from country to country. For instance, in the USA, creating a written role description or memorandum of understanding with a volunteer, ensuring there is an agreement on what is expected of a volunteer, is normal and entirely legal, but in the United Kingdom, such written agreements can make the volunteer a paid employee and due for financial compensation.
How should your organization determine who is a volunteer, unpaid, and who should be paid for the hours they work at your organization, no matter what country you are in? What does the law say? And what other laws apply to volunteers – and which don’t?
There are resources on the US Department of Labor web site regarding volunteerism that can help any nonprofit or charity, in any country, think about both why it involves volunteers and how it should talk about the value of volunteerism, as well as the qualities of a well-run volunteering program. Although these are USA-centric and cite USA law, much of what these documents propose regarding volunteer engagement is based in ethics as much as law.
Unfortunately, since 2017, DOL has made resources regarding volunteer engagement MUCH harder to find – and deleted some resources altogether, despite no changes in the law with regard to volunteers.
If I’ve been able to find the deleted DOL page I had on my 2017 blog on archive.org, I’ve linked to that instead below. If a DOL or other URL stops working, cut and paste it into archive.org and you should be able to find an old copy. Using old information is better, IMO, than not having any information at all. But please do not rely solely on this blog nor the links for legal guidance: you need a LAWYER to read over your policies and procedures, and to address any concerns or legal challenges you may face regarding volunteer engagement. I am NOT a lawyer and you should NOT rely on this advice solely if you have questions about labor laws and volunteers.
Most important is probably this DOL resource: Fact Sheet #14A: Non-Profit Organizations and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which notes that volunteers serve on a part-time basis and do not displace regular employed workers or perform work that would otherwise be performed by regular employees. In addition, paid employees of a non-profit organization cannot volunteer to provide the same type of services to their non-profit organization that they are employed to provide.
Employees volunteering outside of their jobs, at the direction of their employer, is further explored in this response from the DOL, which talks about nurses being asked to volunteer their time, unpaid, to participate in community service activities, such as taking blood pressure at a health fair, teaching child care classes to expectant parents, participating in “career day” at a local school, helping the Red Cross, or helping with the hospital picnic. Other activities in question involve employee attendance at patient care conferences, task force meetings, and committee meetings on their days off or outside regular working hours.
There’s also this detailed response by DOL staff to someone in 2006 asking if the time employees spend on volunteer activities outside their employer’s worksite or on activities outside their regular work are compensable working time. For instance, “Does the employer have a duty to compensate non-exempt employees for the time they spend volunteering on a Habitat for Humanity project outside of normal working hours?” Any corporation that organizes volunteering activities for its employees needs to read this document carefully.
Again, all of these are USA-centric but, again, the advice is terrific for other countries as well. Of course, you should still check to see what your country’s laws are regarding volunteers, including interns or anyone to whom you aren’t paying at least a legal minimum wage.
In addition, there’s also this Safety and Health Checklist for Voluntary and Community-Based Organizations Engaged in Disaster Recovery Demolition and Construction Activities. This detailed document emphasizes the importance of such organizations promoting the health and safety of their work teams, including volunteers, and provides a checklist outlining some of the hazards frequently encountered during disaster response and recovery operations and what the organization should have in place to support and protect volunteers, including what training volunteer work teams should have. This checklist is great no matter what country you are in.
You can find a lot more information about US laws that govern volunteers and volunteer engagement at both the OSHA and the Department of Labor web sites by using their search function regarding the word volunteering. But be ready to wade through a huge amount of results, most of which don’t involve volunteers.
Having a mission statement for your organization’s volunteer engagement can protect you from over-zealous staff members, consultants and corporate funders who want to push for volunteers to replace paid staff and save money, or to increase volunteer engagement in areas of the nonprofits work that would be inappropriate. It also could help protect you against lawsuits from volunteers who feel they were merely unpaid workers. The US Department of Labor (DOL) and US Federal Courts want to see that the work of volunteers is distinctly different from the duties of the organization’s employees – and their guidelines on how they make the determination regarding who is a volunteer and who should be paid are good guidelines for volunteering other countries as well. To determine whether an individual is truly volunteering, the DOL and US Federal Courts look to:
The nature of the entity receiving the volunteer services
The character of the volunteer services (activities) themselves
The amount of control the employer or engaging organization exerts over the volunteer
Compensation or benefits provided to the volunteer, or that the individual expects
Whether the volunteer work displaces paid work by regular employees
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Someone who manages the volunteer program at a public library here in Oregon wrote me. She said:
I’m looking for input from the field about accepting the non working spouse/family member of an H1B Visa holder, as a volunteer. Because these people do not have social security numbers, our background check process can’t accept them. This is counter to our library mission “For Everyone” and seems to run counter to our sanctuary city status. HR/RISK says it’s an issue largely due to our city’s insurance coverage. I say, I’ve mitigated the Risk and volunteers are not in a position that places them one on one with any patron, staff, or other volunteer. I have also run across information that seems to indicate visa holding people may put their visa status at risk by volunteering. Wondering if you have any words of wisdom I can use to advocate for being able to include these folks who wish to share their time and talent with us, but can’t pass a standard background check. (Don’t get me started on background checks).
I’m going to share the advice I gave her here, edited to protect her identity and organization. Perhaps this might help others.
And I have to start with a disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, I don’t have a law degree, and so none of this can be considered legal advice.
In short: I think it’s absolutely fine to involve an HB1 Visa holder, and even someone here on a tourist visa, in volunteering at a nonprofit organization. But stay away from anything that could be seen as an unpaid internship (ongoing role), even for a student. And it gets even trickier with tourist visas.
Let’s get into the details:
How long has the person that does not have a social security number been in the USA? And in that time they have been in the USA, have they been in the same county and state? So, for instance, if the person has been in the same county for a year or more, then there should be a way to do a criminal background check with the sheriff’s department for the time they have lived here. The local police certainly have no problem arresting people without a social security number… but any check with local law enforcement would be for only the time the person has lived in that state.
Another option depends on what country the person is from. With online volunteers in mentoring programs, I have asked international participants to provide a letter from their local police in the country where they live to say that they are a person in “good standing” – also called a “certificate of good conduct.” Depending on what country they are from, they may be able to get this through their embassy or consulate here, for the area where they lived previously. No police in any country in Europe had any problem supplying such. But I’ve never had to do it for anyone outside of Europe.
I also think asking for professional and academic references, and following up on those, is a good idea – no matter what country they are in. I did that as well and I’m happy to provide you with the questions I asked them.
All that said… you should check with other libraries: maybe someone in the New York City or Chicago public library system, Atlanta, etc. And let me know what they say!
“I say, I’ve mitigated the Risk and volunteers are not in a position that places them one on one with any patron, staff, or other volunteer.”
RIGHT?!?! That should be enough! ARGH!!!
“I have also run across information that seems to indicate visa holding people may put their visa status at risk by volunteering.”
And one from the US Department of Labor, which says “Individuals who volunteer or donate their services, usually on a part-time basis, for public service, religious or humanitarian objectives, not as employees and without contemplation of pay, are not considered employees of the religious, charitable or similar non-profit organizations that receive their service.”
I read all of this as it being absolutely fine to involve this couple in volunteering.
Volunteering can turn into a problem for foreigners in the USA, or trying to come to the USA, on a tourist visa, or “volunteering” (working for free) for a family or for-profit company, even via Workaway or whatever.
For instance, Australian traveler Madolline Gourley visited the USA multiple times over several years to cat-sit in exchange for free accommodation – she was never paid money. But this year, she was stopped while transiting through Hawaii to Canada. Officials at a USA airport determined that what she was doing amounted to unauthorized work. She was detained for hours, her visa waiver was revoked, and she was ultimately deported.
Rebecca Burke,, a graphic artist from Monmouthshire in England, was trying to cross into the state of Washington from Canada when she was refused entry. She was planning to stay with a host family where she would carry out domestic chores in exchange for accommodation. Canadian officials told she should have applied for a working visa, instead of a tourist visa. So she went back to Canada, applied for what she thought was the right visa, and then tried again. But when she tried to re-enter the US she was handcuffed and put in a cell before being taken to Tacoma Northwest detention facility in Washington state.
(Workaway warns users that they “will need the correct visa for any country that you visit”, and that it is the user’s responsibility to get one, but it doesn’t stipulate what the correct visa is for the kind of arrangements it facilitates in any given country. )
But what about people who are going to volunteer for an organization – not pet sit or house sit or garden or whatever in exchange for free housing?
U.S. border law says Canadians do not require a visa to enter the country for volunteer work, as long as they can provide proof that their work will not be compensated. The group was told they had failed to have a letter sent from the host church “paroling” them into the country. The border patrol officer told the group he would grant an exception and let them through if the host church managed to fax or email a letter right away.
When the first letter was deemed “not specific enough” by a border patrol officer, the group asked the New Jersey host church send another, being careful not to make any specific reference to construction.
“In general, mission teams do team-building, tour mercy ministries of the church (food pantries, re-entry programs, thrift shops, etc) and assist with neighbourhood cleanup projects,” said the second letter. It was this last part that was interpreted as “work for hire,” says Hoeksema. Officers denied them entry after they had been stopped for more than two hours. The group was told that, as foreigners, they would be taking American jobs, and that there was no pressing need for relief work anyway this long after Hurricane Sandy hit the region in 2012.
A U.S. border spokesperson said the refusal came down to documentation. The official said groups doing humanitarian work need to provide documentation in advance from the municipality where the work is to be done stating what they will be doing.
Canadian media outlets reported also in 2017 that four Canadian senior citizens on their way to volunteer as ushers a performance of The Color Purple at the Fisher Theater in Detroit were detained, photographed, fingerprinted and eventually denied entry to the USA because non-American volunteers are only allowed to participate in religious or nonprofit events. The women, who had been volunteering for years at the theater, said they never had a problem before. The then USA Customs and Border Patrol Chief Ken Hammond told the Detroit Free Press that he can’t discuss individual cases for privacy reasons, but he referenced the Immigration and Nationality Act, stating that aliens volunteering in a program that benefits USA communities must establish that they are members of and are committed to “a particular recognized religious or nonprofit charitable organization.”
The Fisher Theater is a FOR-profit (commercial) theater. Had it been a nonprofit theater, even with a for-profit Broadway touring show playing, they PROBABLY wouldn’t have been turned away at the border if they had been carrying a letter from the theater with their 501 c 3 number and a statement that this was a nonprofit organization, stated their mission, and they reserve usher roles specifically for volunteers as a part of their commitment to ensure the arts are accessible to more people.
I have been telling people from other countries who are coming to the USA on a tourist visa but who might volunteer while here to say to the border enforcement folks that they are coming here as a tourist and to be absolutely open about all the places they plan to visit, and even say “I plan on attending the WHATEVEREVENT (cycling event, running event, motorcycle rally, etc.)”, but do NOT volunteer the information that they will be volunteering. Just emphasize how much they love cycling or running or motorcycling. And to make sure they do NOT have a post on social media saying, “Hey, I’m going to the USA to volunteer at the WHATEVEREVENT!” Carrying a letter from the organization where you are going to volunteer, stating that the organization is a 501 c 3 nonprofit, stating that the role you are doing is one they reserve specifically for volunteers, and with a statement as to WHY they do that (eg “we believe volunteer engagement is a way for people who care about such-and-such to be involved in this cause that they care about in a way that is more intimate and meaningful than merely attending the event”) can be helpful if you need to say that, as part of your traveling, you will be volunteering.
I am not encouraging anyone to do something illegal per the advice in that previous paragraph. But border agents in the USA make mistakes and currently are looking for ANY reason to turn foreigners away, or even arrest people trying to come into the country, including the wrong reason.
I’ve been telling people that are from other countries that are coming here to blog about their trip to either not come at all (there’s a pretty famous motorcycle blogger, Itchy Boots, who cancelled her US trip to promote her book because of the nonsense at the US border) or to NOT mention their YouTube channel or blogging when they are interviewed – emphasize you’re touring the US as a backpacker or whatever, period.
If you have other advice, please share it. Please cite sources – no “I think I heard that…”
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Along with the massive slashing of US government budgets, the demand for nonprofit services is going to be even greater than before – and nonprofits, per losing so much government funding (and corporate funding – layoffs abound) are going to have less and less resources.
A lot of boards at nonprofits are going to naively think, “Oh, let’s just get more volunteers – while also cutting the budget of the volunteer program, including firing the volunteer manager.”
If you work with volunteers at your nonprofit, regardless of if your title is manager of volunteers or not, there are three things you need to do RIGHT NOW, urgently, if you want to keep involving volunteers at your nonprofit and be ready to face the severe budget cuts coming.
1) you need to prepare a budget, RIGHT NOW, on what it costs to engage volunteers at your organization. That budget should include:
the percentage of staff time, at dollar value, to engage with and support volunteers
all expenses related to recruitment (that will include a portion of your web site hosting)
all expenses related to training and supervision (any software you pay to use for this)
all expenses related to appreciation/recognition (items you give to volunteers, rentals of space for volunteer events, etc.)
costs associated with volunteer management software
costs associated with background checks
advertising costs
travel costs
office supplies
insurance
volunteer center membership
professional development of those working with volunteers (training, certification, publications, conferences, membership fees, etc.)
2) You also need to create a chart that shows, as simply as possible, what it takes to onboard a new volunteer and to support your new volunteers. It needs to show exactly who does what at each step.
If you don’t do this, and communicate it to senior staff and the board, the budget cuts they make will be arbitrary, and volunteer engagement will plummet (so will individual donations, FYI).
3) And the third thing you must do: you must show the impact of your volunteer program. The number of volunteers you involved and the number of hours they gave IS NOT IMPACT. Testimonials from clients and staff about the impact volunteers made with them is impact. Testimonials from volunteers about how they did not understand fully what your nonprofit was doing before or the issue they were addressing, but now they do, because of their volunteering, is impact. Volunteers themselves can help you gather this data.
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I’ve been writing about how computer and Internet technologies can, and do, affect the work of nonprofits, NGOs, government agencies and other mission-based programs (as opposed to for-profit businesses) since the 1990s. I’ve been mostly a cheerleader for such, but also have tried to be realistic and to highlight cautions. So you shouldn’t be surprised that I have thoughts about AI and how it will, and is, affecting that work and those we serve.
And then there is the creative laziness AI seems to encourage. In an earlier blog I warned nonprofits to be careful using Canva, since their graphics are starting to all look the same. Here’s a new story about why reliance on Canva and similar AI graphic programs can be a bad choice: months ago, I had a volunteer from a high school who was supposed to create social media graphics in association with various holidays for a nonprofit I worked for. He turned in designs that were obviously the first template choice offered by Canva, with just our nonprofit logo and a date inserted somewhere – no other alterations at all. He supposedly had taken a marketing class that included learning graphic design basics, but seemed flummoxed when I talked about the need for color contrast, easy-to-read fonts, and the importance of ads being readable without someone having to have glasses. And don’t even get me started on Canva’s profound lack of diversity among its human images in terms of ethnicities, body types and ages. I ended up having to alter all of his work – spending more time on the task, not less.
Using AI-powered chatbots for schoolwork is undermining opportunities for young people to learn skills such as analyzing text, elaborating syntheses and writing coherent narratives. The writing process stimulates thinking, scrutinizing and self-improvement, tasks that all people should learn. But when it is outsourced to AI, people not only don’t have that stimulation or mental improvement, the reduction in cognitive effort can reduce memory retention and diminish learning and cognitive abilities (cited in the Human Development Report on page 73 and in Blanchflower, D. G., Bryson, A., and Xu, X. 2024, “The Declining Mental Health of the Young and the Global Disappearance of the Hump Shape in Age in Unhappiness.” Working Paper 32337, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA).
I’m working with someone right now who uses AI to write all of his emails and reports. These never provide me with the information I need – information I always got when his predecessor wrote the reports and emails herself (and in MUCH shorter form). For some reason, AI always deletes out the essential info I need for marketing efforts.
AI is determining what we see online, and hiding what someone or a company has decided they do not want us to see. Content is being curated, sorted and ranked by machine learning based on the desires of one person or a company, often with users not having any idea that this is happening. I’m using two and three different search engines whenever I do research, because the results are always so different.
AI-written text is showing up with hallucinated facts across the Internet landscape and creeping into the people and government’s decision-making. And if AI is leveraged to degrade human rights or coerce people to believe a lie or harm others, it’s NOT an ally. It’s easy to find examples of this all over the Internet.
We live in a world where trust and credibility is more important than ever before. We’re going to lose more of that if we keep ceding creativity, curiosity and human interactions to AI.
There are a lot of companies who are now telling their employees that they are not allowed to suggest the creation of any new positions – paid staff or consultants – unless they can prove AI could not do most of that job. That means the elimination of graphic design positions, receptionists, data analysts, social media managers, consultants brought on to create and design special products (annual reports, specific marketing campaigns) and managers of volunteer programs who spend most of their time reviewing applications and screening new volunteers. Yes, AI can do all of those jobs – but not well, and not to the standards nonprofits need. As more and more people are using AI to both summarize texts and write emails and reports as well as reading those texts and emails and reports, humans are less and less involved – thereby missing trends, insights and potential challenges, while clients and customers become more and more frustrated trying to get answers to questions and help to solve problems.
A way to counter this AI use demand by management: be able to say, right now, how you are leveraging AI in your work. Show that you are already using it to save money, such as grammar correction programs, graphic design programs, donor data analysis, volunteer data analysis, translating and news alerts regarding certain topics. But then also show why you hold on to certain tasks, like interacting with clients in real-time, because cultivating and sustaining trust with various stakeholders.
What I find fascinating in this push for nonprofits to use AI is that a much better strategy is to push nonprofits to engage more volunteers, thereby doing what AI cannot: engage with the community more, cultivate more supporters, and build more awareness and understanding about the nonprofit and the cause it addresses.
One last thing: if you use AI in any communications, DECLARE IT. If you write an email to someone and you used AI to create that email, declare it. Declare in any online or offline publication if the material was created or authored, primarily, by AI. If you publish a blog that has content that was, even in part, created by AI, say so. “Some of the content of this article was created using AI.” Affirm if an article or blog is written by a human: give credit to the person or people responsible for such, by name.
If your nonprofit has a chatbot for clients, be clear that the chatbot is not a human, that it’s AI. Many people do NOT understand that a box with a human image that says, “Hi, how can I help you?” is not a human.
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The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2026 the International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development. Your nonprofit, NGO, charity, or other community organization needs to start planning NOW on how to leverage the year.
I’ve created a IYV2026 resource on my site that notes the origins of the year, highlights the accomplishments and resources of the first International Year of Volunteers in 2001, and links to the growing number of official resources. I hope it can be used both to help organizations prepare for IYV2026 and to compare resources now and then, to see how far we’ve come and how much more we need to do.
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I was able to port my blogs since early 2010 from a different platform here to this one, but I was not able to do so for blogs from the first platform I ever used. Those are available only on archive.org and, even then, it’s really hard to navigate through them. Most are outdated and don’t need a revival. But some I think are worth revisiting, like this one from 14 October 2009:
Center for Global Development research fellow David Roodman set the philanthropy world and the humanitarian world abuzz last week when he wrote that Kiva does not work the way many lenders might think it does. Roodman details how “the person-to-person donor-to-borrower connections created by Kiva are partly fictional.” His criticisms of Kiva have been reblogged and caused quite a stir, and a number of knee-jerk reactions. Yet, his comments and supporting details that “What Kiva does behind the scenes is what it should do” and that “technically” Kiva isn’t hiding anything aren’t being referred to as well.
Before you decide to blog about this subject yourself, or to offer a summary of what’s going on, please read Roodman’s entire post. Read the ENTIRE post. Many of the people blogging about this obviously haven’t.
Kiva Co-Founder and CEO Matt Flannery wrote a detailed response to Roodman’s blog, featured on Roodman’s blog itself. And it’s a good response, one that people interested in crisis communication should read.
Flannery’s response on Roodman’s blog is not going to be enough, ofcourse; there are too many bloggers out there reposting tiny snippets of Roodman’s original blog and glossing over the details in order to create a firestorm of criticism against Kiva. Best of luck to Flannery and Roodman to try to bring the discussion back to the facts. Flannery is going to have to get busy posting replies to a lot more blogs, as it’s unlikely they will post links to his reply. In those replies, he should
quote liberally from Roodman’s original blog, as Roodman anticipated a lot of the criticism with several of his original comments,
point out what Kiva will be doing differently because of Roodman’s post and the resulting firestorm,
defend the practices that Kiva won’t be changing because the changes would hurt those Kiva is trying to serve, and
reiterate that the most important people in the Kiva equation are those that benefit from loans, not the donors.
Kiva needs to be ready to lose some donors, but also to work to change the way remaining donors and new donors think about effective financial aid to the developing world, because that’s at the root of this firestorm, IMO.
I’m a Kiva donor, and I’ll continue to be one.
2025 update: I was, indeed, a Kiva donor for years. I’m not one currently, because my funding priorities have changed, as has my finances, but I remain a fan of Kiva.
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Diego, our wonderful local liaison, Stephanie, our incredible group leader, and the Habitat Global Village volunteers in Paraguay in May 2025. We are filthy and it’s only the first day. I’m the fat girl on the viewer’s right.
I’m back from my week-long stint volunteering as a part of Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program, where I helped build a foundation for a house for a family in a low-income community outside of Asunción, Paraguay.
I wrote about the trip for the local Habitat affiliate I work for, part-time, here in Oregon, focusing on what we did day-to-day, how we built the foundation, challenges we faced, what I packed, how I fundraised for the trip, etc., along with tips for anyone who might want to explore being a team leader for such a trip in the future. But I wanted to write about the trip from the perspective of me the volunteer management consultant and researcher, and me the skeptic regarding most volunTOURism trips.
What is volunTOURism? It’s where a person pays a lot of money to travel somewhere for a volunteering experience, coupled with at least some tourism/cultural exchange. Habitat for Humanity would REALLY like to move away from this label, and I respect that – however, by the definition I use, that’s still what this program is. And that’s NOT something to be ashamed of: what they are doing is ethical voluntourism.
I used to think all volunTOURism – all instances where someone pays to volunteer abroad – was bad, period. People in the United Nations and working for other international development agencies tend to look down on people paying to volunteer, mostly because it can often seem to be all about the volunteer and their feel-good, photo-friendly experience (“Vanity Volunteering”), not about actually engaging in sustainable development, in activities that empower local people, that aren’t just charity, and it often can reinforce the worst ideas of white saviorism and colonialism. Some volunteering programs can take away jobs from local people (an example is the backlash against volunteers coming into NOLA after Hurricane Katrina from carpenters, roofers and others who were desperate for work).
More dire horror stories about volunTOURism abound: so-called wildlife sanctuaries that care for orphan animals, but the animals are orphaned because their parents have been killed so that the sanctuary has baby animals for the foreign volunteers to care for. So-called orphanages where, in many cases, children have parents, but parents are paid for their children to live in these “orphanages”, and foreigners come for a few days or weeks to “care for” the “orphans.” And cases where volunteers harm people they are supposed to be caring for, including harming women and children in the worst ways imaginable.
I started to change my mind about all volunTOURism being all bad when I noticed a few programs that seemed to be designed by local people themselves, where there were written standards for both volunteers and for the kinds of work volunteers could, and shouldn’t, engage in, where there were strict rules regarding safety and safeguarding for both volunteers and those served, and where the work by the volunteers was needed and not being done by anyone else. Like Africa Fire Mission, a nonprofit that brings together experienced firefighters from developed countries to train firefighters in various African countries regarding effective emergency response and fire prevention and response services. Or HistoriCorps, a program in the USA where volunteers pay a fee and help restore a historic site on public lands, sometimes in very remote places.
The one volunTOURism program that stood out most was the Global Village program by Habitat for Humanity. Through this program, local Habitat programs in impoverished areas in South America, Central America and Asia receive much needed funding, in part per the fees paid by international volunteers, and an intense, hyper-productive week of labor: the volunteers get an incredible amount done in a week, working right along side local contractors (which the volunteers’ fees have helped fund). The additional goals of the program are that there is an increased understanding by the visiting volunteers of home ownership challenges globally and the role Habitat for Humanity plays in such, that volunteers become better advocates for Habitat’s vision where everyone has a decent place to live, and that people from different cultures get to come together and work side-by-side, leading to greater understanding and appreciation of each other – what Habitat calls God’s love into action, what I call humanism in action and necessary for our survival.
In all my years as a volunteer management consultant, long before I started working for a Habitat affiliate here in Oregon, I was a fan of Habitat for Humanity and its model for volunteer engagement locally. Habitat fully acknowledges that it is not going to solve the housing crisis anywhere by volunteers coming together when they have some time and building some houses here and there; the much needed resolution in the global housing crisis will come only through drastic and impactful policy changes and enforcement of those changes. But those changes will come only through the will of a mass of people, and one of the best ways to get people on your side, to turn people into advocates for your cause, is to get them involved as volunteers at your organization.
Habitat has strict guidelines for volunteer engagement on a local level, and when those principles are well applied, they are, IMO, the best in the “business” of volunteer engagement. Habitat’s engagement of groups of volunteers, when done in alignment with Habitat rules and policies, are models for other organizations. For the volunteer, the bar to participation should feel quick and easy, but behind the scenes, if done properly, a lot of thought, time and care goes into the volunteer feeling that way.
But what about Habitat’s volunteering-abroad program? How do I think it measures up in terms of ethics and impact? I’ll cut to the chase and it won’t be a surprise: this was a model group volunteering endeavor. This is the standard every short-term program should aspire to, whether it’s a local or international program:
Volunteers were provided all the materials beforehand, with all the information they needed to know exactly what they were getting into.
Volunteers were provided details on exactly what the money they had to raise, or pay, would pay for.
Volunteers knew exactly what to pack, what would be provided and what would not.
The group leader, also a volunteer, stayed in touch regularly, but not overwhelmingly, before departure. She sent regular reminders and had answers to all questions. And then after the trip, she sent an outstanding followup message that explained how we could continue to support Habitat and how we could get involved in advocacy efforts.
A WhatsApp group was set up for all volunteers just before we departed, so we would know who was arriving when, we could easily share links to photos, and we could further build community (and trust) with each other (that makes this a virtual volunteering effort, BTW!).
Volunteers always knew where to be and when to be there.
We were warmly welcomed at the work site.
The work was ready for the volunteers to do immediately, every day.
There were several people providing guidance whenever needed.
The safety and safeguarding briefing was clear and provided exactly the information needed, clearly and without any ambiguity.
Volunteers’ time was never, ever wasted.
Drinking water was provided (I can’t believe how many group endeavors don’t provide this).
A bathroom was provided (again, I can’t believe how many group endeavors don’t have this).
The volunteers worked like freakin’ machines. Unstoppable, ever-fueled machines. Get. Out. Of. Their. Way. The team leader definitely recruited exactly the right group for this gig (with one exception: me. I was no where near as productive as the other volunteers. But I had an excuse: I was so sick the week before that I almost had to cancel my trip, and the very strong antibiotics I was on those first days did NOT help).
In all fairness, I have to point out that this group of volunteers in Paraguay was full of ringers: there were 11 volunteers in all, and four were employees of Habitat for Humanity International, and all but two – and one of those two was me – were veterans of the Global Village program. So I was the only person starting from absolute zero. And given that I’m a rather seasoned international traveler, and a volunteer management consultant and trainer, I was a bit of a ringer myself.
But, of course, Habitat’s global volunteering program is more than a group volunteering gig abroad. It’s volunTOURism: volunteers are paying to go abroad and paying a fee to participate. How did THAT aspect measure up in terms of my oh-so-picky list of volunTOURism ethics?
Habitat’s Global Village program was put on hold during COVID so the program could be redesigned to be more locally-focused, more impactful for local communities, and less about tourism. I can’t compare my experience to before the pandemic. But here’s what I can say about my experience, in terms of the changes Habitat said they wanted to implement in the program:
In changing the program, Habitat said they wanted these volunteer activities to be focused on volunteers engaging in mutual learning and exchange with local people, rather than tourism activities. I think they nailed this. There were tourism activities, which took place on the day or two before work began, and in the evenings. But the focus of this trip was on the work itself, and the work took place right alongside the local contractors and local staff.
I was never so happy at my meager Spanish skills: I got to talk a lot with local staff, the local construction workers, the family we served and even some of the local kids gathered to watch. Each day when we arrived at the site, I would greet each member of the family that had come out to watch us work, holding hands, giving greetings and kissing each other on the cheek. One volunteer told me that, while I was feeling envious of the energy and strength of all the volunteers (I really was not nearly as productive as they were), she was envious of me having conversations with the Paraguayans. She said she felt like there was a wall between her and them, and she didn’t know how to bridge it, and she was envious every time I walked over and started chatting with local folks. I definitely got the “mutual learning and exchange with local people” aspect, but I’m not sure all the volunteers did (but those who didn’t were the ones why were hyper productive in building the foundation of this house, and that’s what they seemed to want to do most).
The redesigned program does not want international volunteers to enter a community with their own ideas of what needs to be done. The “agenda of change” needs to be defined by and led by the local people being served, not the outside volunteers coming into a community. I think this was adhered to, but not because volunteers were ever told this priority; the volunteers I was with in Paraguay were all veterans of these kinds of Habitat programs, save one person besides me, and they already knew better than to walk in to a work site and say things should be done differently.
Per the programs’ redesign, a promotion of safeguarding was supposed to be much more emphasized throughout the experience than before. I don’t know what it was like before, but I can say that what I experienced was a MODEL emphasis on and explanation of safeguarding and safety, one that the affiliate I work for still hasn’t mastered. Kudos.
Habitat Global Village projects are supposed to be designed by local communities and the focus should be on local ownership and local sustainability. They nailed this goal too. There was no doubt who was in charge – and it was NOT us, the volunteers – and whose project this was – NOT ours, but the local people themselves.
Also per the redesign of the program, from the beginning, volunteers were supposed to learn about the need for adequate housing around the world, so we can become advocates regarding the cause and champions for equitable housing long after their trip has ended. For me, this goal came up just a bit short. Why is there a shortage of housing in Paraguay? What policies and practices are keeping people from having housing in Paraguay? What’s the unemployment rate? How much would a family need to make to build their own house without NGO assistance? Are all kids in school? How does lack of housing affect education in Paraguay? Where is Paraguay in the UNDP Human Development Index? Where does it rank in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index? I don’t think it would have taken a huge amount of time to touch on answers to these questions, so we could get more context to why Habitat is needed in Paraguay (and other countries). But that said, the followup message from Habitat, after we returned, was spot on: it provided information on how we could be continued advocates for Habitat, how we could become involved with our local Habitat affiliates, etc. There’s an entire paragraph in my blog about the trip for the local Habitat affiliate I work for about advocacy and its importance, and it wouldn’t have been there had we not gotten this follow up email.
Personally, I felt uncomfortable at the stark contrast of our accommodations and our morning and evening meals to the lives of the people in the neighborhood where we worked in Paraguay. I’m a motorcycle traveler, including in developing countries, and I don’t stay in hotels as nice as what we experienced in Paraguay, and I don’t eat at restaurants nearly so nice when traveling. But from what I understand, our level of accommodations in Asunción were necessary because of the security situation in the region where we worked – we were very obviously a big group of relatively wealthy Americans, and we REALLY stood out in the countryside. As for the food at very nice restaurants, I think Habitat is dedicated to volunteers not getting sick, as they have just one week to work (and did I mention it is REAL WORK?). No one wants any volunteer to spend their week mostly in a hotel room bathroom. So, I get why our accommodations and food were as they were.
With all that said, let me be clear: this was an amazing experience. I cried when it was over. So. Much. Hugging. One of the local staff told me, “You were my favorite” and I nearly collapsed in weeping. This experience ticked all the boxes: international volunteers really were needed and really did make a difference, the effort was locally led, I know things about Paraguay I didn’t know before and I am in love with the country, I had an amazing experience, and I am even more committed to the mission of Habitat than I was before. I have a stronger connection to Habitat than ever before – and I intend to turn these feelings into more effective action at the affiliate where I work.
And a few days after I returned home, the homeowner that we had helped had “liked” my Facebook page, and written on one of the posts about Paraguay, “Gracias por todo Ojalá algún día vuelvan las puertas de mi casa siempre estará abiertas para todos ustedes Dios los bendiga.” (Thank you for everything I hope one day you come back the doors of my house will always be open to all of you God bless you.)
That comment, and so much of this experience, is what is too often missing almost entirely in professional international development work. I have worked for the United Nations three times. The first time was at a UN program HQ, and I rarely got this moving emotional experience there like I had in Paraguay, because I was so far removed from the people actually being served, and there were times that this kind of inspiration would have made me much more motivated – something very much needed amid the stress and bureaucracy of the UN work environment. When I worked in Afghanistan and Ukraine, I made a point to get beyond the office space, to get to know Afghans and Ukrainians, and as a result, I loved that field work so, so much more than HQ work. And I cried when I left those countries. And still cry for them.
When I worked at United Nations Volunteers HQ, part of UNDP, the head of UNV, Sharon Capeling-Alakija, said that the reason she was passionate about the UN’s Online Volunteering service, which I managed, was because it gave far more people a chance to be involved in the work of the UN. She felt it unfair that the ONLY way to be involved in the UN was to have a Master’s Degree, 10 years of experience and a job at a UN agency; she wanted a way for people with less experience, but with just as much interest and passion and good ideas, to get to be involved, to get an idea of what the UN does beyond what they read in the media, and maybe it could create a more caring world. Her words came back to me as I was a part of this Habitat experience. It’s still a rather exclusive experience: you have to pay all of your travel costs (or some angel in your life has to pay such for you) and you have to fundraise your program costs, or pay those yourself, and that means it’s not something just anyone can participate in. But it’s an avenue into working abroad with a much lower bar than getting a paid job and giving up your home and all your friends and family for a few years. And it really does have impact. It really does make a difference.
Any program that’s creating a greater feeling of solidarity and understanding among people, that cultivates empathy and caring and learning, is worth supporting, because oh how the world needs that right now.
Local volunteers in Paraguay will now begin to work on the site along those same wonderful contractors we worked with. The staff at Hábitat para la Humanidad Paraguay will update their Facebook and Instagram accounts about this family, so we – and YOU – will be able to see the progress and the finished product. They already have photos and videos there of our volunteer group in action.
And back here where I live in Oregon, I hope that we can incorporate the practices of Habitat Paraguay in making sure volunteers feel supported and prepared, that volunteers feel like they’ve made a real difference by the end of a day of work, and that they feel a part of Habitat for Humanity, so much so that they want to learn more about why there is a lack of affordable housing and why so many thousands and thousands of hard working people in our community cannot afford a house.
One more thing: there were a group of pre teens on bicycles, pretty rough, who came to watch us almost every day. They would call out words in English to see if we would respond. And one day, one of them yelled, “W.W.E!” That stands for World Wrestling Entertainment. One of the volunteers turned around and yelled back the name of a well-known wrestler. And BOOM, that volunteer was The Greatest American To Ever Visit This Village. The kids yelled wrestler names, the volunteer yelled back other wrestler names, imitating how the wrestlers get introduced in the ring. The kids could not get enough of him. At one point, I looked over and the volunteer was helping to repair one of the kid’s bicycles, with the kids all gathered around him. I bring this up because I have blogged about how much kids worldwide, from Kabul to Kansas, LOVE professional wrestling, and I cannot for the life of me understand why international development agencies and governments don’t leverage this. Yeah, People Magazine, I will never forgive you for all but mocking me when I dared to mention wrasslin’ in that project back we worked on in the 1990s…
Habitat is seeking people to become Global Village Team Leaders. Candidates need to be from organized groups, such as university classes or clubs, social clubs, communities of faith, volunteers or staff from local Habitat affiliates, employees from a company, etc. Candidates take the Global Village online trainings and then lead their organized group of co-workers, club members, students, congregation members or other association on a Global Village program trip abroad. Visit the Global Village team leader FAQ to find out if leading a team is right for you. The option for independent volunteers to join teams with whom they do not already have an association is not currently available, but you should sign up at the Habitat web site for updates in case this changes.
New Global Village build dates for 2026 will be released in July! Now is the perfect time to take the team leader trainings and to talk to your co-workers, fellow students, fellow members of your community of faith, other members of your civic club, or your local Habitat affiliate where you already volunteer about this program, to generate interest among your associates for possibly joining your team. That will help you to be ready to book early and secure your team’s spot in the Habitat program. Global Village groups usually consist of up to 16 individuals. Potential participants should understand that each Global Village volunteer raises funds among their associates or contributes a donation ranging from US$1,625-$2,700 that supports Habitat’s housing programs. Volunteers are responsible for paying for their own on-site accommodations (arranged by Habitat), meals, ground transportation and transportation to the country, as well as arranging for any necessary visas.
In the same day, I’ve been accused by a person of being unfairly opposed to all forms of voluntourism (paying to volunteer abroad) and accused by another of promoting voluntourism.
In the same week, I’ve been accused of pushing an agenda that makes volunteering too difficult for most people to access and also pushing an agenda that makes volunteer involvement too easy and puts clients at risk.
Some people have said I think people paid to do work are better than volunteers, and others have said I want to eliminate paid roles and replace such with unpaid volunteers.
Most people who bother to actually read what I write know exactly where I stand on voluntourism (I do think there is such a thing as ethical voluntourism, but I think such ethical experiences are rare), know exactly where I stand on volunteer engagement (I don’t trust any nonprofit that doesn’t involve volunteers while also believing that organizations have every right NOT to accept every offer to volunteer) and know that I don’t think volunteer engagement should be used as a way for job elimination (but that I DO think some roles are best done by volunteers).
Talks about volunteerism are, and should be, full of nuance. Volunteerism is a complex subject. If you want to see a fight break out, ask a room full of managers of volunteers to define the word volunteer. Which is right? In many ways, they ALL are. There’s nothing simple about this subject – that’s why it’s held my interest for a few decades.
And I do change my mind. Over many years, I went from being okay with voluntourism to being totally opposed to it to being back to being okay with it, with certain qualifications. I change my mind because I’m always reading opinions from other people, testimonials from volunteers and those that involve such, and most importantly, those served by volunteers. I hope you do the same.
one is a list of volunteering abroad programs where participants do NOT have to pay (these are all long-term volunteering gigs, like the Peace Corps, UNV, etc.), and
the other is a list of where participants DO pay but the programs also meet the criteria for an ethical volunTOURism company (they don’t take absolutely anyone so long as they can pay, they vet participants, the activities are designed by local people, no “white saviorism” type activities, no working with orphans or wildlife, etc.).
But I’m sorry to say that COVID seems to have taken away a lot of programs, particularly on that second list. I just updated the page, removing those now defunct programs. But I’d like to add to the page, if there are additions out there.
If you know of a volunteering abroad program that you think meets the requirements to be listed on my page, either DM me or use this form to contact me. Please FIRST view my page and see if I already have it listed.
Do NOT use the comments to recommend a company – I’ll delete it as soon as I see it. I will accept ONLY DMs or recommendations on the contact form.
Online volunteering – virtual volunteering – creates new avenues for people to be able to volunteer for causes they want to support, but online environments present challenges for people with disabilities.
Many adults with disabilities are excluded not just in onsite situations, but in the digital world as well, further limiting their ability to engage in paid work and voluntary service. But just as by removing onsite barriers and enhancing accessibility, we can foster environments where everyone feels welcome and empowered to contribute, we can do the same online.
If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.
