Structured & Self-Funding Volunteer Programmes :Selection & EligibilitySome skills-based and faith-based volunteer organisations require volunteers to sign up for
a minimum of two years. Deborah Jordan and David Spinney went to Ethiopia, where they
worked in education. For them to achieve the goals of their project, they found that two
years was not sufficient:
We volunteered for a two-year placement and we were happy to do so. We recognised that
it does take time to integrate into a new community and a different way of life and to earn
the confidence and respect of new colleagues. We extended our contract by six months
to enable us to complete the second phase (second academic year) of the programme and
ensure a smooth handover to another volunteer and local colleagues.
This is not to say that only long-term volunteering is a valuable use of your time, money
and limited resources. Nevertheless, the length of your volunteer placement will usually
have a direct impact on how much you can achieve.
It is important to understand this link because it will help manage your expectations.
Bottom line: you won’t be able to do a great deal in a short amount of time and this can be
frustrating. However, as was the case with Deborah Jordan and David Spinney, you can
often extend a volunteer placement (visa regulations allowing).
You can also do the converse: curtail your placement. Ann Noon, who volunteered in
Peru, describes finishing her placement early:
I volunteered for a year but returned home after 10 months – partly for financial reasons
(too many pisco sours) and partly because I had problems with the tenants in my flat that
needed resolving.
Obviously, breaking your volunteer commitment in this way should not be done lightly.
Just as with a regular contract job, you have agreed to volunteer for a certain period of
time and you should fulfil that obligation. However, being away from home for longish
periods of time does come with its own set of potential problems. To minimise these (such
as problems with tenants), see Chapter 4 Tying up Loose Ends.
Costs
It often comes as a surprise to would-be volunteers that giving up their time isn’t enough.
In the majority of cases, you also need to pay to volunteer. There are a number of reasons
for this:
~ There are significant administrative costs involved in maintaining a well-managed vol-
unteer programme and in finding you a volunteer placement. As such, it is normal for a
fee to be charged (note: charities call this fee ‘fundraising’).
~ The host programme incurs costs by using volunteers. Volunteers have to be looked af-
ter, possibly trained and certainly supervised. Then there’s the question of who is going
to pay for board and lodging, in-country transport and any other ancilliary costs.
~ Hosting volunteers is often a way for local projects to earn an additional source of
income. In many cases, a proportion of your fee (whether charged by a sending agency
or a local NGO) will go towards helping fund the project you’re working on.
The cost of volunteering varies considerably. It usually depends on the volunteering
experience you want and how long you’re going for. If you want an all-inclusive, bells-and-
whistles organised volunteer programme, you might pay between US$3500 and US$
(£2500 and £3000; A$3000 and A$4000; NZ$7000 to NZ$8600) for a three-month place-
ment. However, almost everything is paid upfront and all you’ll have to take with you is
spending money. For more detailed information on the costs of organised and structured
volunteer programmes, see Chapters 5 to 7.
(As mentioned above, plenty of charities run organised volunteer programmes but their
fees are referred to as ‘fundraising’. See p48 for more details on this point.)
At the other extreme, you may sign up with a charity, NGO or sending agency that charges
you a placement fee but then expects you to be completely self-funding. In the UK or US, if
this is the case, you might be charged £850 (US$1500) in fees and have to pay all other costs,
such as international flights, accommodation and food. In Australia, a prospective volunteer
may pay between A$250 and A$400 (NZ$290 and NZ$460) in partially refundable fees, or
as a deposit to reserve a place on a programme. Incidentally, these self-funding volunteer
programme fees cannot be claimed as a tax deduction in Australia because they are not an ex-
pense incurred while earning assessable income. Check with the Australian Taxation Office’s
Volunteers and Tax guide for more details (www.ato.gov.au/nonprofit). For more details on
self-funding volunteer placements, see Chapters 6 and 7. There is some good news for your
wallet if you’re a US or Canadian citizen: certain programme fees paid to charitable and
religious sending organisations based in the Americas may be income tax deductible. Most
of these organisations will advertise this fact on their websites.
Of course, you may think all this sounds much too expensive and decide to cut out the
intermediaries and find your own placement. If you find one while you’re travelling you’ll
have to pay only what the local NGO or charity charges (if anything). If you tee up a place-
ment before you travel, you’ll incur the small cost of registering with an online database
of volunteer opportunities and all the travel- and living-related costs of volunteering. Al-
though this is the cheapest option, it does come with far more risks. For a discussion of the
pros and cons, see Chapter 8. For a detailed breakdown of how to budget for a self-funding
volunteer placement, see p48.
Organisations running conservation and wildlife projects usually offer only organised or
structured volunteer programmes and, more often than not, conservation and wildlife vol-
unteering is more expensive than development volunteering. This is because many projects
are expensive to run, take place in remote, inaccessible parts of the world and require lots
of expensive equipment. It’s also because volunteer fees are one of the main ways that a
sustainable research project is funded. For more information see Chapters 5 and 6.
Whatever you pay your sending agency, it is important to understand where your money
is going and who pays for what. Ask for a breakdown of costs if one isn’t readily available;
in many cases, you will find one on the organisation’s website.
Having said all this, some volunteers don’t
pay anything. In fact, not only are their
costs covered but they are also paid a small
monthly stipend. (In most regions accept-
ing international volunteers, stipends are in
the range of US$100 to US$300 – enough
to cover meals, local transportation, phone
and internet usage, and other in-country
incidental expenses.) This is the case with
many of the skilled volunteer place-
ments with organisations like VSO (p94),
Skillshare International (p140), Doctors of
the World (Médecins du Monde, p143),
IESC Geekcorps (p141) or the Peace Corps
(p96), to name but a few.
The Australian Government’s volunteer-
ing programmes (including Australian
Youth Ambassadors for Development
(AYAD, p113) and Volunteering for
International Development from Australia
(VIDA, p131) include monthly allowances
intended to cover the costs associated with
living a modest life while undertaking an
assignment. These allowances are anywhereWorking hard digging a well in Madagascar02: Choosing Your Volunteer Experience:Arranging a Worthwhile PlacementPhoto: Azafady