Nowadays, volunteering time and effort as part of holidays or during time off is becoming popular and we hear and see many examples of it. Usually, volunteers come from abroad, or from the big cities, attracted by the appeal to explore a far away place with lush nature and wanting to do good and help. What about you? Where are you reading me from? Now, i personally see that as a wonderful thing, individuals that saved budget for a holiday, switching from a classic trip to donating some of their time and money to a cause: this gives me hope for the world.
But volunteering for non-profits, how does it work really?
There are many type of volunteer projects. Let's explore some.
Skills exchange, application based type on volunteering.
In charity and conservation work, organizations are commonly limited in their projects because of lack of financial resources, technical resources and manpower. They need money, equipment and skilled employees to help them develop long lasting sustainable projects. In city development projects, they need carpenters and architects, in environmental projects, we need biologists, ecologists, in community work, we need local teachers, sociologists, psychologists, ethnologists, among others legal workers, accountants, etc. And all trained and being able to work locally (knowing the laws, language and local perks of working here).
Even though we don't like to think of it like that, charity work is still work, the same as corporate work (less the corporate profit of course and add a good cause) and need to employ talented individual for projects to push through. Due to the lack of funds, many of those positions remain vacants and multi-tasking / overloading is a bit too common.
For that reason, volunteers in charity sector can be amazing help. Many positions in non-profit organizations are unpaid, volunteer based. They can be long time positions (6 months, a year, more) or positions to help and support on a short project (weeks). However, most of them need professional skills, free time to apply them and are fitting into a specific need and project.
This type of volunteering is common for students that would like to boost their resume by obtaining experience in their field and contribute for a cause, but also more experienced workers on a leave or retired ones.
(You are skilled and looking for volunteering talent exchange, have a look below)
2. The volunteer experience - unskilled
Many individuals are looking for an experience offering their time and efforts to support a good cause and are looking to volunteer for non-profit. Depending on the type of organizations and projects volunteers decide to join, there might be little tasks that they can help and support on.
Here's a list of common volunteering projects
Manual labor projects such as helping building a school or any type of establishment
Artistic projects, paint a mural (hoping volunteers have the artist seed in them!), design some posters or educative artwork to support the cause
Help hosting or organizing events (talk about the cause, answer questions, waiter, etc.) or assist teaching activities.
Join a clean up activity,
Join a tree planting activity
This type of volunteering can be a one-off event, or can be set a regular occasion for local residents. A regular type of volunteering is much more beneficial for both the organization and the volunteer, as they can get trained and be trusted in participating in more "interesting" work.
Because let's be honest, there are only very little tasks that can be done by untrained unskilled volunteers that are actually beneficial for an organization or the community.
You heard me. A school would be better built by a local carpenter, a mural better painted by an artist, a class should be taught by someone experienced, etc. And no one can invent themselves proficient in a skill in a few hours that most takes years training for. This is why volunteering requires either skills and time, or time and training.
This makes sense no ? To be beneficial, that type of volunteer work require briefing and training for the task they will be asked to take on, and of course, direct supervision by professionals to answer questions and guide the team at work (or your school might quickly fall off). The duration and length of training depends on how complicated is the task at hand.
Now... is it really helping? Well, there is a simple way to assess it. If the project is done quicker and better thanks to the volunteers and the guidance of their supervisor, then it is a well managed volunteering project. However, if the project would be much faster done and of higher quality by just the supervising team, then, then the project is not directly beneficial for the organization but is made FOR the volunteers.
A volunteering program made for the volunteer ? Of course. And there can be many reasons for that.
For education purpose. Many individuals are interested to volunteer because they would like to learn and experience personal growth through volunteering work. All non-profits believe in the necessary change of mindset in our society in order to effectively solve our humanitary & environmental challenges. All non-profits also believe in the ripple effects: inspire one person and you can change the world. Many volunteer programs organized by non-profits are somewhat a mix between beneficial for the cause and the NGO but chosen to be done (a little bit less efficiently) with volunteer help, because of the social & educational value of it.
For funding Volunteers can join and support an organization on different type of contracts. Some are free. Others might require a volunteer participation fee. As discussed earlier, non-profit organizations are usually limited because of lack of financial resources, technical resources and manpower. A volunteer program can also be an outreach program to attract fund to support the cause.
Is paid volunteerism still volunteerism?
Many charities are now running on volunteers program, offering paying packages for guests to join them, offering lodging, meals and organizing activities where the volunteers can participate in the non-profit charity work and feel that his time and efforts were well spent. Is it really volunteerism when paying ? This a good question, but we can all acknowledge that there is a cost into living and participating into the activities offered. What is the fee covering? Usually, the fee covers the necessary living arrangement for the volunteer, activities cost, along with a partial or full allowance for the supervisors required to manage and train the volunteers and the remaining goes to the project itself. When well done, this is a great example of eco-tourism that can benefit everyone. As a volunteer there, you might gain a life-long remembering experience so much more worthy than a regular holiday package + a good conscience; and the conservation organization will gain from the financial and manpower support on its project, and finally the project output, wether it is community or environment, will gain from the help given by both.
Why can't it be free? Simply because the organization cannot afford it and would rather spend the money on the project output. This, is especially because the cost of the project are greater and its efficiency lesser, because it is chosen to be open to volunteers but the organization still decided to open it for the education value of teaching volunteers.
Paid volunteerism opportunities is nowadays quite common in environmental conservation, for any type of short volunteerism that are unskilled to start with and require training and supervision.
The dark side of paid-volunteerism in non-profit
As mentioned earlier, there is nothing wrong with paid-volunteerism for a good cause. On the opposite, this can be a great opportunity that contributes everyone. Volunteer, organization, community and project.
However, it is important to be careful about what type of project and organization you are joining. With everything in life, there are ethical serious organizations and projects, and there are others. The new popularity of volunteering as part of travels, has attracted a new wave of business owners into the charity and conservation sector, and the popping up of many organizations that rely solely on attractive volunteers programs for funds (nothing wrong there), but without any outputs or ethics in their projects (something wrong there). They are actually not using or needing any of the tasks done by the volunteers and projects can be useless or with a negative impact for community and environment.
How to differentiate good and bad volunteer program?
Ask yourself a simple question, who is this project benefiting ? Remember, for unskilled volunteerism, an organization needs to provide training of adequate length and direct supervision ( because otherwise the tasks will be of poor quality and not standardized). It is important to understand as well what is the project for ? Where does the efforts goes? And have a clear output of the project beneficiaries. If this is not provided, this means the organization is choosing to run this project for funds, for volunteers education or a mix of both. A simple look into the quality & educational value of the program will tell you where the heart and ethics of the organization lies.
Volunteering at CRCP ?
This is why at CRCP, we are careful with our words. We offer conservation training with learnwithcrcp and welcome you as a guest or as a student. There is a cost in this training, that covers the instructor's time and educational material needed, along with a small participation to CRCP's conservation projects and research. Because we believe in the value and power of education to change mindsets and build a better future for the environment (and us all), we try to make this fee as little and accessible as possible.
Our volunteering opportunities are only for beach and dive clean ups that are free and open for everyone to join, and for long-term projects such as coral reef monitoring for volunteers that have skills or are willing to commit to a training phase with us first. We also welcome skills-exchange volunteering on occasion when we have a project that requires it.
Feel free to visit our website for more information on the organization volunteering programs : here.
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