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Volunteers for International NPOs (Part 1)
Hosted by Patrick O’Heffernan (August 2007)
Does your non-profit organization (NPO) use volunteers? Many do and the recruiting, training and managing of volunteers are important skills – almost as important as fundraising.
The first step is to determine which you need –volunteers or interns. Volunteers are people who serve the community or organization without compensation, motivated by altruism, a desire to meet people, religious convictions or because it makes them feel good (which it does!).
Interns work in a temporary position in businesses, government or for NPOs receiving on-the-job training. Interns may be paid and receive college or job credit, although internships in NPOs are often unpaid or subsidized by another organization. Typically, interns require a more organized training and management program than volunteers to meet the terms of their internship.
Many organizations train volunteers and provide them to NPOs: large programs like the U.S. Peace Corps, Rotary International or the UN Volunteers, and smaller ones like V.I.E., focused on a single skill set or on a single region or village. You can find a partial index of organizations that recruit, train or provide volunteers around the world at ServiceLeader.
You may also consider joining the International Volunteer Programs Association so that potential volunteers can find you in their database.
You should also investigate Global Volunteers, an American NPO founded in 1984 to promote peace through international understanding by sending volunteers to assist with rural work projects around the world. Global Volunteers has special consultative status with UN ECOSOC and invites applications from NGOs that meet its criteria.
You should also be familiar with the Berlin-based International Cultural Youth Exchange. With offices, national committees and community service networks worldwide, ICYE is one of the largest youth exchange/volunteer organizations in the world. It promotes intercultural learning and voluntary service through home stays combined with community projects. NGOs that wish to register with ICYE as a host should get in touch directly with the ICYE National Committee in their country or fill in the Expression of Interest Form on the website.
A new area of volunteerism is volunteer tourism (VT) – combining a vacation with community service. VT is controversial because many of the organizations involved are for-profit and some critics maintain that the focus is often more on tourism than volunteering. But the organizations involved range from universities to travel agencies and often provide uniquely qualified and hardworking volunteers. NGOs should check out the volunteer tourism industry magazines Brave New Traveler or Transitions Abroad (both with a western point of view) for an overview.
You should also check Charity Guide, a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to facilitating flexible volunteer opportunities, both through VT and general volunteering. Although most of the site is dedicated to actions individuals can take independently, it also refers potential volunteers who want to work with specific organizations. If you want to be considered for referrals, you should contact the management team.
Finally, if you know exactly what kind of volunteers you need and prefer not to go through an organization or association or rely on volunteering tourists, you should post your volunteer position on Idealist.
Add to this toolbox and join Patrick O’Heffernan in the conversation.
Points of Light
I notice that points of Light seems domestic, USA oriented. Is that the case?
MBA Volunteers
Hi all,
In terms of a specific skill set...if you're looking for MBA/Business Volunteers for your international NPO/NGO, don't hestiate to be in touch and I'll be glad to discuss with you how we can bring you qualified business volunteers for 1-6 months.
You can check out our current postings at: http://projects.mbaswithoutborders.org.
Regards, Tal Dehtiar
Co-Founder & President MBAs Without Borders www.mbaswithoutborders.org
Volunteer Match
Volunteermatch.com is also a great internet resource to link volunteers with non profits through a matrix of intersections like areas of interest, time volunteers have to give, skills, and geography.
volunteer resources
These sound great. I was not aware of MBA's without Borders. I know the Namestedirect Foundation trains MBAs with Spanish skills to work in Central America with their loan reciopients, so I will let them know of these resource. Also, the Coro Center for Leadership trains recent college grads - some with MBA's but mostly undergrad degrees, in leadership skills.
Idealist.org's new Volunteer Management Resource Center
In addition to hosting free volunteer opportunity postings, we just launched a free online resource center for volunteer management professionals worldwide - www.idealist.org/vmrc. You can find new tools and existing resources from around the globe on a number of topics including working with international volunteers, collaborating with HR colleagues, and both on-the-ground and online professional development and networking opportunities. Cheers!
Building Capacity of Volunteer-Based Orgs
This is a good list of resources for helping people find volunteer opportunities. However, I'd like to point you to another discussion that took place here a month ago: http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/philanthropy/global-youth-volunteerism
The question here was, as a result of the volunteer involvement, is the organization where they volunteered in a better on-going position to contribute to solutions that end poverty, by helping people create jobs, or get educated, or solve environmental problems.
I've had a gentleman from Africa correspond with me for a couple of years. He's looking for help for a small school. However, he is not able to connect his program to these international groups yet. And, they have not found him.
Thus, I've two questions: a) are there intermediary groups that are searching in each country to create databases of service providers, and map that data to show where these programs are in relation to each other, or to where they are needed?
b) are there international groups that are helping people in wealthy countries make donations that pay for staff, rent, supplies at local organizations? It seems to me that much of the donated money goes to an intermediary organization, and that it's then distributed based on their decisions into the pipeline. I'm not sure how much is lost in that process, or how broadly the funds are distributed.
The other discussion I pointed to talked of long-term involvement. Whether it is volunteers or dollars, the flow needs to be on-going and consistent, not short term bursts of kindness. Which of these orgs are doing the best at making that happen?
Introducing an Online Business Network by MBAs Without Borders!
Please feel free to pass this on...
Want to join MBAs Without Borders' own new online network, b2d and get the online business support you always wanted?
Our MBAs and Partners (i.e. businesses and NGOs in developing countries) have said they want a place where they can find projects, jobs and ask and answer questions related to business in developing countries, so we thought, it's time to get everyone talking.
So...we're trying out a new online platform and have created a MBAs Without Borders online network called B2D - business 2 development. We've just launched it and will be testing it over the next weeks and months, so please feel free to sign up, try it out and make as many suggestions as you like, so we can truly benefit the users - MBAs and Local Entrepreneurs in Developing Countries.
About MBAs Without Borders
MBAs Without Borders (MWB) is an international not-for-profit that sends MBA (Masters in Business Administration) volunteers to developing countries to work with local businesses, and NGOs that are in need of business support. MWB was founded in Canada in 2004 and has recently opened MWB USA with an office in San Francisco, California. MWB has supported 20+ businesses and NGOs in developing countries in over 15 countries to date and by 2010, MWB plans to have partnered 150+ MBAs with over 125 business/NGOs in at least 35 countries.
With over 5,000 MBAs within its direct network and links to 400 MBA communities around the world, MWB works within five industries: Healthcare, Agriculture, Financial, Income-Generation and Climate Change. MWB is focused on bringing MBAs to Africa, Central Asia, South-East Asia, South Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America (including Mexico) and the Caribbean.
To sum it up…MBAs Without Borders is bringing innovative solutions to developing countries by matching experienced business volunteers with local businesses and NGOs to unleash a big secret…Business Can do Amazing Things!
For more information, please vist www.mbaswithoutborders.org or sign up to our online network, b2d, at: http://b2d.mbaswithoutborders.org .
Also, please feel free to read our recent press:
MWB featured in Business 2.0 this month in 'The do-gooder's MBA' by Peter Viles in What Works. Check out page 42 and 43. http://mag1.olivesoftware.com/ActiveMagazine/welcome /BSN/BSN-2007-08fd98f8.asp
MWB featured in Canada's Globe and Mail (Career Section) newspaper. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070719.wcamba0720/BNStory/robNews/
NPO in South Africa
Hi there, We (Touching Heaven Changing Earth)are a very young NPO no: 051-901 out in Cape Town, South Africa. We as a team have been born and raised in communities that are under privileged and found that we have to assist our community children and youth. We arrange workshops, seminars, praise and worship evenings, sports days, winter feeding schemes, Christmas lunches, youth raves, etc for these precious people. We manage to obtain local support of food, blankets, clothing and sometimes money that hardly covers our expenses. We are looking outside our Country for financial support. Should you know of organizations and companies who are willing to assist financially we will appreciate the assistance. The south african economy is deteriorating rapidly, and the poor are poorer and hungry, many die over the winter sessions. Please help us nature these precious souls. You can contact me Naomi at singh.naomi@gmail.com . We are very serious about what we are doing, so we do not need "strange" e-mails... Thank you for the opportunity for sharing our countries need.
Points of Light & Hands on Network
Points of Light & Hands on Network is also a great resource for NPOs, Volunteer Managers, Businesses, and Volunteers themselves. Please visit: www.PointsofLight.org, www.handsonnetwork.org, and www.volunteerresource.org.