I was finishing up some writing around 1:00 this morning and thinking about finally calling it a day. I checked my email and saw a message from my good friend Alexia from Lasso Communications. (What's she doing at this time of day? She just had her first baby.) But then I realized the baby must be hungry so of course Alexia would be up.
She won't sleep now for years. I digress. Sorry.
Right below GeoVisions' Blog is Good Intentions Are Not Enough. Saundra writes about Aid and I'm just getting to know her Blog. Most Aid workers are not crazy about Voluntourism...in fact it MAKES them crazy. I do try to comment on their Blogs so they realize not all of us are so bad.
So a few random ideas about the GeoVisions Blog. I think we have a reputation of "stepping up." In our house where three of the six inhabitants are TaeKwon-do Black Belts, another is a Red Belt and still another is a Yellow Belt we have a favorite phrase, "Man Up." And that attitude, more times than not, shows through on our Blog content. I mean, sometimes we indulge in "shameless self promotion" but mostly we try to tackle the hard stuff of Voluntourism. (I was watching Anderson Cooper last night on CNN and his sidekick said she uses the phrase "Chest Out" rather than "Man Up." Either way, we all need to stand up and be counted.
Over at the Staying for Tea Blog, a lot has been written about the age-old "For-Profit" vs. Non-Profit" debate. If you scroll down through the post and get to the 29 comments, you'll see what I mean.
Over at the Blog Mike On Purpose, he proposed, "I wonder how many people who stumble upon these commercial operators on the web in their searches for a way to volunteer abroad realize (at first, anyway) that their altruism and freely donated time and services are being used to line the pockets of what are actually commercial tourism outfits."
My comment to that quote was, "The difference in for-profit and non-profit or 501(c)(3) is the way you report your income, therefore your taxes. For every ethical 501(c)(3) you show me, I’ll show you another with family on the Board, extremely high salaries for the top 5% of staff (family or friends perhaps) and can easily show you that there are as many non-profits, profiting from voluntourism as for-profits." I ended the comment by suggesting that if you want to volunteer abroad with a non-profit, simply download their Form 990 and read it.
So Aaron put forth this argument, "The difference in for-profit and non-profit or 501(c)(3) is the way you report your income, therefore your taxes. For every ethical 501(c)(3) you show me, I’ll show you another with family on the Board, extremely high salaries for the top 5% of staff (family or friends perhaps) and can easily show you that there are as many non-profits, profiting from voluntourism as for-profits." It was about then that I realized we were writing at cross purposes.
There are Aid organizations (Habitat for Humanity, Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, VSO and many others) and there is Voluntourism. Aid and Development is one thing. Voluntourism quite another. And when Aid proponents start looking at Voluntourism projects, it can make them crazy. And in looking through the Aid and the Development Blogs I can see why.
So to be fair, we've linked (over on the right hand side of this page) to a few Aid Blogs. Here at GeoVisions, we think we should provide our readers with a complete picture...Chest Out as it were.
So get out there and read the Blogs and get involved in online discussions. You're going to learn a lot. And if people disagree with you, that's fine. It's an opportunity for everyone to learn. And open mind and all that... Just be polite.
Lastly, thanks, Go Overseas! Thanks VERY much for liking what we're doing here...or trying to do. We will work harder. But not too much harder. It would break my heart to displace Lessons I Learned.
If you have comments about the online debate over at Staying For Tea or Mike On Purpose or even on this Blog...we'd love to see them here also.