Price Or Program When Shopping For Volunteer Abroad?

I haven't written a post for our Blog in a long time.  I have a plethora of topics, and a scant amount of time.  I depart Monday for Brussels for a week of meetings with other volunteer abroad providers regarding best practices in the volunteer abroad industry.  And when I travel, even domestically, I try to write a travel journal for our Community Pages.  That keeps me involved with our community and them involved with me.

I guess the first thing I want to do is invite you to have a look at our new website - 10 months of work.  We could not be more proud of the design and functionality.  The site was built around social media and our community pages at the core--site pages and ideas about our programs can be shared on virtually every social media site out there.  Emanating out from the social media core had to be easy navigation along with stunning photos.  Lastly, we had to make sure our text was easy-to-read and accurate.  Please let us know what you think and ways you think the site can be improved.

On March 7, Dave Clemmons of Voluntourism.org wrote in his weekly newsletter that he and I had talked about how experienced operators could offer to help the newbies.  I was looking over VolunteerAbroad.com and was amazed at the number of organizations I simply don't know.  I've been doing this 35 years, and I am very active in WYSTC and WYSE Work Abroad and I just don't know some of these start-ups.  Some of them are even mom and dad with a home office.

When Dave and I talked, during a break in his presentation schedule in Providence, RI, we tossed around ideas on how experienced operators can learn from the newest operators, and what the new organizations could learn from those of us who have done with for a very long time.  Do the new comers really have new ideas?  Or are they piling on, either trying to take advantage of what they perceive as a booming industry or do they really hope to do good on this planet?  I looked for them at WYSTC in Beijing and didn't find them.  I don't see them on the list for the upcoming WETM in Brussels.  Do they ever co-mingle?

Like the Internet bubble and then the housing bubble, I think we've hit the Voluntourism bubble.  And by voluntourism I also include volunteering, volunteer abroad, service learning.  A rose by any other name…

Voluntourismgal wrote a post a few weeks ago about "Is Voluntourism Dead?"  And before that she took on the organizations advertising "Incredible and affordable volunteer programs - program costs from USD $180.  She asked, "How can you do that?"  And I also thought as I read her post, if you're in to volunteering and sustainable programs, why do you lead with pricing?  How is that the most important aspect of volunteering abroad?

I'm simply counting on the public to do the math and realize these guys lead with pricing just to get traffic to their site.  I compared their 3-month volunteer program to China and our own 3 months in China and GeoVisions is $1,140 less expensive.  But it never occurred to me to take an ad out on Google or VolunteerAbroad and proclaim, "GeoVisions' Incredible and Affordable China Program Is Only $91.25 Per Week!"  What message does that send to people?  They must think consumers are idiots.

I have already started a post about "review" sites.  I'll upload that from Brussels as I make my way there to see our partners, visit some new sites and try to find those other volunteer abroad organizations that appear all over the Internet and can never been seen at Best Practice or Industry sessions.

Please pass the word about Google's Person Finder for the Japan 2011 Earthquake.  What a great resource and hope for people looking for friends and loved ones.