You Want Me To Pay To Do What? Paying To Volunteer Abroad

The 10th most popular page on our website is Why Do I Have To Pay?  This page is always in the top 10 page views.  Why? It's a valid question.  And on that page we attempt to be as transparent as possible with how we spend your hard-earned money.

That's why, when this week 2 Blog posts came out about this question, I was very pleased, to say the least.  I want to direct our readers to these two posts, because they each take a very different slant towards paying to volunteer, yet they both support it.  Again, supporting it for very different reasons.

One of the best articles on paying to volunteer comes from the Volunteer Before You Die Network.  Consistently, their posts and tweets are thought provoking and right on target.  Their recent post, "You Want Me To Pay To Do What? Thoughts On Paying Third Parties To Volunteer" was superb and explains how Nola Lee Kelsey (head of the Network) came from rejecting the idea, to understanding the reasons for paying to volunteer.  I encourage you to read the post and leave your comments.  I left some comments and I invite you to go to the post and read those as well.

By the way…Volunteer Before You Die has a new book coming out entitled 700 Places To Volunteer Before You Die and will be available July 1 this year.  If you have a twitter account, I recommend following @volunteerB4Udie and be a part of the conversation.

The next Blog post that came out was by Sarah Van Aucken who is the creative genius for Volunteer Global. She works tirelessly on all things "volunteering" and she is known as a bright spot in the field.

"What To Ask Before You Pay To Volunteer On Your Career Break" is a great post.  Sarah decided to skip over the "why do I have to pay" argument and go straight for the "why do some organizations charge $15 per week while others cost upwards of $7,000 per week?"  She does a fantastic job answering the question and then ends the post with 10 questions you should ask the agency.

If you have reconciled that you are going to pay to volunteer…read Sarah's post and start asking organizations these 10 questions.  Sarah has done you a favor and if you'll take the time to ask sending organizations these 10 questions, you will choose the right organization and project.  Also, follow Sarah on Twitter for great insights on volunteering abroad.

I've been doing this work for 35 years.  I always enjoy telling people that the three Founders of GeoVisions have a combined 105 years doing this work.  Oh do we have stories to tell!  More importantly, we appreciate the work of Volunteer Before You Die and Volunteer Global and others who dedicate their time and money to moving this work forward, and expecting senders and receivers of volunteers to be responsible and innovative.  Through their work, even after we are gone, they are creating a legacy of volunteering, volunteering abroad and voluntourism.  We owe them a debt of gratitude.

Do you have comments about the posts we've mentioned or volunteering abroad?  We would love to read your thoughts.