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? 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.
Two main types of volunteer projects
1. 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. And this amongst others legal workers, accountants, etc. This goes without saying, all employees should be skilled, trained and legally 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 and environmental work is still work. The same as corporate work (less the corporate, the profit and add a good cause) it needs to employ talented individual for projects to push through. However, due to the lack of funds in this sector, many positions remain vacants and multi-tasking (/ overloading) is a bit too common and accepted.
For that reason, volunteers in charity sector can be an 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, they require professional skills, a dedicated period of free time to commit, all of it fitting into a specific need and project for the organization.
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 for more experienced workers on a leave or retired.
2. The volunteer experience – no specific skills needed
On the other hand, many individuals do not fit into the prior category and are looking for volunteering opportunities offering their time and energy. These ones, are looking for an enriching experience, to learn something and to be part of and support a good cause. 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 overtime and be trusted in participating in more detailed / skilled work.
Because let’s be real, 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 doesn’t it? 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?
There is a simple way to assess it: is the project is done more efficiently and of better quality with the volunteers + supervisor, than it would by staff only for the same cost? If so, it is a well managed volunteering project. However, if the project result would be of higher quality and better time management being conducted by just the supervising team (or local staff for the same cost) this concludes that it is not directly beneficial for the organization but was created FOR the volunteers.
This sounds like fraud (and may very well be) but may exist for various reasons. Some with the purest intent.
- For education purpose. Many individuals are interested to volunteer because they would like to learn and experience personal growth through volunteering work. All non-profit know it: a necessary change of mindset in our society is needed 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. Hence, volunteer programs organized by non-profits are often somewhat a mix between beneficial for the cause and the NGO but created to be done with volunteer help (despite meaning a decrease of quality and efficiency in the project and more supervision efforts), 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. 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 volunteer programs, offering packages fees for guests to join them, including lodging, meals and activities where the volunteers can participate in the non-profit charity work and feel that their time and efforts are well spent. Is it really volunteerism when paying ? This is a good question. While we cannot answer it, we can certainly all acknowledge that there is a cost into living and participating into the activities offered. So a better question might be: what is the package fee covering? Usually, it covers 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. If environmental project, the fee should directly benefit wildlife protection and local communities.
When well done, this is a great example of eco-tourism that can benefit everyone. As a volunteer there, you might gain an experience so much more worthy than a regular holiday package + a good conscience; and the conservation organization host will gain from the financial and manpower support on its project. 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 opened to volunteers but the organization still decided to open it for the education value of teaching volunteers.
Paid volunteerism opportunities are 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. When well done, this can be a great opportunity that contributes everyone. Volunteer, organization, community, environment 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 new organizations that rely solely on attractive volunteers programs for funds (nothing wrong there) but without serious and ethical project outputs (something wrong there). Not only, the tasks done by the volunteers are not truly needed or being used but worst, sometimes misguided and having a tremendously negative impact for community and environment. And that, is fraud.
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 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 accessible as possible. We also try to be fair, and support local Filipino participants. Our aim with this: we believe education can change the world and we secretly plan to brainwash you and all of our participants into becoming a happy conservationist. Additionally, these programs partially support our operating funds for research and community programs.
Our free volunteering opportunities are project based: we commonly conduct beach and dive clean ups and welcome all helping hands. We as well welcome marine scientists professionals to come help with research. Finally, we also welcome skills-exchange volunteering on occasion when we have a project that requires it.
Resources:
Are you looking for an ethical and pedagogical experience to learn about local wildlife while supporting conservation? We invite you to visit our specific page to learn and train with us: here.
Are you looking for volunteering? We invite you to visit our specific page: here.