The ethics of paying to volunteer abroad

Are non-profit pay to volunteer organisations actually ethical? Why it is still better to independently organise a voluntary placement abroad, without paying.

On January 21st SOAS hosted the International Development and Volunteering Fair. Two floors of the Brunei Gallery were filled with stalls, but in almost every instance their occupants could be placed into one of two categories; there were established NGOs offering potential involvement in their own projects to qualified applicants, and there were pay to volunteer organisations (PTVOs) geared primarily towards the inexperienced under 25s. Most of these facilitated placements with local partner organisations rather than offering positions in projects they had created themselves.

Many students at the fair described feeling that if they chose an organisation carefully enough, paying to volunteer would be the most efficient and ethical way to work abroad. One History and Development Studies student explained that, “the support, guidance and guarantee that pay to volunteer organisations offer is invaluable to me. I would rather pay, and know that I’m doing something worthwhile which will also help me to find work in the future”.

Evan Hancock, head of SOAS Careers Service, supported this idea and defended the event, explaining that “all the volunteering organisations at the fair were registered charities or non-profit organisations and all had been involved with SOAS in the past or recommended by SOAS students or staff”.

So, what’s wrong with paying to volunteer abroad?

Although it appears all the PTVOs that exhibited at SOAS were ethical, paying a middle man to facilitate a voluntary placement under any circumstances is problematic for several reasons.

1. PTVOs obscure alternatives. In 2011 I taught English on the Thai-Burma border, without paying anything to the coordinating organisation, Burma Volunteer Program (BVP). I received free training, orientation and support. Elsewhere, many local organisations offer similar opportunities, because they place value on the volunteer’s contribution to their work. The only obstacle to accessing these placements is a dearth of information on the subject. PTVOs exacerbate this problem.

Successful PTVOs can afford to professionally market themselves with the funds they accrue through charging participants. Free organisations and independent NGOs cannot afford to do this. This means that PTVOs push to the front and obscure other opportunities.

When asked about the absence of free organisations at the careers fair Hancock’s comments illustrated this point. He explained that “we do all we can to signpost students to reputable zero fee organisations when we are made aware of them” but added that he had not personally heard of BVP before receiving my email. He explained that “unfortunately, some organisations do not have the people or time resources to attend fairs of this sort”.

While facilitating volunteering for those who choose to do so through them, fee charging organisations have thus made volunteering abroad increasingly inaccessible for potential volunteers and local NGOs who wish to operate independently.

2. PTVOs operate with a negative incentive structure. Justifying the situation described above, is the common belief that PTVOs at least guarantee the most worthwhile placements, but this is arguable. Willy Oppenheim, the founder of Omprakash, an organisation that facilitates free volunteering, and an experienced volunteer himself, believes otherwise. He argues that PTVOs are actually inclined to offer an inferior service because of the incentive structure fee charging creates. This includes:

– The incentive to find a placement for every volunteer whether or not both the placement and volunteer are suitable. Likewise for partner organisations to accept all volunteers regardless of their suitability.

– The incentive not to facilitate direct contact beforehand, as this would enable the volunteer to make arrangements with the partner organisation directly and bypass the middle man.

– No incentive for the volunteer to ‘earn’ their position.

Oppenheim says “if your invitation to visit somewhere revolves around your payment of a fee, it seems hard to avoid feeling like your host ‘owes’ you something in return, regardless of your skills or your work ethic.”

3. PTVOs waste money. Another mark against PTVOs is the money they absorb like sponges, which could otherwise go directly to charity. Even non-profit organisations take a sizeable chunk of fees to cover their expenditure on things like marketing, premises and salaries. For example, PoD volunteering, an exhibitor at the SOAS fair state that, “For PoD’s most recent financial year, approximately 60% of volunteer fees went to the countries and projects they were working in, the remainder covering UK costs including marketing, insurance, staff costs and administration”. This means that participating in a 24 week voluntary placement on a marine conservation project in Belize, arranged by PoD, could potentially result in paying up to £5438 towards a PTVO’s costs (based on prices listed on PoD’s website).

But, isn’t organising it yourself risky?

Many organisations argue that you pay for their expertise, which makes the placement more worthwhile. Meanwhile, they suggest, volunteering on your own is dangerous. Raleigh International, for example, claim that, “You can organise your own volunteering – but it’s hard work, there are no guarantees, little pre-departure and in-country support, you may actually be a burden on your host and you need to like the unknown and be able to work unsupported”.

While concerns about a lack of guarantees and support are valid, associating them primarily with free placements is not.

A barrage of anecdotal evidence suggests that local organisations support their volunteers. Living on the mosquito ridden Thai-Burma border during the wet season, a huge percentage of BVP volunteers contract dengue fever. Many told me how their hosts had nursed them through this, enjoying the opportunity to do something in recompense for their work. Care like this negates the need for support from an external organisation, making it wasteful to pay them to behave like parents (reinforcing this comparison is ICYE-UK, who even dole out ‘pocket money’ to their volunteers).

On the other hand, when volunteering abroad there are no guarantees, ever. But paying an organisation to arrange a placement for you, however reputable they seem, cannot change this. For this reason, “SOAS does not officially endorse any voluntary organisation or directly broker volunteering opportunities”. Hancock elaborates that, “unfortunately there is no accepted quality mark to identify good organisations or official black list to identify bad ones so decisions have to be made on an individual basis”.

So,whether or not you pay it might go wrong, but Steve McElhinney- founder of the free online database, volunteersouthamerica.net- believes that if you don’t pay this is less likely to happen. McElhinney points out that, “if an organisation is going to rip-off its gringo volunteers, charging high volunteer fees is the most effective way to do it. If a volunteer program is free or charges very low-level fees, it’s a pretty good bet that they genuinely need you for your work – there is no financial incentive for the organisation to have you there”.

Furthermore, if you have organised your own free placement and find it isn’t what you thought it would be, you are free to leave with your finances intact, and you should have the experience and confidence necessary to arrange and alternative. On the other hand, if you have paid an organisation to arrange a placement for you it may be difficult to recover fees paid up-front, and you are likely to be reliant on them to find you an alternative.

So, what are the alternatives?

Burma Volunteer Program (www.burmavolunteers.org) is an organisation that serves Burmese refugees on the Thai side of the border. In the past they accepted volunteers themselves and assigned them to local partners. This has changed recently and they now facilitate direct contact with a number of organizations based along the border. Placements range from teaching to documenting human rights violations.

Omprakash (www.omprakash.org) provide a platform to facilitate free volunteering, based around an online database of 180 organisations in over 30 countries, all of which host volunteers free. After making arrangements directly with a local partner organisation, it is possible to apply for a grant from Omprakash to defray the costs of travelling and living abroad.

volunteersouthamerica.net was created by Steve McElhinney, as a result of looking for somewhere to volunteer in Argentina in 2005. McElhinney “soon discovered that finding volunteer work that didn’t involve paying a middle-man a large amount of cash was much more difficult than I had expected”. Using his own research he put together a list of free and low cost opportunities in South America and today also provides a helpful FAQ section.

Workaway.info charges a small registration fee before you can contact potential hosts but lists numerous placements posted by individuals, rather than organisations, around the world. Sift through the au-pairing and decorating and there are often requests posted for teachers of community volunteers in developing countries. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that workaway is a platform that posts adverts when hosts pay, and without verification.

Another option is to decide upon a specific area you are interested in and to start researching this independently. SOAS careers service (www.soas.ac.uk/volunteering/) also suggest you talk to them and check frequently for voluntary positions on their online database.

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Case study: Carlyn Miller, Omprakash grant recipient

Carlyn Miller graduated from the University of Glasgow in September an MA in International Politics and Human Rights. Carlyn received a grant of £2500 from Omprakash to teach at Shanti Bhavan, an organisation in India which educates children from the most discriminated against castes.

“When I first decided I wanted to work abroad, I knew that paying to volunteer was not an option.

£2000 to build huts in Peru for 6 weeks didn’t quite seem right. I wondered where does the £2000 go? How much of a cut do these organisations take for simply putting you in touch with a charity overseas? This kind of enterprise, in my eyes, doesn’t reflect the values of people who choose to volunteer. Besides, I had just completed my masters and was working in a restaurant and still paying rent, there was no way I could save enough money to go within the next year.

I started to look around for alternatives. I completed a TEFL Qualification to allow me to work abroad as a paid teacher. However, in the process of doing this I found out about Omprakash, a way to volunteer abroad without paying out money to third parties. I had always wanted to go to India and within minutes I was reading through various different projects I could be involved in.

(After contacting Shanti Bhavan) I decided there was nothing to lose and filled in the grant application form. It took me about a week, I did it bit by bit after finishing shifts at work. I then had an interview with three of Omprakash’s directors. A week went by before I got an email saying I had been awarded $2500 towards my time in India.

I was planning on coming for a few months but I have now been here for 4 and plan to stay until June. The grant has allowed me to extend my trip and meant that I can give my all to Shanti Bhavan.”

Lacey Worel, of Omprakash, helped select Carlyn to receive a grant.

“Carlyn had proper training to teach (skill matched needs). Her educational background seemed to give her a great foundation for volunteering. She doesn’t believe in charging administrative fees and values the relationship aspect of Omprakash. She is tracking all of her lesson plans and will contribute to the resource section of our site. She contacted institutions in Scotland to present to when she returns home.”