I received a query today from a freelance writer and thought it important to share both the query and my response:

Question:

I’m a contributor to (name purposely left out) and writing a piece on voluntourism expeditions, specifically those doing environmental work.

My editor would like to include any that are free for volunteers. In my research, however, it seems that most, if not all, require a contribution for food and lodging. Do you know of any that require airfare only?”

Thanks,

Thank you for your email. Sorry for the delay, I am on the road at present.

What I am about to tell you is probably something you had not anticipated hearing, but I feel that it is important to say it nonetheless.

My immediate thought is this: I think one must be very, very careful promoting ‘no fee’/'for-free’ volunteer travel experiences in the marketplace, especially at this juncture.

For example, I met with an NGO/nonprofit last week in Canada that has developed conservation-based voluntourism experiences in Britsh Columbia. The organization has recently hired an ‘Enterprise Director’ to focus attention on generating revenues, simply because donations and memberships are at record lows. As you can imagine, this is a brand-new position for the NGO, however, the times in which we find ourselves require such strategies and processes to address the dearth of funding.

As nonprofits suffer through drastically-reduced donation streams during this unprecedented economic situation, some have begun to focus on voluntourism as a mechanism for increasing revenues. To deny these entities the potential of, at minimum, covering their hard costs is detrimental in my opinion. The very survival of countless NGOs around the world rests squarely with their ability to shift from a ‘beg and ask,’ donation-based approach to a social enterprise model. This is why voluntourism is so important.

Certainly, in your search, you will find a number of NGOs/nonprofits with small fees to cover accommodations and food. But, to draw attention to those that are ‘no-fee’ or ‘for-free’ has the potential to undermine the social entrepreneurial efforts of those who are trying to move away from a donation-based model that is soon to become obsolete.

Likewise, it is important to recognize that voluntourists should be weaned from the notion that volunteering is ‘free’ - this, as we know, is simply not the case. The operational costs involved in hosting voluntourists are incrementally becoming higher and higher - liability insurance being a large contributor to this.

Volunteering has always been a business, albeit primarily a not-for-profit business. Now, however, we are moving into a new age where the added benefit of unique travel engagements in conjunction with volunteering have created a fresh product - one with added value that, in turn, has a price tag associated with it. This product/service - ‘volunteer vacations,’ voluntours, volunteer travel - gives nonprofits a chance to become more self-reliant while affording for-profit entities the opportunity to become more socially responsible.

The price tag is a representation of the hard work and effort that has been invested in creating relationships with communities to develop a complete voluntourism experience for travelers. To deny these entities the right to ‘earn a living’ in this manner seems archaic at best, draconian at worst. Likely, you will be able to find some offerings that are ‘fee-free,’ but as with the dinosaurs, it is quite possible that such experiences will soon become extinct.