Rethinking International Volunteering (Part II): Interview with Claire Bennett, Major Trends on International Volunteerism

Interview with Claire Bennett, Co-writer of Learning Service (Part II)

In the first part of the interview, published on 20^th of January, 2015 (http://sharing4good.org/article/rethinking-international-volunteering-interview-claire-bennett-co-founder-learning-service), Claire focused on her personal experience in international volunteerism sector and how she developed with some colleagues Learningservice.info a portal to educate about international volunteerism. She also explained how the idea to write a book on this sensitive subject was borne. Now in this second and last section of the interview, Claire will reply one, only one but powerful question. Enjoy it.

What are the major trends worldwide about international volunteerism?

Here are 6 recent changes in the field in the last decade or so.

1. The explosion in numbers

Arguably the most significant change in volunteer travel is simply a matter of scale. Although definitive numbers are hard to come by due to varying definitions of what qualifies as volunteer travel, the general upward trend over the last decade is undisputed.

The recent growth in volunteer travel can be attributed to many factors including general ease of travel, the rise of internet global ubiquity with access to information and opportunities, environmental and societal disasters, the media’s focus on celebrity volunteering, the rise in people looking for “off-line” ways to reconnect outside of their digital lives, economic downturns with more unemployed people available and eager to build their work experience, rising middle classes and more developed tourism offerings in some emerging market areas making volunteer travel more accessible and luxurious, and more.

2. The rise of short term volunteering and ‘voluntourism’

With more and more people traveling to developing countries, travelers are seeking out ways to “give back” while they travel. These volunteer programs are often squeezed into short vacation packages, offered as stand-alone opportunities for the independent traveler, or sold as an all-encompassing volunteer program that could fit into a short vacation window.

In the past, volunteer placements were generally managed by non-profit organizations as well as local community and religious groups. Many of these groups already knew the communities they were working in, had long-term projects and strategic goals relating to their international development work, or had specific social missions built into their organizational framework. The difference today though is that new entities are beginning to offer volunteer travel experiences that had never done so in the past. In fact they are often travel agencies and tour companies. Although their intentions might be pure, their lack of experience, relationships, and strategic planning in the realm of development work has sometimes lead to poorly planned volunteer offerings.

3. The influence of the internet

Before the use of the internet was widespread, volunteer sending organizations were essential for potential volunteers to be able to identify and match themselves with a placement abroad. A major contributing factor to the growth of the sector is that now any overseas organization that decides to host volunteers can advertise for them and arrange all the placement details on the internet. Similarly, volunteers have the whole range of options at their fingertips. All types of experiences, lengths of placement and areas of the world are just a click away. There are also a great number of web portals, e-noticeboards and volunteer “dating agency” matching services that make independent volunteering easy and accessible.

With so many options, it is now difficult to tell which organizations are better than others, without really doing your research. Though the use of the internet makes it easier for volunteer hosts to advertise their needs, it also makes it easier for volunteer sending agencies to skip of the steps that are necessary to ensure the placement is a good one. In the past, before most of the volunteer host areas had internet access, a sending organization needed to send people overseas to have meetings, or arrange a series of phone calls to design and arrange volunteer placements. Now many of the websites aggregating volunteer travel information, post opportunities on their site without ever even speaking with someone at that organization, let alone doing any kind of selection or assessment.

4. International volunteering as an expectation, requirement, or incentivized practice

Increasing numbers of schools are encouraging or even requiring international service from their students. Harvard encourages every student they admit to take a gap year before matriculation and Princeton sponsors service-based “bridge-year” programs abroad for its students. The reasons cited for this support are rarely about the impact on the communities overseas, but about the impact on the future life and working habits of the student. International service is also encouraged by companies through their Corporate Social Responsibility policies.

5. An increase in fee-charging volunteer placements

With increasing demand for international volunteer opportunities, the last 15 years has seen a growth in volunteer travel sold at a price to customers as purchasable services. Volunteer sending organizations, individuals and organizations overseas have caught onto the fact that volunteers will pay for the privilege of doing work they perceive as meaningful – often times regardless of whether the work is effective or not. Although some of these groups make an exemplary effort to be cautious and responsible with how they manage their financial and strategic relationships, in some instances, profit motivations drive out ethics.  Recent years have seen an explosion of companies and websites, some lacking scruples around who they are sending where.

The growth of programs where the traveler is the one paying the fee completely shifts the power dynamics of volunteer travel. Where as in theory, demand should be driven by the needs of the community being “served”, the introduction of fee-paying programs has resulted in many companies treating the volunteer travelers themselves as the client, putting their needs first above all others. \

      6. More research, spotlight and controversy

Volunteer travel has grown and become more popular, and media attention and research about the field has grown alongside it, or sometimes because of it. There is a growing body of research from academic institutions across the world that shed more light on all aspects of the volunteer experience, from the way it is marketed, to the motivations of the volunteers, to how their perceptions are changed or reaffirmed, to the perspectives of the host organizations and communities overseas.

The field has also attracted more criticism, both in the academic sector and in popular consciousness through blogs, newspaper articles, and comic parody. Panel discussions on the topic can become heated and controversial articles can go viral. It is clear that this is a topic people are not only interested in doing but also discussing, debating, defending, and dissecting. The desire of the public to embrace the controversy and discuss this topic was a motivational force behind the writing of the Learning Service book as we felt there was a lot of promotion of volunteer travel, and criticism of volunteer travel, but not a lot of thoughts on how we might be able to do it better. We’re hoping that the Learning Service movement contributes to those discussions in a constructive way.