Volunteering or Voluntourism: What’s the Difference?

Many people dream of traveling abroad and helping local communities along the way, often through voluntourism or volunteering. For some, helping others and having an impact is a major component of meaningful travel—but where do these seemingly altruistic intentions stem from? And, what is the impact of volunteering abroad on local communities?

It’s important to consider how to have a meaningful experience without creating harm. (Photo Credit: IVHQ)

If you are thinking about volunteering abroad—alongside an average of 1.6 million people annually—take this moment to slow down and reflect on your why. Where does your desire to help stem from? What are the needs of the community you hope to help, and where are those needs rooted? It’s a great practice to swim upstream—metaphorically speaking—and understand the roots of your desires and the needs you hope to address.

Asking what voluntourism is and what volunteering abroad is will help you to reflect critically on the hows, whys, and whats of voluntourism vs. volunteering. This reflection will help you become intentional about your time abroad and cultivate a pathway to becoming more than just another voluntourist.

What is voluntourism?

So, what exactly is voluntourism? Let’s take a look at some ideas that can help create a voluntourism definition to consider:

1. Business in the front, party in the back

Is your trip *only* about having a good time? That could be a red flag. (Photo Credit: Roots Interns)

Voluntourism can be thought of as a vacation with a mission. This often means planning a vacation as a tourist and wanting to *do good* while you’re traveling, so you work with a company that creates an experience for you to volunteer your time towards.

These voluntourism projects often center the experience of the volunteer to ensure that they have a positive experience within their vacation (because it’s all part of the vacation, right?).

2. Here for a fun time, not a long time

Because voluntourism is often an add-on to a vacation, the experiences are typically catered towards volunteers having a good time, rather than actually making a difference. Sometimes this looks like volunteer projects designed for volunteers in mind, rather than being based on the needs of the local community.

Voluntourists often hold expectations for their experience, especially because they are often sold a package experience as a customer.

3. Should we stay or should we go

Another aspect of voluntourism is the length and cost of the experience. Many types of voluntourism experiences are short-term because they are part of a vacation that also includes activities beyond voluntourism projects.

These short-term projects are often designed and maintained by companies who charge for the experience—often all-inclusive of room and board and other amenities, such as airport pickups and in-country support. These fees are usually not seen by the local communities that the projects are meant to support.

4. Feel good or do good

Will your skills transfer well to your project placement? (Photo Credit: World Endeavors)

So, how does volunteer tourism benefit a community? For some voluntourism projects, the impact may be minimal at best, and potentially harmful at worst. A common experience among travel voluntourism is that voluntourists are not often expected to have a specific skill-set in order to contribute to the projects they are part of.

This can translate into band-aid fixes that seem to help the community, but might not be sustainable or actually meet the needs of the community.

READ: 6 Ways to Ensure Ethical Volunteering Abroad

What is volunteering abroad?

In contrast to voluntourism, you may be asking what volunteers do that is different from being a voluntourist. Let’s take a look at what volunteering abroad is:

1. Engaged and activated

Ethical volunteering is all about intention and sustainability. (Photo Credit: Roots Interns)

When you opt to volunteer abroad, you are utilizing your skill set to help meet a community need that is determined by the very community you are supporting. You are not being sold a package experience, but, rather, you are contributing to on-going projects that will benefit from the skills you have.

Although you may walk into the experience with certain expectations, projects can change as new needs arise and other needs are met. Volunteers may not be paying the same high price tag as travel voluntourism, and are expected to be flexible and abide by local standards and realities. Volunteers are able to engage intentionally with the places they travel to by eating local foods and staying in locally owned and run accommodations.

2. Reciprocity and solidarity

Volunteers have the opportunity to cultivate relationships that last beyond the duration of a volunteer project. This allows for volunteers to integrate into local communities and to learn alongside community members, in right relationship with the land, local customs, and the local community.

When done intentionally, volunteering should center reciprocity and solidarity over service and help. All humans have needs and deserve to have access to health, joy, and prosperity. It is important to recognize that volunteers benefit from the local community as much as the local community benefits from them.

READ: How to Choose a Program Abroad Through a Decolonial Lens

3. Systemic, sustainable

Volunteer projects are on-going projects that likely begin before you arrive and will continue after you leave since local community organizations determine the needs of the community and develop projects that address those specific needs. Your contributions as a volunteer helps projects sustain and move forward, but they are often not reliant on your efforts in order to be completed.

Through this lens, volunteers may receive training/on-boarding in order to most successfully contribute to meeting community needs. Not all organizations have the capacity for this level of volunteer support, so volunteers are encouraged to educate themselves about local political and historical contexts before their arrival.

READ: 5 Sustainable Travel FAQs + 10 Great Destinations

4. Committed, long-term

If your plan is to be in and out in three days, you may want to reconsider. (Photo Credit: IVHQ)

Local projects benefit the most when volunteers are able to commit a significant period of time to the project. In addition to longer stays in-country, this can look like fundraising for the organization before or after your arrival to help sustain projects, or becoming ambassadors for organizations beyond your stay in-country with them.

It is important to consider the cost of hosting volunteers in organizations who may not have significant funding. When volunteers commit to longer stays, this allows for the organization to benefit from their contributions despite the associated financial and human capacity costs.

Does volunteer tourism benefit a community?

You may now be asking how volunteer tourism actually benefits a community. The answer is a bit ambiguous since it cannot be guaranteed that all types of voluntourism benefit a community inherently.

In order for voluntourism projects to have the potential to benefit a community, they need to address a need defined by the local community members, and not prescribed by an external organization—especially considering many international organizations are operating from a perspective rooted in Western ideals rather than centering the local context.

Ask questions about how your volunteer provider engages with the local community. (Photo Credit: Roots Interns)

When considering voluntourism or volunteering, it is important to consider intention and impact. Even when volunteers have the best of intentions, they can still cause harm. By working directly with local community members, volunteers will have easier access to understanding their impact on local communities—whether positive or not—and can be held accountable for any harm that is caused.

Some common red flags for voluntourism projects that you should look out for:

• Projects that give volunteers access to vulnerable communities—An example includes project placements in orphanages
• Projects that are defined by external organizations and not by the local community—Pay attention to who runs, funds, and contributes to the organization’s mission, projects, and community involvement
• Projects that do not require specific skill sets or expertise even though they require a high level skill set for success—An example includes healthcare volunteer placements dealing directly with patients

Is voluntourism bad?

Things aren’t as simple as good and bad—that’s why intention is important. (Photo Credit: IVHQ)

With the understanding that voluntourism doesn’t automatically benefit local communities, you may be asking yourself, “well then, is voluntourism bad?” And, although the world is often perceived to be constructed through either/or binaries—good/bad, right/wrong, beneficial/harmful, us/them, etc.—there is actually a lot more nuance involved in considering if voluntourism is bad.

Is anything ever truly *good* or *bad*?

Consider travel voluntourism within its current positionality and context—a $173 billion industry within a global racial capitalist system that breeds white savior complexes and ethnocentrism, and perpetuates subtle and overt forms of exploitation and extraction of the Global South by the Global North.

Because voluntourism projects can be quick-fix, band-aid solutions at their best, or directly harmful to local communities at their worst, they often create a reliance on the very systems that create community needs in the first place.

Have you ever considered why some countries are considered developed while others are developing? Whose labor “developed” those countries? To whose benefit, and at whose expense? How are the needs of your own community connected with the needs of communities you hope to volunteer for abroad?

Voluntourism often tries to soften the Global North’s exploitation of the Global South by creating opportunities for people to feel like they are making a difference, when in reality divesting from capitalism and dismantling white supremacy and other systems of oppression would actually get at the root causes and create systemic, sustainable liberation.

So, is voluntourism bad? In some cases, yes, voluntourism causes very real, very tangible harm. Is voluntourism good? In some cases, it may offer some relief or hope or connection, but it likely will not achieve systemic, sustainable change.

READ: How to Decolonize Your Education Abroad Experience (and What It Means)

So…is it okay to participate in volunteering abroad?

The answer to this question comes down to many different factors. (Photo Credit: World Endeavors)

As with many things, the answer is yes and no. Being intentional about choosing a project that meets a direct community need (not something created just for volunteers to have an experience), is run by, with, and for local communities, and centers your impact more than your intentions can help lead you to an opportunity that may have a positive impact for everyone involved. Make sure to take responsibility for your impact, and do your research on the organizations, projects, and local context you are entering.

Additionally, understanding your power, privilege, and positionality, reflecting on your why, setting your expectations (a big one being that your efforts will not change or save the world) and developing a deep sense of humility and gratitude are all essential pieces of the puzzle.

Navigating this decision intentionally can be overwhelming and challenging. It is helpful to remember that perfection does not exist, and that accountability and repairing harm is possible. Asking tough questions—of ourselves, those around us, and the opportunities we seek—can lead us into creating purposeful impact. Here are some questions to consider:

• Why are you interested in volunteering abroad? Where does that desire stem from? What do you hope to achieve?
• Does the community have a need? Who is defining this need? Are locals asking for help, or are outsiders prescribing help?
• Do you have skills to meet that need? Will the organization be able to offer the support you will need to be successful?
• Would you participate even if you could not tell anyone or share it on social media?
• Who does your money directly support—including program fees, etc.? Whose consent is needed in order to ethically and authentically participate? Has consent been given?
• Whose voices are centered? Whose voices are excluded? Whose voices are required?
• Would your impact be greater by supporting in other ways? Would your monetary support benefit a project/community more than your time and skills? Are there volunteer opportunities in your local community that you would be better suited for?
• How will you engage in reciprocity, accountability, and right relationship?

Be mindful and intentional, and your volunteering can have a positive impact

With careful planning and consideration, you can have an ethical volunteering experience. (Photo Credit: World Endeavors)

As Brené Brown says, you are not here to be right, you are here to get it right. In order to be intentional and purposeful, approach your volunteer experience with humility and the understanding that you are not better than the people you are cultivating relationships with, nor do you know more than they do about their own lived experiences and local context.

Set aside your assumptions and preconceived notions in order to attempt to avoid the dangers of ethnocentrism. You will get things wrong, you will make mistakes, you may even learn lessons at another’s expense—but so long as you are willing to be accountable for your actions, intentions, and impact, you can find ways to repair harm and have a positive impact, even if only on yourself.

Find and compare volunteer opportunities with MyGoAbroad