You have landed on one of the most popular pages on the GeoVisions website. So you are in good company. A lot of people ask the same thing.
This may be the first time that you have ever considered combining travel and global service. It is perfectly understandable that you have a lot of questions about paying to volunteer and wondering where your money goes.
When you volunteer abroad there is no question of the help you provide. There is also no question of the cost to the community and the project to have you there. You need:
a safe place to live
a comfortable place to sleep
and healthy food
you need to know you are covered for health issues, in case you have an accident or if we need to evacuate you to receive treatment back in your home country. You also need to be covered in case YOU do something to cause injury or damage at a project.
you need support
The community where you will live and the project where you will work cannot afford to cover these extra costs.
You are volunteering your hard-earned money and your precious time to help others abroad. In return, you receive an experience at a sustainable and well-researched project along with room and board and unique training to help you while you are there and to give you more life experience upon return to your home country.
The funds sent to the project cover the project's direct costs of having you there plus a financial donation to the project. Time shows us that over the years, because GeoVisions researches and chooses only sustainable projects, that this helps communities and projects grow without setting up a dependency on additional funding.
The next logical question is, how does GeoVisions spend your money? We break out fees into three areas. The percentage of the fee allocated to these three areas are taken from our 2009 official audit. Our 2010 official audit will be available in February 2011. Therefore, the amounts below will be reflected depending on the 2009 audit.
Direct Program Support and On-site Expenses.
Participant Support.
Administrative.
1. What are Direct Program Support and On-site Expenses exactly?
At all traditional volunteer projects, GeoVisions pays a fee to the project site abroad. In some countries on Conversation Corps, host families receive a monthly cash stipend paid by GeoVisions or our local partner. In all countries for Conversation Partner, your host family receives funds from GeoVisions or our local partner.
Each project is visited by someone on staff at GeoVisions. Because volunteers are placed on-site and in some instances in host families, a unique communication system is maintained so that we can react immediately, 24/7 in case of an emergency, even in remote areas of a country.
In the event we use a local coordinator for Conversation Corps and Conversation Partner programs, they are trained and then paid to recruit host families, interview, screen and approve them. Local coordinators, where available, are paid to visit and/or communicate with Conversation Corps tutors and Conversation Partners. On traditional volunteer projects, GeoVisions pays a fee directly to the project to cover room and board unless a homestay is provided, and then the family is compensated for room and board.
Included under this heading is marketing expenses, finding families in need of live-in tutors, coordinating family placement packets, putting together the tutoring packets to send to all of our families, on-going on-the-ground support, and project coordination in each country. 48% of the 85% cover these costs.
12% of the 85% of these expenses are accident and medical insurance, a 24 hour hotline in-country, and in the U.S. a 24/7 manned phone system. GeoVisions also includes dental insurance, life insurance and emergency return insurance for each volunteer.
23% of the 85% covers what we call "Outreach." What is that?
Paying experienced staff to answer questions and provide counseling on the best project to meet your needs and to match a project abroad for you is what GeoVisions terms "Outreach". For Conversation Corps and Conversation Partner programs, it includes the GeoVisions text, A Tutor's Guide: Teaching English To Families And Children. The cost of our website and other web-based information falls into this category. Other detailed cost centers paid for by GeoVisions and passed directly on to the volunteer are:
Premium Membership in ESL-Lounge
2-Months on Pongo Resume
A manned desk to help via email called Help Me Teach
Our annual costs to be listed on GoAbroad.com, TeachAbroad.com, VolunteerAbroad.com TransitionsAbroad.com, StudyAbroad.com, STATravel.com, BrilliantTrips.com
Staff to maintain our Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, GeoVisions' Blog, maintaining and updating program program and pre-departure information
GeoVisions is always in search of new programs and program sites. 17% of the 85% covers our research to select quality locations and projects that are safe and low-risk. This includes monitoring the quality of our current in-country sites through ongoing management and travel to the program sites. This also includes selection of quality on-site partners and the management of worldwide program sites.
2. According to our official 2009 audit, 10% of the fee you pay to GeoVisions goes toward Participant Support. Those expenses would include:
Program managers to help prepare you for your experience abroad
Pre-departure materials and in-country materials
Program manager phone support from enrollment to departure.
An Operations Department that handles:
coordination of the placement of thousands of tutors world-wide
making sure each tutor is placed
coordinating host family needs for a live-in tutor, location, and length of time needed and then coordinating that with hundreds of tutors.
maintaining host family packets and information
country-specific and local information
tracking down tutor information, handcrafting each tutor booklet/packet for optimum marketing of each tutor to get them placed and maintenance of each packet
3. According to our official 2009 audit, 5% of the fee you pay to GeoVisions goes toward Administrative costs. These expenses include:
accounting and legal fees
computer equipment
credit card processing fees
professional association membership fees
liability insurance
office expenses
payroll taxes
human resources
support services
We hope you will continue the conversation on:
Please remember that GeoVisions International is an independent non-profit organization with no governmental or religious affiliations. GeoVisions International is a Vermont non-profit (Public Benefit) Corporation. Our Trade Name and Board member list is located in file N-25201-0 on the Secretary of State for Vermont Website.
