Voluntourism involves short-term ‘projects’ designed to benefit the volunteer, rather than the community being served. Think: playing with kids at an orphanage or teaching English in vulnerable communities. The practice of voluntourism can erode dignity, create dependencies, and reinforce paternalism, which ultimately creates more harm than good.

For example, orphanage voluntourism actually increases the demand for orphanages - and therefore, orphans - in countries like Cambodia where it’s become popular among tourists. As a result, impoverished parents are manipulated into giving up their children in response to promises of a Western-style upbringing and education. In Cambodia the number of children in orphanages has more than doubled in the past decade, and over 70 per cent of the estimated 10,000 'orphans' have at least one living parent. Once these children are taken out of their families and communities, they’re often then exploited by the orphanages themselves. Nepal has had the same challenges.

Another glaring problem with voluntourism is that volunteers aren’t necessarily qualified to be offering their support. Because voluntourism centers on how the experience benefits the volunteer, the volunteer’s gain of “feeling good about helping” can come at the expense of vulnerable communities. Take the case of Renee Bach, a 20 year old with no medical training who ran a center in Uganda for critically ill children – during which time 105 of them died. The bottom line: it's not unethical to do a job that you wouldn’t be qualified to do in your home country just because you’re volunteering in a developing country.

Check out the resources below to learn more about the reality of voluntourism:

• When Volunteering Abroad Does More Harm Than Good
• JK Rowling Highlights Dangers of Volunteering in Orphanages Overseas
• Does Voluntourism Do More Harm Than Good?
• Cambodia's Orphan Business
• NYT Discussion on Voluntourism

Unlike voluntourism, skills-based volunteering seeks to transfer skills and know-how to local groups already developing their own solutions to real problems. Rather than centering the needs of the volunteer, this approach keeps the needs of the community being served at the heart of the work.

Our methodology at MovingWorlds to ensure that skilled volunteers land with impact involves 7 keys to success:

1. Thoughtfully identify projects that address local talent gaps
2. Embrace collaborative planning with a focus on partnership and cross-cultural readiness.
3. Focus on solving the most pressing, skills-based challenges.
4. Ensure transfer of knowledge and skills to local team members.
5. Identify opportunities to improve organizational strategy and capability.
6. Build connections to a global network.
7. Think strategically about transition and sustainability plans.

Learn more about how skills-based volunteering contributes to long-term sustainable development with these resources:

• Ensuring Skilled Volunteers Land with Impact
• Voluntourism Can't Solve Big Problems. Experteering Can.
• Differences between Experteering and Voluntourism
• Skill-Building Is Finally Becoming Mainstream (Almost)

Once you’ve decided to volunteer your skills, your next step is to find the right project fit. Finding the right project is key to maximizing your experience, and our findings indicate that being selective actually benefits all parties.

Your ideal project should lie at the intersection of skills you have, causes you care about, work that makes you come alive, the industry you want to work in, and organizations you want exposure to. At the intersection of these factors is your purpose-driven sweet spot.

As you make a decision on which project you work on and before you start planning, here are 8 factors to consider to make sure the project you are working on is ethical and will create a sustainable impact:

• Skills – Audit your strengths, and make sure there is a strong alignment of an organization’s needs with your real skills.
• Timing – Find a start date, end date, and duration that is agreeable to all parties.
• Motivations – Be clear about what you are hoping to get out of the experience, and what the hosting organization is hoping to achieve.
• Sustainable Impact – Focus your work on projects that have long-term potential, and where you can build the skills of people to sustain the projects after you leave.
• Communication – Ensure that you can clearly communicate with each other.
• Commitment – Both you and the host should invest time and resources in the engagement and agree to certain outcomes.
• Ethics – Make sure the project is locally led, doesn’t erode jobs and is in the best interest of the community.
• Partnership – Work hard to build a partnership that benefits both parties.

You can learn more about these 8 factors on DevEx here.

More and more companies are including employee volunteer programs in their benefit packages, and with good reason: according to Deloitte's Volunteer Impact Research, creating a culture of volunteerism boosts morale, workplace atmosphere, and brand perception. Company-sponsored volunteering is also one of the best ways to develop employees into leaders, while at the same time boosting loyalty and engagement.

As with individual volunteering, there is also a right and a wrong way to do corporate volunteering. According to research by David Jones at the University of Vermont, there are 3 characteristics that need to be present in a corporate volunteering program in order for the above benefits to be realized:

1. The program is designed and managed to provide employee volunteers with greater opportunities to practice and hone their work-related skills.
2. The program involves pre-volunteering preparation courses, which increase employee volunteers' confidence in their ability to improve their work-related skills through volunteering.
3. The volunteering experiences are meaningful, offer novel challenges, and are socially supportive and interactive.