Create Real Impact As an Experteer
Expertise + Volunteering = Experteering
If you have professional work experience, then your skills and insights can make a catalytic impact in under-resourced communities around the globe.
In exchange for your contributions, our Experteering matching platform will find you a project where you can live for free while contributing to the greater good.
We have literally written the guide on how to volunteer your skills abroad. Along the way, we've helped our members catalyze their own socially- and globally-conscious careers in the process.
Experteering is a new way to pool top talent for social good
Expertise fills gaps that would otherwise be untouched
"People looking for volunteering opportunities to use their professional skills in an international capacity but who feel lost in finding a project that does good may have just found their perfect match."
Experteering Project Selection & Quality
We work with global development organizations and social enterprise communities to find verified opportunities around the world. Beyond live projects on the site, we are connected to over 2,500 social impact organizations around the world to grow the selection of projects available to you even before they’re published on the site.
Here are just a few of our partners
Talent, not capital, will be the key factor linking innovation, competitiveness and growth in the 21st century.
Types of Experteering Projects
In our quest to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, our projects take many formats. Here are the most common project types along with some examples to make it more clear.
Transfer Knowledge as a Trainer
Engage with an organization to help teach a specific skill or resource (like training Excel skills, accounting best practices, methodology, HR best practices, or marketing analytics to name a few).
Example StoryComplete a Specific Project
In as little as 1 week, support a team with a specific task that has a clear deliverable, like designing a new website, setting up an accounting system, developing a marketing plan, creating an engineering schematic, or other skills-based project.
Example StoryServe as a Strategic Consultant
In as little as one week, immerse yourself around a specific opportunity or challenge area. Give yourself enough time to learn community and cultural contexts, and then propose (and potentially implement) a plan to accelerate impact
Example StoryA few of our featured projects
Our Experteering process is designed to help you have a truly transformative experience on your trip—while creating lasting change in the field!
Transformative learning through a transformative process
With the help of global leadership development professionals, curriculum developers, educators, and certified coaches, we guide you through a transformative learning process while you Experteer.
The result? More impact in the field, and more concrete learning for you:
- Set your goals
- Learn new concepts
- Apply it in a strech experience
- Think through and reflect
- Debrief and teach back
Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say 'We have done this ourselves'.
Experteering vs. Voluntourism
There is a vast difference between Experteering and Voluntourism. The essence boils down to this: Voluntourists are paying for their experience, meaning that local organizations design experiences to earn this money. In worst cases, this can lead to criminal activities including child trafficking.
Experteering is different
Because Experteer don’t pay to volunteer, our organizations in the field are investing in you to solve a problem they cannot otherwise solve. As such, they are only going to work on projects that are actually needed and don’t erode local jobs. While there are some great organizations that use “service learning” where you pay to find ethical projects to learn, our intention is to get expertise to the parts of the world that need it most. Our rigorous process of project scope and matching ensures that each project is time-bound and catalytic: supporting an organisation at a critical stage of growth for sustainable impact. You can see more about the difference between Experteering and service learning here.
Why go Experteering?
People go Experteering for many reasons. Here are a few of the most popular:
- As An Alternative To The Peace Corps
- To See The World And Gain New Skills While On A Sabbatical
- For A Meaningful Vacation That Is Very Economical
- To Gain Experience And Develop Skills In Addition To Education
- For Economical And Impactful Travel While In Retirement
- To Fully Immerse In Another Country And Culture
‘Voluntourism’ Can’t Solve Big Problems. That’s Where ‘Experteers’ Come In
When experts volunteer, good happens.
This organization is working to take 'tourism” out of voluntourism'