Host Organization Evaluation Criteria

At MovingWorlds, our mission is two-fold: getting talent to the parts of the world that need it most, while ensuring a transformative experience for those who share their skills. We call it Experteering, and our award-winning program has been recognized as the leading platform to mobilize talent for social good.

We help organizations in the field access the skills, training, and project-based support needed to overcome any challenge. Together, we make measurable progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. To ensure that we can continue delivering maximum value to both Experteers and the Organizations receiving their support, we’ve developed the following evaluation criteria to determine whether an organization is a good fit for the MovingWorlds platform.

As a reminder, our goal is to ensure quality and long-term impact of the projects on MovingWorlds’ platform. As a result, we look for organizations that demonstrate social enterprise thinking – including sustainable revenue streams to create measurable and sustainable positive social impact. We also screen to make sure that your organization is at a place where an Experteer can actually make an impact (we published this methodology in the Stanford Social Innovation Review).


How to Use this Page as an Organization Representative

  1. Please refer to your evaluation email from the Organization Support Team at MovingWorlds for a list of any issues your organization needs to address in order to move forward and post projects on our platform.

  2. Find those issues here to learn more and see how you can address the issues to be approved.

  3. Update your Organization Profile and/or submit necessary documentations accordingly to be re-evaluated for approval.

Please keep in mind that our evaluation is not a judgement on the quality of your organization or its impact model. Rather, it is a way for MovingWorlds to ensure that we are in strategic alignment as partners. If you have any questions, please connect with us at match@movingworlds.org.

How MovingWorlds Evaluates Your Organization's Application

We consider a variety of factors in evaluating your organization's application to join the MovingWorlds platform. Each factor is weighted differently and your final evaluation is based on the accumulative value of how all of the factors interact with each other. As such, organizations with seemingly similar profiles may have different results. Our evaluation team will specific in the evaluation report what factors need to be addressed in order to re-submit your profile for consideration.

Once your organization has been approved, you will be granted access to our platform so you can start sourcing skilled volunteer support.

Factors that Result in Immediate Disqualification

Before we go into detail regarding the specific factors that influence your organization's final evaluation, please note that if any of the following statements applies to your organization, you will automatically be disqualified from joining MovingWorlds:

  1. Sanctions - Your organization is on the Office of Foreign Assets Control Sanctions List.
  2. Legal Registration - Your organization is not a legally registered entity in the country of its primary operations.
  3. Sustainable Development Goals - Your organization does not directly support any of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (more information below).
  4. Key Local Personnel - Your organization continues to not have team members on the ground where your primary operations are and where the Experteer will work (more information below).
  5. Volunteers & Interns - Your organization’s operations is run primarily by volunteers and interns (more information below).

Factors Related to Mission Alignment

As a reminder, our evaluation is not a judgement on the quality of your organization or impact model. Rather, it is a way for MovingWorlds to ensure that we are in strategic alignment as partners. MovingWorlds is not designed to support the below mission areas and therefore may not be an effective partner if your organization involves:

  1. Voluntourism - Your organization’s business model incorporates a “volunteering fee”. In our experience, pay-to-volunteer models are under increased scrutiny and are at risk for having unintended consequences, often leading to situations where both the Experteer and Host Organizations are not satisfied. As there are other platforms to promote voluntourism programs, we do not feature them on our website. There are a few exceptions made for organizations that come through our trusted partners and have demonstrated a plan to build financial capacity and move away from the pay-to-volunteer model. If you are seeking support to move away from this model, please email us at match@movingworlds.org with the subject line “Special Consideration Request - Voluntourism Model Change” and details for special consideration.
  2. Orphans-related Operations - Your organization has orphan programs at the core of its operations. Although we see this as a valuable service, it falls outside the scope of what MovingWorlds is designed to support. We also recognize that the orphan industry has complicated issues surrounding the funding of orphanages, that we do not currently have the capacity to properly verify. We strongly recommend you look into the ethics of hosting volunteers in you operate an orphanage and carefully monitor the certifications of your volunteers, as well as their criminal records. For more resources, please visit orphanges.no
  3. English Teaching-related Operations - Your organization has English teaching programs at the core of its operations. Although we see this as a valuable service, it falls outside the scope of what MovingWorlds is designed to support. There are other platforms that manage placement of English teachers, we recommend you find another partner for this type of volunteer recruitment.
  4. Religious Affiliations - MovingWorlds is a neutral, religion-agnostic organization, that respects and works with people of all faiths who are trying to accelerate positive social, economic, and/or environmental impact, regardless of their religious background, ethnicity or sexuality. Our Experteers join us for this neutrality. Organizations with religious affiliations are welcome on our platform, however our Experteers do not want to promote specific religious goals, and as such, we do not partner with organizations that have an explicitly religious mission or message, or that try to convert or benefit certain groups exclusively over others.

Factors Related to Organizational Capacity

In order to effectively work with organizations and maximize positive outcomes of experteer engagements, we’ve identified the following organizational factors that strongly influence the experience of both Host Organizations and Experteers. As each organization is different, the factors below are weighted differently and we offer advice on how to address them to strengthen your organization’s application to join MovingWorlds.

  1. Years in Business - Your organization has not been established for a long enough time period. Although we recognize that young organizations can be powerhouses in their own right, the experteering model at MovingWorlds is designed to maximize impact therefore we limit our support to organizations with resources, clarity of mission, and stability that come with being in business for longer. If you feel your organization exhibits these characteristics despite being in business for a short period of time AND you have a specific project you’re seeking support for, please email match@movingworlds.org with the subject line “Special Consideration Request” AND the information for special consideration. Please note, your request for special consideration will NOT be reviewed without a clearly scoped project.
  2. Full-Time Staff Under 5 - Your organization has less than 5 staff members. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however, we need to ensure that the organization we support are established enough to benefit from hosting an Experteer, and can provide a reliable supervisor during the duration of the project. If your organization is approved, the approval will be contingent upon your organization’s ability to designate a team member to work in partnership with the Experteer for the duration of the project planning and execution. This includes responding promptly to emails and requests for meetings during the planning phase and being available on the ground to support the experteer while on-site.
  3. Full-Time Staff Over 100 - Your organization has over 100 staff members. This is not necessarily a bad thing, however, we need to ensure that organizations accepted onto MovingWorlds have a real need for support and are invested in the project outcomes. If your organization is approved, as an organization of that size, we ask that you commit to providing housing and/or a stipend for housing for the duration of the project. You can indicate this information on your project postings.
  4. Volunteers & Interns - According to a review of information submitted and surfaced by our team, your organization’s operations are run primarily by volunteers and/or interns. We recognize this as an unsustainable business model in the long run and can cause more harm to the local community than it supports. MovingWorlds is not designed to support this model. There are a few exceptions made to organizations that come through our trusted partners and have demonstrated a plan to build financial capacity and move away from this model. If you are seeking support to move away from this model, please email us at match@movingworlds.org with the subject line “Special Consideration Request - Voluntourism Model Change” and details for special consideration.
  5. Key Local Personnel - According to a review of information submitted and surfaced by our team, your organization’s key personnel are not living in the country where your primary work takes place. While we understand this is a common practice, especially in international development, we also know that there is a sustainability risk with this operations model. When ties to the local community is not strong, understanding of the local context is limited thus can negatively impact your work and the community you serve. As your organization continues to grow and scale, MovingWorlds aims to support you to build strong local capacity by training and hiring more members of the local community instead of relying on foreign staff, contractors, and international volunteers. Please note, organizations will be re-evaluated on an annual basis and if no progress is made on this issue in following years, your organization will removed from the MovingWorlds platform.
  6. Negative Feedback - We’ve received feedback from past Experteers you’ve hosted. Depending on the nature of the feedback, severity of the issue, and the number of times it has occurred, your organization may be asked to provide additional information or go through additional training before you can host another Experteer. In certain cases, your organization may be removed from the platform all together. Please refer to correspondence from the Organization Support Team for additional information and next steps, if relevant.

Factors Related to Social Impact

  1. Sustainable Development Goals - According to a review of information submitted and surfaced by our team, your organization does not intentionally support any of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). MovingWorlds’s mission is to support organizations that aim to positively impact the world and we measure this through the organization’s intentional support of at least one of the SDGs.
  2. Local Community - According to a review of information submitted and surfaced by our team, your organization does not directly support the local community through your products/services. While we recognize this model is not suitable for all organizations, MovingWorlds is designed to support organizations that aim to build the local capacity of the communities they serve and reverse the brain drain problem. Please note, organizations will be re-evaluated on an annual basis and if no progress is made on this issue in following years, your organization will removed from the MovingWorlds platform.

Factors Related to Legal Status

We take the safety of Experteers very seriously. As such, your organization will be evaluated on the following factors to ensure you are operating legally according to international and domestic laws.

  1. Sanctions - Your organization is on the Foreign Assets Control Sanctions list, and is therefore disqualified from our platform.
  2. Licensing - Your organization does not yet have a business license. Due to liability issues, we are not able to work with organizations that are not legal incorporated. If this is an error, please review your organization profile and upload proper documentations of your organization’s legal status then re-submit for approval.
  3. Online Presence - Your organization does not have a website/social media accounts or they are not functional at the time of review. Our team is not able to validate the information you’ve submitted. Please review and ensure your links are accurate and re-submit for approval.

Have Questions About Your Organization's Evaluation?

If you have any questions about your evaluation or believe any of the criteria reflect an error, please connect with us at match@movingworlds.org.

Keep in mind that our evaluation is not a judgement on the quality of your organization or its impact model. Rather, it is a way for MovingWorlds to ensure that we are in strategic alignment as partners.