Global Volunteers
Partners in Development
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our development partnerships with community leaders worldwide focus on helping provide essential services prescribed by the UN to help children reach their full potential. Our volunteer service initiatives address the conditions identified in the sustainable development goals, ranging from promoting education by teaching in classrooms, language camps and other community-based programs; to providing interventions addressing maternal health, childhood stunting and other systemic impairments to children's physical and cognitive development. Development programs to halt childhood stunting, a preventable and devastating condition, is an example of the systemic problems we address in our Tanzania demonstration program. This condition affects 24% of children worldwide. This number rises to 80% in some communities, producing perpetual intergenerational poverty and a global economy denied of fully capable adults. Volunteers provide the needed resources to address this problem.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Tanzania Service Program
Global Volunteers' Tanzania program was launched in 1984 to enable volunteers to provide direct assistance to impoverished villagers in the Iringa district. Under the broad community development focus of Reaching Children's Potential (RCP) volunteers work on projects to help end childhood stunting. Assignments include health, nutrition and hygiene education, parent workshops on early childhood education, and direct healthcare, diagnostics and prenatal care in Global Volunteers' new modern clinic. Additional volunteers are needed for English instruction, numeracy, computer literacy, and repair and maintenance of community buildings.
Cook Islands Service Program
Global Volunteers teams assists more than 80 local organizations to improve educational, health and social services on the island of Rarotonga. Volunteers work alongside teachers, families and community leaders we’ve served since 1988. Service projects include classroom tutoring, library assistance, computer literacy, early childhood education, and labor and maintenance.
U.S. Service Programs - Montana, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Dakota & Texas
Volunteers assist local leaders with capacity building in areas of extreme poverty through classroom tutoring, home building and repair, family crisis support, substance abuse interventions, elder care and outreach, summer recreation programs, and labor projects. Programs are conducted on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana, the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, the communities surrounding Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, the schools in Española, New Mexico, and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
Cuba Service Program
Global Volunteers began its Cuban service partnership in 2012 in compliance with U.S. regulations. Volunteers help advance English competency, improve community buildings, support elders, help enhance economic vitality and contribute to Cuban civil society.
Ecuador Service Program
Global Volunteers has mobilized volunteer teams to care for children and support mothers in Ecuador since 1996. Volunteers contribute their skills and material resources to families living on the margins in Quito by teaching English and preschool skills to children and maintaining buildings and expanding safe learning spaces.
Greece Service Program
Since 1996, Global Volunteers teams have worked in partnership with local leaders on the island of Crete to provide English language instruction to children of all ages in after-school programs, summer camps and small groups. Volunteers will often do one on one tutoring with local adults who want to advance their careers.
Vietnam Service Program
Global Volunteers teams teach conversational English to students, blind young adults and government researchers to help advance their school and professional capacities. At the Vietnam Institute for Development Strategy (VIDS), a research center on national socio-economic development strategies, volunteers are a resource to their English Communication Program. At Blind-Link, volunteers teach basic English skills to visually impaired youth who are in training for professional massage therapy careers. In Hanoi grade schools and universities, volunteers teach conversational English in classrooms and small groups - customized to the students' needs.
Peru Service Program
Launched in 2004, Global Volunteers' Peru Service Program currently works in partnership with La Comunidad de Niños Sagrada Familia– “Sagrada Familia” (Sacred Family) is a shelter for vulnerable children who otherwise have nowhere to go. The goal of this community is to care for and protect children who have been left homeless or neglected by giving them the love, care and individualized attention that all children need and deserve. Service program assignments include child care, English teaching, nutrition, health care and hygiene education, classroom assistance and labor projects. Healthcare professionals are also needed to assist in the on-site clinic.
Nepal Service Program
Global Volunteers was invited to serve impoverished children and young adults by a number of locally based organizations in Kathmandu. Beginning in March of 2019 teams were serving at children's homes, doing light labor, teaching conversational English in K-12 schools, Universities, & women's groups whose members are marginalized & low income.
Poland Service Program
Since 1990, Global Volunteers teams have worked in partnership with local government leaders in both Siedlce and Zakopane, Poland to provide English language instruction to children of all ages in schools, after-school programs, summer camps and small groups.
Where we work
External reviews

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Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of computer literacy/skills/technology courses conducted
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
In the Cook Islands the number of computer tutoring sessions varies by each school year. Generally, volunteers conduct training for all grade levels four times/year.
Hours of tutoring administered
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, At-risk youth
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Every child needing tutoring in English, science, math and social science receives, on average, 4 hours per week of one-and-one tutoring, in small groups of students of similar ability.
Number of health/hygiene product and/or tools of care (mosquito nets, soap, etc.) administered
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Caregivers, Families, Non-adult children
Related Program
Tanzania Service Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Health and hygiene products and tools of care such as mosquito nets, hand-washing stations, soap and toothbrushes are supplied in healthcare workshops and classroom instruction.
Number of students who demonstrate improved overall literacy
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Cook Islands Service Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
At Takitumu School, the number of students reading below average decreased over three years with our volunteer interventions. Numbers indicate students who now read at or above average in grades 3/4.
Hours of expertise provided
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Adults
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
English, Math, & Science instruction are provided to children to enhance future college or career advancement. Medical professionals provide direct care and instruction to children & parents.
Number of children with a source of ongoing care
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Infants and toddlers
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Number of children nurtured, given direct care, fed & provided nutritional supplements in childcare centers, residential facilities and clinics in Ecuador, Peru, Nepal, Tanzania & St. Lucia
Hours of childcare and support provided
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Infants and toddlers
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Volunteers work in childcare centers, residential facilities and clinics providing psycho-social support and stimulation and direct care with feeding, dressing, learning and self-care.
Number of local people instructed in prevention and care of infectious disease
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adults, Parents
Related Program
Tanzania Service Program
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Disease prevention, proper nutrition and appropriate health care support cognitive development in children. Volunteers conduct workshops for villagers on preventing and treating infectious disease.
Hours worked on community infrastructure projects
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, Adults, Families
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Volunteers help repair, maintain, renovate and improve homes and community buildings including schools, clinics, libraries, childcare centers, dormitories and gardens.
Number of health education trainings conducted
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Women and girls, Children and youth, Parents
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
We focus on teaching pregnant women and new mothers as well as school children basic health, nutrition and hygiene practices to improve their general health, primarily in rural communities abroad.
Number of students receiving homework help
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, At-risk youth
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Every year, volunteers work in classrooms and small groups as a resource to special education students and others requiring help to keep up with school assignment and to meet academic requirements.
Number of students receiving information on HIV/AIDS and STDs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents, At-risk youth
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Our volunteer healthcare professionals provide parent workshops on HIV-AIDs prevention and protection, utilizing standard texts and courses to advance understanding.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
1. Engage short-term volunteers to serve at the invitation and under the direction of community leaders while working alongside local people on community-based projects.
2. Eliminate childhood stunting, a debilitating condition that is preventable but not curable. The World Health Organization estimates that 22% of children under five worldwide are stunted.
3. Offer children and adults the opportunity to learn conversational English, the international language of commerce, technology, and opportunity and for many, a passport out of poverty.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Global Volunteers mobilizes and engages short-term volunteers to help developing communities deliver all the essential services every child needs to reach their full potential. Through a sustained, year-round, long-term stream of volunteer assistance, professional expertise and material resources, we directly address childhood stunting and other conditions which cause cognitive delays and restrict children's ability to reach their full potential.
We’ve organized 12 Essential Services into three broad categories to better visualize and leverage their impact:
Eradicating Hunger – providing school and household gardens, child nutrition, micronutrient supplementation and improved stoves.
Improving Health – providing nutrition, hygiene and physical and mental wellness education, infectious disease prevention, de-worming and hands-on care.
Enhancing Cognition – providing general education, girl’s education, potable water and sanitation facilities, psycho-social support.
These 12 Essential Services are applied comprehensively within community development projects where local leaders request them. They are the foundation of the Tanzania Reaching Children’s Potential Program (RCP); a child-focused, parent-driven, family-centered, and community-led effort. It begins with pregnancy, and continues through children’s 18th birthday, with a focus on the first 1,000 days of life. In Tanzania, parents participating in RCP have successfully reduced childhood stunting by 57% through volunteers’ efforts by:
1. Teaching nutrition, hygiene, food preparation to children and adults in schools and in workshops
2. Helping establish household gardens using EarthBox® technology for pregnant women, infants and toddlers
3. Distributing fortified meals, toothbrushes and toothpaste, hand sanitizer and other needed supplies to participating RCP families
4. Demonstrating proper handwashing with soap and water
5. Building handwashing stations, chicken coops, smokeless stoves and rainwater catchment systems
6. Supporting women’s co-ops and entrepreneurial ventures
7. Promoting mental and physical wellness and providing professional health care assistance at Ipalamwa General Clinic (IGC)
8. Training teachers in pedagogy, English and creating supportive classroom environments
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Global Volunteers has the experience, know-how and commitment to carry out each of our stated community service strategies. Our legacy of service is demonstrated in more than 36,000 short-term volunteers of all ages and backgrounds over 36 years contributing to long-term development programs in more than 200 partner communities in 34 countries on six continents.
We offer year-round volunteer assistance to help deliver 12 Essential Services to every partner community. We extracted the 12 Essential Services model from the innovative work of the World Food Program (WFP), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Our landmark work organized these essential services into three broad categories: Hunger, Health and Cognition. These are the areas where volunteers have the greatest impact. In over three decades, we've proven the efficacy of this model, as measured by volunteers, community partners and outside evaluators.
Parents and caregivers are responsible for ensuring their children’s futures, but volunteers provide the necessary information, appropriate technology and ongoing support. Volunteers from all backgrounds, professions and experiences provide catalytic assistance and material resources to help families access the 12 Essential Services – so children have sufficient food and nutrition, are protected from infectious disease, and can exercise their full intellectual capability through education. In this way, volunteers help children become fully functioning local leaders and global citizens. By helping to provide integrated essential services, short-term volunteers are a vital component in the broad framework of community development.
Simple concepts and readily available technologies can launch innovations that engage parents, teachers, children and volunteers alike. Volunteers “build a bridge” to resources for local people in developing communities, and help ensure their children have a chance to reach their full potential.
Meanwhile, as “agents of progress,” children themselves often are energetic adopters of new ideas and behaviors; exerting significant influence on their families. Working with children, volunteers’ positive influence ripples through the community – paving an avenue to lasting change. You can have a dramatic impact on what may otherwise seem to be intractable socio-economic global problems.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Global Volunteers’ unique philosophy of service ensures individuals truly serve others, wage peace, and promote justice directly and appropriately:
• At the invitation of community partners
• Under the direction of local leaders
• On sustainable community-based projects
• Hand-and-hand with local people
• To the best of our individual abilities
Volunteers serve in four primary program areas:
1. Helping deliver the United Nations prescribed 12 Essential Services focusing on children – eradicating hunger, improving health, and enhancing cognition.
2. Teaching conversational English, the international language of opportunity, to children and adults in elementary through university classrooms, businesses, children’s homes, daycare centers, government offices, and English language “Summer Camps.”
3. Supporting community development through projects to advance self-determination, gender equality and social justice, and broadening local capacity by investing in local leadership of collective actions which are important to the community as a whole.
4. Supplementing school-based curricula, including one-on-one services to students to improve their competency in reading, numeracy, computer literacy, health and hygiene, geography, science and other classroom subjects to enhance a student-centered learning environment.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Global Volunteers
Board of directorsas of 08/22/2023
Burnham (Bud) Philbrook
Global Volunteers
Term: 1984 -
Burnham Philbrook
Michele Gran
Sue Laxdal
Keith Kresge
Pamela Griffin
Barbara Morris
Deborah Pollard
John Taylor
Mindy Lull
Stefanie Johnson
Gail Kulick
Mike Moorman
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
The organization's co-leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 08/22/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.