Costs of Volunteering Abroad

Why pay to volunteer abroad?

One of the most commonly asked questions for any company running volunteer projects abroad is why volunteers need to pay to work for free. While the key component of any volunteering operation is the presence of committed volunteers, development work cannot be carried out effectively without financial and administrative support. Moreover, volunteers cannot be given food, accommodation and in-country support without some form of funding. MondoChallenge sponsors responsible volunteering and your contribution to our projects ensures that they remain sustainable and provide meaningful benefits to underprivileged communities in the long-term.

What your contribution helps to provide

• A range of carefully selected and meticulously operated voluntary projects. We now work with over 100 local partner organisations, across 9 countries and 21 locations, where we constantly monitor our programmes, while sourcing new areas where there is a genuine need for volunteer work abroad.
• Sustainable development through continuity. With carefully defined volunteer roles and an awareness of the needs of local organisations, we ensure that career break volunteers contribute to long-term development goals, making their contribution genuinely worthwhile.
• Advice and guidance for volunteers overseas. Our UK-based team has a wide range of knowledge, and experience of different countries and volunteer opportunities. We can help you to choose the perfect voluntary programme for your career break abroad.
• In-country support, including accommodation, food and airport transfer. Our in-country teams provide 24/7 support throughout your voluntary placement, helping you to settle into life overseas and to contribute most effectively to your chosen volunteering projects. By accommodating our volunteers in local home stays we ensure that your contribution remains in the community that you’re there to help.

How we use your contribution

MondoChallenge is a professional organisation that believes in ethical volunteering abroad. For us, the motto 'People first, Money second' governs all aspects of the work we do. Keeping this in mind, all internal costs are kept to a minimum, ensuring we remain both serviceable and sustainable.

Your contribution covers everything from staff wages to office overheads, admin costs, staff travel and in-project support. UK overheads are as low as can be managed, commensurate with assuring a top level of service to new applicants, existing and past volunteers, and to our partners in nine countries abroad. Our overseas teams who supervise our voluntary projects need a certain level of support to run their programmes effectively and give full backup to the volunteers in their care.

Your contribution also helps us to run the FutureSense Foundation, which is a registered charity set up to support our career break volunteers on the ground. For more information, please visit the FutureSense Foundation page.

Volunteer project prices

MondoChallenge offers a wide range of career break opportunities that allow volunteers to make the most of their time out. While our emphasis is always on the quality of the volunteering experience and the meaningful contribution that volunteers can make, we believe our volunteer programmes are also great value. Each project has its own specific costs, which can be found in the prices section of each project page, but it is worth checking out the discounts available on our Special Offers page.