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nonprofits
donate to grassroots organizations or volunteer with them
donations If you want to donate to a good cause without the administrative detours associated with large organizations, you might want to support a local nonprofit directly. That way, you don’t have to wonder how much of your money actually seeps through to the grassroots. Throughout my journey, I have volunteered with grassroots projects around the world for years. I can personally vouch for the nonprofits you find below, but you don't need to take my word for it. They all accept volunteers and visitors, so you could stop by and see for yourself where and how far your money goes.
volunteering If you’re more of a hands-on person when it comes to engaging with a good cause, volunteering is a way to contribute your time and skills instead of money. However, finding a legitimate project to work with can be challenging. The tourism industry has discovered social engagement at the grassroots as a bestselling vacation package – you're going on vacation and get to be a do-gooder – but the concept of making a charitable cause a business is ethically precarious for reasons I elaborate on below. The projects I introduce here don't charge any fees. Some might even have the means to provide you with board and lodging in exchange for your work, while others ask that you cover your own living expenses.
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projects
SKY Foundation
education and preservation of indigenous culture
Salasaka, Ecuador
SKY Foundation is a nonprofit based in Salasaka, an indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Andes. The project’s mission is to conserve indigenous culture, identity, heritage, and language (Kichwa) as well as offering English classes to kids and adults with the help of international volunteers. You can support SKY with one-off donations and reoccurring payments via Paypal. Volunteers live in a big house named Pacha Mama where food is included with a small weekly donation.
Villa Santa Martha
children's home outside of Lima
Picapiedra, Peru
Villa Santa Martha is a children’s home outside Lima, Peru. Around a hundred kids between the ages of two and seventeen live on-site, divided into smaller groups. Every group has its own facilities like dormitories and bathrooms as well as a designated caregiver. Several psychologists oversee daily routines and have one-on-one conversations with kids and caregivers. Founder Papa Roberto visits regularly, while the day-to-day is run by his right hand Tio Tom. A typical day starts around 5 am when the kids get up to prepare for school and clean their dormitories and bathrooms, followed by a communal breakfast with the other groups. After school there is time for tutoring sessions and leisure. On weekends, some children enjoy visits from family members and the team might organize trips to the nearby countryside. Volunteers sleep for free in the same dormitories as the kids and are provided three meals a day. They help with daily routines like homework and are encouraged to come up with their own ideas to implement individual projects.
Villa Santa Martha with its main building, Chapel and yard.
A dormitory for girls.
Villa Santa Martha bakes its own bread and volunteers and kids assist in the process.
A long term volunteer from Colombia tutoring kids after school.
An excursion to the nearby hill.
The local school.
Villa Santa Martha has its own farm for a sustainable food supply.
Kids during a celebration.
Volunteers reorganizing the library. Volunteer tasks vary largely; some are performed regularly, others are individual projects and volunteers are welcome to bring in their own ideas.
A kid during a tutoring session.
La Esperanza Granada
assisting schools in poverty-stricken neighborhoods
Granada, Nicaragua
La Esperanza supports schools in underprivileged areas of Granada, Nicaragua with funds and volunteers. Guided by local volunteers (ayudantes) whose work is compensated with university scholarships, international volunteers assist teachers in the classrooms. The project reaches more than 2.000 children and has recently started to operate its own learning centers. Most funding for the project comes from individuals, service groups, and schools. Oftentimes, whole groups travel to Nicaragua to provide not only funding but also manual labor, helping with the construction of new classrooms. International volunteers, who assist in the classrooms or tutor small groups of children, stay with La Esperanza Granada for days, weeks, or even many months at a stretch. They cover their own living expenses but are provided with very affordable rooms at a variety of volunteer houses in the city center.
kids receiving certificates for their progress
a traditional dance performance for international visitors
a volunteer assisting in the classroom
La Esperanza Granada uses donations and helping hands to renovate run-down classrooms
a kid with typical Nica food served in a banana leaf
kids during recess
kids at an elementary school in one of Granada's impoverished neighborhoods
a colorful mural
kids outside a classroom during recess
kids aren't shy to interact with volunteers
AID India
bringing quality education to rural villages in India
Chennai, India
Chennai-based NGO AID India translates its vision to uplift marginalized communities into action across a wide array of areas – from disaster relief and shelter to nutrition programs. Via its ELF initiative, the organization promotes and supports education in rural villages, reaching 25.000 children state-wide. Lately, AID India expanded its operations to other states. The Eureka program ensures high learning standards in countryside schools by providing new materials, methods, teaching assistance and evaluation tools. The staff of this award-winning nonprofit consists of highly decorated and enthusiastic people, often widely renowned in their respective fields of expertise. AID India also works with international volunteers and interns, who help with a variety of projects and tasks. They cover their own living expenses.
Readathon
kids tutoring kids at a rural school – a successful method to foster engagement
English class with materials created by AID India
kids during recess
AID India works with local and international interns and volunteers
kids at V-House Triplicane, one of Chennai's slums
on the streets of the V-House Triplicane slum
Huts at V-House Triplicane
a young girl and her father walk down a street in one of Chennai's slums
field trip
Big Brother Mouse
facilitating access to books and English practice in Laos
Luang Prabang, Laos
Based in Luang Prabang, Laos, Big Brother Mouse is a small publishing house on a mission to make books accessible throughout the country. So far, many villages have little or no access to any kind of literature and few books are published in the local language. Determined to change this status quo, Big Brother Mouse prints its own books and distributes them to rural villages. Communities with better financial means cover the costs in parts or fully, while the remaining expenses are covered by donations. The distribution to more impoverished villages is covered entirely by donations. Besides the distribution of books, Big Brother Mouse organizes workshops and runs a library in Luang Prabang, which offers conversational English practice twice a day, seven days a week. The program is popular with high-school and university students who come in to practice their English with foreigners looking for a cultural exchange during their time in Luang Prabang.
Greensleeves Children's Trust
holistic residential care for abandoned children
East London, South Africa
Greensleeves is a children’s home outside East London, South Africa, providing holistic residential care for abandoned and abused children. It was founded by a local family (Aunty Di and her husband Ian). Initially taking care of one child whose mother had asked the couple for help, Greensleeves is currently home to almost 30 kids. With a lot of love, generosity, and support from the local community, Aunty Di and Ian managed to construct several buildings on their farm – the main hall with kitchen, classrooms, bathroom facilities, and computers as well as a separate school building and two safe houses with dormitories for the children. Except for some of the older kids, who study at a local high school, all children attend classes at the Greensleeves school. Volunteers spend time with them to assist the onsite nannies and engage in activities and workshops. The atmosphere resembles a family setting more so than an institutional facility. In that vein, one core vision is to build cluster homes where children can live together as families with a house mother. Volunteers have their own quarters and are provided three meals a day.
after a bath in the lake
enjoying summer's vacation
reading and swimming
happy moments
safe houses for the kids
kids can learn horseback riding if they want
enjoying a cold bath on a hot day
art class taught by a local volunteer
rascal with a sweet heart
fishing in the lake
Imagine Scholar
a student-centered community enrichment program
Kamhlushwa, South Africa
Imagine Scholar is a unique after-school program in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province, reaching out to the most ambitious children in the local schools. Together, students and facilitators create a nourishing environment emphasizing personal growth, the finding and fostering of passions, and the upholding of core moral values. Although Imagine Scholar has a record of outstanding academic achievements (like students attending the Yale-Program, the African Leadership Academy or United World Colleges), the main focus of the community enrichment program is character-building aimed at the empowerment of leaders; one day those leaders will be the vanguard of social and economic change in their community and even today many of the students engage in charitable activities, business contests and science projects. As founder Corey Johnson puts it: “I’m incredibly proud of all the huge successes, but the real goal is to create good people. I’d be more proud if they become good mothers, fathers or coworkers, just good people; because that’s what the world needs.” Imagine Scholar’s dynamic approach to education takes student-centric methods to the next level: students are involved in all crucial decision-making processes, from crafting the curriculum to the selection of new aspirants. The vision is to have (former) Imagine Scholars run the entire program. Think tanks, TED-talks, creative and critical thinking exercises, communal reading sessions, communication classes, academics, chess and meditation are some dimensions of the holistic framework. Volunteers help with the day-to-day and act as mentors. They live on site for free, are provided food to cook for themselves and receive a small allowance in exchange for a minimum commitment of two months (shorter stays are possible in some cases).
Get to know the amazing Imagine Scholars here.
a communal reading session with group discussion
chess practice – many Imagine Scholars participate in regional tournaments
a guest speaker shares his passion for art
a senior student tutors her younger peers
preparing for a discussion during communications class
a student building his own business
a passion for fashion
Christmas gifts
hearty laughs
on the way to school
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why donate
We don’t choose where we’re born. Some of us are fortunate enough to grow up in an environment with easy access to all sorts of resources, from food and shelter to education and health care; others struggle to satisfy even their most basic human needs, have their human rights violated, and are affected by corruption. Growing up where resources and rights are taken for granted, one can easily forget that the majority of people on this planet does not share the same privileges.
Donating is not about giving a monetary handout; it's about awareness, empowerment and change. I'll be honest with you: if you are fortunate enough to read this and make a donation, I don't want to appeal to your generosity, but to your sense of responsibility. There is little merit in being where we are today if we had a head start, and a false sense of entitlement keeps us from distributing resources in this world more evenly, from the life lottery winners to the runner ups. I'm not envisioning a world where everybody has the same, but one where everybody has the same opportunities.
Ten dollars might not go far where you’re from – they might mean as little as buying a beer. But, at the other end of the world, they might make a significant difference in someone's monthly budget.
If you ask me, it's a win-win. Being too attached to our every penny distracts us from the true prerequisites for happiness, like moments over things and genuine social ties over chasing false recognition. In that we can learn from the ones who have less – they often have more space for what matters, while those who have everything have nothing but worries.
So, if you feel like life has treated you well and you got something to spare, please have a look at the nonprofit organizations above and consider donating to them. Most of them focus on education, which I believe to be key for empowering people, fostering critical thinking, making informed decisions, and changing your life and with it your world and ultimately the world. I think of it as a basic human right.
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volunteering
Assisting the empowerment of local communities at the grassroots is not all about money – a labor force and skills are needed on the ground. Volunteers are a free source of labor for nonprofit organizations and can be a valuable asset for their projects under the right conditions.
Volunteers can bring in a vast array of skills as well as new perspectives and ideas. Whether the impact is positive and sustainable often depends on the duration of the commitment, the turnover of volunteers, and the applied transition process. Volunteering can also foster a mutually beneficial cultural exchange between volunteers and local communities, which, in addition, raises awareness of global inequities. Conversely, this exchange might backfire, for instance if (short-term) visits fuel generalizations and the spreading of falsehoods based on limited insights.
Any volunteering experience is highly individual and largely shaped by a volunteer’s motives, mentality and attitude. Some might want to make a difference, others intend to add a check mark on their CV or travel on the cheap. Maybe you expect to change the world by volunteering for two weeks and end up disappointed; or you might feel valuable if you can just teach one kid a bit of simple math. Some volunteers get frustrated with certain tasks, while others are happy to help out in whatever way the organization sees fit.
Of course, a positive experience also depends on finding the right project to volunteer with. Volunteering has become a profitable business for the tourism industry and if you look for volunteering opportunities online, you’ll mostly come across paid programs. Voluntourism agencies offer short-term all-inclusive packages and charge hefty sums for their services, which add convenience, but take away from the authenticity of the experience. This might not only be a drawback for you, but also hinder the awareness that comes with a more immersive set up. Such awareness is needed to drive a large-scale change in global policies, which would reduce the necessity for development aid in the first place. Moreover, the concept of making a charitable cause a profitable business is ethically dubious and it remains unclear how much money oozes from the intermediaries to the grassroots.
However, if you look a little harder, it’s always possible to get in touch with local projects directly. They typically don't charge volunteering fees and some even offer board and lodging in exchange for your work. They are happy about every helping hand and assist you gladly, even though you will have to organize the trip by yourself. To get inspired, you can find some fantastic projects I worked with on this page.
For more volunteering insights, based on several years of personal volunteering experience in South America, Asia and Africa, read through my mini-series below. It also includes information on how to find legitimate and free volunteering gigs around the world.
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Volunteering 101 Series:
An Orientation on Grassroots Volunteer Work
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Volunteering vs. Voluntourism
self-organized engagement vs. vacation packages – structures, results and ethics
...organizing your grassroots engagement independently, might not only help your own experience and wallet, but also the community you work with. read more
What You Perceive and What It Is: Volunteering Outlook and Actual Impact
subjective vs. objective evaluations of volunteering results
...it could be a little step on a very individual level, like a kid having an aha moment while learning simple math; or it could be the large-scale implementation of a project that brings about systemic and sustainable empowerment of a community... read more
Volunteering Motives - Who Helps Whom and Why
Can volunteering abroad truly be selfless and whom does it actually help?
...we can all just go on a quest for our own motives to do something social (might that be altruistic or not) and do our best to actually contribute to the empowerment of local communities and the alteration of disadvantageous global structures... read more
Reality Check: Volunteering Benefits & Pitfalls
Are volunteering programs more helpful or harmful?
If implemented right, volunteering programs employed by grassroots nonprofits can add additional value to community-empowering projects along various dimensions. However, oftentimes benefits come alongside cultural and ethical pitfalls... read more
Who Is That White Savior With the Complex?
Are Westerners trying to save the world on their terms?
...development assistance can be viable; unless it feeds into an individual or systemic White Savior Complex that results in the idea of one side helping the other and distracts people from the underlying issues and inequities. read more
How to Find Free Volunteering Opportunities around the World
avoiding costly and ethically precarious voluntourism agencies
...rev the search engine, skip over the voluntourism industry and dig all the way down to the grassrootss... read more
Disclaimer: Miles Astray is the author and photographer behind all words and pictures on this website. The only exception is this page, where some photographs were borrowed from fellow volunteers (the pictures of La Esperanza Granada and Villa Santa Martha).