At first glance, it is sometimes hard to measure the difference one volunteer can make in a few weeks. But when thousands of people donate a short amount of time to the same long-term goals, we achieve massive progress together.
We don’t leave our positive impact up to chance. Every one of our Projects is carefully planned and monitored so that we know we’re making the positive change that we’re committed to.
Here we’ll explain some of the many initiatives we run to ensure that the Project you join makes a real impact.
Our Global Impact Report
Anyone can talk in generic terms about “making a difference” or “having an impact”. We believe the best way to demonstrate this is to show you real examples of the impact and achievements of our volunteers and staff.
Every year we put together a thorough Global Impact Report that shows the scale of the change that our volunteers make around the world across all our projects. We encourage everyone to take a look at our most recent video and reports below:
Download our 2019-2020 Global Impact Report (pdf)
Download our 2018 Global Impact Report (pdf)
Download our 2017 Global Impact Report (pdf)
Download our 2016 Global Impact Report (pdf)
Download our 2015 Global Impact Report (pdf)
High School Specials – helping our younger volunteers make an impact
Every year, thousands of young volunteers between the ages of 15 and 18 join our High School Special programmes to help make a difference around the globe.
During their time overseas, they contribute towards achieving long-term goals and make a long-lasting positive impact on the communities where they work.
To celebrate this, we now produce detailed High School Specials Impact Reports. It’s our way of showing that when a programme is well structured, age is no barrier to making an impact.
Download our 2018 High School Specials Impact Report (pdf)
Download our 2017 High School Specials Impact Report (pdf)
Download our 2016 High School Specials Impact Report (pdf)
Management Plans
Our Childcare, Teaching, Conservation and Medical projects all follow rigorous management plans. They focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
These plans are bespoke for each Project. They outline the aim of the Project and help us focus our resources on the most important goals. They also allow us to structure our work and monitor its impact.
They’re put together by doing detailed needs assessments alongside our partners and the communities in which we work.
Global Impact Database
To help us achieve our goals on several of our projects, we use the Global Impact Database.
This is a secure and anonymous database that we developed to identify specific areas of need. We use it to track the development of the children and adults that we work with, and monitor overall progress at our placements.
Each placement is assessed by staff and volunteers to establish what goals we need to work towards. Once we know what we need to do, we set up specialised checklists and profiles in the database and start working towards those goals.
In this way, volunteers build on each other’s efforts and progress, and contribute to long-term impact
Your impact
We hope that you find the examples above as inspiring as we do. If you want to be part of our global efforts to make a real impact where it’s needed, we can help make that happen.
Take a look at our different volunteer projects in the developing world, and contact us to find out how you can join us.
Also, read our blogs about making an impact:
Our accreditations
