At Global Brigades, we are committed to sustainable, community-led development. 

Because our model includes volunteers, communities, and staff, we often encounter questions about the impact of short-term volunteering. Does it really make a difference?

For us, empowerment, transparency, and collaboration are more than just words on our website. We weave our values into program methodology and data-driven decisions to make a lasting, measurable difference. We know that transparency includes listening to and addressing criticisms with honesty. No matter how impactful, every organization can have negative effects, but what elevates organizations is their ability to understand those, communicate them, and put in place practices to mitigate them.  

Our team has gathered and developed responses to tough questions and critiques to open transparent dialog with our stakeholders, including our volunteers and community partners. By addressing potential criticisms, we want to dispel mistruths and validate actual concerns so we can continue to grow together. Our work to increase access to healthcare, establish sustainable water and public health infrastructure, and execute economic development is stronger because of this collaborative approach to growth.

Critique: Why do you do short-term volunteer programs? What change could be made in a week? 

It’s true - one student working within a community for just one week doesn’t make a lot of impact. We started with one week and one group of volunteers. Yes, that first trip may have had a limited impact, but it laid the foundation for other schools to replicate and provided resources to hire our first part-time local employees in Honduras to perpetuate community work after the Brigade. In just a few years after that, we grew to hundreds of schools, thousands of annual volunteers, and hundreds of staff from the countries we worked in to perpetuate sustainable development initiatives year-round. Each group, albeit only for a week, is a spoke in a wheel for year-round impact. 

How can short-term volunteer programs be sustainable?

• Each volunteer is part of a bigger picture.
• Volunteers collaborate with partner communities throughout the year alongside full-time local staff.
• Multiple student-led groups, week after week, paired with the year-round work done by our local teams, is how our impact is scalable.

We do week-long trips because that is the time frame that is most accessible for our volunteers to participate in both the cost of time and resources.  One of our goals is to change the hearts and minds of as many participants as we can - to help students understand the complexity of their volunteer work -  so if we only offered month-long or one-year programs, very few people could participate. That model has resulted in our ability to mobilize, in some years, more volunteers abroad than even the Peace Corps; exposing thousands of students to an opportunity who would not have otherwise been able to go abroad and make an impact. 

Thousands of students and hundreds of groups empower our local teams to work in partner communities throughout the year. 

Ready to join our effort in expanding sustainable, global health?

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Critique: Is this just voluntourism?

Volunteers on Brigades participate in thoughtfully constructed agendas that directly contribute to our organization’s and a community’s long-term goals. It goes well beyond performative activism. Each Brigade is a critical step in a larger vision for a community’s health and economic development goals and our overall vision to improve livelihoods over generations. 

Our volunteers are active participants in daily activities essential to our work's success and long-term sustainability. It’s more than voluntourism. It’s a hands-on opportunity to gain experience in sustainable development and make a tangible impact in partner communities.

While the majority of time spent on a Brigade is on the work itself, volunteers may have the opportunity to visit key sites in host countries. Our focus for limited excursions is cultural immersion that exposes volunteers to the country’s customs, history, and traditions. 

This impact goes beyond performative activism:

• We've established or trained 277 Community Banks.
• Over 31,850 loans have been disbursed, with $10,975,977 invested in community-owned banks and businesses.
• We've constructed 80 water systems, providing access to clean water for 60,853 people.

Critique: College students aren’t skilled enough to make an impact.  

We believe our movement of students is our largest strength and was the driving force to earn grants and recognition from some of the world’s most recognized development organizations such as the World Bank and UNICEF. Volunteers not only contribute financially to their Brigade but for year-round work that keeps our efforts running on the ground. 

Uniquely, students are often the most motivated to travel to another country with a willingness to learn from that experience. We’ve also found that students enter communities with open minds. Community members know our volunteers work alongside them, not in service of them or as voluntourists. This is empowering and helps community members take ownership of projects.

It also sets the stage for a learning exchange. Mutual learning allows for real collaboration and steers us away from a vertical model of development that can happen when volunteers are there with a savior mindset. 

Students are also in the stage of life where they gain insight from extracurricular activities during their academic journey to apply in their future fields as professionals.

We believe these added benefits of engaging and creating global citizens have the long-term benefits of fostering change at a macro level. 

Critique: Isn’t this just a “mission trip” in a different package?

Typically, a mission trip has a connotation of being religious in nature. Global Brigades, while respecting individual belief systems of volunteers and communities, does not proselytize and is purely secular. It is not uncommon for groups of volunteers across the religious or political spectrum to get together to work collaboratively on our sustainable development programs. We believe there is something beautiful in that and at the highest level what our world needs in order to preserve and perpetuate peace and execute any sustainable development or improved livelihood projects. 

Critique: Aren’t you imposing our culture or will on partner communities?

Our programs are rooted in empowerment and sustainability. This is made more possible thanks to buy-in from our partner communities.

Community members are never forced to participate in our projects, and we do not work with communities that have not invited us to work with them. We aim to address fundamental human rights, not force cultural or other beliefs on communities.

What are you doing in the United States or Canada to help people without access to healthcare in our own countries?

We acknowledge that many people in the United States and Canada also lack access to healthcare and other human services. The scope of our nonprofit is global in focus and all of our teams are based in the countries we work in. So far, we have limited our scope to those international communities, but also empower our student Chapters with resources to mobilize in their local communities if they choose to.  

Ultimately,  we are educating and inspiring the  future leaders  of our countries with the opportunities to deepen their understanding of their professional track with a global perspective so they can be more informed and compassionate leaders

Additionally, many of our pre-med volunteers go on to volunteer locally or actively work in the medical field. Roughly 10-15% of graduating doctors and healthcare providers over the last 10 years have participated in our medical volunteer programs.

Critique: Won’t this make AdComs think I’m participating in colonialism or reinforcing a white saviorism mentality?

It’s important to think critically about the history of colonial relationships in the communities we partner with. Otherwise, it can be easy to fall into the idea of “saving” a community when you’re working to support change abroad. 

Our programs focus on empowerment for volunteers and community partners:

• We come from a place of education and empowerment to combat ideas of white saviorism and show students the importance of collaboration instead. 
• A critical piece of our mission is sustainability, and we wouldn’t be able to work toward that mission without opportunities for community and individual empowerment. 
• At the close of any project, continuing our relationship with the community is essential to future development. That can look like regular follow-up, technical assistance, and sustained access to staff as needed.

Finally, Global Brigades is made up of citizens of the countries we work in. Over the years, we’ve hired thousands of employees in these countries and provided jobs for more than 400 full-time and part-time individuals from the local areas in which we work. 

Critique: Is this just something to make your med school application or resume look better?

Global Brigades can serve as a source of inspiration and additional perspective for ambitions beyond college, but the experience is more worthwhile than a bullet point on a resume. 

As more than just a resume filler, Brigades make a tangible impact happen:

• Medical Brigades have provided over a million patients with access to healthcare 
• With our WASH programs, more than 60,000 people now have access to clean water in rural communities
• Dental Brigades have resulted in nearly 200,000 patient consultations
• We’ve expanded microfinance initiatives by donating over $10 million to community banks and small businesses to support the growth of local economies. 

Regardless of the intentions of the volunteers, they are making a huge impact. Our development work is a team effort to meet short-term needs while sustaining long-term impacts. Volunteers are a part of that team. Participating in a Brigade is impactful both in partner communities and for our volunteers well after the program’s end.

Critique: Aren’t you doing a lot of environmental harm with so many students flying to these countries?

Yes, the travel of the volunteers absolutely creates a lot of emissions. That is part of the reason why in 2020  we set out and created a Carbon offsetting to achieve carbon neutrality as an organization while also supporting livelihoods in partner communities with new economic opportunities. 

Consider this impact: 

• In Honduras, we've partnered with over 30 farmers and 14 communities in a planting initiative that has offset our carbon emissions and supported reforestation efforts.
• To date, we’ve planted more than 25,000 trees in Honduras, and we’re scaling this to support local economies.
• We've established a plant nursery with the capacity to produce over 15,000 wood and fruit tree seedlings annually.

Financial Concerns 

At Global Brigades, we value transparency. Every dollar is accounted for, and Donation Goals are where they are to support our work on the ground.  Our global nonprofit has been audited by independent financial service organizations since 2009 and our Chief Empowerment Officer will regularly provide a full detailed presentation of our organization's budget to any interested Chapter. 

Critique: Why do volunteers need to fundraise so much?

Program Donation Goals cover airfare, ground transportation, lodging, food, interpreters, logistics staff, and Program supplies for medical clinics or infrastructure projects. On top of that, it funds a year-round team of local professionals to perpetuate the work between volunteer groups.  Donations only cover a small amount of advocacy or marketing work to continue growing our programs as most of our growth is spread word of mouth. 

Here is the current percentage breakdown of where donations go.

Grants help us supplement the quality of sustainable development programs we implement year-round in our partner communities. You don’t need to take our word for it, though. We’re happy to share our budget for more details on how resources are spent.

You’ll find that we operate with little to no surplus, with funds recirculated back into the work. Global Brigades is a recognized platinum 501c3 nonprofit on GuideStar with annual audited financial statements.

Critique: Isn’t it better to just send money?

Some donors prefer to contribute financially, sometimes to specific projects like a water system, patient referral case, or business loan. We welcome donations like this, but we also believe in the importance of collaboration and mutual empowerment as part of our Holistic Model.

Our organization is built on collaboration and the exchange of ideas. If we operated on donations only, that exchange wouldn’t happen. Most of the community members we work with are unable to travel outside of their communities, let alone their countries. Working within these communities reduces feelings of isolation.

Participating in the work on the ground also allows student volunteers to see exactly where their funds are going and meet people they wouldn’t otherwise.

Critique: Where is the money going to?  

A full breakdown of the global impact and financial reports are included in our annual reports. Transparency is a driving value of Global Brigadesto and is why we are leadership team is so happy to go over our budget. Again, our financials are audited by a third-party financial service company.  

We do not have an office in North America or Europe. Our marketing expenses are less than 2% of our total budget, and even those funds are used for program advocacy. This allows us to continue doing our work on the ground. 

Final Thoughts

There are layers of complexity involved in international volunteer work. Concerns about sustainability and impact are valid, and we pride ourselves on operating from a place of transparency. 

When rooted in a desire for positive change, critique only strengthens our mission to provide ethical solutions. We want our volunteers to feel comfortable supporting our organization and understand the commitment involved in joining us.

We rely on volunteers to support our long-term goals of improving livelihoods and remain open to an ongoing dialogue to maintain those connections. If you’re ready to join us, consider getting involved. 

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