Ramping up: ivpa establishes standards of excellence for international volunteering

Within its first few years IVPA was chiefly focused on providing benefits to its members. By the year 2000, it had grown to represent about 50 organisation that in total sent some 15,000 military volunteer abroad each year. Contempt its luminary progress, nevertheless, IVPA faced some strategic challenges that prevented it from realizing its full potentiality.

Revitalizing its Vision

The electric current growth spurt in international volunteerism, spawned in part by the tragedies of Sep 11, the 2004 Asian tidal wave, and Hurricane Katrina, prompted IVPA’s leading to re-evaluate the role of IVPA and the possibilities for its hereafter. With the sheer figure of new military volunteer options emerging, and the resulting confusion among consumers regarding the quality of programme, it was becoming clear to IVPA that the need for its organisation was never more critical.

“There was a sense that we needed to get ahead of the curve,” says Stefanie Rubin, IVPA’s executive director director. “After some horror stories in the U.K., the authorities there started creating criterion for volunteering. We wanted to work with practitioners in the field to standardize the industry before job arise.”

In 2006 IVPA executive director board member Steve Rosenthal—the laminitis of Cross-Cultural Solutions, a non-profit organization that has been operating international volunteer programs since 1995—felt this was the time to revitalize IVPA. “Volunteer organizations have a responsibility to take safety and program quality very seriously,” says Rosenthal, “and the public needs a way of knowing which organizations meet the highest levels of program quality. IVPA serves this role at a time when it is more important than ever.”

He recruited Rubin, a former Cross-Cultural Solutions staff member, who went on to co-found her own international non-profit called “The Humanitarian Project,” with the idea of surveying IVPA’s members to gauge the level of interest in restructuring IVPA as a standards-based organization.

Rubin’s reaction was favorable. As a past volunteer with special education students and orphans in India, Thailand, and Peru and having interacted with many prospective volunteers in her position at Cross-Cultural Solutions, she felt there was a need for an accrediting organization that could provide unbiased information and resources to individuals and institutions interested in volunteering.

“Particularly because the field was growing so rapidly, it seemed there needed to be a centralized, governing body for short-term programs,” Rubin says. “Most volunteers have contact through e-mail, mail, or a website, and sometimes the phone, but often not through in-person meetings so there is an added concern.”

Tasked with surveying about 50 volunteer organizations over the period of a month, Rubin got a crash course in the needs, concerns, and interests of the field. She then presented the information to IVPA’s executive committee members at the time: Rosenthal, Amigos de los Américas director of volunteer administration Glenn Bayron, and then director of the Foundation for Sustainable Development Alicia Robb. They all supported strengthening IVPA, and Rubin was offered the opportunity to assume the role of director in September 2006.

With the assistance of two new executive committee members, WorldTeach executive director Helen Claire Sievers and Globe Aware executive director and founder Kimberly Haley-Coleman, Rubin hit the ground running. She started focusing on building committees that could help her determine the organization’s future direction.

Moving forward

IVPA has restructured itself to become the seal of approval for volunteer organizations meeting its high quality standards. Its developments in 2007 have included new and much stricter membership guidelines, an improved 7-page membership application, an updated logo, and a new website. Rubin says even something as seemingly simple as a more rigorous application form has proven to be “a great exercise for new members.” She says, “It forces them to think about their own standards and practices, as well as what some of their shortcomings are. One organization, for example, realized it did not have an emergency evacuation plan in place.”

As another key initiative, IVPA formed a committee of experienced members to develop practices and principles, which are now available on IVPA’s new website. Whereas its previous site was mainly used for program placements, with the robust search engines now available for such purposes, IVPA wanted to distinguish its new site as an authoritative space for providing information and training materials to consumers considering volunteering abroad.

Rubin describes IVPA’s website as a one-stop resource center for anyone interested in volunteering internationally. It addresses key issues that prospective volunteers should consider, such as health and safety, the cost of programs and how the money is being used, the impact on local host communities, and awareness of programs’ philosophies and affiliations.

IVPA also serves as a community for international volunteer program representatives to share knowledge and information, develop new skills, and collaborate on cost-saving initiatives. Rubin explains that it is particularly useful for organizations interested in creating international opportunities. “We feel IVPA has a responsibility to help new volunteer organizations start off on the right foot. We want to help programs to operate to the same high standards our members abide by,” says Rubin.

One annual event that helps unite old and new members and provide them with training is IVPA’s annual conference, which will be held in New York City on Nov. 14, 2007. “We expect that [the] conference will be our strongest to date. We have sessions planned on how to make your volunteer program inclusive of persons with disabilities, volunteer crisis management, ethical practices for marketing and public relations, and the list is still growing,” says Rubin.

For more information about IVPA, contact or visit www.volunteerinternational.org.