A Filipino friend planted the seed of an idea in my brain.  The seed took root and now it's growing.  It's tendrils are reaching for the sun, and its roots scramble for nourishment in the damp earth.  One day it could be a mighty kauri tree.  But that day is not today.  But maybe one day... 

The idea was this: Start my own volunteer organisation.

I think my friend envisaged some sort of webpage with ties to this site - which has attracted up to 120 people a day.  I am forever forwarding people onto some volunteer organisations and warning them about others.  Why not clip the ticket on the way through, earn some money, and support myself so that I could do the work that I love in Africa and the Philippines as opposed to doing jobs that I merely like in Korea?

'tis a good idea.  Such a good idea in fact that it has already grown into something bigger.  Much bigger.

Here is what my organisation MeaningfulVolunteer.com is all about.

What's in a name?
My organisation will be called "Meaningful Volunteer" and have an associated website MeaningfulVolunteer.com. 

Why "Meaningful"?  Because it is my belief that all volunteerism should be meaningful.  I've seen too much pointless and even damaging volunteering for my organisation to be anything but meaningful.

Why "Volunteer"?  Note firstly that it is "volunteer" and not "volunteers".  It is also my belief that everyone of us has the potential in themselves to have a real and meaningful affect on the world

Meaningful Projects
Too often I've seen well meaning volunteers doing meaningless activities that had no practically no impact at all on ending world poverty.  One poor girl spent her entire time at Buduburam Refugee Camp sitting in a classroom as a "teacher's aide".  All she really did was observe.  Mind you, I wasn't that much better myself, but I least I shouted at someone.

MeaningfulVolunteer.com is only going to have meaningful projects.  But what the heck is a "meaningful project" anyway?

Lemme start with what it is not.  It is not volunteer tourism.  If you want to go a developing country and have pictures that say "Oh!  Oh!  Look at me!  I'm digging a hole!  Aren't I cool and globally aware?!", then there are plenty of organisations out there who offer this type of service.  If you want to be a volunteer tourist (which is pretty cool) then go volunteer with them.

If you want to have a meaningful impact on people's lives, if you want to join the fight in ending extreme poverty by 2015, if you want that warm fuzzy feeling you get when you know you've done something good, then volunteer with MeaningfulVoluteer.com.

What is meaningful project?  I touched on this idea way back here when I was starting GrassRootsUganda.com.  An updated version of my rather dodgy diagram is shown to the left.

A meaningful project has the following steps:

1. Do something!
   Do something!  Anything!
   
   
   
2. Would this of happened if you weren't here?
   This is a challenging question that every volunteer needs to ask.  If it wouldn't have happened without you, then what's the point of you being here? 
   
   A classic example of this was a aforementioned friend of mine who sat and watched classes all day.  The classes would of carried on their merry may without her presence.  I'm sure she wanted to volunteer meaningfully, but it just didn't happen.
   
   At the heart of MeaningfulVolutneer.com will be the idea of moving a project forward.  Each project will have an overall goal and paths to achieving that goal.  More on this in a bit.
   
   The question of efficiency also arises here.  If you can make a process more efficient - a better way of educating children, a well run NGO, correctly used mosquito nets - then you would have also contributed meaningfully.
   
   
   
3. Will it carry on when your gone?
   Another hard questions gets to the very heart of volunteerism.  Are we there to give handouts to the poor?  Or are we there to give them the tools to help themselves? A cliché you could throw in here is that it is a hand-up, not a hand-out.
   
   So - for it to truly meaningful - the project must be handed over the locals and they run the projects themselves.
   
   

GrassRootsUganda.com would not have happened if I wasn't in Uganda.  Is it carrying on now that I have left?  Well, kinda.  We've moved the internet stock to here in Korea and things are ticking along over there.  It would be great if only Ugandans were running the business, but they still need some Mzungu (white person) help.  So GrassRootsUganda.com is not quite meaningful volunteerism, but it's close.

Project (not themed) based placements
A typical volunteer organisation offers options such as education, environment, school building and maintenance and so on.  Each of these projects revolved around a theme. 

MeaningfulfulVolunteer.com projects will be based around, well, projects. 

The proposal I putting together for Romblon is a great example of this.  Let's take a look at a few aspects of that proposal and see how they could be project based, and how a volunteer might contribute meaningful to each aspect.

Mangrove Nursery
The ultimate goal of this project is to replenish the mangroves in and around Romblon.  A big goal to say the least!

This needs to be break down into discrete steps.  The first and most important one is research.  Why did the mangroves disappear in the first place?  What's to stop people chopping them down again?  Might we look at other sources for cooking food?  What about efficient word burners?

Any volunteer who answers these questions would of contributed meaningfully. 

The next step might be construction of the nursery itself.  A volunteer with construction experience could contribute meaningfully here.  We want a world-class nursery here, not just a bunch of seeds dumped in a pot and watered every now and then. 

Once the nursery is completed, we could commence training on mangrove management.  What's the best way to plant a mangrove?  Another meaningful role for a volunteer.

The planted mangroves would also need to be measured and counted.  Are they dying?  Growing?  Why?  Why not?  A million-and-one transferable skills here.

I could go on, but let's move to another project.

Fish-paste business
The ultimate goal of this project is to have a self-sustaining business 100% run by the people of Romblon.

A well run business needs great financial records.  How do we know if it is self-sustaining if we don't know if it is turning a profit?  The records that need to be kept aren't hard.  There not rocket-surgery.  A simple cash-in cash-out paper based system would be fine, at least to start with.  Just about any type of volunteer could contribute meaningful here.  An accountant would be even better, but not required.

This project is just crying out for fresh ideas.  I really liked the idea talked about in this talk.  The malaria nets were sold by Kenyans in as style modeled on the Tupperware model.  i.e. they had malaria net parties!  Why not implement a similar franchise model for the fish-paste?  Set yourself up some agents, tell them that if they find markets for your products then they'll get a few pesos for every jar of fish-paste sold in that market.  Any volunteer that could get this not-too-complex idea going would of contributed meaningful.

Education
While the Romblon project is focused on a daycare centre, I want to talk about education in schools because it is one of my pet peeves.

I myself was a school teacher in the Philippines for six months.  They were among the best six months of my life.  Was it meaningful though?  Nope.  Kids would have been educated even if I wasn't there so the Meaningful Test fails at step one. 

I think a much more meaningful contribution starts with a little science and stats.  A standardized test should be given to all schools that will have volunteers placed in them.  Then, you try something.  A good start would be tutorial groups for the students that are struggling.  Or maybe a food program for the kids (which has been shown to increase the learning capacity of a child).  Or something else. 

You then repeat the test and compare results. 

You might even want to try different things in different schools are compare results.  Which technique was better?  The food program?  Or the tutorial groups?  Checking out the stats will reveal the answer.

While the math and the generating of the tests is tricky, this is not where the bulk of the work needs to be done.  The bulk of the work is administrating the tests, finding out which kids are malnourished, which kids are struggling, running the tutorial groups and so on.  A truly kick-butt idea would be to help the farmers increase their food yields with techniques like drip-irrigation  on the condition that a percentage of their crops will be used to feed the local school children^*.

A million-and-one meaningful contributions can be made when you start thinking like this.

Update: I have expanded on these ideas here.

So there are just three ways that you can volunteer meaningfully.  And - if you do it right from the start and keep the end in mind, then there is no reason why you can't replicate the system again and again.  The mangrove system for example could be easily replicated in Dumangas.

Market Based
There has been two great books recently published on the subject of poverty.  One is Jeffery Sachs' The End of Poverty, and the other is William Easterly's White Man's Burden.  Both books have excellent - and sometimes contradictory things - to say.

One of Easterly's main points is that a much better model for aid would be a market based model.  The current model - many agencies competing for the same goal and all sharing in the glory if one of them succeeds - is the least effective.  The trouble with the market based model in developing countries is - of course - the poor have no money in which to influence the market!  Easterly suggests a chit-type system where agencies compete for chits that the poor are in control of.  The more chits you get, the more funding you get.  If you do a crap job and don't get any chits, then you go out of business.  If you do a great job and get many chips, then you'll get more funds.  Ta da!  An aid market controlled by the poor.

It's an interesting idea.

I want to do something similar with MeangingfulVolunteer.com.  I want to live and die by the market.  If MeangingfulVolunteer.com is not producing meaningful results, then it will die a horrible death. 

I am going to do this by splitting the fees into two components. 

The first portion is paid by the volunteer and will not be enough to cover expenses. 

The second portion will come from sites like this: globalgiving.com.  globalgiving.com is based around the idea of a market.  Organisations that deliver results tend to be in better positions to receive future funds.  globalgiving.com is also a project based site which matches in well with MeaningfulVolunteer.com's model.  If MeaningfulVolunteer.com delivers results, then we'll get more funds with which to deliver more results.

It is no doubt a risky business model and could go horribly wrong.  But the model also underpins the very essence of MeaningfulVolunteer.com.  If we're not being meaningful, then we shouldn't be doing what we are dong.

Marketing
I'm crap at marketing.  No doubt about it.  Some ideas are still percolating through though.

The typical volunteer you get is a young female North American student.  I've come across more of these type of volunteers than any else.  It is but one of the reasons I keep volunteering...

How could you tap into this demographic?  One radical idea I had was to do a university tour around the states giving presentations to student groups.  I should be able to keep costs quite low by crashing on the couches of all the wonderful people I've met on my travels.

Much thought still needs to go into marketing.

All is up for change
My ideas about this organisation are changing daily.  So, everything you see here might dramatically change by the time I get things going.  I recently watched a couple of videos on the excellent www.ted.com site that completely flipped my ideas on HIV and malaria (see here and here).  The videos really brought home to me what it truly means to be do meaningful work. 

meaningfulvolunteer.com has got me excited.  It is radical and life changing.  The life that is going to most changed is my own.  The ideas are churning.  Some of them I have mentioned here.  Some are still in the embryonic stage.

I'm going to further develop these ideas while I am here in Korea.  I'm then going to start trying out these ideas during my two year stay in the Philippines.  I plan to arrive in the Philippines with a well thought out business model, and leave the Philippines with a well run business.

Exciting times ahead!

Feedback on this idea is most welcome.

Wanna help in a real and tangible way?

Then visit GrassRootsUganda.com and purchase some crafts made by Ugandan ladies.  100% of the profits are returned to the ladies