Press Kit_2016

Press Kit
2016

International Volunteering:
an overpriced exploitation?
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Foreword
O
rganised international
volunteering lacks
transparency, is
overpriced overpriced and focuses on selling
based on pity and guilt in the
western world!
Posters displaying starving children
try to attract students and young
adults to teach for several weeks in
a small African village. These and
similar advertisements are used by
major agencies to increase their
sales when it comes to
international volunteering. What
remains are often emotionally
distraught children at the site and a
big hole in the volunteer’s wallet.
The only thing which can be taken
for granted is the resulting
disappointment for the volunteer
about the little to no possibilities to
add value to the project during the
placement.
Currently there are only two ways to
arrange a volunteer placement: an
expensive booking via a travel
agency or an extensive online
search for a suitable program that
offers self-organised visits. Based
on my own experience, with an
agency I pay more and for services
that I didn´t need, while searching
by myself was very time
consuming. Both too often yield a
great potential for disappointment.
I would like to introduce a third
option today. A way that provides
highly motivated and qualified
volunteers with an easy, safe and
transparent way to get to their
destination - Volunteer World.
This press kit will provide a
guideline to understand why
Volunteer World´s vision and
expertise will revolutionise the
market for international
volunteering. If you would like to
support our innovative concept, we
invite you to get in touch with us.
Yours sincerely,
Pascal Christiaens
December 2015, Düsseldorf
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Solution
Let’s make change happen
Volunteer World is a globally active platform with a strong network of volunteers
and international organisations. Volunteer Work started with one big idea:
International volunteering on a new scale
The idea of Innovation has
become the Volunteer World
Brand Essence, and together with
the three values
Transparency
• transparency,
• fairness and
• worldwide access
Volunteer World aims to achieve
its mission to create price and
quality transparency in the
volunteer market. This way
Volunteer World will enable more
people to have a life changing
volunteer experience.
Fairness
Innovation
Worldwide
Access
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How it works
Volunteering has never been so easy
Social Projects
Volunteers
Comparability of Volunteer Programs
Online application management
Secure money processing
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Business Model
Our business model
Core Business
Complementary Services
Volunteers
Crowdfunding
Travel
Insurances
Success Business
commission based
on program fees
Flight search
Social Projects
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Digital Audience
Loyal, international & engaged*
Engagement
80,000
20,000
5:20
average monthly
page views
average monthly
uniques
average time spent
per visit in min
Visitor Distribution
23,000 15,000 475 112
* as of February, 2016
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At a glance
Get to know us
Founding Date 29.01.2015
Release Website 01.06.2015
Team
What is
Volunteer World?
Mission
Social Impact
14 team members
Volunteer World is an independent platform that connects
volunteers and social projects on a global scale. Based on
the latest web technology, the platform offers a userfriendly
experience. Volunteers can explore, compare and
apply to social projects directly based on personal
preferences concerning location and tasks.
Volunteer World’s mission is to have lasting positive
impact on the volunteer market by providing cost and
service transparency of volunteer programs as well as
significantly simplifying the search and application
process.
Volunteer World believes that fairness, transparency, and
independence are key to creating sustainable positive
change in the volunteer market. The cost transparent
nature of Volunteer World unveils a fair price level for
volunteer programs, while simultaneously equaliseing the
opportunities for grass root projects, agencies and large
volunteer organisations to attract volunteers.
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Experience
The Volunteer World experience
In line with the brand promise „Volunteering has never been so easy“, the design of
the platform ensures that every volunteer can benefit from the Volunteer World
experience. Volunteer World enables volunteers to find a volunteer placement that
matches their budget and expectations without any trouble.
For Social Projects
For Volunteers
• Reach thousands of volunteers
• Multi-project administration
• All applications and enquirers in a
single place. No more clutter, lost
emails or document sharing
• No registration fee - No fixed
costs
• Direct contact with the social
project of their choice
• Compare hundreds of programs
on a single website
• Filter volunteer programs based
on personal price, location and
activity preferences
• Easy understanding of the value
for money ratio of a program and
reduce the risk to overpay for the
program
• Easy step by step application
process and secure payment
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Co-Founders
Pascal Christiaens Managing Director
Pascal is the Managing Director of Volunteer World. He
has his fingers on the collective Volunteer World pulse
as he is in charge of usability & design. Being a true
global citizen, Pascal has travelled extensively and
visited many social projects across Asia, Europe &
Central /South America.
Felix Rädel Head of Business Development
Felix is the Head of Business Development at Volunteer
World. He is responsible for developing partnerships
and making sure we have happy volunteers around the
world. Felix's volunteer abroad stay in Namibia marks
the first step on the journey towards launching
Volunteer World.
Christian Wenzel Head of Information Technology
Christian is the Head of Information Technology at
Volunteer World. He makes sure that the strategy of
Volunteer World is incorporated in the IT development.
Travelling extensively in Southeast Asia & Africa has
sparked Christians passion for international
volunteering.
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First Steps
Everything began in Africa
“Why should I pay an agency to volunteer abroad?” This simple question asked
by Felix in 2006 marks the first step towards Volunteer World. When planning
his volunteer abroad stay, Felix decided to arrange everything by himself.
However, getting into direct contact with a project turned out to be more
complicated than he expected. This flood of information was followed by the
realisation that there had to be a better way.
“
I realised that there is room for improvement when it comes to connecting
social projects and volunteers.
- Felix Rädel (Co-Founder)
After returning from his volunteer abroad stay in Namibia as a tennis coach,
he founded the blog “Team Social Work“ to share his experiences and make
it easier for future volunteers to find a volunteer program by themselves.
Nine years, hundreds of volunteer contacts and a lot of experience later
Pascal & Felix decided to take their blog project to a professional level.
Inspired by “Team Social Work” and supported by Christian as the new Head
of IT Management, their vision became reality with the launch of their new
platform Volunteer World in April 2015.
Through a close cooperation with social projects across the globe, support
of Business Angels from the IT Industry the platform is developed to be
user-friendly, combining easy functionality which allows volunteers to
compare hundreds of programs with just a few clicks, direct online
application and secure money processing.
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Testimonials
We ❤ this volunteer platform
“
International volunteering
is an integral part of our
work because we believe
that there are many people
in the world who know
certain things better than
us and if they could share
their experiences and
expertise with us it will be
great help for our project.
- Bharat Bhushan, Indien
Projektmanager
“
Education gives people in
poverty the skills to not
only earn money but also
improve their basic daily
knowledge. It is a
sustainable tool that does
not only help someone for
one day but rather a
lifetime and can be passed
down to generations
- Brad Brasseur (29), Canadian
Volunteer in Peru
“
Volunteering and traveling in South-East
Asia was a great experience that I will
never forget in in my whole life.
Hanna (26),
German Volunteer in Vietnam
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Steffi Kohl
Head of Marketing & PR
Ronsdorfer Str. 77a, 40233 Düsseldorf
+49 (0) 211 - 4160 4983
steffi.kohl@volunteerworld.com
www.volunteerworld.com
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