Globalteer is different to most organisations placing volunteers. As a UK registered charity (registration number 1119706), Globalteer is legally required to ensure that all monies received are used to promote our charitable objectives. We achieve this in two ways:

• We keep all our costs to a minimum so that as much money as possible reaches the volunteer projects and the needy communities we work with. Visit the "Where your money goes" and "About Us" pages for a more detailed breakdown of how we invest donations. We also actively encourage you to check and ask questions of other volunteer organisations to compare the required donation/fees and how these monies are allocated to benefit your chosen project. Some major organisations charge a considerable fee to place volunteers and not a single penny goes directly to support the project. Some are purely profit-making commercial companies who act as volunteer travel agents. That’s where Globalteer is very different!

• We are very selective about the projects we work with, and only work with effective and worthwhile projects that we believe are making a long term and sustainable difference to the communities we work with.

In addition to the above, we provide full in-country support so that your stay is as enjoyable and rewarding for you as it is valuable for the project you work with.

The donation paid by volunteers is not actually 'paying to work' as some may think. The overseas organisation where you will be working is likely to have precious few resources and those resources are used to fulfill their objectives. They will not likely have spare resources to cover the cost of hosting volunteers such as accommodation, food, transport or providing a volunteer coordinator to support volunteers overseas.

A small amount of every volunteer donation goes towards our minimal administration and governance costs. In our latest accounts, 81.4% of the total resources expended went directly to support the projects and charitable activities.

As a registered charity, Globalteer is legally required to ensure that all monies received is used to promote the charitable objectives, so you can be sure that the maximum amount possible is going directly to the projects we work with. You can read more on the 'where your money goes' page.

Your security is really important to us so we use HSBC's renowned secure payment server to process all payments. It is so secure that Globalteer does not even see your credit card or bank details, only the bank does! Your money is therefore as safe as you would expect it to be with one of the world’s leading banks, and of course they must abide by the strictest security regulations. In addition, many credit card payments are automatically insured – check with your card issuing bank for further details.

Globalteer volunteers come from a huge range of backgrounds, nationalities and ages. The majority of volunteers come from the UK, USA and Australia with significant numbers from Canada, Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand.

The majority of volunteers come alone, and then meet up with existing volunteers at the project, although most of our projects can accommodate couples and shared rooms are available at all project locations. Globalteer attracts a greater range of ages than many volunteer organisations due to the generally higher standard of accommodation we offer, and due to our charitable status. At our Cambodia Kids Project, for example, half our volunteers are over 30 years of age, which makes for a really good mix of friendly people with lots of different experiences to share.

Our volunteers come from a very wide range of working backgrounds too, including students, retired people, teachers, business people, medical professionals, artists, and those taking a career break. For most of our placements enthusiasm, personality, positive attitude and common sense are more important than your professional background! To read about the experiences of past volunteers go to our volunteer stories page.

We do not provide financial support to volunteers. Although once your application has been accepted we provide you with ideas on how to raise funds for your volunteer experience.

To promote sustainable development for the benefit of the public by the relief of poverty and the improvement of the conditions of life in socially and disadvantaged communities. Sustainable development means “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

"To promote humane behaviour towards animals by providing appropriate care, protection, treatment and security for animals which are in need of care and attention by reason of sickness, maltreatment, poor circumstances or ill usage and to educate the public in matters pertaining to animal welfare in general and the prevention of cruelty and suffering among animals."

Globalteer wants to attract the best volunteers to our projects, which does not mean just the wealthiest! And because we keep our running costs as low as possible it means we can charge lower prices to our volunteers than other organisations, whilst still passing on substantial donations to the projects we work with.

Furthermore, given that we work in education, childcare and animal care, some of our best potential volunteers are teachers, care workers, those working with animals and students who are looking to work in these fields - which are not usually the highest paid jobs around. We want people from all backgrounds to be able to work at our projects so we deliberately do not charge the high prices of other organisations.