Why pay to volunteer

iVolunteer is a non-profit but we still need to recover costs otherwise it will close down. The service fee that we charge goes towards the cost of finding and managing a placement. This includes the costs towards hiring professional staff, hiring office space, travel costs and other organizational overheads.

Below is an excerpt from a book on international volunteering that helps to explain the necessity of a fee.

HOW TO LIVE YOUR DREAM OF VOLUNTEERING OVERSEAS
by Joseph Collins, Stefano DeZerega, and Zahara Heckscher published by Penguin Putnam, Inc, 2002.

"Prospective volunteers are surprised to learn that many programs charge their volunteers a fee to participate. At first, this can seem ridiculous - Why should you pay money to work for free? Aren't you already forgoing income you could be making? Here are a few things to keep in mind while trying to understand why the vast majority of programmes charge international volunteers a fee:

	The local organizations and projects with which you volunteer overseas have limited resources and are seldom able to subsidize your trip or cover the costs of hosting you. If they did have the financial resources to pay an international volunteer, it would almost certainly be more beneficial and cost-effective to hire a local person instead, someone who already knows the language and culture and is likely to stick around.
	Identifying appropriate host organizations overseas and working with them is time-consuming, takes resources and requires an experienced and professional staff.
	The process of preparing, training, orientation, transporting, looking for accommodation, and supervising volunteers is not cheap. The costs of recruiting volunteers, producing literature, answering the phones, sending mailings, developing a website and interviewing potential volunteers are significant.