Fundraising is a crucial component of all Operation Groundswell programs. While our main mission is to provide volunteer-travel opportunities for young people to the developing world, we feel the need to support the amazing local NGOs and charities we partner with.
For this reason, OG asks all participants to fundraise $1000. While the amount may seem challenging to some, all participants are given fundraising tips and support in our acceptance package. Most participants easily raise the funds through family, friends and planned events. Past participants continually tell us that supporting local organizations has been one of the most rewarding aspects of their OG experience.
After input from last year’s alumni, OG has decided to divide our fundraising in 2012 as follows:
In-Country Projects
OG has a long history of directly supporting in-country projects. From orphanage dormitory construction in Ghana to building houses in Cambodia, our groups have always left a lasting impact. This year, we have decided to allow participants to decide between community-requested group projects and personal projects discovered on the ground. Information about several community-requested group projects specific to each destination region will be sent out in the acceptance packages. Employing a consensus-based decision-making model, each group will decide upon which projects to fund once in country, whether they be major group projects or smaller personal projects. Any funds not dispersed by the group in-country will go towards the OG Project Fund, a communal pool that all OG alumni can submit proposals to after the summer. Incredible projects have been submitted in previous years and we encourage participants to think about proposals while abroad.
Carbon Offsetting:
There is no doubt that running trips around the world has an effect on the environment. Round-trip flights and in-country transportation undoubtedly leave a large carbon footprint. If our volunteers are going to fly, we want to encourage some sense of environmental responsibility. For this reason, we decided to carbon offset all of our programs. PlanetAir, a Canadian organization regarded as one of the leaders in the industry by the Suzuki Foundation, 
has low-impact, verified and well-monitored projects. All of the projects we support are assessed against the Gold Standard’s sustainable development criteria. We chose this because, unlike other volunteer abroad organizations, we realize that climate change is very real and is already having drastic effects on communities we work with.
Admin
OG runs a lean non-for-profit. Only 5% goes towards the administration of funds, assisting participant fundraising and bank transfer fee’s. The remaining 85% of all donations go directly to amazing projects and 10% goes to offset the carbon footprint left by the numerous flights that our participants require.This allows us to stay accountable to our funders, participants and community partners.
