Operation Groundswell was founded on the principle that we were going to be different. Since 2006, we have built our reputation on being accountable to this vision.
Our vision states that we are a non-profit, environmentally conscious organization that benefits our participants and our partner communities, through volunteer travel.
Here’s how it works…
Non-Profit:
Unlike most companies where generating profit is the ultimate goal, Operation Groundswell is not owned by anyone and all profits are re-invested in our organization through year-round activities, future trip planning and modest salaries. Although we utilize business principles and generate profit to maintain a sustainable enterprise, our aim is to be a public service organization. By law, we have to think about our participants’ best interests not our bank account. By signing up for an Operation Groundswell program, you can be assured that no one is pocketing your hard-earned money. We did this because we’re students, like you, and we were fed up with big-box volunteer organizations.
Environmentally Conscious:
There is no doubt that running trips around the world has an effect on the environment. Round-trip flights and in-country transportation undoubtedly leaves a large carbon footprint. In our opinion, students are going to go overseas to volunteer anyway so they might as well do it responsibly. For this reason, we decided to carbon offset all of our programs. PlanetAir, a Canadian organization, 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 did 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. A portion of each volunteer’s fundraised money will go towards this as we feel it will make everyone feel more responsible and committed to being environmentally conscious.
Serving Our Volunteers:
At Operation Groundswell, our participants always come first. We are a volunteer travel organization that provides group experiences in the developing world. We employ a communal approach by fostering consensus-based decision making as well as focusing on aspects of personal growth and independence. Most of our trip leaders are past participants and we prefer to promote internally as example by some alumni growing from leaders to coordinators.
Serving Our Partner Communities:
All of our group projects are community-requested. Unlike many large Western organizations that create strategic development plans and enforce them throughout the developing world, Operation Groundswell seeks committed partners to provide us with their long-term plans for the future. All of our projects involve local NGOs rather than well-funded Western NGOs. Our aim is always to create long-term relationships by creating a sense of responsibility from our partners because we know that while everyone is excited during the summer, successful projects must remain sustainable even when our groups are gone.
