Fundraise for your Adventure in Service!

You are needed.

When you serve with Global Volunteers, you are bringing vital assistance, meaningful support, and essential services to our partner communities. The work you do as a volunteer can be a unique and transformative experience. We are here to help you fundraise for your service program contribution, so you can get to the next step – helping kids and their families!

This Fundraising Resource Hub is here to get you started!

Fundraising FAQs

The only limit is your imagination! Our Fundraising Toolkit is filled with suggestions and success stories to help inspire you.

If you are using the Give Lively fundraising platform, any donation made to your page will go directly to Global Volunteers. If you are fundraising independently, you can ask your donors to send their gifts directly to Global Volunteers or gather your funds and write a check yourself. Please make sure that all check donations are made payable to Global Volunteers and include your name in the memo line.

As soon as you have registered for your service program and paid your deposit, you can begin fundraising. Give yourself plenty of time and keep your activities and outreach organized.

When you use Global Volunteers’ Give Lively fundraising page, you may only fundraise for your service program contribution. All other expenses, including your flight, visas, and personal expenses, must be raised elsewhere.

This is very common! Many nonprofits use Give Lively for fundraising, and you may have donated through the Give Lively platform in support of another organization. Click “reset password” to get started and make note of your email and password for future reference. You’ll be able to see your personal fundraising and donation history from your Give Lively dashboard once you log in.

First and foremost, donations to Give Lively are tax-deductible to your donors! Since the funds go directly to Global Volunteers, donors receive a tax benefit for supporting you. Give Lively is an easy way to share your story and keep track of your supporters. Also, fundraising with Give Lively moves your balance due deadline from 90 days to 30 days before your program start date.

That’s your deposit. Your service program contribution includes the deposit you made during registration; this is your first commitment to your adventure in service. We want to give your fundraising page a little boost to get started – which will inspire other donors to participate!

You got this! Fundraising can be as simple as sharing your passion and excitement for your service program with your friends and family. Read through our Fundraising Toolkit for inspiration, ideas, templates, and examples.

We’ve created a tool to help you with that. Check out the Template Booklet to see examples of successful fundraising pages, access letter templates, and download photos specific to your service program location.

Great work, you are a fundraising powerhouse! Any funds raised over your total service program contribution amount can either be applied to a future service program or donated to Global Volunteers. Check out our Terms and Conditions for more details.

There could be two reasons for this. The first could be if you received donations via check and they have not yet been processed and added as “offline” donations to your Give Lively page.

The second reason could be if some of your Give Lively donors did not cover their credit card processing fees. Give Lively does not charge any fees for the unlimited use of their fundraising platform. However, our credit card processor, Stripe, charges a small transaction fee for each donation. The standard domestic rate is 2.2% + $.30 per transaction. So, for example, if someone donates $100, the transaction fee would be $2.50.  If the donor elects not to cover the transaction fee, then Global Volunteer only receives the balance after the transaction fee has been removed.

Fundraising Terms and Conditions

Fundraising:

A volunteer-fundraiser can initiate their fundraising webpage at any time. The volunteer fundraiser can begin raising funds via Global Volunteers’ web-based fundraising tool upon completion of the following:

  • Global Volunteers has approved the fundraising page.
  • Volunteer fundraiser has submitted a Service Program Registration and Agreement; and
  • Volunteer fundraiser has submitted a nonrefundable $350 deposit.

The volunteer-fundraiser webpage will remain active until the volunteer-fundraiser requests deactivation or Global Volunteers deactivates the page for lack of fundraising activity. All monies raised via the volunteer-fundraiser’s webpage will be applied either to offset the volunteer-fundraiser’s service program contribution or directly to Global Volunteers’ general fund, pursuant to these Terms and Conditions.

The volunteer-fundraiser should raise/contribute the total service program contribution, less the amount of the initial deposit, no later than 60 days prior to the scheduled arrival date of the service program. However, if the volunteer-fundraiser is unable to raise the full amount by that date, his/her place on the service program will be held provided s/he has raised/contributed the following percentages no later than the indicated days prior to the scheduled service program arrival date.

  • 50% by 60 days
  • 75% by 45 days
  • 100% by 30 days

In the event the volunteer-fundraiser does not reach his/her fundraising goal and/or is unable to participate on the original scheduled service program, any monies received via the web-based fundraising tool, including the $350 deposit, can be applied to a subsequent service program for which the volunteer-fundraiser submits a Service Program Registration and Agreement. The subsequent service program arrival date can be no later than 24 months from the date the volunteer-fundraiser’s fundraising webpage was activated.

Any funds received in excess of the service program contribution can be applied towards the volunteer-fundraiser’s participation on a future service program, provided the volunteer-fundraiser submits a Service Program Registration and Agreement within 12 months of the original service program arrival date. (Note: Global Volunteers generally publishes service program dates 18 to 24 months in advance.) Any excess funds not applied to a future service program will be considered a general donation to Global Volunteers. Attempted donations that are lost, late, misdirected, incorrect, garbled, or incompletely received, for any reason including by reason of hardware, software, browser, or network failure, malfunction, or congestion, will not be credited toward the volunteer-fundraiser’s service program contribution.

Cancellation:

If the volunteer-fundraiser cancels his/her initial service program participation for any reason, the funds may be transferred, less applicable transfer fees, to a subsequent service program that is scheduled to begin within 24 months from the date the volunteer-fundraiser’s fundraising webpage was activated, provided:

  • The volunteer-fundraiser notified Global Volunteers of his/her cancellation in writing no later than 30 days prior to the scheduled arrival date of the initial service program, and
  • The initial service program was not full at the time the volunteer-fundraiser notified Global Volunteers of his/her intent to cancel, and
  • The volunteer-fundraiser submits a Service Program Registration and Agreement for a subsequent program, and
  • The subsequent program is not full at the time the Service Program Registration and Agreement is submitted.

If Global Volunteers cancels the volunteer-fundraiser’s scheduled service program for any reason, the volunteer-fundraiser may apply all the monies raised to another service program to be conducted within 24 months from the date the volunteer-fundraiser’s fundraising webpage was activated. Funds received directly from the volunteer-fundraiser via cash, money order, or his/her personal check or credit card, will be refunded according to Global Volunteers standard refund policy.

No Refunds:

Under no circumstances will any refunds be made to any donor other than the volunteer fundraiser. Any donated funds not applied towards a Global Volunteers service program will be deposited in Global Volunteers general fund and will be available to Global Volunteers for any purpose that Global Volunteers deems appropriate. As such, the service program contribution refund policies, as referenced in the Service Program Registration and Agreement, Global Volunteers Adventures in Service Catalog, and on Global Volunteers website, are modified by these Terms and Conditions. Funds received directly from the volunteer-fundraiser via cash, money order, or his/her personal check or credit card, are subject to Global Volunteers standard refund policy.

Fill out the form below to get started fundraising!