Typical Volunteer Work Schedule

Full-Day Volunteer Work Schedule

What is a “day in the life” of a Global Volunteer like? Our local partners will direct you on a daily volunteer work schedule on defined community projects, providing evenings and weekends for free time.  Your assignment(s) may be in one or several locations. However, you’ll be engaged, on average, eight hours a day in work preparations and at the work site to provide maximum value to the host community.  We strictly adhere to IRS requirements for eight hours per day of work, five days out of seven, to ensure you can claim this tax benefit within your volunteer work schedule. Your combined federal and state income tax savings for your tax-deductible volunteer programs, are about 33 percent of the total service program cost.

Volunteer Work Schedule
Volunteer Work Schedule

Preparing for Your Volunteer Work

A “working vacation” you’ll never forget.
A Global Volunteers service program is not just about immersing yourself in a foreign culture.  Most important, it’s an opportunity to make a real impact. We put you on the ground floor of long-term development supporting local people’s vision of self-reliance.  Every day, you employ your unique skills and interests toward this goal.  Our standardized volunteer work schedule enables you to do good work that’ll change your worldview. This is a transformative experience.

On-site team preparation.
Structured activities begin immediately upon your arrival to help you and the other volunteers form a cohesive team.  Your team leader, local staff, community partners, and project leaders gather to learn about you, orient you to the community, and explain how you can be most helpful.  Proprietary team-building and goal-setting sessions prepare you to “hit the ground running.”

Typical Morning Schedule of Volunteer Work

Most community projects are conducted between 8AM and 5PM daily. However, climate or resource conditions in some communities may require some volunteers to begin work earlier, or to split their workday into morning and evening periods, with afternoons free.  In general, your morning volunteer work schedule is:

7:00 – 7:30AM: Breakfast at hotel/guesthouse

7:30 – 8:00AM: Morning Meeting – Review the day’s schedule and any team concerns. The team journal is read and announcements are made. The country manager reviews the specific project assignments for each volunteer and the general schedule for the day. Several times a week, other activities, such as free-time options, lectures, special events, etc. are presented. This is the time for updates on project priorities, community news, and service program developments.

8:00 – 8:30 AM:  Transportation/walk to the work site

8:30 – 12:00 AM: Work on project assignments

12:00 – 1:00 PM:  Lunch break

Volunteer Work Schedule
Volunteer Work Schedule

Typical Afternoon Schedule of Volunteer Work

In general, your afternoon volunteer work schedule is:

1:00 – 5:00 PM:    Work project – (if teaching, the afternoon may be used for class preparations)

5:00 – 5:30 PM:    Transportation/walk to lodging

5:30 – 6:00 PM:    Private time

6:00 – 7:00 PM:    Team dinner and evening conversation – Review the day’s work and report on progress.  Address any concerns or questions.  Presentations/speakers may be scheduled after dinner.

7:00 and on:            Free time

Volunteers can participate in free-time activities as a group or independently. Oftentimes, team members are invited by local people to join them at community events – weddings, parties, community celebrations, etc.

“Global Volunteers always does a good job preparing their people before they go out, so that they are well-organized and well-focused when they are out in the field. They are definitely an organization that we look up to.”

“Global Volunteers was one of about a dozen NGOs I researched. We chose Global Volunteers because they supplied excellent information, and we liked the fact that all projects are in partnership with local people.

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Global Volunteers is a U.S. based NGO in the central time zone (UTC -6). Because tax-deductibility, visa requirements, and language proficiencies vary, please choose the country you’re inquiring from to enable us to provide you the most appropriate information.



Thank you for your interest in a development partnership with Global Volunteers. We're unable to expand our programs at this time. As our website portrays, our current service programs center around providing the 12 Essential Services for our Reaching Children's Potential Program. But for future reference, please send any information to: partnershiprequest@globalvolunteers.org


As a private, non-profit organization independent from government and religious funding, Global Volunteers’ programs are financed almost entirely by volunteer contributions. This is important because our community partners cannot afford the “open market” costs of the services and materials we provide. Your tax-deductible service program contribution pays your expenses in the partner community. These include your food, lodging, work site transportation, program materials, team leadership, emergency evacuation insurance, and administrative costs. In addition, we provide supplemental financing to help meet our host’s many, on-going and special needs.


While English fluency does not disqualify you from participating on any of our programs, Global Volunteers is a U.S based NGO with your teammates, training materials and other communications being conduced primarily in English.

We’re unable to provide any assistance in obtaining your passport or visa. You'll need a passport to travel abroad and for some countries, you’ll need a visa.  Please keep this in mind when planning your travel schedule. If you live outside the U.S., you may have additional restrictions for participating on U.S. programs.

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Many employers help cover part of the service program contribution. Providing this information can help us determine if this is available to you.



Our volunteer coordinators are available from 8:30AM to 4:30PM Central Time and will email you during that time on the next business day. If you prefer, you may chat now, or call 651-407-6100 if you’re inquiring during office hours.

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Global Volunteers
375 East Little Canada Road
St. Paul, MN 55117-1628 USA
(800) 487-1074 | toll-free
(651) 482-0915 | fax
globalvolunteers.org
email@globalvolunteers.org
Federal EIN: 36-3352680

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