Why Pay for an Unpaid Volunteer Placement or Internship?
As you conduct your search for the perfect overseas volunteer assignment or internship, you will see that nearly every placement organization charges a fee. Some placement organizations charge fees which are extremely high and which are used primarily for administrative costs. Other placement organizations, such as AmeriSpan, charge you just enough to cover your in-country costs and other costs associated with the placement. In fact, AmeriSpan’s Volunteer/Internship Fees are actually below what is needed for program expenses. AmeriSpan recognizes the important work that our interns and volunteers are trying to do, so we actually subsidize our volunteer program. This allows us to charge a low program fee that is well below what other organizations charge. In 2006, we subsidized our program with approximately $30,000.
