Is the "international volunteer headquarters" a legitimate charity or a scam?

Question

I've been looking for an affordable volunteer abroad program for this summer. Everything has been out of my price range until I came across "International Volunteer Headquarters."

Their website is: http://www.volunteerhq.org/index.html

Their prices are miniscule in comparison and my worry is that it may be too good to be true. Has anyone heard of them before or worked with them? Is this just a scam to get me to pay their registration fee? Any help would be great! Thanks!

Answer 1

This guy isn't registered with any of the national or international tracking type organizations, so I would watch out for that.

Check out Global Volunteer Network. They have very similar costs and are easily the lowest I've found. They're a legitimate organization.

Answer 2

This is a very new organization. The founder seems sincere... but his organization is not a member of the International Volunteers Program Association (IVPA), and that's a concern:

http://www.volunteerinternational.org/

If you want to check out this person more, ask him for:

-- a list of his board of directors

-- paperwork that shows he's registered in New Zealand

-- some statistics on how many volunteers he's placed

-- some testimonials from these volunteers about their experience

You might also ask some of the questions listed on this page:

Vetting Organizations in Other Countries

http://www.coyotecommunications.com/volu...

If he's legitimate, he will be able to answer all of the questions on this page to your satisfaction.