Global Volunteers is a private, nonprofit international development assistance organization founded in 1984, working in close partnership with local people worldwide and in special consultative status with the United Nations and UNICEF. Up to 250 teams of short-term volunteers are mobilized annually to work on long-term community service projects centered primarily on improving the lives of economically impoverished children and their families in over 100 host communities on six continents. Child and classroom sponsorships, student scholarships and special project funds sustain on-going development programs and ensure continued volunteer engagement.

Nurturing long-term relationships is central to our worldwide success. All our work projects are measured according to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established in 2000 as a global blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and leading development institutions.

Projects include: Caring for babies and pre-schoolers in orphanages, hospital wards, day care centers and childrens' homes; Tutoring elementary and secondary school students and teaching conversational English skills to children, teens and adults; Nurturing and stimulating elders in care centers and group homes; Constructing and repairing school dormitories, classrooms, health clinics, community centers and playgrounds; Landscaping and cleaning up public spaces and reforesting conservation areas; Assisting with rural health care, nutrition, hygiene check-ups, extracting teeth, examining newborns, performing surgeries for physically disabled children, and providing prenatal care.