The gift of time: how volunteering changed my perspective

Derek Humphries reports back from his time volunteering as an emergency project manager for Borneo Orangutan Survival, and offers six tips and six potential pitfalls for organisations and volunteers.

We all know that good fundraising is driven by a compelling need. Stuff needs doing. So we need money, and people to give it. We also need time, and people to give it. And we need voices, and people to use them.
This article is about how giving my time to a great organization turned me into a volunteer fundraiser and advocate.

I’ve been lucky to give some small help to Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS). If the world doesn’t wake up, orangutans could be extinct before my young kids grow up. That’s not a world I want for them (my kids or the orangutans). So when I was asked if I could spare a few weeks to project-manage a small orangutan sanctuary it took me nanoseconds to say yes.
As with fundraising, It was helpful that the people inviting me to go (ie making the ask) were people I respect, and indeed love: my wife, Marjolein who works at a senior level for BOS, and Chris Williams who has recently become their CEO.

The time I spent there involved seven-day weeks, 15-hour days, massive frustrations, and many unforeseen challenges. It was undoubtedly, one of the most exhausting and rewarding times of my life.
My task was to improve life for 24 orangutans. They are all sick with TB, hepatitis, or injuries (John still has a bullet lodged in his spine). BOS has done a brave job to rescue these animals from horrendous abuse, much of it linked to the razing of ancient rainforest for palm oil production. I had €20k of donors’ money to spend to develop an enrichment programme. I started with scant knowledge of animal welfare. ‘Enrichment’ was just a new bit of jargon. Essentially it means enabling animals to live as naturally as possible, even though they are in captivity (apologies to any animal welfare experts for the simplification!).

Orangutans are smart creatures. Very smart. So they need things in their enclosures to entertain them: rope ladders, bridges, swings. We had to source materials and build all of this. Enrichment is also about feeding: in particular the feeding must take time, be stimulating, involve problem-solving, just like in the wild. One innovative thing we did was make giant ice-lollies! These were chopped fruit in ice placed on top of the enclosures for orangutans to suck and, for the cleverer ones to manoeuvre into their enclosures. Then we established daily, weekly and monthly observation sheets, and devised training to ensure the new systems were embedded into the organization after I left (in jargon this is capacity building).

In the future, the enrichment will be tailored to meet the individual needs of the orangutans (I won’t labour the obvious metaphor here for how fundraisers manage staff and develop donors!).
At times I felt the work was wonderfully successful. We repaired old enclosures to give the orangutans more space. We moved two orangutans to a nearby larger sanctuary. We introduced a new feeding regime. And we embedded new practices through training sessions with the keepers. Individual animals had their lives improved. And I believe all staff, and me too, were enriched by the experience.

But there were extreme lows too: two or three times a day I thought I was achieving nothing. And I recall sobbing my eyes out on the plane home, and not knowing if it was sadness or relief.
It’s now six months since I was there, but the experience remains part of my life. Just two weeks ago I learned that three orangutans I had cared for had died, including Tian-Tian and Tari, the mother and baby with which I had a strong relationship. I was shocked how hard that hit me; real grief. And that deep emotional reaction showed me that my relationship with this cause is likely to be a life-long one.
Before my volunteer work I thought BOS was a great cause. But now they have a place in my heart. That might sound a tad hippy, but that personal connection has practical benefits for BOS as I have also become a volunteer fundraiser.

First, my singing exploits on youtube raised £1,020 (see “Derek Humphries’s fundraising page” or search for BOS at www.justgiving.com ). Please be warned, I use the word ‘singing’ in the loosest possible sense. Grab your ear plugs and go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaEOPTQXOTQ. Alongside the film you’ll find links to several filmic snippets of the work I did in Borneo, and following that musical debacle, it seemed only sensible for me and Marjolein to dedicate our wedding list to the orangutans of Borneo. We raised a further £2,445.06, which you can see on www.justgiving.com at “Derek and Marjolein’s wedding page” or, again, just search for BOS. By the way, it’s not too late to donate!

This wasn’t my first experience as a volunteer, but undoubtedly the most significant. And in some ways it has changed me as a fundraiser. There will certainly be some fundraising value for BOS: strong stories and powerful images for future appeals. Beyond that, I’ve seen the challenges that project workers face in accessing funds quickly at the sharp end of delivering a welfare programme. And this triggers all kinds of possibilities for developing new fundraising propositions and products. I went out there initially because I was asked, and because I could. The challenges I faced and the support I got in meeting them have now turned me into a strong advocate for BOS. And I suspect that commitment will last for my whole life.

How should organisations make the most sending volunteers to the field?

1. Expectation management is everything. Detailed briefing is vital. What conditions should people expect when they get there? And what do you expect of them when they return? I was helped hugely by BOS – I got a detailed advanced briefing, and another experienced volunteer from Australia came to work with me for the first few days.

2. Be clear what you aim to achieve. As a fundraiser, my normal field trip is to get stories and images. But this time I was working as a Project Manager, so getting fundraising stories was secondary.

3. Support. A local minder is a massive help. Mine was unexpectedly called away, so I saw him for 45 minutes instead of two days! That’s where the support of the other volunteer was vital.

4. Post-visit: this is all about making the most of the stories, images etc that are secured. Is your organization prepared to listen and take note of feedback from the field? When people have witnessed inspiring work, make sure you harness their passion while it is still fresh.

5. Money: if sending people as volunteers, be absolutely clear on what they must pay for and what you will pay for: jabs, medical support, kit, accommodation, kidnap insurance, etc.

6. Say thank you. I had heartfelt thank-yous from the people at BOS who briefed me. But the best thank you ever came three days after I got home when, entirely unexpectedly, I got a text from a local project worker to say they had named a new baby orangutan after me! Obviously I was deeply touched – even if I felt a bit sorry for ‘Derek the Orangutan’. I’ve long preached the importance of ‘unanticipated rewards’ in building donor loyalty. But I’d never experienced it in such a thrilling way.

What are the potential pitfalls?

1. Neglect of any of the above!

2. Potential to upset/destabilize human and animal beneficiaries: this is not about turning your projects into philanthropic theme parks! Projects with human beneficiaries can run a risk of turning the people we help into sights to be seen on philanthro-tourism visits.

3. Lack of clarity about risk: personal safety, health etc.

4. Lack of support after the visit: people visiting projects may get highly emotionally involved. They may need support in the ‘coming down’ period. Just as you think ‘donor journey’ and ‘donor care’, also think ‘volunteer journey’ and ‘volunteer care’.

5. Grey areas between volunteers and paid staff.

6. Not understanding volunteer expertise: I met volunteers on other projects who were a mixture of enthusiastic amateurs and highly-qualified animal welfare professionals. Like anything else, know your audience.

Derek Humphries is a director and creative strategist at www.dtvgroup.co.uk. You can email him at derek.humphries@dtvgroup.co.uk and follow him on Twitter @derekhumphries.

If you have found this article helpful, you can give thanks by adopting an orangutan at www.savetheorangutan.org.uk 

Thank you.