Volunteer Grants

Volunteer Grant Overview

The Omprakash Volunteer Grant supports travel and living expenses for qualified, energetic, and entrepreneurial individuals who want to volunteer abroad within our international network of grassroots health, education, and environmental “Partner” organizations. Omprakash levies no fees upon volunteers, but the majority of volunteers are still required to cover their own travel and living expenses. Our grant program enables us to harness the potential of inspired individuals who are poised to contribute to our mission but would struggle to afford these basic costs.

The program has three basic aims: to provide talented young people with educational and empowering experiences of global citizenship, to provide our Partners with needed support, and to expand the scope and depth of our impact by recruiting volunteers who exhibit the intention and capacity to make a long-term contribution to our international network. This contribution might involve reaching out to new volunteers or Partners, sharing creative Resources such as lesson plans or educational documentaries, helping students and teachers learn and serve with our Partners, or fundraising—but ultimately, it is up to each applicant to determine his or her most valuable offering to our network. 

Our Volunteer Grant program is open to all, regardless of age or nationality. We review four cycles of grant applications each year. Our quarterly deadlines are February 15, May 15, August 15, and November 15.

APPLY FOR A VOLUNTEER GRANT

Want to teach photography?

The Omprakash Photopals  Camera Grant provides all of the necessary equipment for volunteers to teach digital photography abroad.  Applicants for our Volunteer Grant are welcome to apply for cameras as well.  

Learn more

Success Story

“Thank you for making it possible for Sandra Saulnier [a Volunteer Grant recipient] to do a volunteer placement with us. She is doing great work. The bulk of her time and energy is spent with children. She is teaching English and basic computer skills at San Antonio school, and has just started additionally at the nearby school of Rosario community. The parents are very happy, and have said that it is wrong for her to be paying a contribution to her living costs. So I have changed that, and it has freed Sandra to pay for photocopies, notebooks, and also a repair bill when her digital camera, which is important for her penpal project [with schools in California], got damaged by the high humidity.”


-Ned Creswell, leader of Intag, an Omprakash Partner in Ecuador

Commitment

Volunteer Grant recipients must demonstrate that they share our vision and are ready to help build educational relationships between classrooms and communities around the world. The long-term contribution of a grant recipient might involve:

• Outreach to prospective volunteers: raise awareness about the Omprakash network by delivering presentations, using social media, building relationships on local high school and university campuses, organizing events in your home community, etc.
   
• Outreach to current and prospective Partners: provide support to other Omprakash Partners nearby the primary one you are serving; visit other organizations that fit our model and encourage them to apply to join our network.
   
• Sharing well-designed material in our archive of Resources: post lesson plans, reading lists, or travel tips for other volunteers; create short documentaries that help other members of our network learn about the social issues our Partners confront; share relevant articles, links, and multimedia that offer value to Partners, volunteers, students, donors, and more.
   
• Classroom collaboration: help other students around the world learn from our network by posting provocative Resources, organizing penpal exchanges, participating in our Photopals program, or developing service-learning projects through which students and teachers can engage with our network.
   
• Fundraising for our Partners and/or our grant programs: organize a raffle or an auction or a benefit concert, write letters to friends or family, etc.
   
• Documenting the work of our Partners: create a short video, administer a survey, conduct interviews, collect financial data-- by sharing this kind of information across our network, you help increase transparency and highlight our Partners' needs and achievements
   
• Mentoring future volunteers: we hope that all grant recipients will be willing to mentor future volunteers.

The ideal applicant will propose a creative, detailed, and realistic plan for how he or she will contribute to our educational community before, during, and after his or her volunteering experience.