About our Volunteer Projects

The Great Generation’s Expert Partners are supported in translating their community and organisational needs into a 3 – 5 year partnership vision. All volunteer projects deliver upon this vision, ensuring that volunteer’s time and resources go towards real community and organisational needs.

The Great Generation runs two types of volunteer projects with Expert Partners: Community Based & Capacity Building.

Community Based Projects

Community-based projects support the work of NGOs and CBOs at a grass roots level:
  • Deliver “hands on” work in the community
  • Support Expert Partner delivery in the community
  • Are open to all people

Case study: Sri Lanka
A team of volunteers worked alongside a local NGO partner in Sri Lanka, Hela Sarana, painting houses and running after-school activity sessions for children. The team also converted a derelict piece of land into a fruit and vegetable garden, and the group’s infrastructure investment provided the fencing, seeds and plants, and a water tank to aid ongoing maintenance. 10 home gardens were then modelled on its design, which now provide a sustainable source of food and income for the community. A number of micro loans were made to support business ideas, including a local village shop and a sustainable rope making enterprise which continue to go from strength to strength. The house painting, after school activities and financial schemes set up by the team have instilled a sense of pride and worth in the community at a time when the Tsunami had taken so much away from their lives.

View the Literacy India case study film on YouTube

Read more about our projects in action

Capacity Building Projects

Capacity Building projects help NGOs, CBOs and local charities to understand their immediate organisational priorities, accessing a more specialist skills base to increase their impact and efficiency:
  • increasing the capacity of NGOs and CBOs at an organisational level
  • volunteers apply specialist skill sets, particularly in the areas of marketing, communications and finance
  • evaluating projects against strategic organisational priorities

Case Study: Brazil
A group of specialist volunteers worked with PROATA, an organisation that is dedicated to the study and treatment of eating disorders in Brazil. The team helped to develop a strategic plan for the organisation, helping them to define their vision, mission statement, objectives and priorities. The team completed comprehensive action plans on different organisational needs including data capture, expanding their educational programme and developing their website. The volunteers helped PROATA staff to develop an action plan for the 2009 Annual Brazilian Conference of Eating Disorders and Obesity, which they are hosting, including identifying sponsorship opportunities. Due to a meeting the team organized with the director of a Sao Paulo based company, PROATA now has free access to use the website content management system for their own website, meaning the PROATA team can now regularly update the PROATA website themselves.


Find out how a team of MBA students devised a marketing and communications strategy to support the development of an HIV Aids Charity