Volunteer Vacations

Creating a paid membership model for volunteers

Background

Volunteer Vacations (VV) is an organization based in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil that partners with different NGOs around the world to match volunteers with short-term trip opportunities in humanitarian aid. Their aim is to simplify the volunteering process by taking care of all the planning and administrative work while maintaining a high standard for quality, meaningful experiences.

VV is shifting from a pay-per-unit model for volunteering trips to a membership-based platform model. Our task was to design membership tiers and create flows for payment and onboarding.

User Interviews

Although some of our team members had previous volunteering experience, none of us had encountered a paid membership model for volunteers before. We realized that properly understanding user sentiment and the competitive landscape would be integral to the success of our project.

In total, we conduced 6 user interviews with 80% women in their 20-30s, based on the target demographic expressed by our client. Here are some of our key insights:
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• Transparency - Initial reactions to the membership model were skeptical - make sure that users know exactly what they are paying for and why.

• Community - Volunteers are more motivated to join trips when they are surrounded by friends and community. The membership model should facilitate the sharing of experiences and meaningful connection

• Impact - At the core, volunteers want to know that their contributions are directly leading to positive change.

User Personas

From these insights, we generated two distinct user personas - a prospective volunteer considering joining a volunteering trip, and an experienced volunteer looking to engage with an organization long term. These artifacts were referenced throughout the remainder of our design process to ensure that our solution addressed the primary needs and goals of our users.

Competitive Analysis

None of the competing volunteering organizations had a paid membership model offering external engagement opportunities. As a result, we expanded our competitive research to SaaS business models that didn't have direct ties to charity or humanitarian aid, but offered a variety of online membership services.

Taking both areas of research into account, we brainstormed value propositions within our new model that resembled memberships with exclusive perks, but retained the core humanitarian values of VV. We called this new model VaaS - Volunteering as a Service.

Wireframing

We were especially careful in designing the how and when the membership model was first introduced to the user - while we wanted the user to encounter educational screens about VV to develop organizational trust before committing to a membership, we also wanted to ensure the sign-up process was efficient and painless. We predicted other major drop-off points in the flow to keep an eye on: account creation and payment.

Design System