Case study · Volunteer abroad company · 12+ year partnership
How Volunteering Solutions runs bookings, payments and placements on one platform
Volunteering Solutions sends students, gap-year travellers and groups on volunteer programmes abroad. Each booking sets off payments, placements and notices to coordinators and partners. Filari mapped that chain and built one platform to carry it, and has hosted and extended it for more than 12 years.
- 01Find
- 02Compare
- 03Apply
- 04Pay
- 05Prepare
- 06Depart
A volunteer company in many countries runs on bookings, payments, placements, coordinators and partners. Off-the-shelf tools could not hold all of it together.
One custom platform: CMS, CRM, ERP, volunteer My Account, multi-currency, multi-language and automated operations, built and managed by Filari.
More than a decade of volunteers booked, paid, placed and supported on one system, with Filari as the long-term technology partner.
*Figures published on volunteeringsolutions.com. Features and workflows are described at a summary level.
Project snapshot
A custom booking and operations platform for a volunteer abroad company
- Client
- Volunteering Solutions
- Industry
- Volunteer and internship travel abroad
- Partnership
- 12+ years with Filari
- Filari's role
- Design, build, hosting, maintenance, new features
- Platform
- Website, CMS, CRM, ERP, volunteer accounts
- Technology
- PHP, Drupal
How the platform grew
- 01Map the chainBooking, payment, placement, coordinator and partner steps
- 02Build the siteProgram finder, programme pages, application, payments
- 03Connect the CRMEvery enquiry, application and payment recorded
- 04AutomateLogins, confirmations, placement and partner notices
- 05Go globalMulti-currency and multi-language on one catalogue
- 06Run itHosting, security, updates and support for 12+ years
A volunteer company is really a logistics company
Volunteering Solutions runs volunteer abroad programmes and internships abroad for students, gap-year travellers, families and groups. Behind every booking is a chain of work: taking payment in the volunteer's currency, sending login details, confirming a placement, briefing the local coordinator, informing the partner project and tracking who arrives when.
Filari built one custom platform to carry that whole chain, and has run it for more than 12 years: hosting, updates, new features and support as the business grew into new countries and languages.
Does this sound like your travel or programme business?
- Visitors ask "which programme suits me?" by email instead of finding it themselves.
- Applications arrive half-complete, and payments are tracked in a spreadsheet.
- The same pre-departure questions come in every week.
- Adding a new country needs a developer, and new pages do not show up in Google.
Here is how we solved each one for Volunteering Solutions.
Find it, apply for it, pay for it, get ready for it
A program finder that answers "which one?"
Fewer emails, faster decisionsVolunteers filter by country, type of project, duration, start date and age group, and see only programmes that fit. Each result opens a full programme page with dates, costs and what is included.
An online application in one sitting
Complete forms, first timeStep-by-step form with the programme and dates already filled in, document upload and a clear summary before submit.
Deposit now, balance later
Pay online, in stagesVolunteers pay a deposit or the full fee online and see what is still due.
A volunteer portal
Everything before departureBooking details, payments, documents and pre-departure information in one login.
Pages built to be found
Search engines can read every programmeEach country and programme has its own fast, clean page with the right titles and structure, so people searching for a specific volunteer trip land on it.
What a volunteer sees on the live site
The admin system that ran the business
06Every volunteer in the CRM, automatically
Enquiries, applications and payments go to the CRM the moment they happen. The team sees each volunteer's stage and follows up from one place, not from a dozen inboxes.
For: programme advisers and operations
Flows into the CRM
07A CMS for countries, programmes and prices
The team adds a new country or programme, sets dates and prices, and publishes. It appears in the program finder and gets its own page straight away, without a developer.
For: content and product team
Managed in the admin
Countries · Programmes · Start dates · Prices · Inclusions · Page content · FAQs
08Applications and payments in one admin view
Staff see every application with its programme, dates, payment status and documents, and can filter by country or start date to plan placements.
For: operations and finance
At a glance
Who applied · for what · when they travel · what they have paid · what is missing
09An ERP for arrivals, departures and placements
The admin system shows who is arriving and leaving on which date, which placement each volunteer is going to, and what is still to arrange.
For: operations and country managers
Tracked per volunteer
Arrival · departure · placement · accommodation · coordinator · partner
10Automation for the jobs nobody should do by hand
Login details, booking confirmations, placement details, coordinator alerts and partner notifications go out on their own at the right stage. Staff can still call a coordinator or post an update from the same screen.
For: operations team, coordinators, partners
Sent automatically
11Multi-currency and multi-language
Volunteers see prices and pay in their own currency, and read the site in their own language, while the team manages one set of programmes.
For: volunteers worldwide, finance
One catalogue
Many currencies · many languages · one set of programmes, dates and prices
1212+ years of hosting, updates and support
Filari has hosted, secured, updated and extended the platform for more than 12 years, adding new countries, programmes and features as the business grew.
For: the whole business
Managed by Filari
Hosting · security · backups · updates · new features · support
Three problems the platform had to solve
Challenge
Volunteers come from many countries, but the team wanted to manage one set of programmes.
Solution
One catalogue of programmes, dates and prices, shown to each volunteer in their own currency and language.
Why it mattered
The team updates a programme once, and every visitor sees the same offer in terms they understand.
Challenge
Enquiries, applications and payments arrived through different channels.
Solution
Each of these is sent to the CRM the moment it happens, with the volunteer's stage attached.
Why it mattered
Advisers follow up from one place, without copying details out of emails.
Challenge
Each booking needs logins, confirmations and notices to coordinators and partners.
Solution
The platform sends each message automatically at the right stage, while staff can still step in from the same screen.
Why it mattered
Routine messages go out on time, and the team spends its time on placements.
What we learned
A volunteer travel website is only the front of the business. The work that decides whether a trip goes well happens after payment: placements, coordinators and partners. Building those steps into the same platform as the website, and owning it over many years, is what let Volunteering Solutions add countries and languages without changing systems.
One system, 12+ years
Over more than 12 years, volunteers have chosen, applied, paid and prepared on one platform, and the team has managed arrivals, placements, coordinators and partners from one admin system. Filari has kept it running and growing throughout.
Long-term build and maintenance partnership
System for website, CMS, CRM, ERP and admin
Currency and language for volunteers worldwide
Passwords, placements, coordinator and partner notices
Source: figures published on volunteeringsolutions.com.
Questions about volunteer and travel booking platforms
It takes one partner who owns the whole system. For Volunteering Solutions, Filari built the platform and then handled hosting, security, updates, new features and support for 12 years, so the team could add countries and programmes without switching tools.
It should help people find the right programme quickly, apply and pay online, and then keep them informed until they travel. Volunteering Solutions' platform covers all four: a program finder, an online application, payments and a volunteer portal, with every step recorded in the CRM.
Volunteers filter by country, type of project, duration, start date and age group, and see only programmes that fit. Each result links to a full programme page with dates, costs and what is included, so the next step is applying rather than emailing a question.
Yes. The application flow takes a deposit or the full fee online, and the volunteer portal shows what has been paid and what is still due, with a link to pay the balance before departure.
Every enquiry, application and payment is sent to the CRM automatically, so the team sees each volunteer's stage without copying data from emails. Follow-ups start from the CRM instead of from an inbox.
Yes. The admin panel lets the team add countries, programmes, dates, prices and page content. New programmes appear in the program finder and get their own search-friendly page as soon as they are published.
If your programmes are great but signing up is hard, let's fix that.
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