Volunteer News: i-to-i Changes Hands

By Kate | Permalink | No Comments | March 6th, 2007 | Trackback

Deirdre has last laugh in i-to-i sale: i-to-i sold to First Choice Holiday

i-to-i is the UK’s leading organization “giving travellers the opportunity to carry out voluntary work overseas” (see the Volunteer Logue’s profile of i-to-i here). Deirdre Bounds, who also worked as a stand-up comedian and taught English in Greece, founded the organization in 1995. i-to-i started out offering TEFL courses; the organization now sends more than 5,000 people abroad each year, from gap year students to professionals taking career breaks, for different volunteer projects as well as teacher training and volunteer teaching.

On the first of March, i-to-i was sold to First Choice Holidays. Bounds will continue “as chief executive of i-to-i for six months and then become a non-executive director for two-and-a-half years.” She sees this as an opportunity for the company to find new distribution channels and also gain access to additional expertise to improve the volunteer experience.

What exactly does this mean for i-to-i and potential volunteer participants? Only time will tell. Thanks to the team at the Guide To Ethical Volunteering for the heads up about this news story.