Hi all! We’re fundraising on behalf of Volunteer Without Borders (VWB), an entirely student-run organization at Drew University that works to provide students with alternative winter, spring, and summer break service trips. We strive for these travel opportunities to be non-disruptive, always prioritizing collaboration with a community partner. Moreover, we aim to provide students with trips that are financially accessible, keeping a low cost and offering scholarship opportunities.

As part of a review of all institutional budgets, the Student Engagement department at Drew was asked to significantly reduce spending for the spring 2025 semester, severely impacting our budget and programming for the remainder of the year.

VWB strongly feels that our work represents a commitment to social and environmental justice and encourages our volunteers to continuously and actively engage with the world around them. We are proud of the connections past volunteers have made with the areas we’ve traveled to and their ability to apply trip topics to their personal lives as well as their efforts on campus. Many volunteers have said VWB is the best thing they’ve done at Drew or that the experience has provided clarity and direction toward steps forward. It is our hope that a new cohort of volunteers will share in this collective experience and be awarded an opportunity to experience education beyond the classroom.

VWB is urgently seeking funds to ensure we’ll be able to finish out our spring semester and especially our annual trip to West Virginia. The funds from this effort will go towards securing the minivans for our spring break trip and additional travel expenses (gas, food, etc). Any money left over will be set aside as a scholarship fund for the following semester, ensuring our ability to keep these trips as accessible as possible. Though this won’t present a long-term solution, our hope is that by raising these funds, we can keep VWB moving forward.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like more information on the work we do. We also encourage you to check out our Instagram page (@vwb_drew) for a full view of past trips!