Visions in Action was founded by Shaun Skelton in 1989. While lecturing on management at the University of Nairobi during the 1988-89 school year, Shaun spent a lot of time speaking with directors of nonprofit organizations, trying to determine what type of volunteer assistance, if any, they could use. He found that there was a great need for a different type of volunteer, for example one who worked in an urban setting, at a computer in an office, designing brochures and writing funding proposals as opposed to more traditional rural field work. Also, there was a need for volunteers in nontraditional sectors of development, such as human rights, democratization and journalism. Visions in Action sends volunteers to the developing world to work for grassroots organizations working in such sectors.