We charge a fee to volunteers for all our placements in order to cover the overseas costs of volunteering and the costs of running our organisation in the UK.

The amounts vary depending on what is included and by placement. A proportion of the fee goes to cover in-country costs (either directly to the local project or through our local staff overseas) and a proportion to cover our UK costs. We try to maximize the proportion spent in-country so that money goes into the local communities and economy.

PoD’s only source of funding is volunteer fees and without charging a fee we would not be able to exist.  We keep the fees as low as we can to ensure that the opportunities we offer are available to as many people as possible and to provide value for money to the volunteer.  However we have to ensure that we can cover our costs including marketing, insurance, staff costs and administration.

The fees do not normally include a donation to the overseas project itself. If we included a donation this would directly raise the cost to volunteers. In addition we want to make sure that volunteers are genuinely needed rather than just accepted by the local organisation because of a payment received.  However we ensure that local costs are covered and pro-actively support the projects through donations and other assistance.  We also encourage volunteers to fundraise towards projects.

Fee levels are set to match costs (on a non-profit basis) and any surplus monies are distributed to the overseas organisations and charities we work with.