Where do my fees go?

As an organization that prides itself in honesty and transparency, Love Volunteers stopped providing breakdowns of the dispersal of fees a while back now. Why? Differences in pricing over the various program locations, with variable program lengths, along with local cost fluctuations throughout the year make it virtually impossible to provide accurate information about where each dollar is going. While we could (and used to) provide rough estimates, as percentages of the total, this information was far too ambiguous for our liking and only led to further problems/confusion. 

What we can say is that the LV Registration Fee is used to cover the costs of operating our organization. This includes wages, marketing costs, website development, costs associated with regularly reviewing programs and basic overheads such as internet, phone and power. As for Program Fees, 10% is used to cover bank fees and international transfer costs because we choose not to add this on as a surprise at the checkout page, while the remaining 90% is sent directly to the respective local team to cover the costs of hosting each volunteer. This includes covering the cost of housing, meals, airport collections, orientations, program implementation and onsite supervision. We very rarely include 'project donations' in our listed program fees, as we strongly believe that those volunteers who wish to donate, can do so directly and in person while at their chosen project (though we also encourage our volunteers to purchase locally produced resources rather than donate funds). Again we prefer to be open and transparent, even if that means not being able to provide dollar-for-dollar accounts for where fees are spent.