Here are the main spending areas that you will need to consider:~ Travel to and from airport and placement It’s important to think about this from a
safety perspective. In some cases a representative from your organisation will pick you
up or drop you off, but you may have to pay for this. Otherwise, you’ll need money for
public transport or a taxi.
~ Living expenses This includes accommodation, food and drink, laundry and enter-
tainment expenses, and spending money. How much you should budget for depends
on the cost of living in the country and whether you are city based or in more rural
surroundings. To a certain extent it also depends on your own standards and what you
can afford. For reasons of cultural sensitivity though, regardless of what they can afford,
volunteers rarely splurge on their accommodation. Rachel Oxberry volunteered in
Ecuador and lived simply:
I had my own room which was very basic with just a bed. I had a cold shower with hot
water about once a week. My meals were pretty simple and I either hand washed or took
my laundry to a Laundromat in town. I rarely left the home at night: I tended to read
and go to bed. I was spending approximately US$40 a week.
~ Keeping in touch This is not a costly business these days, unless you use your mobile
phone unwisely (presuming you do get network coverage). For a discussion of all the
options for keeping in touch, see pp73–75.
~ Travel at weekends Chances are you’ll want to see a bit of the country you’re in,
get away for a short while to relieve any job-related stress or pop over the border to
renew your visa. Weekend breaks are often a volunteer’s lifeline, so you need to budget
for them.
~ Post-volunteer travel Many international volunteers take the opportunity of being
abroad to travel after their placement. You could choose to travel home slowly overland
(as far as possible) or spend more time exploring the region where you are based. What-
ever you choose, you may like to allow for this eventuality in your budgeting.
~ Sundry expenses You may want to buy a few presents for the folks back home or the
people you have met while volunteering, or get some souvenirs for yourself. There are a
hundred other reasons why you may need a little extra money floating around in your
budget.
~ Departure tax Sometimes this is included in the cost of your ticket, sometimes it isn’t. If
it’s not, don’t forget to keep sufficient local currency so you can pay for it at the airport.
Coming Home
Coming home can be a costly business, too. If you don’t have a job to return to, you may
need enough money to cover several months of living expenses while you look for one. Of
course, it all depends on your circumstances. Will you be able to stay with friends or fam-
ily while you find work, or will you move straight back into your house and have to cover
the mortgage? Will you need to find several months’ rent plus a deposit on a flat or house?
Realistically, it is a good idea to budget for between £2000 to £5000 (US$4000 to US$8000)
as a decent coming-home fund. For more information on coming home, see Chapter 9.
Saving
If you are not volunteering for a charity, you won’t have the opportunity to fundraise
officially (although, of course, friends and family may still want to help you on your way,
because you are planning to work for a good cause for free).
Many volunteers work hard for the privilege of volunteering. Maggie Wild has been
a volunteer leader for the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV, p134) for
around 18 months on a variety of international projects. She says:
I worked for three years in a graduate job and saved from the moment I started with this
in mind. Half of my wage every month went into a savings account and this has been my
safety net for the past two years.
Sixty-nine-year-old David Daniels, who has undertaken two expeditions with the Scientific
Exploration Society to the Amazon and Mongolia, funded his trip in the following way:
I’m spending the kids’ inheritance.
Emma Campbell, who volunteered in Ecuador with VentureCo (p115), explains:
I used my redundancy money and I sold loads of my stuff on eBay.
If you do start early, there are heaps of ways you can save or raise money in everyday life.
For instance, you could get a second job, sell your car, use public transport instead of
taxis, eat out less often, cancel the cleaner or jog around the park rather than pay for an
expensive gym membership.Fundraising
If there’s one thing that almost all volunteers say about fundraising, it’s that it takes up lots
of time. With this in mind, it’s a good idea to focus on events or schemes that will give you
the maximum return (although this can be hard to judge at the outset).
When fundraising, most volunteers start with friends and family. At the time we spoke to
him, Michael Tuckwell was fundraising to volunteer with Task Brasil (p170) in Brazil. He
explains:
I have a lifetime of connections and a full address book. I am also riding in the Bristol Big-
gest Bike Ride and have written to 78 people asking them to sponsor me for Task Brasil. To
date, I have received £1200 from friends and family, some of whom have been extremely
generous.
Vikki Cole, who volunteered in Borneo with Trekforce Worldwide (p118), was also blessed
with good personal contacts:
Fundraising is the best part. I began bullying people I knew to donate directly to the website
I set up. My sister and I (she came with me) also held a Valentine’s ball and curry nights.
Needless to say, more men came to the curry nights than the ball. Writing to large corpora-
tions to ask for donations is tough and you have to prepare for a lot of rejections. But walk-
ing door-to-door on a high street can yield some great raffle prize donations.
Talking of big events that will bring the money in, this is Judith Stephen’s experience of run-
ning two fundraising events for Doctors of the World (Médecins du Monde, p143):
We did: 1) a quiz night plus supper – this raised £1500 after deducting our expenses; and
2) a concert plus supper – this raised nearly £1000 after expenses. The venue for both was a
local church crypt with good kitchen facilities, so making a two-course supper for 75 each
time was manageable. We charged £25 per ticket for each event and managed to create a
nice dinner of mince-based casserole, couscous and salad followed by strawberries and
cream for less than £1.50 per head (including a free glass of wine). As with most things, the
planning was crucial. We had a team of about eight friends managing specific tasks like
serving the wine, keeping a tally of quiz scores etc. With the quiz questions you need to be
careful – the questions must not be so hard that people feel stupid. Both events went very
smoothly but required a lot of work.
If you are fundraising on behalf of a charity, the organisation itself will give you lots of help
and pointers. Mark Jacobs, managing director of Azafady (p133), explains:
Fundraising resources include a full fundraising manual, fundraising documentation such
as sponsorship forms, events to join in with and resources such as collection boxes, raffle
tickets, posters and Christmas cards.
In Australia, trivia nights are a great way to gather people in the interests of a good cause.
At around A$10 a head, it’s a case of the more the merrier. Also, in a country known for03: The Practicalities:Raising the Money