Distribution of Revenues – Where your money goes

Our distribution of revenues leave space for social projects

One of our core standards is being transparent. That does not only include the distribution of our revenues. But it also means helping you to make better decisions by broadening your horizon. Many volunteering organisations present their distribution of revenues in fancy diagrams, trying to convince you to choose them.

But it should not matter what those numbers are. You cannot fact check them!
It is more important to look at the final prices that each of the volunteering organisations are demanding from you!
Compare the prices between the organisation. And more importantly, compare the price to the living conditions of the country!

  • In the case of Nepal, many agencies demand more than 2,700 USD (or 2,500 EUR) for a volunteering program of 3 months.
  • But the average gross national income in Nepal per person per year is just 730 USD (in 2015).
  • In our case, volunteering for three months in Nepal will cost you nothing; but just 1.090 USD for food and accommodation.

The more money you pay, the more profit those commercial organisations will make!

Check out Our Transparency for more detailed information.


Our distribution of revenues

Our transparency goes further beyond than showing you where your money goes. We know that many volunteering organisations misuse the numbers that they put into their diagrams for marketing purpose. Therefore, we will not only show you another diagram but we will also show you the costs and price involved!

Suppose that you are staying with us for one month as a volunteer or as a traveller.
The Costs For Staying At Our Accommodation for that period of time would be 350 EUR or 400 USD.

Distribution of revenues of PVN accommodation
Distribution of revenues. (Click to enlarge)

The distribution of revenues of a guest who had been staying with us for one month looks as follows:

  • 28% of the revenues will be used to partly cover the rent of our flat (98 EUR // 112 USD).

  • 8% will be used to partly cover the costs for Water, electricity and internet at our accommodation (28 EUR // 32 USD).

  • We use another 28% to provide you food (breakfast and dinner), water and tea during your stay at our accommodation (98 EUR // 112 USD).

  • 24% of the revenues will be used to pay the salary of our staff at our accommodation (84 EUR // 96 USD).

  • We put 12% of the revenues into a Social Project Fund which we use to implement small-scale projects (42 EUR // 48 USD).

As you can see, the majority of the revenues that we get from you will directly go into food and accommodation. Less than a quarter remains as our salary. And still we will put a fair amount of the revenues into Our Social Projects.


Putting the numbers into relation

As we have said, the diagram does not mean much if you do not understand what those numbers mean.

Let’s keep the example of a guest staying with us for a whole month.
He or she has then to pay 350 EUR.

  • The diagram shows us that 126 EUR out of the 350 EUR goes into rent, water, electricity and internet.
    Nevertheless, the rent including the costs for water, electricity and internet is approximately 250 EUR per month.
  • The diagram shows us that 98 EUR out of the 350 EUR goes into the ingredients for breakfast and dinner.
    Nevertheless, we need approximately 180 EUR per month for food (5 EUR per day).

As you can see, we need at least two guests at the same time (and staying at least one month) to cover all costs. Our accommodation facility only has two bedrooms, giving opportunity for 4 guests staying at the same time.

In the case of having several guests at the same time, the majority of the revenues distributed into rent, water, electricity and internet has to cover also for some months during the year where we have fewer guests, e.g. during heavy monsoon season.

We consider our prices as very fair and we hope that we could give you a small insight on where your money goes.

For more information, please check out What We Offer, and the Costs And Service We Provide for our volunteers and travellers.
If you have more questions, please Send Us A Message.