November 19-21, 2011 Mission to Haiti Report - Financial Details

As indicated in the main report, without the support of our usual local partners, our budget was higher for this mission than for previous longer missions as we had to cover our lodging and transportation expenses this time (local partners usually provide a place to stay, food and transportation for our volunteer teams). Here are the specific details, expenses and receipts of the mission. It is our goal to be completely transparent about our operations, expenses and to accept suggestions for improving our efficiency, reducing costs and prioritizing spending most of the budget at a local level.

Hotel and travel expenses of the two volunteers in this mission could have been avoided and should be avoided in the future by enabling and empowering local stakeholders to conduct the interviews, take the pictures and organize the events. Some US$500 of the budget could have been saved or allocated to local stakeholders if the two foreign team members would not have made the trip. Of course, both team members brought a lot more value to the mission than their actual cost: Celestino's professional filming and editing services can be valued at US$5,000 market price and Carlos web editing and social media updates at a rate of US$500, without including other intangibles as connections, contacts, etc. But in any case, the goal should always be to find local stakeholders and partners who can provide such services and allocate this portion of the budget to them.