All Questions Answered.

Unlike most prominent organizations, we do not charge any fee for volunteering. That said, the volunteers will be asked for a contribution of $3-8 a day to our local partners for their stay to cover accommodation and food since we provide children with free education and need to avoid any overhead costs.

Usually, you will be provided with delicious local dishes three times a day. But please check with our local partner the current situation once you are on the ground.

We contribute 100% of our donations to our projects and our impact on education. Therefore, we do not cover your expenses. Neither do we cover any of our travel costs, etc.

We kindly ask you for a minimum stay of two weeks. The length of this stay will ensure an intensive exchange and experience for you, the children, our local partners, and the community with a meaningful impact. The maximum length of a volunteering stay may vary on need, project on-site, school holidays, and visa restrictions. If you plan to visit longer than four weeks, please get in touch with us to coordinate individually.

We have two types of costs we cover for our local partner schools. First, we run dedicated fundraising campaigns to support the construction of new classrooms. The money raised through these campaigns is mainly spent on locally sourced construction materials such as bricks, wood, cement, etc., but also to disburse the salary of local workers. Secondly, we support our partner schools by covering their running cost. Therefore, we’ve set up our monthly School Sponsorship program. The regular funds we receive are directly forwarded to our local partners to pay their teachers’ salaries every month. In addition, we use access money to cover expenses that usually occur at the beginning of a new school year: school materials, uniforms, food, and transport.

Suppose you neither donate directly to one of our running campaigns nor sign up for our School Sponsorship program. In that case, we will allocate your donation where needed most. This can be for either one of our construction projects or for covering running costs at one of our schools. In other words, we continuously track the fund income and expenses for each partner school. Your donation would help to fill any funding gaps that occur. If you would like to support a specific cause you have discovered through, e.g., one of your or your friend’s volunteering experiences at one of our partner schools, please get in touch with donate@264.education. We will tailor an individual solution with you, 264, and our local partners.

264 works with local partners running the schools we have chosen to support. At the beginning of each partnership, 264 and the local partners create a shared understanding of each right and responsibility. Each party documents and signs this in our so-called “Partnership Agreement.” The agreement also defines the intended purpose for the money transferred by 264 to the partner covering the items mentioned in “What do you spend my money for?”

We want to emphasize that we are choosing our partners very carefully and establishing a high level of trust, which is an essential precondition for our work. However, we see ourselves as responsible towards our sponsors and donors to ensure their money arrives in the right spot. That’s why the answer to the question is: Yes, we do. We ask our partners for pictures of receipts for all their expenses that we are covering. Our partners understand our requirements and help us by all means to assure high transparency. This can be challenging as receipts are not always standard in developing countries. In these cases, we have created our receipt replacements, which our partners can get signed. Especially regarding the payment of teacher salaries, we make sure to receive a signed confirmation from each teacher that they have received their money every month.

Each of our local partners has an official bank account in their name or the organization they have set up to support the school. We have chosen online payment providers to remit regular and irregular funds from our German 264 bank account to our partner’s account. This has been a convenient and safe way to send money to developing countries. If available, we choose online payment providers to remit regular and irregular funds from our German 264 bank account to our partner’s account. If not, we use the international remittance service provided by our bank. We are constantly looking for the cheapest and safest way to transfer money. Nevertheless, fees can not always be avoided.

A clear: NO, it doesn’t. At 264, our proclaimed promise is that all your donations go to our partner schools. That means we cover administrative costs like payment provider fees (Transferwise, Paypal, Stripe, FundraiseUp), software/website fees, thank you postcards, etc. Therefore, our core team members committed to pay an additional 15€/month as member fees. Furthermore, we always seek partnerships (e.g., Google Ads) or other alternatives to fund or reduce administrative costs. Suppose you want to support us by covering our payment provider fees. In that case, you can select “Cover processing fee” while donating. It would be much appreciated!

Yes, 264.education e.V. is a certified not-for-profit organization per German law.

Of course, you can. In fact, it would be highly appreciated! You can set up your very own campaign, e.g., as part of a birthday pledge or marathon, via our website (similar to GoFundMe). All you need to do is to start your fundraiser here: https://264.education/fundraise.