Volunteer Resource Site
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Fundraising Tools
Fundraising Tools
Volunteer fundraising is critical to the implementation of Global Brigades’ Holistic Model through Brigade programming. Once a volunteer meets a set Donation Goal for their interested program and country, they are eligible to join us on-the-ground to see their fundraising efforts put into action by participating in a Brigade. Volunteers have up to 1 year to participate in a Brigade after they meet their Donation Goal. If a volunteer decides not to participate in a Brigade, the funds raised will be utilized to support Global Brigades’ mission. Find out more about fundraising below.
No-Refund and Cancellation Policy
Global Brigades is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Upon sign-up, all volunteers agree to our no-refund and cancellation policies. Please click the button below to view full policy.
Set Your Donation Goal 2023-2024
When a volunteer participates in a Brigade, the volunteer’s ground transportation, food, lodging, and emergency insurance are all covered by their Donation Goal. The funding that the volunteer raised also supports all the necessary costs for program implementation, supplies, and staff and airfare. However, Global Brigades’ travel team can work with volunteers to book airfare and incorporate the airfare expense into the volunteer’s Donation Goal (see travel tab for more information.) if extra traveling logistics are needed. To learn more about where your donation goes, visit the Financials page of our website to view a breakdown of our entire annual budget. Brigades that would like to extend beyond 7 days (8 days for Ghana) can do so by incorporating an Add-On into their Brigade, which will have an additional Donation Goal for every extra day they would like to volunteer, and this amount will vary depending on the activity selected. At least the minimum number of volunteers required for a brigade must increase the length of the brigade. See the Donation Goal graphic for your program by selecting your program type and then clicking on your program country.
IMPORTANT: Donation goals are directly related to the number of participating volunteers. As you increase the number of volunteers, you will grow from the sustainable level to the empowered level and all the way to the scaled level. Once you reach a new level, each volunteer on your brigade will receive a scholarship, and as a result, their donation goal will be lowered.
Medical Brigades
Select your program country:
*Guatemala Medical is available for December, January, March, May, and June Brigades
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*If you booked your Brigade before November 2023, please check your donation goal with your Program Associate.
Medical TeleBrigades
Select your program country:
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Dental Brigades
Select your program country:
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*If you booked your Brigade before November 2023, please check your donation goal with your Program Associate.
Dental TeleBrigades
Select your program country:
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Engineering Brigades
Select your program country:
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*If you booked your Brigade before November 2023, please check your donation goal with your Program Associate.
Engineering TeleBrigades
Select your program country:
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Water Brigades
Select your program country:
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*If you booked your Brigade before November 2023, please check your donation goal with your Program Associate.
Public Health Brigades
Select your program country:
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*If you booked your Brigade before November 2023, please check your donation goal with your Program Associate.
Public Health TeleBrigades
Select your program country:
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Business Brigades
Select your program country:
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*If you booked your Brigade before November 2023, please check your donation goal with your Program Associate.
Business TeleBrigades
Select your program country:
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Legal Empowerment Brigades
Select your program country:
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*If you booked your Brigade before November 2023, please check your donation goal with your Program Associate.
Legal Empowerment TeleBrigades
Select your program country:
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Brigade Add-Ons Available
Do you feel like your brigade itinerary is missing something? You can now add programmatic/cultural activities to your itinerary! You will fundraise the corresponding donation to add an extra day(s) to your brigade stay, and GB staff will help you arrange it. Whether you’d like to build an eco-stove in your medical brigade or visit Tinos Island in Greece, we can make it happen!
Ghana
Please click here to review the brigade add-ons available for Ghana.
Greece
Please click here to review the brigade add-ons available for Greece.
Panama
Please click here to review the brigade add-ons available for Panama.
Guatemala
Please click here to review the brigade add-ons available for Guatemala.
Honduras
Please click here to review the brigade add-ons available for Honduras.
Belize
Please click here to review the brigade add-ons available for Belize.
Research Add-On
Participate in a research project to evaluate the impact of GMB’s year-round healthcare initiatives by helping conduct community member surveys and interviewing Community Health Entrepreneurs (CHEs) and/or Community Leaders. Please click here to learn more.
**Countries Available: Honduras, Panama, or Belize.
Start Fundraising!
Start fundraising for your brigade as a group or individually as early as possible to give yourself plenty of time! Check out this Chapter Fundraising Guide for more tips, tricks & fundraising strategies.
Featured Fundraiser: Café Holístico
Café Holístico, Global Brigades’ own coffee sales initiative, offers volunteers a way to increase the well-being of rural families while also generating significant funds for a brigade. Because we buy directly, we can provide farmers 2-3 times more income per pound than they would otherwise receive. Visit holistico.org to get started today and get connected to a coffee representative.
Meet Your Fundraising Deadlines
In order for Global Brigades to prepare for upcoming Brigades, all volunteers who wish to participate in a Brigade must meet the following Donation Goal fundraising deadlines. If a volunteer is unable to meet their Brigade’s fundraising deadlines, they can instead join a future brigade to give themselves more time to meet their Donation Goal.
| DEADLINE | IN PERSON BRIGADE | TELEBRIGADE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| INITIAL DONATION GOAL DEADLINE | 127 days pre-brigade (In-Person) 97 days pre-brigade (TeleBrigade) |
Volunteers must have $150 on their fundraising page to secure their spot in their Brigade | Volunteers must be signed up and the chapter must have 50% of their chapter donation goal on the fundraising page to secure their TeleBrigade. |
| TRAVEL DONATION GOAL DEADLINE | 60 days pre-brigade | Volunteers must meet their airfare fundraising goal per the deadlines from the airlines (if booking flights through Global Brigades), in addition to the initial $150 raised. All volunteers should have completed their volunteer roster questionnaire. Your chapter’s Individual Donation Goal will be set! | No additional fundraising is needed, but all volunteers should have completed their volunteer roster questionnaire. Your TeleBrigade Itinerary should also be approved by now! |
| FINAL DONATION GOAL DEADLINE | 14 days pre-brigade | Volunteers must have the total donation goal (donation goal + airfare) on their MyBrigades fundraising page | The chapter will meet their Full Chapter Donation Goal to complete fundraising for their TeleBrigade |
Earn A Brigade Scholarship!
There are several opportunities for you and your chapter to receive scholarships to go towards your Donation Goals! Chapter Leaders, Healthcare Professionals, and University faculty play an important role in empowering volunteers and growing the Global Brigades movement. In order to show our support and incentivize brigade participation, scholarships are available for meeting specific eligibility criteria.
• New Chapter Referral Scholarship: Awarded to an individual who refers a friend or colleague to start a new Chapter (using this form). If this new Chapter successfully holds an Introduction and Development Call, sets TeleBrigade or In-Person Brigade dates with the VEA, AND completes their program, the referrer (i.e., the person that referred the new leader) will be awarded a $500 scholarship to allocate towards either a TeleBrigade or an In-Person Brigade of their choice.
• Founder Scholarship: When a new chapter is created at a university, the “Founder” who plans the 1st Brigade for this chapter may be eligible to receive a scholarship.
• Brigade Leader Scholarship: A leader who plans their Chapter’s In-Person Brigade may be eligible to receive a scholarship.
• Campus Chairperson Scholarship: Recognized Campus Chairpersons (CCs) may be eligible to receive a scholarship.
• HCP Scholarships: A Medical or Dental Chapter that recruits specific types of Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) to participate in their brigade may be eligible to receive a scholarship per HCP.
• Faculty Scholarships: Any Chapter that recruits a faculty member to participate in their brigade may be eligible to receive a scholarship per faculty.
• TeleBrigades Chapter Scholarship: A Chapter that decides to run a TeleBrigade receives a $500 (USD/CAD) scholarship awarded to the chapter to be put towards a future in-person brigade, at the discretion of the Chapter’s leadership.
For more detailed information about these scholarship opportunities please review our Brigade and TeleBrigade Scholarships Guide and reach out to your Program Associate with any questions.
Fundraising with MyBrigades
Global Brigades cannot accept cash donations, therefore, any cash donations will not be considered tax-deductible. All monetary donations should be made by credit card, e-check, or paper check. Volunteers are strongly recommended to ask that their donors donate to their brigade using their Global Brigades MyBrigades webpage.
Instructions for Credit Card & E-Check Donations
| • | All credit card and e-check donations must be made using the donation button on your Chapter’s Brigade Page on our website. Use the Chapters search tool to find your chapter, then navigate to the Brigades tab of your chapter to find your upcoming brigade. Each Brigade has a “Donate” button and during the donation process, donors can decide to donate toward a specific volunteer’s Donation Goal or toward the group Donation Goal. Each volunteer must be signed up on their Chapter’s Brigade Page in order to participate in a brigade. For instructions on how to make donations, use this GB Brigade Pages and MyBrigades Tutorial. |
| • | Donors will automatically receive a tax receipt e-mailed to the address they submitted when they made their donation. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law. |
| • | In order to ensure 100% of all donations go towards their purpose, credit card donors will be charged a 3.5% + 30 cents merchant fee, which covers online credit card and transaction fees associated with their donations. Donors wishing to bypass this processing fee are encouraged to make their donation using the e-check (ACH) option. |
| • | The E-check option is disabled 14 days prior to a brigade’s start date. |
Instructions for Check Donations
| 1 | All checks must be made payable to “Global Brigades, Inc.” Checks made payable to an individual or a Chapter are considered a personal gift and they are not eligible to receive a tax receipt from Global Brigades. |
| 2 | If donors wishes for their donation to be applied toward a specific volunteer or brigade’s donation goal, they must include the following information on their check memo line: volunteer name, school, brigade program (ex: Marquette University Medical, volunteer Jane Doe) |
| 3 | To ensure that the check is received and tracked, the volunteer should communicate the following to Global Brigades via email prior to sending the check: donor name, donor email address, check number, check amount, volunteer’s name. If a chapter would like to mail multiple checks fro several donors, Chapter leaders should collect all checks and fill out the Check Donations Tracker Template. The completed spreadsheet must be printed out and mailed along with the mailed checks. |
| 4 | Checks should be mailed to the following address: GLOBAL BRIGADES, Inc. P.O. Box 101875 Pasadena, CA 91189-1875 |
| 5 | Once the check is received, it will be added manually to the brigade’s fundraising page to go toward meeting the group or individual volunteer Donation Goal (whichever was specified by the donor). If a donor only specified a brigade and not a specific volunteer, the donation will be applied toward the general brigade group Donation Goal. Check processing time takes approximately 1-2 weeks. |
| 6 | Donors who donate $250 or more will be mailed a tax receipt if they provide their name and mailing address along with the check. Donors can also submit a request for a donation receipt for any amount donated to Global Brigades via check. |
In-Kind Donations
Global Brigades accepts a limited amount of material donations as long as the guidelines below are followed. Solicited and unsolicited donations must be confirmed with the appropriate Program Associate and be inspected for the required quality and useful life compliance before acceptance. If you have a specific item(s) that you would like to donate, please contact your Program Associate to find out if your donations can be accepted.
- The donor must be informed that the recipient of the donation is Global Brigades, Inc. on behalf of your Chapter (i.e. Medical Brigades at Pennsylvania State University).
- Once Global Brigades accepts the donation, the donation will not be returned to the donor without the donor’s consent.
- Global Brigades cannot accept any items for resale or store donations.
TAX RECEIPTS FOR IN-KIND DONATIONS
Brigades that would like to have tax donation receipts provided to donors for making in-kind donations must first receive prior approval from Global Brigades, Inc. by contacting [email protected]. Global Brigades will only provide in-kind donation receipts for large equipment items donated directly to Global Brigades, Inc., such as dental units, wheelchairs, etc. valued over $250. In order to receive recognition for the donation and a tax receipt, the Chapter Leader must submit the following information to their Program Associate:
| • | Name and address of the donor, specific office or title (if applicable) |
| • | List/description of the donation, fair market value and date of the donation |
| • | Declaration that the donated items were needed/used for the brigade and that all donated items were in the required condition |
| • | Purchase receipt for donated item |
HEALTH SUPPLIES AND DONATIONS
In the case of Medical and Dental Brigades, your chapter will be required to collect some health supplies and donations for your brigade. Please reach out to your Program Associate in order to receive a supplies and donations inventory sheet, according to your program and country. These items will be donated to patients after they have received their treatment in the clinic days. If you want some recommendations on how to get started, you can refer to these Supplies and Donations Guide in order to review some chapter’s best practices on how to collect these items.
OTHER MATERIAL DONATIONS
As we strive to be as sustainable as possible, we cannot support handing out in-kind donations (old clothing, school supplies, toiletries, etc.) Handing out small amounts of such items results in unfair distribution of donations and can cause challenges within our community partners. To make the most of items such as used clothing, we suggest looking into organizations like thredUp. ThredUP takes like-new clothing and gives money to the donor’s charity of choice.
Matching Donations
Global Brigades partners with 360MatchPro to support donors in furthering their donation through employer matching donations. When making online donations toward US brigade groups Donation Goals on the Global Brigades website, donors can use the “Employer Matching” search tool during donation checkout and see whether their employer is in 360MatchPro’s database of companies that provide matching donations. If a company is selected from the list, after the donor makes their donation, a web page will appear showing the donor the information they will need to submit in order to complete their matching donation with their company. Please note, there is no guarantee that an employer will match a donation, and follow-up steps may be required of the donor before the donation can be approved by the employer.
Please contact [email protected] if you or your donors need supporting documents for your matching donation request. All matching donations processed through 360MatchPro will incur a service charge of 5% of the matching donation amount. This 5% will be deducted from the matched amount provided by the company. The remainder will be applied toward the volunteer’s donation goal.
If the matching donation is scheduled to be sent to Global Brigades after the volunteer’s brigade, special approval will be needed from Global Brigades staff in order to count the matching donation towards the volunteer’s donation goal.
Chapter Bank Accounts
Should your Chapter decide to open a bank account, the social security number of one of the leaders must be used. The name on the account should also clearly indicate the Chapter name (i.e. Global Medical Brigades at Penn State). It is recommended that your Chapter try and open the account with the Office of Student Affairs at your university. If you wish to set up a bank account for your Chapter of Global Brigades in order to collect funds, purchase medicine, material donations, and other club-related expenses, please note the following:
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- The bank account should be set up through the university or outside the university with an individual’s social security number. (NOT THE GLOBAL BRIGADES TAX ID NUMBER)
- Collect all cash donations in the account
- Tax receipts cannot be issued
Extra Funds in MyBrigades
On some occasions, after their fundraising efforts, volunteers realize that they have surpassed their donation goal and raised more than expected, which Global Brigades considers Extra Funds. Whenever this happens, volunteers will receive several allocation options, which includes ‘Saving their funds for a future brigade’.
When a volunteer decides to save their extra funds for a future brigade and informs their Program Associate, they will have 1 year from the original brigade date in order to join a program in which they use the saved funds. If the funds are not used in a program taking place within this 1-year timeframe, Global Brigades will automatically allocate these extra funds to support its mission as needed.