Volunteer fees

This section is only applicable to volunteers booking directly with The Mirror Foundation, not other agencies

It is generally accepted these days that volunteers usually need to pay a fee. Most organisations have overheads associated with volunteers - meals, accommodation, transportation, administrative costs, staff wages - and these costs can't be covered unless the volunteer pays their way.

At The Mirror Foundation we ask for a payment based on the length of stay. The longer a volunteer stays, the more cost effective it becomes - we charge a larger fee for the first week, to cover all the costs around registering, corresponding, preparing, etc. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th weeks cost an additional 1,000THB per week. From week 5 onwards we charge an additional 3,000THB per week.

For instance, if you are staying for 1 week Childcare, the fee is 17,000THB... and if you are staying for 8 weeks Childcare, it's 32,000THB. Simple.

You will pay a deposit payment at least 2 weeks prior to your start date, then the balance can be paid on arrival. This reduces your transaction fees, but please note that your programme cannot begin until the balance has been paid in full. Full details are in the Notes section below.

Programme fees

Your fee is used to cover the expenses incurred during your stay, with any surplus donated to the foundation's central fund - this is used to support our projects, emergencies and disasters, and other unforeseen events. There is no profit gained from your fee.

Payment is made through your volunteer information form

5,000 Thai Baht (+6% admin fee)

A non-refundable deposit payment is required to secure the placement. Payment is made via PayPal, and must be completed at least 2 weeks prior to the intended start date.

Once your deposit payment has been received, your placement is confirmed. The remaining fee, the balance of payment still to be made, will be required on the day your join our programme.

You must pay the remaining balance in full before you can start your programme

For example if your programme begins on 1st January, your deposit must have cleared into our bank account at least 2 weeks before, and the remaining fee must be paid in full on 1st January.

If you wish to pay the remaining balance before your start date, please contact to discuss your options.

Quite often, volunteers wish to extend their programme by a week or more. If we agree to the request, we will require an advance payment of 4,000 Thai Baht per week.

Contact staff onsite for more details.

Please note a volunteer cannot extend beyond the maximum 12 weeks.

This is a question we hear occasionally, although most people seem to understand the reasons behind fees already.

It's a simple question of economics - as much as we love to have volunteers come in to help us, teaching or doing manual work, it costs money.

Ecotours project, which runs the volunteer programme,  must pay The Mirror Foundation for all costs incurred - such as accommodation, transport, and food for volunteers. Most of the payments we receive is used to look after you during your programme. 

The costs involved:

• Food we feed you three times day, five days a week - we buy our produce locally, but it still costs money
• Accommodation it costs us a rental fee paid to the foundation, per person per night, to house you
• Transport we pick you up, drop you off, take you to work and back, off to homestay (sometimes in other provinces), occasionally whisk you off to special events... petrol costs, vehicle maintenance costs
• Homestay we pay a stipend to the families when they house you, to cover food costs, and accommodation
• Administration and wages we have staff to pay, bills to take care of, general overheads and running costs for the programmes
• Equipment tools (but not materials), necessary for work.

In percentage terms:

• food: 35%
• accommodation: 15%
• transportation: 30%
• staff: 12% - (field staff)
• equipment: 3%
• admin: 5% - (office staff)

Essentially, without a volunteer paying to cover those things listed above, we couldn't run the programmes. If we can't run the programmes, there is no need for volunteers.