How your expedition fee is allocated...

Think Pacific is an award winning social enterprise.  The aims of the local projects are the entire focus of our operations and the funding our projects receive is paramount to the community tourism model that we have created and the remarkable aims that we achieve in Fiji.

Our aim is to make the most effective impact upon community development and conservation initiatives in the Pacific, whilst ensuring that you enjoy a safe, fun, well structured and hugely rewarding experience. We ensure that the projects we support receive both volunteer time and effort, but also carefully budgeted funding. We also ensure that you see value for money in the resort and adventure elements that we include as part of each expedition.

Think Pacific Expedition Fee = High Quality Experience, Real Achievements, Safety, Stucuture and Support.

This philosphy does mean that Think Pacific is not the cheapest option around, but you can be sure that this is for all the right reasons.

Funding sustainable local community development

Think Pacific funds all of the project initiatives through the expedition fees received from our volunteers. Over 75% of your project fee is spent within Fiji, this is the highest local in-country spending of any UK gap year organisation in the Pacific. This includes the purchase of essential building materials, sports equipment and educational materials. We donate on average, £50,000 - £70,000 each year to purchase materials and resources for the rural communities alone. This is in addition to providing long term jobs for local people, supporting small scale Fijian businesses and providing funding to communities to ensure that you pose no burden whatsoever upon local resources or local income.  The project funding is vital to achieve the immediate project objectives as well as supporting every initiative in the long term including faciliating training and education for local people. We promise that you will see with your own eyes when you arrive in Fiji, where your project fee goes to and the long term difference this makes in the rural communities.

A volunteers perspective:

"Think Pacific is an organisation putting enthusiastic young people into a place they can’t experience anywhere else whilst answering Fijian’s dreams. They are not motivated by profit but by seeing the results they achieve in such a short space of time at the grass roots of real Fiji. You can see where every single penny of your money goes: our family receives money to cover the cost of our stay; sports equipment, exercise books, reading books, pens, paper for school; a community hall worth tens of thousands of pounds in materials alone; architect and builder fees and endless more unforeseen costs. How on earth there is any money left over to cover a tall ship cruise round the Yasawa’s and staying in some paradise beach front resorts I do not know"

Robert Willmore, 19, Norfolk, Ten Week Expedition, 2010

Spending money

Throughout all of our expeditions, we ensure that personal expenses are kept to a minimum by including your accommodation, food, in-country transport and 24 hour support as standard in our expedition fees. Aside from your flights and insurance, you will only need additional spending money for drinks and treats and most of our volunteers spend less than £150 spending money throughout an entire ten week expedition.