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How does Coptic Orphans keep its Administrative Costs Down?

At Coptic Orphans we value each donation. Our goal is to have the children reap the largest benefit from each donation. Below are some of the ways we save on administrative costs, in order to fulfil this goal.

In the office

• We maintain a Wish List for needed items to be donated by individuals or companies.
• We use donated scrap paper to print all internal documents.
• We acquired all of the office furniture from an organization or individual donations, this includes: 8 desks, 1 conference table, 3 file cabinets, 2 sofas, 3 bookshelves, 7 desk chairs, 13 office chairs, 2 printer stands and two computers.
• Our printed materials (newsletters, business cards, brochures and misc material) are donated by Infinity Print.
• We have a donated Financial Audit.
• We purchase heavily discounted software and office supplies
• We reduce costs by utilizing available free technology, such as instant messenger, dyndns software
• We use Vonage to reduce our long distance costs between the US and Egypt offices. We pay a highly reduced monthly fee for unlimited calls to Egypt.

Travel

• We use organizational and personal frequent flyer miles for travel.
• Our accommodations in the US are graciously provided by supporters
• Our accommodations/meals in Egypt are graciously provided by staff, board members and Bishops
• Our gas/transportation costs are paid for by staff
• We use personal vehicles without reimbursement.

Donated Services

• Non Profit Management Consultation: consultation utilized the balanced scorecard for non profit management
• Board Governance Consultation: facilitated by Brad Sterl and Co
• Legal Services: memorandums of understanding between the main office and its branches, review of by-laws and articles of incorporation, employee contracts
• Direct Social Services: Egypt Representatives to the children
• Data Entry: volunteers
• Computer maintenance and network setup
• Professional photography capturing the children in Egypt
• Shipping: All correspondence to and from Egypt is hand carried by our supporters.
• Clothing: donations to the children in form of clothing and toys are hand carried by the donor or by staff by utilizing the extra baggage letter.
• Video transfer services: Vulcan Media has transferred the Channel 9 Interview and the Plight of the Orphans video from VHS to .mov. They are also editing and producing a Valuable Girl video for the Gala, a Server to Learn instructional video, and a new general Coptic Orphans video.

Events

• Location: the 2002 (Austrian Embassy) and 2004 (Cannon-Caucus Room) Gala location were donated.
• Printed Material: the 2002 Gala materials were donated by Infinity Print.
• All events are staffed by volunteers.
• All items needed for these events are donated by staff, donors and organizations.