By the numbers
Where Does a Mission Trip Donation Actually Go? Don's $3,940 Budget, Charted
Most ministries answer "where does my donation go" with a pie chart of percentages. This one answers with a receipt: every line of a $3,940 medical mission supply drive, charted, with nothing held back for overhead.
Ask most organisations where a donation goes and you get a percentage. Ask Don Nichols and you get a price list. He publishes the whole budget for a Belize medical mission because donors asked — a Bible is $2.50, a hygiene kit $3, a pair of reading glasses $0.60, a missionary $1,200. This article puts that budget into charts so you can see the shape of it in ten seconds.
The split nobody publishes
The first surprise is how much of a supply drive never buys a supply. $1,725 of the $3,940 goes to trunks, airline baggage fees, customs, and an emergency fund. In Don's words: "Transporting these supplies is a ministry in itself."
Where the $3,940 supply drive goes
Buying the supplies versus getting them to Belize
Show as a table
| Item | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Supplies given away | $2,215 | Bibles, hygiene kits, reading glasses, sunglasses, tracts, pastor gifts |
| Getting it there | $1,725 | Trunks, airline baggage fees, customs, contingency |
What the supplies cost, line by line
Everything on this chart is handed to somebody in a Belize village free of charge. Hygiene kits are the biggest line because there are three hundred of them; Bibles are second. The pastor gift sets — a study Bible and practical household gifts for three village pastors and their wives — are how the mission keeps preaching after the trunks are empty.
What the supplies cost, line by line
$2,215 of items, every one handed to someone free
Show as a table
| Item | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 300 hygiene kits | $900 | |
| 250 Bibles | $625 | |
| Special gifts for three pastors and their wives | $300 | |
| 300 pairs of reading glasses | $180 | |
| 150 pairs of sunglasses | $150 | |
| Gospel tracts | $60 |
And what it costs to get it there
“Transporting these supplies is a ministry in itself. Every item must be purchased, sorted, packed, weighed, checked through the airline, transported internationally, cleared through Belize customs, and delivered to remote villages.”
What it costs to get it there
$1,725 the airline and the border take before a single kit is handed out
Show as a table
| Item | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Six additional trunk baggage fees | $1,200 | Six additional trunk baggage fees (~$200 each) |
| Emergency contingency fund | $250 | Emergency contingency fund |
| Eight heavy-duty ministry trunks | $200 | Eight heavy-duty ministry trunks (~$25 each) |
| Customs fees | $75 | Customs fees (based on our most recent trip) |
Six trunks at $200 each in baggage fees is the largest single line on the whole drive — larger than all the Bibles. It is also the least glamorous gift on the list and, trip after trip, the one that still needs a sponsor.
Nine trunks, fifty pounds each
What the team checked through the airline on the most recent trip
Show as a table
| Item | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 9 trunks | ≈450 lb of ministry supplies | ≈50 lb each |
$200 eachMake it real
Fly one trunk
$200 puts one fifty-pound trunk of Bibles, kits and glasses on the plane. It is the gift that makes every other gift arrive.
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Why the numbers are this small
There is no organisation taking a cut. Don and Patti are not paid a salary from any of this, and no percentage is held back for overhead. When somebody sponsors a Bible for $2.50, $2.50 of Bible arrives in Belize. Prices are low because things are bought in bulk, in-country where possible, and carried in personally rather than shipped.
Stay close to the work
Get the budget every time it changes
Don publishes the real numbers. Leave your name and number and you will get them as they change, plus photographs of what the money became.
See the receipts, not just the plan
Keep going
Questions people ask
- How much of a donation to the Nichols mission goes to the cause?
- All of it. Nobody on the team is paid, and no percentage is held back for overhead. A gift designated to an item on the Fill the Trunks page becomes that item; an undesignated gift goes to the most urgent need.
- Why is so much of the budget logistics?
- Because the team carries the supplies in personally. Flying six trunks as checked baggage costs $1,200, the trunks themselves $200, customs about $75, and a contingency fund $250 — $1,725 in all, or 44% of the drive.
- Where can I see actual gifts and expenses, not just the plan?
- The Open Book page shows recorded gifts and hand-entered expenses, clearly labelled as separate records. PayPal gifts are not yet synchronised automatically, and the page says so.
Pass the numbers on.
Most people have never seen what a mission trip actually costs. One share puts this in front of somebody who will give because they finally can see it.
More by the numbers
All 8 articles →
InteractiveWhat $25 Buys on a Medical Mission Trip (Build the Trunk Yourself)
Twenty-five dollars is 41 pairs of reading glasses, ten Bibles, or eight hygiene kits at Don Nichols' real prices. Pick a budget, tap what goes in the trunk, then make it real.
Open
The record2013 to 2026: Thirteen Years of Mission Trips, in Charts
13 mission trips across 5 countries since 2013, the three years they could not go, and 509 photographs — Don Nichols' own timeline, charted.
Open
GivingThe Math of Monthly Giving: What $25 a Month Does in a Year
Twelve months of $25 is 120 Bibles at Don Nichols' real price, or one missionary sponsored in 48 months. Drag the slider and see what your monthly gift becomes.
OpenGuides, tools, and the FAQ live on the Resources page. Every fact about the mission on them comes from what Don has published here.