we operate in a sustainable and transparent way
we operate in a sustainable and transparent way
Sustainability Policy
We believe that any organisation, whether commercial or NGO, should be aware of its environmental footprint. Already since the foundation of Release Peace in early 2019, we have established a policy of avoiding carbon emissions and keeping waste to an absolute minimum. This attitude also saves us a lot of money.
Environmental & Financial Responsibility
For us, financial responsibility and environmental responsibility go hand in hand. As a non-profit organisation, our financial resources are very limited. We therefore need to think twice before spending money. We believe that keeping our expenses to a minimum can also help us keep our environmental footprint to a minimum. A very simple, practical example is that all our contracts, bills, receipts and similar documents should be handled digitally. This saves money and paper. Another example is to avoid air travel whenever possible. Our work revolves around making the world a safer and more peaceful place, but we do not want our work to have negative side effects on the environment, wherever we work.
Environmental & Financial Responsibility
Sustainable Travel Commitment
The best way to reduce ones CO2 footprint caused by travelling is to avoid unnecessary travels in the first place. We therefore conduct most of our meet-ups virtually, via Zoom, Skype, emails or other electronic means. This is not only good for the environment, but also good for our budget. However, the international nature of our work requires us to be present on the ground and at international meetings, which requires plane travel. We therefore looked into how to offset our carbon footprint. Various initiatives out there allow air travellers to compensate their emissions. We looked into many of those initiatives and regarded many of them critically as they do not live up to our own expectations regarding the off-setting effect they claim to have. After critical scrutiny, we therefore decided to offset all our air travel emissions through www.carbonfootprint.com. Some of the countries we work in will be the ones hardest hit by climate change. It would careless to make matters worse.
We Are Stingy with our Budget and Proud of it
We pursue a good cause and have to be extremely careful what we spend our money on. When we visit our projects on the ground, we search extensively to find cheap accommodation, when printing flyers we look at several options to pick the best price at the best quality. These are only tiny examples, but they reflect a mindset that guides all our expenses. We know that our donations come from individuals who work hard and are generous enough to contribute to a good cause. It is our duty to handle our budget with care. As the saying goes: If we don’t value your penny, we aren’t worth your pound.
What we Spend our Budget on
Most of our money is spent on supporting our projects, both on the ground and our global advocacy. This includes meeting with local communities, expenses for staff, costs for (virtual) meetings and communications, etc. Our work is not focused on donating money to communities or handing out material/financial support. Most of our costs are internal by nature. We need to advocate for our cause, call and visit public officials, as much as be in touch with communities in rural villages. The pie chart also lets you see that we spend only a very small share of our budget on fundraising. Fundraising describes advertising expenses and activities needed to raise more money in the future. This should always be kept to a minimum as we believe money is better spent on our core work.
above pie chart reflects the year 2021/22
How we Are Funded
We are proud that most of our funding comes from small, individual donations. Those account for over 80% of our budget. We are not receiving money from wealthy philanthropists or large corporations. The remaining 20% come from two small, local businesses that support our projects in Ghana, as well as revenues through our magazine thanks to five partners that you can all find here. None of those five partners are profit-making entities and neither of the two business in Ghana has more than 15 employees. This setup allows us independence from any outside commercial or political pressures.
Contact Us
Feel free to reach out to us with any questions. You can find all our contact details on this page. We are based in The Hague, Netherlands. Known to be the City of Peace & Justice, it provides an ideal environment for our work. The Hague famously is home to the International Criminal Court (ICC), International Court of Justice (ICJ), and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Being just 45 minutes away from the EU’s second biggest airport, Amsterdam Schiphol, and one hour from the heart of the EU, Brussels, it also provides for direct and easy connections to the places where our work takes place.
No Secrets
We are legally bound to spend our donations only on expenses that advance our mission of reduce reducing armed violence and making the world a more peaceful place. This is enshrined in our Articles of Association (official version in Dutch: here). They outline strict criteria on how we can spend our money. You can also find precisely what cause we have committed ourselves to. Please also see our section “What We Do”, which gives you an overview of our projects. Our policy overview furthermore covers our Terms & Conditions. More questions? reach out to us here.
Legal Documents about Website Usage & Data Privacy
We believe that data privacy is a big issue in the 21st century. Everyone who uses the internet leaves data behind. As Release Peace, we are not interested in selling data from our website visitors. In fact, we do not sell any user data collected through our website to third parties unless explicitly desired by the user. This is called an “opt-in” policy. Our strict policies on data privacy are all available on our website and easy to find: Our overview pages cover our Terms & Conditions and our Privacy Policy. Furthermore, our cookie policies can be found here (EU and UK) and here (North America).
How do we contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals?
“Is Release Peace only focused on SDG 16 or does it follow a more comprehensive strategy?”