Questions we get asked

Seventy-four percent of total expenditure goes directly to health programmes, with a further nine percent to emergency response and six percent to research. Fundraising and administration are reported separately rather than folded into programme costs, which is why our headline ratio is lower than some organisations claim. The full breakdown is on our financials page.

You can, but we would gently ask you not to. Restricted funding is the single biggest constraint on our ability to move resources to where need is greatest — a cholera outbreak does not wait for a matching grant. Unrestricted monthly gifts are the most useful money we receive.

Yes in the United States, United Kingdom and across the EU, where we hold the relevant charitable registrations. You will receive a receipt by email immediately, and an annual statement each January. UK donors can add Gift Aid at checkout.

From the link in any receipt email, or by contacting our supporter team. There is no retention script and no phone call required — you will get a confirmation within one working day.

No. We do not sell, rent, trade or share supporter data with any third party for their own marketing, and we never have. Our privacy policy is short enough to read in full.

We look for districts with high unmet need, a government health authority willing to partner, and a realistic path to handover within ten to fifteen years. We do not open a country programme without a costed long-term commitment, because a clinic that closes when a grant ends can leave a community worse off than before it opened.

Rarely, and never as a substitute for local clinicians. Ninety-four percent of our staff are nationals of the country they work in. Expatriate surge teams exist for acute emergencies where specific technical skills are genuinely unavailable locally.

Handover to the national health system is the goal from day one, and it is planned over years, not months. We publish a closure report for every programme we exit, including what did not transfer successfully.

Yes. Every programme evaluation is published in full within twelve months of completion regardless of the result. Programmes that fail quietly are the most expensive thing in global health, because everyone else repeats them.

No. Our health library is general education, reviewed by clinicians for accuracy, but it cannot account for your individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional diagnosis or treatment — please consult a qualified health provider.

Every article is reviewed by a registered clinician in the relevant specialty before publication and re-reviewed at least every twenty-four months. The reviewer and the review date are printed at the foot of each article.

Yes, and we would like you to. Our fact sheets and toolkits are published under a licence that permits translation and adaptation for non-commercial use, with attribution. Contact us and we will send the source files.

Only in narrow circumstances, and only when we have requested them. Unsolicited medical donations frequently arrive expired, mislabelled or unusable, and disposing of them costs money that would have been better spent on supplies we chose.

We work with corporate partners on funding, logistics and technical expertise. We do not accept partnerships that require programme branding, patient imagery rights, or any influence over what our research publishes.

Start with our volunteer page, which lists current roles and the registration requirements for each. Most clinical placements require a minimum commitment of eight weeks and current registration in your home jurisdiction.