silentVIP for Good
The travel program your mission deserves.
silentVIP for Good gives nonprofit organizations the managed travel program well-run companies rely on: one policy, clear approvals, every trip charged to the right grant and fund, clean records for finance and auditors, and people looking after your travelers day and night. For volunteer teams, and for schools, colleges and universities too.
Riverside Community Health (example)
Spend against travel budget, by program
Needs your approval
Denver → Albuquerque, 3 nights
Who it is for
Built for organizations with a mission
Staff, board members, partners, speakers, volunteers, teachers, students and researchers all travel for a mission. silentVIP for Good runs that travel as one program, with the controls these organizations are accountable for.
Nonprofit travel
A managed travel program for your organization
Policy, approvals, grant and fund allocation, finance reporting, duty of care and events, run by silentVIP's travel team.
- A policy staff can follow and funders recognise
- Approvals before money is spent
- Every trip coded to grant, fund and program
- One itemized invoice and exports for audit
Volunteer travel
Volunteers and teams, where the work is
Disaster response, medical and building missions, conservation and community projects: teams booked together, rosters that change, and someone watching over them while they are away.
- Group travel from 10 attendees
- Names changed as the roster moves
- Pre-departure readiness for every volunteer
- Check-ins when something happens nearby
Education
Schools, colleges and universities
Field trips and class tours, teams and competitions, study abroad, faculty conferences and research, admissions travel: organized, coded to the right budget and watched over.
- Elementary, middle and high schools
- Colleges, universities and graduate schools
- Students and chaperones booked as guest travelers
- Research travel charged to the award
The problem
Travel is one of the hardest costs to keep clean
At most nonprofits, travel is booked by whoever is traveling, on whichever card is nearest, and sorted out afterwards. That is when the questions start.
Booked everywhere
Personal cards, airline sites, a colleague's points. Nobody can say what the organization spent on travel this year until the receipts are in.
Charged to the wrong fund
A trip that served two programs lands entirely on one grant, and the allocation is reconstructed months later for the report.
Missing documentation
Funders and auditors ask who approved it, why it was needed and how the cost was decided. The answers are in an email thread somewhere.
No one knows where people are
When there is a storm, a strike or an emergency, finding out which staff and volunteers are nearby takes hours of calls.
Staff time lost to logistics
Program staff spend evenings comparing fares and rebooking cancelled flights instead of doing the work they were hired for.
Groups are their own project
Board meetings, conferences and volunteer deployments each turn into a spreadsheet of names, flights and rooms.
How the program works
One program, from request to reconciliation
The same flow every time, whoever is traveling and whoever is paying.
Set up once
Your travelers, approvers, policy, cost codes and billing are set up during implementation (4 to 6 weeks).
Request a trip
A traveler, or the person who arranges travel for them, sends a request with dates, purpose and the grant or program it serves.
Choose from checked options
silentVIP's travel team sends options already checked against your policy. The traveler chooses one.
Approve before booking
If your rules need it, the traveler's named approver sees the cost, the policy result and the code it is charged to before anything is booked.
Travel with support
Urgent help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with incidents monitored and travelers contacted when something happens.
Pay and report
One itemized invoice, every line carrying its cost codes, and reports and exports ready for finance and funders.
Grants and restricted funds
Every trip charged to the money that paid for it
A site visit that served two grants and a state contract should be charged that way. Cost codes are attached when the trip is requested, travel with every charge, and can be corrected later with the change recorded.
- Codes chosen when the trip is requested
- Each charge on a trip can carry its own code
- Corrections recorded with an audit trail
- Exports your finance system can import
Site visit · Field office (example)
Duty of care
When something happens, someone is already on it
Incident monitoring 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When an incident affects your travelers or volunteers, the team finds who is nearby, contacts them and keeps you informed until everyone is accounted for.
Playbooks
How to organize it, step by step
Timelines, who does what, and the checklists to follow: for board meetings, conferences, site visits, volunteer deployments, school trips, team travel, budgets, audits and the first hour of an incident.
Resources
Free guides and tools for any nonprofit or school
Useful whether or not you work with us.
Writing a nonprofit travel policy
What to put in it, section by section, and how it meets funder expectations.
Learn moreGrant-funded travel
Documentation, allocation and the official sources to check.
Learn morePolicy builder
Answer a few questions and get a draft travel policy to edit.
Learn moreTravel budget planner
Plan a year of travel by program and fund, and export it.
Learn moreQuestions
What organizations ask first
Who is silentVIP for Good for?
Nonprofit organizations that want their travel run as a managed program (charities, foundations, associations, community, health and advocacy organizations); volunteer organizations and nonprofits that send volunteers; and schools, colleges and universities, from elementary schools to graduate schools.
Who actually books the travel?
silentVIP's own travel team. Travelers (or the people who arrange travel for them) send a request; the team sends options that already respect your policy; the traveler chooses. Live self-service search across airline and hotel inventory is not available today. Travelers request a trip and choose from the options our team sends.
How do you get paid?
No supplier commissions. We're paid only our published fees. Every fee itemized on the option and on the invoice. Nothing hidden in the fare. Terms for nonprofits and schools are set out in writing for each organization; see silentVIP's published pricing for how fees work.
Can trips be charged to grants and restricted funds?
Yes. Every charge carries an entity, department and project from the moment of booking, which you can use for grants, funds and programs. The codes travel onto invoices, reports and exports for your finance system, and corrections are recorded.
What happens if something goes wrong while someone is traveling?
Urgent help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Urgent calls are acknowledged within 5 minutes, and when an incident affects your travelers the team makes a first contact attempt within 30 minutes of an incident being confirmed.
How long does it take to start?
Implementation usually takes 4 to 6 weeks: your travelers, policy, approvers, cost codes and billing are set up, and the people who arrange travel are shown how to use the portal.
Bring your travel program under one roof
Tell us about your organization and how you travel. A person reads every enquiry and replies.