ANTICIPATED PARTICIPANT COSTS


Picturesque Flower Market -Croatia


Coming Home from Shopping - Serbia

ECHO-DANUBE 2004 will receive only a portion of its total budget from the grant award.  Monies provided will be only cover roughly 60% of the total budget.  The other 40% must come in the form of "cost-sharing." 

CEC is providing roughly 20% of the direct cost budget. The remaining 20% must be raised through a "per participant" charge, estimated at $2,200. This can come from any source--- participants' school districts, personal funds, lottery income, bake sales, soda can collections, etc. (Local districts may use federal staff development monies to support particpants since ECHO-DANUBE 2004 is an advanced professional development activity)

Granted that $2,000-$2,200 is a large amount!  However, when measuring costs against benefits, it is really quite reasonable for a month-long trip abroad. Considering the cost of the whole project comes to almost exactly $10,000 person, participants will be getting a great baragin.  Here is a breakdown that shows what "benefits" are offered:
 

 Round trip air fare from the USA, which will probably run just a bit over $1,300.
 Hotel accommodations overseas. (Double rooms, of  course.)
 Cash allowance for most meals overseas.
 Ground transportation over the course of a month. (Charter bus,boat, etc.)
 Cash allowance for miscellaneous surface travel, film, computer supplies, batteries, museum admissions, and artifacts for the  classroom.
 Costs of instruction and overseas services, including hosts, speakers, and guides in each country visited and a full-time translator/problem solver who will  travel with the group throughout the month abroad.
Administrativeand technical support.

Well before travel starts, CEC will send each person a check to cover meals and the other allowances listed above.  Actually, combining this check amount with the value of your airline ticket, participants will be getting theirr money back (and then some!) before even leaving the United States. 

Note, too, that the "per participant budget estimate" has been deliberately "high-balled." We have found in the past that it is much better to estimate high and give some money back than it is to figure low and have to pass the hat later on! (No promises, of course, but we really have given people some cash back in past ECHO projects when actual costs did not run as high as expected.)
 

Payment Schedule

     * $1,000 to accompany your "Letter of Acceptance" when you accept your invitation to take part in ECHO.

     * $1,200 payable before July 1, 2004. (Less if the project's final budget can be reduced.)
 

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