at the behest of Conservancy and/or a Project (``Travelers'').

This Policy includes an Easy Reference Guide that can be used as a 

template for most of the travel covered under this Policy.  When in doubt,

refer to the more detailed sections below.  

== Purpose

Conservancy must maintain effective control of business-related expenses

in order to maintain its financial viability and tax exempt status.  

Conservancy and each Project is also accountable to our donors to ensure 

that we manage their contributions wisely and maximize our ability to 

pursue our charitable mission.  As such, Conservancy expects Travelers to 

use good judgment and to claim reimbursement for only those expenses that 

are necessary and reasonable.  Excessive expenses, including but not 

limited to luxury accommodations and services unnecessary for, or unrelated 

to the furtherance of Conservancy's charitable mission are not eligible for 

reimbursement. 

Any travel expense that adheres to this Policy is considered In-Policy

and does not require special approval, so long as the trip itself

has been approved in writing by Conservancy's Executive Director or

by a Project's Leadership Committee (``PLC'') in a regular and documented

PLC vote.  Conservancy and/or a PLC can limit allowable travel expenses

to an amount less than what would otherwise be considered acceptable

according to this Policy. If so, the smaller budget is the maximum

allowed expense. 

PLC's may, in fact, have their own travel policy that is more restrictive

than this one.  Please consult the PLC for your Conservancy project before

incurring an expenses to ensure you understand what expenses can be

reimbursed.

== Easy Reference Guide

Travelers should adhere to the following guidelines to stay In-Policy. 

* Flights.  

   * Before you buy tickets, save a screenshot of a flight search that

     shows the least expensive fare available from multiple airlines for

     the dates you need to travel.

   * Book at least 14 days in advance.

   * Fares within $100 of that lowest fare you found are In-Policy, even if

     you book on a different site or for different dates.

   * Fares over $750 domestically or $1,500 internationally require

     Conservancy's pre-approval.

* Hotels. 

* Receipts.  Keep and submit PDFs of the following, as applicable:

* Reimbursement.

== Reimbursement Procedure

Note that reimbursements are only processed once per week.  While we usually

can turn around reimbursements in about two weeks' time, please be advised

that Conservancy officially does reimbursements on a NET-30 basis, starting

from the date that complete materials are received.  If this is an issue,

Conservancy is available to prepurchase expensive items like airline tickets

on your behalf, so that you don't need to be reimbursed.

If you seek to be reimbursed for Conservancy Project expenses, please send

the following, in a self contained email (with attachments as necessary),

cc'ing your Project Leadership Committee address (PROJECT@sfconservancy.org)

for Project approval:

  * a brief paragraph explaining what was accomplished for the project

    during your travel and/or with the funds being reimbursed.  This can

    be informal; it's just for our records to confirm the travel advanced

    the not-for-profit mission of both Conservancy and the project.

  * A brief report listing the items to be reimbursed.

  * Full receipt(s) for everything, unless the travel policy does not

    require receipts (e.g., for per diem expenses).

    If your receipts are in a different currency than your preferred one

    for reimbursement, include documentation of the rate conversion (e.g., a

    redacted credit card statement in your preferred currency).  Otherwise,

    Conservancy will use the prevailing rate for the date of the expense for

    conversion.

    Please verify that the receipts that you submit are within the attached

    travel policy requirements.  Note, however, that your Project Leadership

    Committee may have set a stricter budget than what the general

    Conservancy policy allows.

  * How you'd liked to be reimbursed. The four payment options, in order of

    Conservancy's preference, are:

    * PayPal.  For this, we need (a) the email address that is registered to

      the PayPal account that will receive reimbursement and (b) the

      preferred currency.  (Please verify that PayPal supports transactions in

      https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/sell/mc/mc_intro-outside[your

      preferred currency before choosing one].)

      Note that sometimes PayPal charges fees.  Usually we're taking

      funds from our PayPal balance, which means no fees appear on our side,

      but they may appear on yours.  In our experience, USA PayPal account

      holders physically in the USA are not typically charged fees; but we do