Since we launched our campaign earlier this week, we've received an amazing flow of positive responses and support. We would like to thank everyone for their generous donations, support and love!

We have received many questions and engaged in conversations with many of you. We would like to use this first update to answer some of your questions and give you more information on how we will use the funds.

Why are you raising funds?

Our main goal with this fundraiser is to increase our contingency funds to assist us in covering our employee payroll and social benefits over the coming months. (We aim to give our team partial salaries which would assist them in buying food and basic supplies needed to keep their families healthy throughout the crisis).

Our current contingency fund gives us sufficient monies to cover our basic operational costs for several months. However it would be unfeasible for us to continue supporting our entire team for an extended period of time. We also have suppliers on Nusa Ceningan, Lembongan and Bali who rely on us purchasing or supporting them, so that they themselves can continue to support their families. (This includes but not limited to our food, water, and other services suppliers who have supported us over the past 5 years).

How much does GoGetFunding charge for using the platform and is there an alternative options to donate or transfer funds to you?

Along with your generous donations on GoGetFunding.com (Which takes 4% of all donation made), we've had many people contacting us to ask how they can help us either with monthly contributions or reaching out to get our bank details so they can send us larger sum of money via direct wire transfers, PayPal or transferwise (if you wish to do this, you can email [email protected] or WhatsApp +62 821 45855934 and we will provide you more details and options to support us). We are grateful for your kind words and amazing support.

How much do you hope to raise with this fundraise campaign?

Some donors asked us what was our target goal (how much we hoped to raise with our campaign). The short answer is we do not have a target goal for our fundraiser. The reality is that we will most likely need ongoing support over the coming months until this crisis is over. However, in an effort to paint a full pictures, we would like to share with you an overview of our monthly expenses and how we aim to use the funds in the coming months. (see below)

What is your average monthly operational budget?

Under normal circumstances, with guests staying in our accommodation and divers doing courses or guided dives, our monthly overhead runs between $26,000-$32,000 or more (this includes payroll, employee benefits, employees, sales, and revenue taxes, electricity, internet, telecommunication, marketing, consulting food, petrol, consulting fees, amortisation of our assets, depreciation and other cost of operation). We have 24 employees and facilities that need ongoing maintenance: 3 boats, 8 bungalows, half a dozen support buildings (kitchen, bar, generator room, compressor room, office, reception, classroom etc), 2 pools, and a property of ~ 3400Sq. meters to maintain.

What is your basic monthly operational budget?

Since we closed our resort last month, our staff have been staying home (many members of our team went back to their families in Sulawesi, Java, North Bali, Lombok) while others stayed here on the island. We have 2 essential employees working part-time to maintain our facilities; pool, bungalows, gardens etc ensuring our resort will be in good shape when we are ready to reopen. Beyond this we have 2 consultants on monthly retainers and we have 3 team members living at the resort, as they either stayed in a homestay that were not suitable for long term or to save on rent.

Our current burn rate with partial salaries and basic operational related costs is around $7,200 (if we're excluding annually prepaid monthly expenses):

$3600 Payroll (partial salaries)
$1800 health Insurance and social security. ($600 prepaid)
$500 Consultants (accounting fees; we still have to file monthly reports. Lawyer fees; employee work permits, consulting, and applications etc)
$500 Electricity
$300 Water (drinking and fresh water for showers, washing etc)
$50 Pest control (making sure our wooden buildings are not infested by termites and rodents)
$100 Pool maintenance
$250 Internet / telecommunication
$100 Cleaning supplies,
$25 rubbish collection
$150 Petrol and diesel.
$1000 limited stay/work permits KITAS/IMTA for 5 expats/directors (Prepaid)
$350 SAS (Software as service for resort and dive operation)
$500 Advertising and related marketing costs which are locked in contracts (Prepaid)
$35 ceremony offerings (balinese traditional offerings at our temples)

Total $9,260 ($7,160 if excluding prepaid items)

How will you use the fund and what about transparency?

We aim to get the support we need to cover our operational costs for at least 12 months. We believe that even if the situation return to normal in developed countries in the coming months, it will take most likely 6 to 12+ months before tourism return to normal in Bali. We want to remain optimistic, however, we have to be realistic. People will not be comfortable to travel for a while, the global economy will be affected, and other factors will come into play. Once we manage to reopen our doors, it will take months to rebuild our clientele and income. The global tourism market will be very competitive, every dive operators will be competing for your business. It will be a difficult process. If by chance with your amazing support, we do end up with an excessive amount of donations. We will use the funds to help revive the local economy, donate to local programs and others in needs.

Rest assured that we will remain transparent along the way. We built our sustainable eco-resort by establishing a strong partnership with our guests and patrons based on mutual respect and trust. Our goal is to ensure that our team remain healthy and that our facilities remain in working conditions so that when this is over, we can welcome you back to our dive resort.

Will you be doing other campaigns or programs to generate new revenue and income?

Yes, we are currently working on several projects to provide our students with online resources, learning tools as well as digital course delivery systems; eLearning and eCourses. Gina, our in-house marine biologist is currently hard at work recording our various Marine Conservation Workshops which we will start offering online next week. Soon, we will be offering our students several PADI and Project AWARE specialty courses online. We expect to start delivering these within the next few weeks. in the coming week, will also start offering our new prepaid vouchers. We will share more information on these projects and other updates with you later this weekend.

Your ongoing support is needed.

We will continue to provide updates on this campaign page and on social media, in the meantime, if you are in a position to lend a hand, donate, help spread the word, now, more than ever we need your support. We believe that if we all work together, support one another, we can overcome this pandemic and become better humans in the process. We believe that together with your help, we can sustain our eco-friendly dive resort, our team and support the local community until this global crisis passes.

Let us assure you that we will be ready to emerge from this crisis with renewed passion and energies to again share our love of our ocean planet with you. Our reefs will continue to flourish with marine life ready to welcome you back to Nusa Paradise to create new amazing memories.

Please use this time to stay safe, stay healthy, support others, and focus on your families.

Sandra, Lea, David, Robert and the team at Ceningan Divers / Ceningan Resort.