Seat Calculation & Donation Transparency Policy

Seat Calculation & Donation Transparency

Effective date: October 2025

At MILESTONE®, we convert a portion of every purchase into measurable support for children through The Childhood Table Collective™ (CTC). This page explains—clearly and in plain language—how we calculate monthly “seats,” how we publish donation totals, and how we keep everything consistent and auditable.

Quick Summary

We donate 2% of each order (after coupons/discounts; excluding shipping, duties, and taxes).
Donations are allocated to the current active beneficiary of The Childhood Table Collective™.
The active beneficiary has a published cost per seat (EUR). We calculate seats using that cost and carry forward any remainder (“bank”).
Where a partner publishes an official yearly impact metric (e.g., Mary’s Meals), we may also report that partner’s child-years funded alongside seats.
Finalization timing: we publish a month only after the related FedEx shipping/logistics invoices for that month’s shipments have arrived and been reconciled. In practice, a month is typically finalized and published near the end of the following month.
Donations are posted for public audit via Open Collective Europe.

Definitions

Donation base — The final order subtotal after coupons. Excludes shipping, duties, taxes, tips, and fees.
Donation rate — Fixed at 2% of the donation base.
Active beneficiary allocation — Each eligible order is attributed to the current active beneficiary.
Seat — A partner-defined unit of impact used for transparency reporting (not a unique child). For meal-based partners, 1 seat = 1 meal.
Cost per seat — The EUR cost used to translate the active beneficiary’s funds into seats. This cost may change over time and is versioned by effective month.
Bank / carryover — Any unspent EUR remainder after issuing seats; it rolls forward.
Finalized ledger snapshot — The published, month-level record used to generate the public tally. We calculate seats from finalized snapshots only (not from live/partial data).
Source of truth — Our finalized monthly ledger snapshots and transactions posted to Open Collective Europe.

Method: How We Calculate Seats

Aggregate eligible orders for the month.
Apply the active donation rate to each order’s donation base to obtain donation amounts (EUR), then sum them for the active beneficiary.
Add to bank: bank_active = bank_previous + monthly_donation_active.
Seats this month: seats_active = floor(bank_active ÷ cost_per_seat_active).
Bank remainder: bank_active − (seats_active × cost_per_seat_active) (carried forward).
We also publish lifetime seats and the remaining bank balance.

Note: We deliberately use floor (round down) so we never overstate seats. Any leftover cents/euros accumulate until they fund whole seats.

Cost Schedule

NGO	Effective from	Cost per seat (EUR)
Mary’s Meals	Sep 2025	€0.11
Notes: Mary’s Meals seats are calculated as meal-seats (1 seat = 1 meal) using their published per-meal cost. Mary’s Meals also reports an official yearly metric of approximately €22 per child per school year (“child-year”).
Governance: We review partner seat costs periodically against partner budgets and operational realities (fees). Any change is announced here and takes effect with an effective month.

Worked Examples: Seat Calculation

Per initiative (example): If the active beneficiary has €73.45 available in its bank and its cost per seat is €0.11, then seats = floor(€73.45 ÷ €0.11) = 667 seats, with €0.08 carried forward.

What’s Included vs. Excluded

Included in donation base

Final order subtotal after coupons/discount codes.

Excluded from donation base

Shipping, duties, taxes (e.g., VAT), tips, and fees.
Gift cards: not applicable—we do not sell or accept gift cards. This policy covers coupons only.

Coupons, Refunds & Adjustments

Coupons/discounts reduce the donation base.
Free-shipping codes do not change the donation (shipping is excluded either way).
Refunds/returns (full or partial) reduce the donation in the month the refund is processed and will appear in the next finalized snapshot that includes that adjustment.
Post-finalization corrections: if a refund or order correction happens after a month has already been finalized, we apply the adjustment in a subsequent finalized month and note it in the ledger.
Order edits/partial refunds: the donation is recalculated from the final charged amount.

Currency & Conversion

Seats are calculated in EUR. Sales in other currencies convert to EUR at settlement and/or standard rates from our payment processor.
Minor FX differences can occur. If a variance is material, we adjust in a subsequent finalized month and disclose it.

Publication & Audit

Timing: We publish seats for a month only after the month’s FedEx logistics invoices have arrived and been reconciled. This typically happens near the end of the following month.
Verification: Donations are posted to Open Collective Europe. Our site mirrors those totals.
Automation: On-site numbers are generated from finalized ledger snapshots only using the method above (with per-initiative carryover).

Governance & Changes

Policy owner: MILESTONE® (The Childhood Table Collective™ team).
Change management: Any change to the donation rate, cost per seat, definitions, or method will be versioned with an effective date/month.
Top-ups: If we round up a month with a discretionary company top-up, we label it “Top-up by MILESTONE®.”