International organisations working in several official languages are reliant on translation for their own operations, for communicating with member countries, for explaining their activities to the general public, and in some cases for producing legislation. So translation quality is paramount, but at the same time organisations are under pressure to economise by reducing costs and/or staff numbers. In this paper the author explains and compares the various routes they use to meet their translation needs (recruiting permanent in-house translators; employing temporary translators; sending translations out to freelance translators; using translation agencies; developing machine aids to translation; combining freelance translation with in-house revision; selective legal revision). There is no single ‘correct’ route: each has some advantages and some drawbacks. They do however impose very different demands on translators and revisers as regards working constraints (speed, production methods, isolation) and opportunities for training and specialisation. All of these have an impact on quality.