The Heart Foundation of Australia: “The Heart Foundation is dedicated to reducing the impact of cardiovascular disease in Australia, which includes helping to minimise the number of people living with, or dying from heart, stroke and blood vessel disease.
Since we were established in Australia in 1959, we have funded world-class cardiovascular research, supported health professionals in their practice, developed health promotion activities, informed and educated the public, and assisted people with cardiovascular disease” <http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/ABOUT-US/Pages/what-we-do.aspx.>
The Heart Foundation provides support to research groups. “In 2011, the Heart Foundation will invest $13.63 million towards cardiovascular research. This equates to a total of 197 individual funding awards for research into the causes, treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease and related disorders”. They also provide detailed health and heart information to those in need via brochures and their website. They are actively engaged in community education and assistance programs and most recently have assisted local councils to provide smoke free zones. Their efforts to support the ongoing research into Heart disease which from 2006 stats as follows: “Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the term used for heart, stroke and blood vessel diseases. It is the leading cause of death in Australia, accounting for 34% of all deaths in Australia in 2006. Cardiovascular disease kills one Australian nearly every 10 minutes.” It is of critical concern to the health and wellbeing of all Australians, and therefore government and corporate society. Another important function of the Heart Foundation is the Heart Foundation Tick of approval which they sell to products that pass specific health requirements.
Transparency
The Heart Foundation is very transparent with volumes of information available on their website detailing what projects they undertake and the assistance they are providing. They provide sufficient contact information in order to facilitate feedback as well as provide day to day services and advice with a 1300 number call centre that gives callers information about health and general issues. They have state by state twitter pages and facebook pages and most importantly provide their financial reports for download although particular glitches in the website make it slightly awkward when trying to finds the reports as they only way to access them is to search them using their the websites search tab, otherwise their appears to be a veritable black hole of data. Possibly just a design error. They are also reluctant to display pictures of their directors and give information relating to their level of involvement in the organisation although this isn’t a vital piece of information it is something that encourages people to relate more to an organisation as opposed to faceless governors of the business.
8.4/10
Social Impact
The Heart Foundation has been assisting Australians to cope with Heart Disease and providing millions of dollars to research groups in order to ease the suffering of patients and ultimately prevent deaths. They have had a substantial impact on society and the greater health and wellbeing of all Australians regardless of age, background or financial status and continue to assist all Australians to the best of their ability. On their website they claim to be an important contributor to the 10 year increase in life expectancy of Australians since the year of the Heart Foundation’s inception, this may be impossible to prove but realistically they have definitely contributed to the rise.
Donation to expenditure ratio
Revenue 59,717-Admin 4038 ($000) not including premiums to employees so 14.78% goes to Administration leaving 85.22% of donations going to the main activities of the charity, on a side note the advertising promotion and communications has been included as a primary activity of the organisation.
7/10
Overall the Heart Foundation is a very important charity with difficult challenges ahead; it deals with a significant national issue: Heart Disease. And continues to do so in the best interests of the people of Australia. Their score overall is 24.6/30, a moderate to high score which is very good for a charity of their size and scope.
1DonationCentre
What would you say is a fair amount (%) to go towards admin? People always seem to talk negatively about the amount charities spend on admin but say 14% for The Heart Foundation, is this efficient. Does admin include wages?
ReplyDeletekion
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Thank you for your comment.
ReplyDeleteReply by Angus at 1DC
A "fair amount" is an objective statement in itself, its pretty clear when you examine the Financial Statements of the heart Foundation that the level of costs encompassing wages, rent, advertising, and (premiuims which were not included in the financial calculations), Comes back to a basic understanding of what is the primary purpose of the business and what percentage of expenses this incurs and what secondary activities are undertaken that are not neccessary for the organisation. Such as the purchase of several properties in Sydney which may not serve the primary function of the organisation are what really determine the personel judgement of what is fair in terms of costs in this case. Although we understand that some costs are vital some are not and activites such as the Heart foundation Tick may or may not always be designed for the true goal of the organisation as opposed to finanical objectives.
Basically we have had a look and how the % is constructed is reflected in the score of the organisation out of 10, but again this is a matter of subjective analysis.
Thank you for your comment, if this reply just confused you then feel free to make further comments until an understanding can be reached.
Angus at 1DC