Personal Experience with a Charity

Each Easter a group of 4 families, one being my own, put aside a day to do something in celebration. All having children around the same age, in years gone by these days consisted of egg hunts and eating as much chocolate as possible.

A few years ago as we were all older our parents decided to show us instead what the less fortunate people in the city did over the festive break. We donated our day that year to the Smith Family. We each loaded up the cars with pre-packaged boxes of food and where given a list of names and addresses to deliver them to. 

The commission flats where the main destination for my family, before then I had never really paid too much attention to them. A trend emerged as the deliveries went on, many were old and lonely, living alone and knowing you were coming really made their day. All of them would want you to stay and have a conversation, what was most confronting was you could see past them in the doorways. They lived in small colourless rooms. At times you could see a small tv on an old cabinet, a table with a few different chairs and maybe a rattly old couch. I guess it’s what you don’t normally see when you just give money to a charity, you don’t always see where it is actually going and how grateful people can be. 

If it wasn’t for that day I would most likely still be oblivious to how people live in the ‘concrete eyesores’ as I have heard them described. I finished that day with a new appreciation for what these charities do, Australia is by no means a third world country but there are still plenty of people that need help.

What are some of your experiences with charities?

Mark, 1DC   

Top 10 philanthropists

Below is a list of the top 10 philanthropists with brief summaries on what they have done;

10. Richard Branson
Establishing his own foundation, Virgin Unite, Branson donates millions of his own money from his business holdings to help create new models to address conflict, climate change and disease around the world.

9. Eli and Edythe Board
Eli, a prominent business man, along with his wife manage The Board Foundation. Made up of smaller organisations, The Board Foundation helps in areas of education, sciences, arts and civic services.

8. Warren Buffet
Many people believe that warren buffet should be further up the list due to the amount of money he has to give. Upon the passing of his wife, her share of the couples fortune was given to charities. Buffet also has given his children money to start their own philanthropic projects

7. Thomas Siebel
Siebel became aware of his home states methamphetamine addiction and set up a foundation, The Meth Project, to deal with the issue. Donation a sizable portion of his own wealth, thousands of adds form magazines to billboards were purchased bringing people’s attention to the help at hand

6. William Barron Hilton
While living a very lavish lifestyle in the past, Hilton has now pledged 97% of his personal wealth to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. This will mean that the foundation will be able to continue helping the homeless by offering shelter, providing vocational training and assisting the disabled

5. George Soros
His Open Society Institute has invested funds in many different areas from scholarships to economic relief. He also assists heavily in trying to shape governments in poorer countries believing that poverty is a result of inadequate leadership.

4. Chris and Jamie Cooper-Hohn
This husband and wife duo head up the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, targeting the poorest areas in the world to help improve the lives of children. They are focused on projects that have an immediate impact, like the alleviation of hunger and medical help.

3. Bill and Hillary Clinton
The Clinton Foundation works around the world to provide life’s essentials, such as clean drinking water to poor nations, educational opportunities for those who cannot afford it themselves and more recently working towards a cleaner environment.

2. Donna and Philip Berber
The founders of ‘A Glimmer of Hope’, Donna and Philip focus their attention on places such as Ethiopia where their donations have gone to the development of infrastructure. The foundation is responsible for thousands of water wells, hundreds of schools and the lending of microloans.

1. Bill and Melinda Gates
The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has assets worth over $34 billion and assists in areas ranging from educational grants to medical research. Their aim is to help improve lives and in an outstanding show of generosity, donated their entire 09 dividend from Microsoft totalling over $3 billion dollars.

Is there anyone that you feel should be on this list?

Happy Donating ;)
Mark, 1DC

FEDERAL BUDGET 2011: Long overdue crackdown on Charities/NFP

With great anticipation, the Australian Federal Budget for 2011 was passed down a couple of days ago. Whilst the majority of the media attention is focused on the impact of the budget on low income families and the recent disaster relief policies, 1DC would light to shed light on an important aspect that has been overlooked.

A new independent statutory agency called the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission will be introduced by July 2012 as part of a $53 million crackdown on charities. But what does this really mean?

Basically, the government has finally come to the realization that many Not-for-profit organizations, including charities, have been taking advantage of the system originally put in place to support the sector in addressing social needs of the less fortunate for many years.

As many organisations have been using the current system to minimise or avoid their organisations tax obligations, this commission will:

- Be responsible for determining the legal status of all groups wanting to be classed as charitable organisations.
- Crackdown on the receiving of tax benefits for activities of an NFP outside the assistance of disadvantaged people.
- Introduce a statutory definition of a charity in consultation with the states and territories.

This means that NFP entities will now pay income tax on profits from their unrelated commercial activities that are not directed back towards helping disadvantaged people. Furthermore, NFPs will not be able to use FBT and GST concessions for those commercial activities.

1DC would like to express our overwhelming joy and support of the introduction of this commission, albeit long overdue. This will mean tighter governance of the charity/NFP sector, to ensure organisations are acting with good social intentions, and not just reducing their tax bill. 1DC hopes this will lead to greater good being achieved for the millions of people who need our help and extend our helping hand to the commission in any way possible.

…1DC says better late than never Labour Government!

Joyful Regards,
Alen, 1DC :)

Most Prevalent Donation Methods

Oxford dictionary defines a donation as ‘something that is given to a person or an organization such as a charity, in order to help them’ in the today’s world there are many ways of making a donation and a donation can come in many different forms. A common way of making a donation is through donor-advised funds where you give your money to a group and they manage where your money goes, another way is donating through an intermediary which is to directly give your money to the cause you wish to support.

Technology is playing an increasingly important role in making donations as people can now make what is known as a ‘micro-donation’ (very small donations $5 or $10) through websites and even through texting. An example of text donations is from the Salvation Army who at one stage had a donation drive by simply texting “NYSA” to a number you could make a $10 donation through your phone bill. On top of these methods the old donation box and door knock appeals are still very popular, but the most prevalent method of donating to this day is still the written check, which goes directly to the organisation.

As well as the different methods of making a donation there are also many different types of donations. The most popular type of donation is not surprisingly, a cash donation, but there are other ways to contribute and help out your favourite organisation. Other ways to donate are to give new or used items such as clothing, furniture or food, you can even donating some blood or an organ or you may choose to volunteer some of your time freely to help get involved with the cause you support.

So there you have it, donations can come in many shapes and forms with something to suit everyone. To this day the most popular form of donating is with money through a written check, but if that method isn’t for you there are many different options. Maybe some clothes which you haven’t worn in a while? or an old bench you haven’t used in a while? So get donating and give a little something back to the world.

Happy Donating ;) 

David, 1DC

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Happy Donating ;)
David, 1DC

The Heart Foundation

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.

9.2/10

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

CARE

“CARE Australia is an Australian charity and international humanitarian aid organisation fighting
global poverty, with a special focus on empowering women and girls to bring lasting change to
their communities.” (www.care.org.au)

As an international organisation CARE seeks to provide hope, stress tolerance and social justice, while helping those who through poverty have been denied dignity and security. They aim to serve individuals and families in the poorest communities in the world providing economic opportunities, influencing policy decisions at all levels of government, addressing discrimination and strengthening a community’s capacity for self-help.  

As a non-religious and non-political organisation CARE focuses on working with women and girls to bring lasting change to their communities through the confederation composed of 14 national members. This forms one of the world’s largest independent, international emergency relief and development assistance organisations.

Transparency

For any large organisation raising funds from the public or government, transparency in all aspects of business is essential. CARE has large amounts of comprehensive information for ongoing projects, financial accounts and how the public can further help them achieve their goals. They provide telephone and fax numbers for additional information along with email, Facebook and Twitter accounts for updates on their works around the world. Given this, a score of 9/10 is given for the transparency of the corporation.

Social Impact

CARE Australia is an international humanitarian aid organisation, as such they are heavily involved with third world countries. Their resources are used in conjunction with CARE’s other national sectors to cover 5% of the African continent, 77% of the Asian Pacific and the remaining 18% in countries like Afghanistan, Haiti, Jordan, West Bank/Gaza and Yemen.

In these areas CARE works with the people helping them to set up education services, improve health and increase their income, leading to a self-sufficient and improved loving condition for all.

The great work and change they are bringing to so many cannot be underestimated, 9/10.

See table below for a further break down of expenditure.

Expenditure/Donation ratio

In the last financial year CARE worldwide raised $64,746,294 in revenues from donations, AusAID, foreign government and CARE international members. This is a staggering amount of money in which 90% made it directly to the third world.

Administration costs have only ever varied by 1% over the last three years resulting in a 5% expense for the 09/10 financial year. That equates to over $3.2 million alone. All fund raising activities, advertisements and local community education makes up the remaining 5% expenditure for the year.

Rating of 8/10

With an overall score of 26/30 we at 1DonationCentre rate the CARE organisation as one of the best. It is highly transparent in its entirety and brings unequalled social change to those who are in desperate need of it. 

Mark, 1DC

The Australian Red Cross Analysis

The Australian Red Cross has over 100 million volunteers worldwide with 60,000 members in Australia alone. They pride themselves on being able to help people in times of crisis and care for those unable to themselves. From 2008-2009 The Australian Red Cross has responded to 257 emergencies and assisted 89,764 people, in their disaster/emergency area. They had also helped 4,328 people in the healthcare area and many, many more people in other areas such as youth services, education and first aid services. Currently their major projects are the Japan and Pacific Disaster Appeal, Victorian Floods Appeal and New Zealand Earthquake Appeal. How does the Australian red Cross compare with other charities based on our criteria?? Read on to find out….

Transparency

The Australian Red Cross is a very transparent charity with detailed information on their website about current project and even past projects. They have many contact options such as e-mail, telephone and even a head office for each of their different branches so you can talk to them in person. They also have a facebook, twitter, youtube and linked-in page to reach the community and on top of this they provide annual reports and financial statements, leaving no information to the imagination. I give them a 10/10 for this criterion.

Social Impacts over last 12 months

Over the past 12 months the Australian Red Cross has been actively involved in the community with 93% of their projects funded being in Australia and 7% being international. Some of their projects included the Victoria Bushfire Appeal, Blood donation service, Asia quake and tsunami relief and other programs. I give them a 7/10 for this criterion.

Expenditure-to-Actual donation ratio

The Australian Red Cross in the year 2010 received a total income of $797,473 from government grants, community support, appeals and other sources. From this they spent a total of $704,185 for the year, of this $704,185 only 4% or $28,167 of their expenditure for the year was used on administration costs, while the other 96% went straight into their charity work. I give them an 8/10 for this criterion.

Overall the Australian Red Cross is a fantastic charity that is very transparent, is fairly active within the community and has a good expenditure-to-donation ratio, with only 4% of their money going to administration costs. I give the Australian Red Cross a high score of 25/30.

Happy Donating ;) 

David, 1DC

The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS)

“Using the latest in aviation, medical and communications technology, it delivers
extensive primary health care and 24-hour emergency service to those who live, work and
travel throughout Australia (Effectively covering 80% of Australia’s land mass). Today,
the RFDS has a fleet of 53 aircraft operating from 21 bases located across the nation and
provides medical assistance to over 270,000 people every year – that’s one every two
minutes.” (http://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/About-Us/)

The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) is a not-for-profit organisation. While heavily
supported by the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments, the RFDS relies partly
on fundraising and donations from the community to purchase and medically-equip its
aircraft and to finance other major capital initiatives, such as the new Non-emergency Patient
Transfer Service set up in March of this year as a joint exercise by the South-Eastern Section
and VIC divisions of the RFDS. Which aims to provide a fast, secure option for patients
requiring non-urgent hospital transfers in Victoria and to assist Air Ambulance Victoria
by handling the non-urgent cases that may end up as emergency cases this also reduces the
pressure put on roads and traffic entering major city centres as well as assisting Hospitals
with the provision of safe and efficient services to patients. As an initiative only implemented
recently it shows the continuing development of the RFDS in Australia and the need for it
to adapt to the changing needs of customers. Therefore they score moderate to high on the
initiatives of the last 12 months.

Score of 8.5/10

The level of transparency is very high at the RFDS with compliance to all organisation
regulations specifically the access granted to financial reports, through the year end Annual
reports is a must of any organisation. And the reports provided are concise and well organised
although they do not display the annual salary of the Chief Executive Officer and Boards
of each division of the organisation. They do provide sufficient details to ensure that
those donating understand that a significant level of donation comes from the Australian
state and federal governments in order to provide this essential service and that there is
still a significant although small in comparison level of funds coming from donations by
ordinary citizens. The only are of concern for potential donators is the continued purchase of
residential buildings for use by the RFDS, this may be a concern and specifically a diversion
from the traditional business model. Otherwise they score moderately high although all
information has been provided to meet government regulations it still makes it a valid act of
transparency.

Score of 8.4/10

This also encapsulates some aspects of the final criteria for analysis the expenditure-to-actual
donation ratio which for the RFDS is: Example of how the cash flow is for the RFDS, bear in
mind that this only covers the Central Operations.
It is clear that the level of financing need to run the organisation is substantial
although they have made a 12 million dollar profit that will most likely be redistributed to
wages or the expansion of the organisation into new areas as well as the purchase of new
planes and equipment or keep in cash to maintain the budget for the following year. The
ratio from this works out to be 0.24% of expenditure is covered by donations. Although
the allocation of this cash could see none of it going into the tackling of costs and all going
straight into the bank but this would depend on many other factors such as the spread of
donations across the financial year and the urgency of funds. Also this end Net cash may be
redistributed to certain divisions based on their needs for new planes and etc. 2.6 million in
liabilities from employee benefits.

Score of 8/10 variable due to the nature of economic activity.

Total score is 24.9/30 which is Moderate/High and a very good score for any organisation

Welcome to 1DonationCentre, we here at 1DC will help provide you with an honest and informative look at many different charities to help you to determine just which charity is for YOU. We at 1DC have come up with a criteria based ranking system to help make this choice easier. All of our charitable partners will be assessed and ranked on 3 core criteria; the transparency of the organization, the social impacts of the organization over the past 12 months and finally the expenditure-to-actual donation ratio. All these criteria will be assessed and a mark for each of them will be given out of 10, therefore enabling us to then rank an organization out of a possible 30 points. The first of these criteria helps to determine just how open the organization is with its financial and business information with a more transparent organization sharing financials and business related information whilst a less transparent one would not share any financials and just provide the basic business contact information. The social impact of the organization over the past 12 months is a very important criterion as it will help to determine just how active the charity is with community involvement with the better charities running many programs over a 12 month period. The last of these criteria is the expenditure-to-actual donation ratio which reveals just how much of the money a charity raises goes to the cause they are promoting and how much of it goes to internal costs of running the charity.

Over the next few weeks you can look forward to in depth discussions of charities and also updates on current disasters happening in the world which our staff here at 1DC will be posting up.

Happy Donating ;)

David, 1DC