value for money donations

Leob

Hi, I know this is supposed to be about saving money, but I recently had a conversation with an aid worker who informed me that donations to Oxfam result in 7p in every One pound donated reaching the end user!! This got me thinking are all the big charities the same?I know they have to recruit the best, but not by me to paying 93p in each pound. Can anyone advise where I can search to find more info on exactly how the donations are spent? I have tried the websites of the charities butey are not exactly transparent.

Savvy_Sue

I think this is one of those urban myths, certainly if you google Oxfam myth they are fairly keen to discount it themselves, and I am sure that somewhere on this site is a link to independent sources willing to do the same (because they would say that, wouldn't they?)

If it helps anyone else find the post I'm looking for, I'm fairly sure it linked to a whole set of charity myths, which included one about aid workers being flown around in First Class rather than the cheapest way.

I think too you need to be sure what a charity is trying to do: Oxfam is not JUST about getting 'aid' to the 'poor' (and we could debate what those terms mean as well!), but also about education and encouraging change among the 'rich' (or less poor).

You can get more information about how a charity spends its money from their annual accounts, and they will be on the Charity Commission website. There are also links from GuideStar. Each charity has to report on expenditure in a certain way, and their annual report may give more of a feel to how they do things.

And I now declare an interest: I have been Administrator for a small charity, and I now have a more wide-ranging role. I've also worked for one of the largest charities in the UK, not in Admin. But admin matters, a lot. I've said this before, and no doubt I'll say it again.

There's a lot you can do with volunteers, and our charity wouldn't function without them. But if you're offering a very regular 'service' or assistance on a global scale, it is often a false economy to rely on volunteers. And if you have an office, then it needs decent admin.

For example, if you send us a donation, you'd probably like a receipt to be sure it arrived. A thank you letter would be a nice touch, especially if you sent the money on behalf of a group who raised the money for us. So, shall we take someone off our 'front-line' work to write those letters, wait for a volunteer to be free, or pay an administrator to do it promptly?

And when you're dealing with the very large sums involved in international aid, all of that applies, only more so. Apart from anything else, to get the money to where it's needed, you need to transfer money to international accounts, you may need to consider exchange rates, you certainly need to be aware of how to avoid the appearance of money laundering! Shall we leave this to whoever happens to turn up today, or shall we pay someone who understands these things a reasonable wage to do the job properly, regularly, consistently?

If I were an aid worker for Oxfam, I'd want superb admin at home. I'd want someone to be booking my flights, checking what visas and inoculations I'd need for each country I planned to visit, keeping an eye on the news and liaising with me to see if it was safe for me to be there. If I phoned 'home' with a problem, I'd want someone who knew what they were doing to sort it out for me.

And if I were being paid, I wouldn't begrudge the admin team being paid ... In fact, even if I were a volunteer, I'd understand that good consistent admin needs to be paid for, somehow!

I never could be an aid worker, just as I don't have what it takes to do the front-line work our charity does. But I'm proud to be a member of the admin team: if we can take care of the phone and doorbell, fix the photocopier, install a new printer, buy the stamps, send out the newsletters, make sure people get paid on time, keep the accounts up to date, draw up contracts for new staff, get any problems around the premises fixed and make sure everyone has a working computer on their desks, then the front-line staff can get on with their jobs calmly and efficiently.

Leob

Tanks savvy_sue for taking the time to reply, however whilst I am aware that a full admin backup is essential to efficiency at the sharp end I would like to know, without trawling through reams of accounts, just how much of my money is achieving what I intend it to achieve. The urban myths you spoke of are not quite as you have described. The friend I spoke with builds hotels in Africa etc and was recently in Darfur where he was incensed to find aid workers ensconced in what he considered to be the lap of luxury and costing in excess of 200 pounds per night drinking and eating the finest. He was outraged and told them so.

His experience merely acted as a catalyst for my enquiry and,whilst I understand that aid donations are not merely about the end product, it would be helpful to mere members of the public if some kind of league table or banding were available. This would enable a transparency which is not readily available at this moment unless we all have the capacity to read balance sheets.

Thanks again for trying to explain the broader picture

Leob

Savvy_Sue

I wish I could find the thread I referred to: seriously, unless your friend saw their bills he cannot know how much this was costing the charity.

The other thing is that learning to read a balance sheet is not rocket science!

I am not sure how banding could work: charities are so different both in what they do and how they do it, I can't help feeling it would be as useful as league tables for schools and hospitals.

Charis

This website may help. http://www.intelligentgiving.com/charity_chooser/charity_profiles
Every charity must produce an annual report by law and every report is examined by an accountant. Whilst it is possible to do a little imaginative bookkeeping, it is unlikely a charity would be able to hide the kind of spending you mention. According to the Charity Commissioners, all charities must:
"Make the accounts available to the public on request. This is vital underpinning to the principle of public accountability, and must be complied with in all cases. It is open to trustees to make a reasonable charge to cover the costs of complying with the request (eg photocopying and postage). As a matter of good practice we recommend that a copy of the charity's Annual Report should, wherever possible, be sent with the accounts."

Charis

Leob

Thanks Charis the site you posted is very informative and gives me the sort of general info I was looking for.

Thanks again

Leob

oldtoolie

<< The friend I spoke with builds hotels in Africa etc and was recently in Darfur where he was incensed to find aid workers ensconced in what he considered to be the lap of luxury and costing in excess of 200 pounds per night drinking and eating the finest. >>

Building hotels in Darfur? Who does he expect to stay in them if not aid workers?

Seriously, there are aid workers and there are 'aid workers.' The big international institutions like the UN agencies, World Bank, IMF tend to treat and pay their staff like international business people so they tend to be in the best hotels and live in the diplomatic district.

The aid charities, Oxfam, Christian Aid, Doctors without Borders, etc tend to be more modest, staying in what would be Travel Lodge standard accomodations when not in the field.

In the aid charities, wages are more modest -- about like teachers and heads. In Africa, many of the staff are African. Their salaries will be appropriate to skilled professionals in those countries.

In a place like Sudan, personal security may be a factor. The big international hotels have a higher level of security, with armed guards and the presence of international journalists and diplomats.

I write this with over 25 years experience as a journalist and aid worker.

Happy New Year to all

GiveItBack

you can do anything with numbers - that's why I love them, but the figures for Oxfam are something along the lines of 79p in the pound going to directly aid people, rather than 7p.

Check out their own website, it has the numbers quite simply explained. It is possible that he's looked at what money he has at his disposal or he sees being invested in his area and figures that's about 7% of what's raised, but don't forget, you have to get people and things to the places the work is done. You have to train people and provide materials. It's not a matter of the £100 I give to Oxfam magically appearing in the pocket of someone they want to help. They need to get aid workers there, they need to make sue the aid workers know what they're doing.

(I'm slipping towards a rant, so I'll end here)

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/faq/other.html

Or feel free to email them and ask (of course, it'll be an 'admin' person you speak to.)