Where does the money go?

That is a really good question! After the tsunami in Asia in 2004, the French Court of Auditors has obliged French NGOs to show the exact repartition of the donation’s expenditure. This allows the donors to follow if their donations are used 100% for the projects or if parts of it go into the financing of the administration of the NGO.

In 2004, one week after the tsunami, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has shaken the humanitarian world when demanding a stop of donations for emergency help in Asia. At this time, MSF already had enough financial means for the emergency actions in the region. This was welcomed by the French Court of Auditors. Other NGOs spend more money than necessary in Asia and financed impertinent projects. Some NGOs also refunded donations.

A Sri Lankan Red Cross volunteer carries boxes of humanitarian aid brought for tsunami survivors ...

Certains NGOs redistributed the money to other projects without informing the donors, even though the French Court of Auditors had requested that donors must be informed if the destination of their donation is changed. The donors can also be refunded. MSF for example, has demanded the donors’ permission to employ the money for different projects. Only 1% of the donors has demanded refunding.

Furthermore, the French Court of Auditors has recommended that NGOs must display transparently how much money of the donations goes into the project and how much is used for the NGO’s administration. In Haiti, for example, many NGOs had received donations for specific actions, but used part of the money for they operating costs.

MSF for example has clearly stated on its website which part of the donations is used for the administration and operating (11.2%) :

Capture d’écran 2014-03-17 à 19.52.38

Unfortunately, most NGOs only realised the importance of transparency after scandals like Haiti and Thailand had popped up.

Concerning Omakua, 100% of your donation will be used for the projects. (We both continue working half-time in order to finance our living expenses.)

Sources:

 Page 19 de la synthèse du rapport de la cour des comptes
Scandale de l’ARC
Remboursement donateurs MSF

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *