YOU ASKED: I know that all charitable organizations take a percentage off the top of what they collect. Are they taking the same percentage, a smaller percentage, or foregoing it altogether from the millions we have collected for Haiti?
— Tina
OUR ANSWER: Several major charities collect funds and provide hands-on relief work in Haiti. Among them: the Canadian Red Cross, Care Canada, Oxfam Canada, World Vision Canada, Save the Children, UNICEF and Free the Children.
The Canadian Red Cross has collected about $87 million in donations for Haiti earthquake relief. It will hold back its usual percentage for administrative costs — which is typically between five and seven per cent.
Oxfam, Care and Save the Children combine their fundraising under one banner — The Humanitarian Coalition. Since joining forces five years ago, they’ve helped victims of cyclones, floods, famine, earthquakes and war.
To date, the coalition has collected $11 milliion for Haiti, said Oxfam spokeswoman Karen Palmer — between seven and eight per cent of which is held back for administrative and overhead costs, as per normal.
Separate from Save the Children is a charity called Free The Children, which has staff on the ground in Haiti helping to distribute medical supplies. Every penny of the money Free The Children is collecting for Haiti actually goes to the relief effort because the charity is absorbing administrative costs through contingency funds and donations of staff time.
Normally it holds back nine per cent of the funds it collects.
“We have one of the lowest administrative rates for any NGO,” said Lindsey Coulter, who oversees publicity for Free The Children. “Basically, 91 cents of every dollar we get goes to projects.”
World Vision has collected $13 million for Haiti to date, holding back 18 per cent for fundraising and administrative costs — as per usual.
UNICEF typically holds back 20 per cent of the funds it collects, but is dropping the percentage for the Haiti collection.
“Typically, our cost-per-dollar-raised is about 20 cents, but because this is just such an unbelievable emergency, it’s definitely less than that,” said UNICEF’s chief development officer, Sharon Avery. “It’s probably more in the 10-to-12 cent range.”
So why can charities lower the percentage for Haiti’s collection when they normally hold back a larger amount of the funds?
Basically, charities haven’t had to work as hard to find donors because of the enormous publicity surrounding Haiti’s plight.
“When we have something like Haiti, then people respond without being asked because there’s just such an outpouring of wanting to help,” said Cynthia Armour, an expert on the ethics and governance of charity fundraising.
But Armour, who is based out of Peterborough, Ont., reminds donors to use their heads, not just their hearts, in choosing which charities to send Haiti donations to.
She recommends a visit to Canada Revenue’s website, which lists every registered Canadian charity. It contains all sorts of useful financial information, including whether a charity is in bad standing with the government — which some are.
You can find it at www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/chrts/menu-eng.html.
