Many of us have heard that charities and nonprofits are poorly run, and use donor money to fund basic operations. Some of this stems back to the large NGO community, where indeed the operating costs are high. The sizable costs that all nonprofit organizations have are similar; manpower, mandatory operating items such as organization registration and accounting, operating insurance and possibly technology, communications and certain materials.
At People to People International-Europe (PTPI), we provide small amounts of money to grass roots organizations and charities to help cover their basic operating costs. Finding volunteer human resources is starting to get a little easier. More complex is finding the funding to cover the many other items that must be in place, before you can offer any product or service to those in need.
There is still an awkward perception, that donating money to be used for basic admin is wrong. So much has changed over the past few years, and all well-run nonprofits have in place good accounting, audit and reporting processes to ensure they are just that; well-run. Being registered in Belgium as a European ASBL (social enterprise) means that financial and non-financial reporting is mandatory each year and fines are heavy if you miss the accepted regulation deadlines.
So please do give a thought to the inevitable costs that all organizations must incur in order to operate, at any level.
The organizations that we support operate in the following areas:
• Humanitarian – homeless, elderly, children in need, disabled, victims of abuse, society, crisis support, our environment.
• Education – special needs learning, creativity, ADHD, autism, gifted children, scouting, youth and adult empowerment.
• Culture – tours, adult learning, workshops, social networking, specialist groups, book clubs, music, art, tastings (food, wine, beer), community and job development.
Funding our activities
We are self-funded (membership, sponsorship and individual donations) and make every effort to provide our service free at point of offer. Voluntary donations are very much appreciated. With your support, we do make a difference. The funds that we raise are used to support social projects and charities in Europe.
