IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ - At Responsible Charity were all about complete transparency, so here’s our financial situation: - $5,500USD is our current monthly operating budget. - $2,300USD are the total donations we receive monthly from 120-130 supporters contributing anywhere from $5USD to $200USD (our average donation is $18USD) - $3,200USD is our monthly shortfall, which were constantly working very hard to meet through one-time donations and fundraising events throughout the year. This is how all the funds received are applied: - Preparatory classes. - English class program. - Music, dance and art classes. - Private schools sponsorship for dozens of children. - After-school tuition. - Daily lunches for 130 children. - School supplies, books, bags, uniforms. - Educational field trips and special events. - Birth control for dozens of women. - Monthly reproductive health and family planning workshops - Weekly medical rounds, diagnosis, tests, medications, small surgeries and special cases. - Monthly preventive medical workshops. - Formula for babies and toddlers. - Hygienic supplies program. - Microloans program. - Solar powered lights. - Assistance with construction materials, stoves, fans and other items necessary for homes in slum communities and villages. - KCD (Kolkata Clothes Drive), a citywide program providing clothes and jobs to families living in slum communities and villages. - Self-sustainability product sales and employment program. - Operating costs (rent, utilities, transportation, equipment, teachers and staff salaries, fundraising events) More than 70% of all the funds we receive go directly towards our programs and less than 30% towards operating costs, and all of it is managed with just $70,000USD per year! For complete documentation of all the programs above, including our financials please visit: on.fb.me/1qENoYz As you can see, we’re truly doing the most and best we can with the support we received. But even with 40,000 fans on our Facebook page, weve only been able to successfully engage a tiny portion of them; and the main reason, unfortunately, is Facebook itself! Facebook has openly and aggressively limited the amount of updates posted by pages that fans actually see in their news feeds. They have made it very clear that they want pages to pay for advertising, regardless of whether the page is for a charity or not. We simply cannot afford to spend money on advertising - and to make matters worse, there have been numerous reports questioning the legitimacy of the results for those who have paid for exposure. See this video as an example: bit.ly/1hLwslV. It’s truly disappointing and discouraging to invest as much time, effort and energy as we do in reporting all of our work on this platform only to be punished by Facebook’s desire for more profit. Another challenge we face is the public’s lack of awareness and understanding of humanist and secular charities. It is a well-known fact that if we were to label ourselves as a religious charity we would receive much more funding for our work, and that is truly a sad state of affairs. By inaction from humanists around the world and a lack of financial support towards secular charities, we allow religion to claim a moral monopoly on compassion while religious charities and missionaries continue to proselytize and do little or nothing to end the cycle of poverty. Humanists believe we should do good just for goodness sake, and we should put this into practice daily. Many people come to our Facebook page daily to debate the social issues we often highlight, and while we always appreciate a healthy discourse and interaction, in the end it is only the donations that keeps us on the ground working and providing education, birth control, and medical support to families living in poverty. Do we want to depend solely on donations? Absolutely not! In fact, were in the process of creating a self sustainable product sales program which will employ women and men living in poverty and provide income to help fund our programs. Even if were only able to generate 10-20% of our operating budget from this new program (and we hope to increase this margin), that’s 10% - 20% less that will be required from our supporters! And what’s even better, it teaches responsibility to those we help and integrates these families into socially functional communities! It pains us greatly to turn away new families who need our help because we dont have enough funding; or worse, to have to limit the services we provide to those with whom we have worked for years. So thank you for reading, thank you for being here, and if you are a current supporter, THANK YOU for your donations. If you are learning about us for the first time, or have had a moment to see our work in depth today, then please join us! Our donation process is safe, quick and easy and any amount will make a positive difference! To get started right now, visit: responsiblecharity.org/donate Responsible Charity, Corp is a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit corporation and your donations are deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 18:21:09 +0000
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