Loading ...Unfortunately that is not an uncommon scenario amongst charities or not-for-profits. Definitely the worst, but after our experience with Compassion, a ‘charity’ ostensibly dedicated to helping poor children around the world, a situation repeated many times over.
“only 20% of funds collected goes on administration” says Compassion Australia. What they don’t say is that it is Compassion Australia that takes 20%, all money collected goes to Compassion in the US who take another 20%, and the money that goes to Uganda (where our child was) has another 17% creamed off by the local admin. So only 53 cents of my dollar gets to the programme. Which was fake. Instead of helping a poor, starving child at a centre where he was learning to read and going to church yadayadayada the money went to a woman running a successful timber business living in the best house in the village, solid brick rendered, tin roof, floors, electricity and water connected (“Steven carries water for his mother every day and loves learning his Bible verses at Sunday School. He is learning English.” according to the annual letters), nice furniture, TV, wine glasses, patio ….. and the poor kid is a retard. His English is limited to “Wot?” and “Liverpool.” He only goes to the centre for the free food. He’s never been to church or Sunday School because he is a Muslim and goes to the Mosque. Our son found all this out when he visited the kid whilst he was in Uganda. After many conversations with Compassion, during which they just dug themselves deeper into the hole, they refunded all our contributions. Which doesn’t alter the fact that they are scammers, albeit on a smaller scale than the Somalis. Uh, actually, I’m not so sure. I’ve just checked their financials, and in 2024 their income was $1.33billion.
Always check a charity’s financials. How much goes on admin, salaries etc before it gets to the program? 40% is not uncommon. Trust no-one without very good reason. Sad.