A POTENTIAL IMBALANCE DUE TO AN UNPRECEDENTED AMOUNT OF DONATIONS

In the emotionally-charged days following the tsunami it became clear that the sums pledged by governments and private funds across the world were far greater than those needed by humanitarian organisations to deal with just the emergency phase. Worldwide, it is estimated that more than 10 billion euros worth of aid was pledged to help the affected countries. In France over 250 million euros worth of private donations was collected.

On September 30th, Handicap International had raised €7,045,041 in private donations (income from general public and corporate sponsorship) in France and €1,471,475 in the rest of Europe. 

The organization also received public institutional funds (European Commission, French government and local government) and private institutional funds (Chaîne du Bonheur - Swiss Solidarity).

HANDICAP INTERNATIONAL DONORS WERE CONSULTED ABOUT THE USE OF THEIR DONATIONS

As of January 19^th , Handicap International took two decisions:

- to ask the media to stop calling for donations for the tsunami;

- to write individually to the 85,602 registered donors who had given money for the tsunami victims to request, their authorization to “pool” the available funds (the other options proposed being to use their donations solely in the regions affected by the tsunami or to refund their donation).

Nearly 93% of the replies received on May 31^st were in favour of pooling donations made to all Handicap International's different programs, according to the priority needs in the field. 7.06% requested that their donation be used solely for the tsunami and just 32 donors asked for their donation to be refunded. In the end, 777 donors decided to make further donations totalling €32,942 to the budget dedicated to “all projects”.

ALLOCATION OF DONATIONS

The ‘tsunami' donations received in the last few days of 2004 (€561,000, with administration costs deducted) were brought forward into the organisation's 2005 budget. In order to fully respect the donors' wishes, the following donations were reserved for the tsunami:

all donations from new donors;

donations from established donors who had not accepted the principle of pooling funds;

donations from long-term sponsors of our program in Sri Lanka;

corporate donations;

donations collected by Handicap International's Sections in Europe.

The remaining donations were transferred to our budget dedicated to “all projects”. However, having analysed the development of needs in the region, the organisation had already used funds from the “all missions pooled fund” for areas affected by the tsunami. On October 18^th 2005 Handicap International's Board of Directors decided to allocate an additional 1.5 million euros (net of costs) to our activities in these regions.

Pooling donations, has enabled Handicap International to rapidly set up an emergency program in Pakistan following the earthquake on October 8^th , and another program in South Sudan.

In total, having consulted the donors, €5,136,473 was allocated to areas affected by the tsunami, and €3,380,043 to the “all projects” budget. 

PRIVATE FUNDS RECEIVED 30 Sept 05

ALLOCATION OF FUNDS

In France: €7,045,041

(donors, general public and corporate partnerships)

Actions in regions affected by the tsunami: €5,136,473

 (€4,731,653 minus administration costs)

Other European sections of Handicap International: €1,471,475

All projects budget

(following individual letter to donors):

€3,380,043