Friday 15 July 2016 - 10:03 PM

Fatima Zahra Muhammad - Noha Wajih

The organizations refuse to disclose the amounts they collect and the cost of their advertising campaigns

■ 7 associations out of 22 thousand foundations acquire 80 % from donation funds, foremost among which are Resala, Food Bank, Misr El-Khair and Orman

■ Al-Tadamun only supports 1000 organizations with 50,000 pounds annually

■ The head of "Maana to Save Humans": 50 % of donation funds are spent on the salaries of workers ... and some managers have their salaries up to 70 thousand pounds

■ The volume of donations in "Misr El-Kheir" is only known to the treasurer ... and businessmen and private companies finance their advertising campaigns.

Charitable societies are competing with each other to launch advertising campaigns aimed at collecting donations, and there is absolutely no blame for them to use pictures of patients or celebrities to persuade the citizen to take the pound out of his pocket.

The phenomenon increased remarkably during the last month of Ramadan, to the point that it made citizens weary of watching TV due to the large number of donation advertisements, which raises several questions, some of which are related to the cost of these advertising campaigns, and whether they are free or paid, and where the donation money goes after it is collected ? Do you reach the beneficiaries? And why do these associations refuse to declare the cost of their ads and the money they have collected?

Many questions prompted Partners for Transparency to conduct a study on the levels of transparency, disclosure and accountability of charitable organizations, and the extent of their disclosure of donations and their spending items.

These associations are not equal among themselves. There are seven societies out of 22 thousand associations that acquire 80 % of donation funds, according to the testimony of the loyalty of Jad Al-Karim, president of the Partners Foundation, including Food Bank, Misr El-Khair, 75375, Orman, Resala. .

Jad Al-Karim indicated that the Ministry of Solidarity financially supports only the associations that have care homes for people with disabilities and the elderly, which number about a thousand organizations, and most of the aid amount does not exceed 50 thousand pounds annually.

The President of the Partners for Transparency Foundation confirmed that the study will try to uncover the aspects of donations ’spending, especially as charities reap huge donations, and the donors have the right to know the percentage of what is allocated from their donations to each of the items they talk about in their advertisements, in addition to the revenue. Of the advertising campaigns that are launched.

The biggest problem - according to the testimony of Jad Al-Karim - is that no association has published its account on its website except for the Egyptian Food Bank, whose website has a semi-detailed budget for the year 2014, which prompted us to focus in our study on the transparency of these institutions and the extent of control of state institutions represented by the Ministry Solidarity with it, pointing out that the process of gathering information will be based mainly on interviewing officials from within those institutions, provided that the results of the study will be announced no later than mid-September.

While Reham Muheisen, head of communication department at Resala Association, said that until now the value of the donations collected in the month of Ramadan has not been counted, adding: We only work for the sake of God, as evidence that our campaign last Ramadan was to collect 2 million pieces of clothes, and the source of income The basic association for the association depends on the category that donates from 10 to 50 pounds per month, and these small sums go directly to the entity or sector in which the donor wants to spend it, confirming that the Ministry of Solidarity monitors donations, but refused to disclose the size of the donations, saying: «Leave the supervisory bodies are Elly respond and the associations respond for themselves, why ».

Regarding the cost of the advertising campaigns that the association launches, Muheisen said: “Resala” does not launch its advertisements except in the holy month of Ramadan, and our campaign is clear-cut, explaining that the advertisements have reduced prices, and no permit is issued from any association revealing the cost of advertisements.

And from the Resala Association to the Misr El-Kheir Foundation, which one of its officials refused to disclose the size of the donations, saying: There is no such thing as a statistic or an inventory of the value of the donations that enter the foundation, because the Ministry of Solidarity is entrusted with exercising control over them. To people.

Another source within the foundation itself, explained that the size of the donations is only known by the treasurer of the foundation, because the administration sees them as very private and confidential numbers, explaining that the association only announces the services it provides to the needy.

With regard to advertisements, he stated that the Foundation is contracting with an advertising agency, which pays the costs of advertisements carried out by some businessmen and a number of companies that participate in the Misr El-Kheir Foundation, denying the rumors of their payment of the Foundation’s funds.

Mahmoud Wahid, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ma'ana to Save a Person, explained the secret of the charitable societies ’reluctance to disclose their accounts, saying: If the major associations provide a real account statement, no one will donate to them because the donor will be shocked by the large salaries that these societies give to their workers, adding The donor will discover that the 50% of his donation is paid as salaries to the workers of the associations.

Wahid added: He has an orphanage and the director of the house does not exceed 1500 pounds, but for example the director of another orphanage has a salary of more than 25 thousand pounds per month, explaining that when he opened his own home he wanted to bring a director from the major associations to manage her, but he was surprised that The lowest director earns about 16 thousand pounds, explaining that there are managers in major associations whose salaries reach 70 thousand pounds

He added: The director who receives a high salary is the one who makes donations with very large sums of money to the association. The issue is an interest: "You will answer many donations .. You will receive a lot."

It is surprising that the major associations spend more than 10 million pounds on their advertisements during the holy month of Ramadan only, according to the advertising campaign they implement, and there are some associations whose advertising campaigns value reaches 100,000 pounds, explaining that market statistics confirm that every million pounds is spent on advertising Advertisements come in front of him from 3 to 5 million pounds, so the associations refuse to announce the size of their donations.

He emphasized that the associations are trying in their advertising campaigns to multiply the aspects of spending, with the aim of collecting many donations, then quickly discover that this money is distributed half of it to the employees of those institutions, and the expenditures are directed to one or two items of the total items that have been highlighted in the advertisement, pointing out that The solution lies in the necessity to oblige these associations to disclose the total donations they collect.

He said: What confirms this is that last Ramadan, one of the associations organized an Iftar for 4 thousand needy and poor people, then people were surprised that the food was “acidic”, accusing the associations and charitable entities of accusing the needy to beggary and only interested in the quantity and the numbers of the needy and not caring about the quality, explaining that for a while He sat with the leaders of the major associations and asked them to join the associations together to develop villages in Egypt in terms of projects and infrastructure, but they refused and each association preferred to work on its own.

For his part, Khaled Sultan, Head of the Central Administration for NGOs at the Ministry of Social Solidarity, commented: Associations do not submit an account statement in Ramadan because the licenses for donations that the associations take from the ministry did not collect for the month of Ramadan only, because the licenses are for a period of one or six months, and they are obtained Associations are given a license to "donate" before the advent of the holy month, and as soon as the permit expires, the foundation or association presents the amount of donations, to be recorded in the financial reviews that the association submits to the ministry, and their budgets are presented to the ministry, and all the donations they received throughout the year will be there.

He added: As long as the association does not have violations and is intact, the ministry gives it licenses to donate, but in the event of irregularities or embezzlement, the ministry takes the necessary measures against it and does not give it licenses and will not continue its activities.

Sultan emphasized that the advertisements are based on the amount collected by the associations in terms of donations. There are 20 % donation collection licenses "administrative expenses", including advertisements, which is the right of the association to spend 20% of donations as administrative expenses, explaining that the salaries of the association's employees are paid according to the mechanism determined by the Council. The administration for each association, and the ministry does not interfere with the salaries value.