3. Too little information about government plans
Under current fundraising legislation, when disaster strikes, central and local government departments may immediately solicit donations without first applying to the Department of Social Affairs (DSA). Alliance members worry that although the government has rules on spending, if it solicits donations without having already developed plans for how they will be spent and without an audit mechanism, there might be instances in which donations end up being used in the general budget or in which resources are duplicated.
Under pressure from the alliance, the DSA, which oversees fundraising, has moved to tighten up enforcement-actively gathering fundraising data from the city- and county-level competent authorities and calling charities weekly to press them to update their data. As a result of this exercise of public authority, the MOI's oversight system for charitable fundraising now includes information on planned uses of funds and accounts of how funds were actually spent for 70% of Taiwan's private charities and almost 90% of its government charities.
In addition, to better match private resources to the needs of the six counties and municipalities ravaged by the typhoon, the DSA convened several coordination meetings, permitting local governments to itemize their needs and their estimated costs and giving private groups the opportunity to consider which projects to "adopt." Local governments welcomed the approach, which avoided problems associated with the unequal distribution of resources and the tendency of high-profile disaster areas to get a disproportionate amount of aid. The DSA has also continually exhorted city and county governments and township administrations to avoid including public works projects or projects which already have special budgetary allocations on their list of needs. That is, the DSA is insisting that donations be spent on victims of the disaster.
Though the alliance is full of praise for the hard work of the central government authorities, Chang stresses that the only way to ensure that charitable donations are well used is to revise legislation to require more accountability from charitable groups and to make it easier for the public to acquire information on charities.
The crowding-out effect
Fundraising campaigns related to major disasters or heart-wrenching events are the focus of another controversy-the crowding-out effect. Experience shows that when the economy is struggling and after the period of feverish giving that follows major disasters, routine giving by individuals and corporations falls, reflecting the fact that the wellsprings of compassion run dry and wallets go empty.
Individual organizations respond to this in various ways depending on their size, the nature of their services, and their clientele.
Take the 28-year-old Sunshine Social Welfare Foundation, for example. Long-term small donors provide 55% of its income, which leaves it very vulnerable to economic upheavals. "Fortunately, though the amount given by individual donors has shrunk (from an average of NT$900 in 2007 to just NT$700 in 2008), the number of donations has not fallen much," says Jamie Wong, the foundation's director of promotion and education. "Tightening our belts will get us by." Wong says that Sunshine has held fast to its mission over the years, helping rehabilitate burn survivors and victims of facial disfigurement and get them back into the community. "The key is to make the public aware of the value and extent of your services," says Wong. "If you can do that, donors will continue to support you."
When disaster strikes, the foundation's first actions are to determine whether there are injured persons in or near the disaster zone in need of its assistance and to encourage employees to donate one day's salary. "But we don't take on relief tasks we don't know how to handle, nor do we use this as a pretext for hasty fundraising," explains Wong.
Lai Chin-lien, a researcher with the Syinlu Social Welfare Foundation, says that small groups that don't have specialist fundraising personnel saw their donations fall by 30-40% after Typhoon Morakot. Syinlu, on the other hand, derives nearly 70% of its funding from government subsidies and parents of its clients, which makes its finances relatively stable.
Lai often travels to central and southern Taiwan to share her financial management and fundraising know-how with local NPOs. She encourages small and medium-sized groups to put down roots in their communities and unearth local resources. "We need to work together to enlarge the social welfare pie, to shift from competitive to cooperative relationships," she says.
Everyone enjoys doing good deeds, and every little bit helps. The photo was taken at the 20th annual 30-Hour Famine held in the Linkou Stadium in 2009. The 16,000 "campers" who participated in the event, sponsored by World Vision Taiwan, fasted for 30 hours to raise funds for undernourished children and victims of Typhoon Morakot.