⌛ Your Help Needed Please

Dear DI Members, we need your help and support for projects to assist local children in need. In another email, we detailed our first charity project, helping students at Calindagon Elementary School. We would like to help handicap children in our next project, but we need additional funds. If you can donate, you will be given a receipt and an open ledger is kept for all donations and expenses. 100% of the donations will go to the projects.

We understand that, like me, most of you are living on a retirement or social security check and have a limited budget. Nevertheless, if you can sacrifice a couple of beers or burgers and instead pledge a little bit toward assisting children in need, your next beer or burger may taste even better and a child in need will have some joy.

We realize we can't solve all the province problems and that is not our goal, and we realize it is not your obligation to give. Truthfully, we are not yet receiving an overwhelming response to our start up charity program, so we welcome you with open arms if you would like to join our program or contribute.

Thank you for your consideration.

 

kind of nice thing to do......how may i be able to get my donations for he charity?...is there a certain deadline?...thank you very much..would like to know more details on the donation process like where to drop at?....something like that...

 

I'm only asking some questions in the hope that people understand more about your organization. Is this legitimate in the sense that contributions can be deducted from your taxes? Is this a licensed organization or just a gathering of friends that want to do something good in the community? I'm just not clear on how your organization works? Do you collect funds and distribute them like other organizations where you actually sponsor a specific child or do you go out as a representative of the school and buy supplies for them or do you give the funds directly to school personnel and they are responsible for buying the supplies? I'm sure there are a few people that might be interested, but for people like me to send money to a stranger seems like it is not such a smart thing to do. I'm not trying to be confrontational, but I hope you don't mind me asking these questions because of you folks asking for money. When people send money, does your organization have a bank account that all funds are put in and then distributed or are the funds sent to a person. Do you have pay pal accounts that are used? What is the actual name of your company/organization. These are just a few questions that immediately come to mind. I'm sure there are a lot of people much smarter than me that may have similar questions plus additional questions.

 

Thank you Dewey. Are you living in the USA or Dumaguete?

 

Tom_A, fair questions. Firstly, this is a small informal group merely trying to help out a few local kids. The initial idea started when a member of the local Rotary Club told a DI member that a child needed a walker and a DI member went out and bought one. When we heard about that, a few of us got together and said maybe we can do more. We want to avoid any tax or legal issues here so we will not have a license or a bank account; therefore, you could not deduct this from your US taxes. Our targets will be primarily handicapped children. We selected an elementary school first because we only had about $100 in pesos and a board member knew of that opportunity and we wanted a project we could publicize to try an get this project going. Our treasurer keeps a ledger and a receipt is issued for all donations and receipts are kept for all expenses. We are calling ourselves "The Thursday Club".
If a person abroad wants to donate, they could send money via Western Union, realizing there is a fee you would have to pay.
To summarize, we are just a small group of guys, and their wives if married, who want to give something to the community. We would like to expand the membership and gain more funds. The DI Moderator is on our Board and the DI owner has given his approval for using the Forum. This is not a scam and it is not the United Way. We will take pictures of our projects and keep an open set of books if anyone wants to review. We don't expect thousands of dollars, although we would gladly accept it, and just need a couple hundred dollars to address a handicapped child.
I hope this helps your's and others understanding of our simple objectives and mode of operating.
Please let me know if you have more questions, and thank you for your interest and questions.

 

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PatO and Broadside.. Both great and genuine nice guys. This is a subject very close to my heart. My older sister is a rubella child. I cant donate a lot but i will give a little. Maybe i could visit the school and help out. When i got turned away from pro football at 18 i would go to the Royal school for the deaf in Cheadle Manchester during the summer ( my sisters school ) and help with sports lessons ! But i would like to go to the school your talkig about, just being there and seeing a smile means millions ! You both got my number !

 

Sensible questions asked, and PatO has given very informative answers, so I'd just like to expand on a few things. The DI Forum is, in its' own way, a club as you need to be a member to post, so The Thursday Club which is open to all members of DI, is in fact a club within a club.

Essentially, we are not a charity. We are a group of people who have formed a club because we feel that we can perform some charitable deeds. Most of the large international charities do continual fund raising. That money sits in a bank account gathering interest and gathering dust. The interest, and a large portion of the donations, are used to pay the salaries of their staff and for their many running costs and expenses. Only after all their expenses have been deducted do they know if there is enough money in the pot to start any particular project.

Our system works in a very different way. Firstly, we agree on a project, then we set about funding it. Every peso counts and NOTHING is taken out in expenses. 100% of any donation is spent on the project running at the time, and my role as Treasurer is to account for every centavo received and to keep track of any money spent. Any financial contribution is issued with a receipt and any expense is supported by a till receipt. Can I make it very clear to everyone that the help we give will never be in the form of cash. All or any help that we offer will always be in kind.

But contributions don't necessarily have to be financial and the quote above by appy_ammer hit the nail on the head (no pun intended:p). Contributions can be material and in kind, as is already happening with our current project for the school. I fully appreciate, as PatO has already covered, that many members may be living here on fixed or limited incomes and also have family obligations, so perhaps you could just spare us some time on certain projects. Maybe you have a background in building, or electrics, or plumbing or any professional qualification where you could give us some expert advice if we hit a snag. Let's just say, for example, that we decide to renovate and decorate a couple of dilapidated classrooms. Perhaps you might have some left over paint that we could have, or maybe some brushes and rollers, or a set of step ladders that we could borrow, or maybe you could give us an hour or two and swing a paint brush. So any material contribution cuts down on the amount of money we would need to raise and spend.

We havn't set out to emulate Bob Geldhof and feed the world, nor do we see ourselves as following in the footsteps of Mother Theresa. We are a small group that would like to do some big-hearted things, but it would be so much nicer if we became a big group able to do a lot more in this country that we have adopted and now call home, and where many children miss out on the things that we took for granted because of family poverty. When you are so poor that you don't have a pot to pee in, when young children walk barefoot to school carrying their slippers to make them last longer, when half a bowl of rice today may mean an empty bowl tomorrow, then a little help from us will go a long way. And doing a little is preferable to doing nothing.

So if you live less than a five day march from Dumaguete:D please get in touch with PatO and join us. There are no fees and no annual dues. You can help with a project or not, it's entirely up to you. You can attend the Club meetings or not, its entirely your choice. If you live further afield, or are not in the Philippines, you can still join and so I ask again PLEASE get in touch with PatO. You may have a particular skill and we may need to seek your advice, but if you are on our radar then at least we will know where and to whom we can turn to.

To pinch the slogan from Tesco: Every Little Helps

Thanks

Roger

 

Only One Question?

Roger, Just let me know the Exact name, you want to advise of the " Western Union" Collection. I know Azon is there! She wants to do her own thing! she will conatact Pat, ME! I will send! Behind you all the way, all of you.

Jack P.

 

Jack, many thanks for your support and your kind offer. I feel that the simplest way for you to donate would be via Azon, who could then pass it on to Pat. That way you would avoid any Western Union fees. I will issue a receipt for Pat to pass on to Azon so it will be here for you when you return. I want anyone and everyone to be absolutely confident that every peso coming in is accounted for, and I am held accountable for it.

Thanks again Jack for your most welcome support.

Roger

 

As an add-on to my post at No.7 on this thread, today we received a donation of 200+ rulers from Guenther of Casablanca. Fantastic. Now that the ball is rolling, please help us to make it gather momentum.

Roger