Finance
Financing and budget
Income
At this moment the Foundation is dependant on gifts. We have three types of contributors: child sponsors (500 euro’s a year), members (at least 10 euro per month) and other donors. We are in a process of (re)structuring which is intended to make us eligible for partnership with project support organizations.
Expenditure in Holland
All expenses (including those made for fundraising) made within the Netherlands are covered by either our volunteers or the board and we pledge to continue operating in this fashion in the future, irrespective of size or balance totals.
Expenditure in Ghana
For the Ghanaian board it is impossible to work this way. Voluntary work in Ghana (and in development countries in general) differs from this work in western societies because people cannot afford to spend time and money without being rewarded. The Foundation employs one person, our national coordinator. He/She has a great many tasks; visiting the children, checking their progress, correspondence with their parents and general problem solving. Most of the money is of course spent on school fees (an estimated 80%). Which includes meals during an entire year, lodging and books. Various other costs as basic as for example clothing or bed cloths (mattresses) are not always affordable for our Kids and because of that, we have decided to cover them. We encourage the use of computer and internet facilities and pay to have our Kids taught (One of them went from “How does this thing work (-a mouse)?” to “Look, I have a website!” in just over a year.). Including these types of costs, 95% of our budget can now be directly allocated to a specific SmartKid.
It has always been our goal to get that percentage close to 100% and we see the way we deal with money as part of our legitimacy.
We prefer not to have full versions of budgets and annual reports publicly available on the internet. And they are in Dutch. But if you contact us we would be more than happy to walk you trough them.
