Loading...QUESTION:
With administration costs taking bites out of donated dollars I hesitate to give $s to unknown/redundant agencies which duplicate efforts and erode potential $s for receipients. Would ‘you’ identify the agencies being used by those contributing to your foundation? What % of donated dollars are spent on administrative costs per dollar received? …. I support what you are doing in the areas of poverty and want to know how wisely and through whom it is dispersed.
RESPONSE:
This is obviously a most important question!! And I have gotten it, or something like it, a couple of times this week, so I thought I should deal with it here in the Public Forum. As it turns out, I dealt with it once before, but it was a couple of months ago. I will simply repeat a good bit of what I said then — so if this sounds familiar, well, save yourself some time and … read something else!
On the site itself I make it as clear as I can that none of the funds that I raise line my own pockets. But just to be sure everyone understands, do let me say again – I am not making a single penny from this venture. It is all done to support charities that deal with issues of poverty, hunger, and homelessness. There are NO administrative costs or overhead costs of any kind. I am paying for all of that out of my own pocket. 100% of the money you donate goes directly to chairty.
Still people want to know, or may want to know, and certainly have the right to know, which charities, exactly, this Blog supports. Again: fair enough. I will eventually make this information part of the site itself .For now I can just give the simple information.
Funds raised from this site go to support four charities, two of them “local” and two “international.”
• The one nearest and dearest to my heart is the Urban Ministries of Durham, which is the agency that deals with hunger and homelessness in my own locale. It is an absolutely amazing “ministry” (it is not religious in anyway; the term is used in the secular sense), and I wish I could do more and more for it. Anyone interested in seeing what a local organization can do, and do brilliantly, should check out their work at http://umdurham.org/ — and please, donate some money!
• The other “local” is a terrific agency that deals with food distribution to the needy throughout my part of the state, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. They do an amazing job; the logistics sometimes boggle the mind. You can see what they are about at http://www.foodbankcenc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=FBCENCHome
The other two agencies that the Blog supports are well known and do not need much comment from me. I have supported their work for years and am a true believer in what they do.
• CARE. Dealing with heart-rending problems with dignity and integrity: http://www.care.org/
• Doctors without Borders. A bright light shining in our universe. http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
I deeply wish I could do more for these groups than I do. But I hope the Blog will do some good in meeting the overwhelming and crushing needs that these groups all face and deal with.
If anyone has any concerns or issues with any of these groups or with the mission of the Blog, please let me know. The CIA is always interested. 🙂
ALSO: It is possible for you to DONATE MORE money directly on the site. Only a couple of people have chosen to do so. But PLEASE consider it as an option. We will take any donations of any size, gratefully.
Dear Supporters of Bart’s Blog,
As the executive director of Urban Ministries of Durham, I want to thank you for the support you have provided to help us provide food, clothing, shelter and supportive services to our neighbors in need. We serve approximately 6,000 people a year. Of those 1250 are homeless. On any given night, an average of 140 people sleep in our shelter. We serve 650-700 meals a day in our Cafe and provide groceries and clothing to 425 impoverished families, elderly and disabled households a month. We have an on site 12 step Recovery program, several AA meetings a month, a health clinic for the homeless that shares our buildings and many local partner agencies such as the Veteran’s administration that offer on site services. (18% of those we housed in our shelter last year were homeless veteran’s). While meeting urgent needs is a large part of what we do, we are also focused on helping those in our shelter to leave homelessness for homes of their own with income and the support they need for long term stability. From July 1, 2011-May 31, 2012, 139 people have worked with our case managers and partner agencies to move to permanent housing. Our budget is $1.4 million in cash per year with another $1.2 million in donated food, clothing shelter and volunteer professional services. We have annual independent audits and 90 cents of each dollar we receive goes directly to program. 75% of the money we spend comes from private sources. You may find our annual reports and financials for the past several years, including lists of major donors under the who we are/financial stewardship tabs on the top left side of our website. This year, our income from private sources is up due to a lot of hard work and the generosity of our community. Yet unfortunately, we are $70k behind budget YTD in public sector money that is flowing much slower, with more strings attached and sometimes not at all, compared to years past. As a result, we are struggling to end the year on June 30th without a deficit.
Bart is a longtime individual supporter of UMD and quite honestly, our largest single individual donor. He stays in regular contact, attends our events, has been a featured speaker and is there when we call. His wife Sarah is a supporter as well. We called recently to tell him that we were looking at a year end deficit. He sent several thousand dollars from you via the foundation and also sent a personal check as well. I don’t know who you are. But on behalf of the family that left the shelter this week for housing; the woman with cancer who comes to UMD to eat lunch because she can’t afford medicine and lunch; the man who just got a job and needed clothes to wear; the 8 men and women who will graduate from our recovery program this month and many, many more, thank-you for your support.
For more info please visit us on Facebook or at http://www.umdurham.org. I also invite you to try our award winning online game SPENT at http://www.playspent.org.
Sincerely, Patrice Nelson
PS. I have been a subscriber to Bart’s blog since week one. My response was totally unsolicited by Bart or anyone else. I saw his post for today and wanted to comment like others do because I care a lot about what he is trying to do and we need and appreciate the support. .
Sincerely, Patrice Nelson
Executive Director,
Urban Ministries of Durham.
Thanks Patrice. You’re very generous.
For everyone else: Patrice is an amazing Executive Director of this outfit. Please consider supporting her even more by making a donation!
These four look like excellent choices to me. I am also impressed with the work of Durham’s Rescue Mission.
Bart,
Well done sir! You are making a positive difference. Keep up the good work.
-Greg