Security and transparency
Unsere Projekte können wir im voraus nicht offenlegen, da wir sonst Investoren mit kommerziell-zerstörerischen Motiven vorwarnen würden und so die Projektkosten in die Höhe treiben bzw. die Projekte unmöglich machen würden. Wir müssen „ohne Vorwarnung“ für „Überraschungen“ sorgen können.
We cannot disclose our projects in advance, as doing so would tip off investors with commercially destructive motives, thereby driving up project costs or making the projects impossible to execute. We must be able to provide “surprises” without prior warning. The same applies to our employees, whom we also prefer to keep in the background rather than exposing them to any reprisals on-site.
Nevertheless, we are extremely transparent, as an NGO based in Europe, we are required to maintain proper accounting, and our non-profit status is continuously monitored and audited by tax authorities and other bodies.
Financial matters
Your contributions will be used for the project you have chosen. Should the project not go ahead, we will use your donations for another similar project. Charitable law prohibits the refunding of donations.
We’ve never understood why people who want to do good want a tax benefit for doing so? We could issue donation receipts, but we don’t for two reasons: firstly, it involves administrative work, and we want to spend your money on our projects rather than on administrative costs; secondly, our donation receipts would be issued by a small EU country, whilst our projects are predominantly outside the EU. It would still be possible for your local tax office to carry out a separate check on our ‘foreign’ donation receipt, and we would have no influence over this.
We try to keep in touch with our friends and supporters. As we work internationally, we would have to reply to thousands of emails and other enquiries every day. As a small team, we simply cannot manage that, and we prefer to focus our energy on our projects. Of course, we try to identify and respond to your useful suggestions and requests, but this can take time, and it’s also possible that we might overlook something important. Please don’t be upset, but your views matter and are taken on board, even if we can’t always reply to them straight away.
Large donations are very welcome, but they always require a greater amount of work to prevent any allegations of money laundering, etc. Major donors, particularly institutional donors, are welcome to discuss the issue of donation receipts with us in detail. The same applies to larger donations in kind. We are particularly delighted to welcome the ‘Titans’ amongst our major donors – that is, those who wish to fund a project in its entirety; in such cases, we can also work with the ‘Titans’ to explore further safeguards to ensure the project’s success.
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