Tekstvak: Frequently Asked Questions 1. How will our donations be used in Hope Village? 2. What can I do as a volunteer? 3. How do I know for sure that my donation will only be used for Hope Village? 4. Since Hope Village is such a well functioning projects, why do they need our money? 5. I’m already supporting a lot of charities. Why should I support Hope Village Europe? 6. Can I only donate 3 euro a month? 7. What are BIC and IBAN codes? 8. Why don’t we ask the donors to transfer their donation directly to the bank account of Hope Village? 1. How will our donations be used in Hope Village? Every month we will put the amount on the website that we have donated to Hope Village. The current monthly operational costs are N$ 85.000 (€8550). This includes the salaries of the staff, food, petrol, gas and electricity. Currently there is one big sponsor that is covering half of the monthly operational cost with their monthly donation. The remaining half is paid with once off donations. It’s a lot of extra work to find these donors every month and it brings a lot of insecurity. Not every month Hope Village succeeds with finding extra donors. You might even have experienced that there was not enough money to go shopping for food. Therefore, our support for the operational costs is definitely needed. Besides the operational costs, we want to support the current volunteers of Hope Village with a monthly amount of N$500 (€55) to organize activities with the children. The volunteers can use this amount to take the children to the swimming pool, to organize a talent show or to take the older children to the cinema. To make the support more personal we will keep the donors through the website updated about the current needs. For example, 4 boys are recruited to play in a professional soccer team. However, there is no money to pay the contribution. Peter is invited to record 4 hip hop songs in a professional studio, which will cost N$350 (€35) per song. Through the website and newsletter we want to find donors for these extra costs. 2. What can I do as a volunteer? To emphasis again: the success of Hope Village Europe lies in your hands. Hope Village Europe is a foundation of volunteers of Hope Village and you are one of them. Be creative and find a good occasion to tell people about Hope Village. This can be a birthday party or during a break at your work. Before you know it you have won 10 new sponsors. Signing up sponsors is not the only way in which you can help. You can also organize a benefit concert in your local pub (it doesn’t have to be UB40 J), or organize a collection at your school. If you have an idea yourself to raise money, feel free to do so. Every new initiative is welcome. With the money raised through these initiatives we can support Hope Village during the financial difficult months like for example at the start of the new school year, during Christmas or when children have to go to hospital. If you have a new idea or you would like to do more than just recruiting donors, mail us at info@hopevillageeurope.com. Also contributions to the website or newsletter, like personal stories, photos, latest news, your fund raising initiative, are welcome. 3. How do I know for sure that my donation will only be used for Hope Village? Besides the unavoidable transaction costs to collect the donations and to transfer our monthly donation to the bank account of Hope Village, our foundation Hope Village Europe hardly has any expenses. The foundation has been incorporated Pro Bono by the Law firm Loyens & Loeff and the hosting costs for the website are also donated. In the Netherlands we are registered as a foundation, which means that we don’t need to pay tax. All communication will go through e-mail, so we won’t have any printing costs. To make it clear from the start; ‘working’ visits to Hope Village we never be paid by donations to Hope Village Europe. Conclusion; your donation will be completed transferred to Hope Village. Every year we will receive the financial year report of Hope Village, so we can see how our donations are used. All our volunteers have witnessed themselves that Hope Village is very careful with their expenses. They try to get as much as possible material, food and clothes donated to save money. Besides his role in the board Pieter Moll will be check the finances of Hope Village Europe. Since we are registered as a foundation in the Netherlands we will need to give the tax authority insight in our finances. 4. Since Hope Village is such a well functioning projects, why do they need our money? Despite the fact that Hope Village receives a lot of support from local businesses and European organizations, there is a structural deficit every month to cover the day-to-day living costs. Sponsors prefer to donate large goods like cars or a building instead of paying the monthly energy bill or the salary of the mommies. This is sometimes leading to a temporary shortage so there is not even enough money to buy food. To ensure that there is enough money for the month, they are trying to find once off donations. Every month almost €4000 is needed. It’s a lot of extra work to find these donors every month and it brings a lot of insecurity. 5. I’m already supporting a lot of charities. Why should I support Hope Village Europe? Most donors of Hope Village Europe have been a volunteer in Hope Village themselves or are family or friends of a volunteer. That’s why donors of Hope Village Europe know out of first hand that their donation will support a well functioning project, incorporated by two Namibian ladies, who go further than only providing a bed and food for the children. They are ensuring a good future for the children and they try to find donations through a good PR. By supporting a big international organization is hard to find out where your donation is actually used for. Since the work is done by volunteers we have hardly any expenses, so the donations can go completely to Hope Village. In the Netherlands we are registered as a foundation, which means that we don’t need to pay tax. Currently we are applying for an official Charity status in the Netherlands. With a charity status the donations to Hope Village Europe will be tax deductable for the donor (depending on the tax rules in each country). 6. Can I only donate 3 euro a month? We have chosen a low minimum amount so that many people can become a sponsor of Hope Village. You are more than welcome to donate more than 3 euro a month. 7. What are BIC and IBAN codes? While we are doing bank transfers within Europe, we are making use of SEPA transactions. Therefore we need your BIC and IBAN code. These are the international codes of your bank account. You can find your own IBAN and BIC codes at your bank statement, or website. 8. Why are we not asking the donors to transfer their donation directly to the bank account of Hope Village? To transfer money to Namibia is really expensive, approximately 20 euro. Hope Village Europe is transferring once a month all the donations together so we are only paying once a month the transaction costs. We will donate a fixed amount every month which will give Hope Village security and stability. When you would like to send money to Hope Village, you can send your donation together with our monthly donation so you don’t need to pay these high transaction cost. Of course we will notify Hope Village of your donation.