The Long Answer
NOTDEC UK is a Helping Hand
NOTDEC UK doesn’t just provide cash. We have helped our partners at NOTDEC Uganda plan a quality orphanage, designed for Uganda — and the future. This meant working together drawing up requirements, specifications and technical plans, then jointly supervising construction to ensure that everything was done correctly. Now the orphanage is complete, we visit regularly to understand the culture, to see the day-to-day issues that NOTDEC Uganda faces, and to give help and advice on everything from practical problems to routine management – all to help local managers run the orphanage cost-effectively in the children's best interests. This approach is not compatible with spending ALL donations in Uganda.
Sponsors & Donors Need Reassurance
You don't feed babies by visiting them; and money spent getting to the orphanage can't go into child welfare. But unless NOTDEC UK Trustees and volunteers visit regularly we can't credibly guarantee to sponsors that their money is being spent in the children’s best interests, that the orphanage is well run, and that the children are being properly fed and cared for. And without the trust of sponsors, the regular funding on which NOTDEC Uganda depends would be at risk. NOTDEC UK and NOTDEC Uganda work together closely to ensure that sponsors and donors can be proud of the work that they are helping to support.
NOTDEC UK Adds Value — not cost
NOTDEC UK employs no staff, and we pay no-one for administration or volunteering. So no overheads nibble away at your donations. But, to do our best for the NOTDEC children, we do need to spend money outside Uganda.
Bank Charges
Simply to fundraise for Uganda, receive donations, and reclaim Gift Aid from HMRC, NOTDEC UK bank in the UK – and so pay UK bank charges. Our books show no money transfer fees because a "zero fee" deal currently hides them in the exchange rate.
Publicity
To find more donors, we print leaflets, develop a website, etc. Even our listing on Virgin Money Giving – before VMG closed – wasn't free. The more we do in Uganda, the more we must do at home to pay for it. And money spent on fundraising we have to spend in the UK.
Travel
NOTDEC UK Trustees and volunteers visit NOTDEC Uganda regularly to help supervise construction and then to check that the orphanage is being well run. We believe this should NOT be paid for from donations "for the children" or "for the orphanage". So we decided those travelling should bear the full costs of flights, and bed & board (personally, or via a fundraiser of their own).
Sadly it's not that simple.
Pay your own way, and you lose the Gift Aid (and perhaps other charity concessions) available if you had donated the cost and let NOTDEC buy your flights. So we give in.
We donate the cost — then let NOTDEC buy our flights etc. What's wrong with that?
It depends on how you look at NOTDEC UK's accounts.
Remember, volunteers have covered ALL their own travel costs — most of which could not have been spent in Uganda anyway. Yet the accounts show NOTDEC spending £9,609 or 6% on Travel. Some people will see this as 6% not spent on the kids.
Equipment & Materials Purchases
Some money we choose to spend in the UK for things we then take out to Uganda.
We bought three brand new computers here, tested them, set them up with low cost software in Britain, and took them out for the NOTDEC office. Many (semi-)technical products are imported into Uganda, where the market is dominated by the cheapest possible options — especially for spares. We therefore buy some things in the UK because the quality is far better than we can get in Uganda — specialist parts for the pumps, door locks, tools, printer cartridges, and even laundry gloves and some building materials.
So NOTDEC UK does the best by NOTDEC Uganda by NOT guaranteeing to spend this money in Uganda, and using the freedom to source for the best balance of costs and benefits. Big charities can't work this way: the cost of UK staff time in sourcing goods flexibly would far outweigh any savings. But a small UK charity staffed wholly by volunteers can — provided it is free to buy from wherever it finds the best deal.
Specialist Services
The orphanage buildings were designed in the UK. The architect did not charge for his work; the structural engineer was paid in Sterling. NOTDEC UK volunteers who briefed the architect in the UK were not paid for their time. Had all the funds been remitted to Uganda, NOTDEC Uganda staff time would have been spent looking for and briefing an architect, possibly a day's travel away in Kampala. Would a Ugandan architect have done as good a job? The cost of failing — and of having poorer buildings — would have continued for the lifetime of those buildings. Again, we do better by the kids by not having to spend 100% of donations in Uganda.
Even services provided in Uganda may be paid for in the UK if it's cheaper or the supplier prefers it. Wells drilled looking for water at NOTDEC Kabirizi were billed in the UK. Occasionally, payment in Sterling alone can be an advantage.
Summary
NOTDEC ring-fences money donated for "Child Welfare", guaranteeing that this goes 100% to Uganda and is spent there on the children and orphanage running costs. The rest of the money goes into a "General Fund" and is used flexibly in the best interests of the children. We do not guarantee that this money will be spent in Uganda. Some isn't. Historically, the majority has been.
A large proportion of the General Fund (formerly the Project Fund) is given for specific purposes — building work, vehicles, computers for the NOTDEC office, for the development of this website, for travel by volunteers visiting NOTDEC in Uganda, and so on. It is control of these funds (and where and how they are spent) that enables NOTDEC UK to add value — to help design and build a better orphanage, to visit the children and check on progress, and to work with the local managers on an ongoing basis to build a better future for those children. You don't feed babies by visiting them, and money spent getting to the orphanage can't go into child welfare. But unless we visit regularly we can't credibly guarantee to sponsors that the children are being properly fed and cared for, and that the orphanage is being well run. And without the trust of sponsors, the regular funding on which NOTDEC Uganda depends might be put at risk.
Occasionally we do run short of money we can use for a purpose that is on no-one's list of favourites. So we love money without strings attached. But God knows what we need before we ask, and gives generously to those who trust Him.
What Elephant?
How long can we expect volunteers to cover all their own costs in visiting NOTDEC in Uganda?
If NOTDEC UK continues to expect all volunteers to pay for the privilege of visiting the children and helping at the orphanage, won't we soon reach the position where only retired Tory MPs can afford to volunteer? We think not. Recently, two volunteers planning to visit NOTDEC have both run very successful fundraisers to cover the costs of their trip to and voluntary work at the orphanage. This shows that friends and family are very willing to support such active initiatives which aim to "make a difference". So, from time to time, volunteers' fundraising appeals will be featured on this website to help their efforts along.
For the foreseeable future, therefore, NOTDEC UK Trustees have agreed that volunteers must and will continue to cover all their own costs in visiting NOTDEC Uganda.