F.A.Q.

Why can’t I just hit a button and have it all done for me like other charities?

We ask you to set up a moneybookers (Skrill) account so that you are in control of your money. It’s not difficult. If we handle the money we introduce the possibility of corruption. If we are running an organization that is is handling big funds, we’d have to pay for accountants, insurance, charitable status, and so on. We’d also have to pay ourselves from the funds, as the compliance with regulations takes time and work. A lot of time and work. And skill. We wouldn’t do it for peanuts!

In addition, by using Skrill, we eliminate the need for anyone to give anyone else (apart form Skrill) their bank details. This takes care of security without incurring extra expenses. It’s up to you. Make the slightly bigger effort to take responsibility for what happens to your money, or hand that responsibility to someone else. There is no shortage of people who will be happy to take that responsibility off your hands  This is part of the change we are introducing. We’re not a charity, not even a non-profit, we’re just an agent for people who want to know what’s happening to their money, and to be able to support their recipients directly.

How is what you’re doing different from the mainstream organizations?

1. 100% of your money goes to the recipient. There is no middleman.
2. You will be sponsoring one person or family directly, and can be involved with the project they are undertaking in other ways than just financially. Essentially this person has a small team of interested friends they can discuss things with. They know they have a supportive group of friends and this alone could make a big difference to their confidence.
3. You have the opportunity to learn new things as you and your recipient and the rest of your team work together.
4. You’ll have the satisfaction of seeing the fulfillment of the project in two to three years, when the recipient will no longer need financial support.
5. The funding is going directly to the individuals who make up the local community. By enabling them to pull themselves out of the poverty trap, you are going to the root cause of the problems, rather than just providing standard facilities like community centers which may or may not be of real use to the community.

What’s wrong with a community center project?

Nothing; a wealthy and healthy community can build whatever they want to, whenever they want to. Many communities around the world are still pretty much intact, they already have places where they meet up, and may not really need such things. By introducing things we are familiar with, we may be altering their traditions. Also community centers are expensive to build, and have ongoing costs which are a burden for as long as they exist in a poor community. Surely it’s better just to eliminate poverty and let the people themselves decide what to do with their wealth? These people are not genetically inferior to us, they are not any more stupid than europeans, they are just in a bit of trouble. They need our help to get out of it, they don’t need to be told how to use the wealth they generate with our help. We can make suggestions, that’s all.

But you are building a community center in Igourdane..

We’re building a school for local children, which the community there say they need. When we first visited, we didn’t go to the community ‘leaders’ or the local authorities, we went to the farmers directly and asked them what they need. We’re adding on the necessary room for a permaculture center, in order to restore the valley to abundance and solve the problems of drought and poverty permanently.

How do I know the money is being used for what I was told?

You don’t, unless you visit and see for yourself. This is true of any organization as well. Do you know how much they actually spend on other things? No, all you get is a summary of the accounts for the whole organization for the year. You might see an entry for something like “AIDS awareness campaign” with 7 Million dollars in the amount field. You stull have no idea what they actually bought with your money, or if it was really of any use to any person on the ground apart from the staff and directors. 

What we do have is a regular video blog showing progress, forum chat with your recipient, email, skype and (by agreement) postal address. And you can visit by arrangement. All the accounts are open and publicly available online. We think that’s more than any other system has.

I am still not satisfied. How can I be sure my project is not a scam?

Just for you, we will have a fund for random surprise visits to sponsored projects, whne the core group is not 100% satisfied with the verification. This will be the only non-public part of the site, and in the interests of openness, honesty and cooperation, will be marked ‘no access’. This department will be called Sponsor Security. It will have an anonymous call in line for people to grass each other up. It will be responsible for hacking Moneybookers and compiling a secret database on all sponsors and recipients. In some countries, officers may need to be armed. This is the only way to ensure full security on the part of the sponsors. Perhaps we could learn something from this.

Seriously though, if you want all the advantages of DirectSponsor, and to have complete verification, we would have to visit your project every six months, do a thorough investigation,form a registered charity for it and take out insurance to cover ourselves in the event that things go wrong. It’s difficult to estimate the cost of this, but taking into account two people’s food and hotel for 3 weeks, travel, solicitor’s fees, accountant, registrations, insurance, and so on, we reckon about 25,000 euros set up an initial sytem, with another 5,000 per year per project for ongoing costs. What’s left will go directly to your recipient, and we will send you a photo of somebody smiling in an ethnic location. But you can get that elsewhere, so there’s no point.

You can never be 100% sure that all of your money is going to the benefit of the recipients, but with other charities, you can be sure it isn’t, so for those who value security over freedom, other organizations are a more appropriate choice.  With us, at least you have the possibility to find out the truth.