New Regulations Set by Commissioner of Charities Help to Bring Faith Back

Under the new regulations which came in force 1 May 2007 on charity registration, public fund-raising appeals and large charities, the Commissioner of Charities (COC) has de-registered three charities today. Coincidentally, these first three identified ones revolved foundation for kids.

De-registered Charities were (as at 3 May 2007) :

• Children of Singapore Foundation


• Children’s Lukaemia Foundation Limited, and
  
• Club Sunshine Limited (previously known as Kids-In-Distress Foundation Limited)

Main cause of de-registration :

• serious irregularities


• suspicious transactions in the administration of the charities

For example, tiny fraction of donations received were only disbursed to a small pool of beneficiaries, and daily operations expenses. But over 70% of the donations were used elsewhere for commercial-driven purposes.

As a public member, I'm relieved to learn that our regulators are pulling their socks higher - sweeping the 'black-sheeps' away from the real ones.

In the long-run (referring it takes years), this could help to increase community's faith and trust in credible and genuiue charity organisations, thereby enabling the real ones to continue their honourable tasks with lesser emotional obstacles ahead.

I've also learned from my fellow pals - they would rather patronise their friends' charity works for the needy, whom they'd more confident to entrust their faith in communities they know, than to organisations they are not certain at all.

My final take is...Charity is personal by itself. It requires personalisation, not commercialisation through use of over-the-hill marketing frenzy approach. Personal touch requires goodwill building as the core foundation.

By way of illustration, if a charity firm approaches me to purchase a pack of christmas cards drew by under-privileged kids, I would appreciate the pitcher to give solid assurance on the breakdown of donation amount (I think >75% back to beneficiaries is reasonable).

Charity organisations:

Please remain open to public at all times, be fair to the beneficiaries,
and remain true to your organisation's purposes.

This will help to maintain hopes for the needy, who are in need for government and public's financial and non-financial supports that serve to get by their days for plain survival.

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