Handling donations to school

ernstn

ernstn

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De Kelders, Gansbaai
Hello Folks, I am involved with a non-fees school where I live here in Gansbaai. We obviously need a lot of funding to keep us going properly and our poor community cannot contribute. So I am looking for funds from elsewhere. One of the things I am trying to achieve is to enable people to donate via our website. And there are three requirements - no extra bank account(we are allowed only one at the school), the contributors must be safe in the knowledge that their contributions are in fact going to the school and as low a cost as possible.

I am looking forward to your wisdom and assistence in this matter.
 
You might want to set up a non-profit.

i.e. Donor >> Non-profit >> Kid gets bursary

That way you can issue a s18A certificate to the donor making it tax deductible for them. For people in the top brackets that R100 donated, R40 saved on tax...so not a small benefit.
 
HavocXphere said:
You might want to set up a non-profit.

i.e. Donor >> Non-profit >> Kid gets bursary

That way you can issue a s18A certificate to the donor making it tax deductible for them. For people in the top brackets that R100 donated, R40 saved on tax...so not a small benefit.
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We do issue section 18a certificates if requested. The question is more to do with smaller donations and also to be able to easily handle donations from overseas. We already have a few minor overseas donors and the bank charges for transferring money to us is astronomical, Of course these donors already know us, but how does a stranger know that his 10 dollar donation goes directly to the school?
 
ernstn said:
how does a stranger know that his 10 dollar donation goes directly to the school?
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They don't. There is no good solution to this.

The big donors (UN, WHO, Gates, GF etc) insist on an audit by a reputable audit firm...but that is not cheap and definitely not feasible for a small school.
 
/subscribes to thread. NPO seems to be the way to go. I have thought over some initiative like this on a very small scale. On a personal level, I find it difficult to trust someone far away despite good intentions of the person that started this initiative. NPO will definitely give more credibility. Also if there are any local representatives of any NPO around one's area, one can possibly visit their offices (if there is such a thing, perhaps it will be run from residence).
 
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HavocXphere said:
They don't. There is no good solution to this.

The big donors (UN, WHO, Gates, GF etc) insist on an audit by a reputable audit firm...but that is not cheap and definitely not feasible for a small school.
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LOL If their donation is big enough and they pay for the audit I have no problem..We get audited once a year, local education department rules.
 
HavocXphere said:
Thats a different kind of audit & would provide little/zero relevant info to a donor.
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I can vouch for this. Went through an audit for MSDF (Michael & Susan Dell foundation) relating to a donation that they made to a CT private NPO university and the audit was much more complex than the audit that was done by Deloitte. We came out clean but the feedback and experience was invaluable as there is always room for improvement.

MSDF paid for the audit as it was a requirement from their side.
 
signates said:
the audit was much more complex than the audit that was done by Deloitte.
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I'd be a little wary of the "more complex" part - it almost implies one is better than the other. Its just two different things with different intended goals.
 
HavocXphere said:
I'd be a little wary of the "more complex" part - it almost implies one is better than the other. Its just two different things with different intended goals.
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Not implying that the one is better. Was just the easiest way to describe the difference.
 
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