Press Release 31st July 2009

“They still need your help”

With the recent controversy over just who benefits from the charitable dollar in New Zealand, it is easy to see this may have a negative effect on charitable giving around the country.

Claire Sawyers from the charitable website DonateNZ, deals with over 750 community organisations throughout the country every day. “It’s a crying shame that negative publicity like this will threaten funding to an already struggling community sector”, says Claire. A recent survey conducted by DonateNZ to its members confirmed this, with a staggering 70% of the responding organisations stating they have had serious trouble maintaining their regular funding in these tough economic times.

Of the responders, the most common regular fund sources consisted of :
• Donations
• Government funding
• Fundraising by members
• Gaming trusts/foundations.

Not surprisingly, these have been the hardest areas hit, with:
• Less people donating to organisations
• Government cutting funding to certain sectors
• Less discretional dollars in peoples pockets to spend on participating in fundraisers
• Less money available from gaming trust/foundations due to frozen investments, couple with higher demand due to the above

All round, there is a higher demand for services required from community organisations, with less funds to go round to deliver the services.

Claire urges New Zealanders, “Don’t donate less, just think smarter about the ways you do it. Choose to use New Zealand’s amazing online portals such as DonateNZ (goods & time) & Givealittle (cash), to support community organisations. Funds are tight without a doubt, but there are other ways to support charity. By using DonateNZ – www.donatenz.com – you can donate goods or volunteer your time. Your donated time or items that you no longer want, can be worth hundreds of dollars to an organisation who needs it. No one takes a cut from this – 100% of the benefit goes to the organisation.”

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