After it emerged that the Child Welfare League Foundation (CWLF) had spent NT$370 million (US$12.17 million) to buy office space in Taipei, CWLF chief executive Pai Li-fang (白麗芳) said that the foundation has been setting aside money from its annual budgets since 1998 to buy property, having notified its regulatory authority — the Ministry of Education — of its plan to do so.
Pai cited the long-term cost of rent, the fact that CWLF staff need to be on constant standby, and the need to accommodate at-risk families and provide face-to-face guidance as reasons for buying the property.
The foundation’s use of donations to buy real estate has drawn a variety of reactions from donors and the wider public. Civic groups tend to take on more bureaucrats as they grow bigger. Although an organization might think it is using donations reasonably, the use might lead to a crisis of confidence.
Social welfare organizations accept donations from the public to rescue people in emergencies, and assist the vulnerable and disadvantaged, but they often fail to effectively manage and use donated money and materials, and they might even take on a glamorous or bureaucratic image. This can lead to controversies, as it did with the Red Cross Society, as well as the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation at the time of the Ting Hsin cooking oil scandal.
Donors are sure to ask why the CWLF has been running financial surpluses for 21 years — while plenty of high-risk families and vulnerable children needed urgent assistance — only to eventually use the surplus funds to buy a property costing hundreds of millions of New Taiwan dollars.
Growing the organization by using the public’s donations in this way, without being open and transparent about it, is what has led to this crisis of confidence.
The foundation says that only 35 percent of its newly acquired property would be used for administration, while the rest would be used to care for those in need.
The problem with this claim is that children and families who need help are spread all over Taiwan, and the foundation’s other offices might not be big enough to cope. Should the social departments of all city and township governments set up similar shelters in their areas?
Abused children and those with psychological problems need psychological guidance and specialized medical attention to make a lasting recovery. The public understands that at-risk families need empowerment to emerge from the shadow of violence and become self-sufficient.
However, the foundation is setting up a quasi-corporate headquarters instead of establishing aid systems together with town and city government offices and healthcare establishments to help disadvantaged people in outlying areas. Donors might question whether the non-office space in the headquarters can really be used to deliver child welfare.
Some social welfare organizations apply for government subsidies to fund their projects, but many more are funded by donations from the public. This highlights the inadequacy of relying on the government alone to cope with social and family problems. Precisely for this reason, these organizations should be very transparent in their use of finances.
Only through transparency can these organization retain public trust and keep operating in the long term. The problem is not that the CWLF is not allowed to buy property, but that it has trampled on its own trustworthiness, while the real victims are the many children who urgently need help.
Chang Hsun-ching is a writer.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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