Getting trusted

How we’re getting registered, the timeline and why -

We’ve been pretty fortunate that Singapore, where Jim and Dale live, underwent a shake-up in charities and registration after one local charity had major problems. The rules have been clarified and there is more oversight now.

Basically, to work in Cambodia as a charity, you need to be registered as either a Cambodian NGO or an International NGO. The oversight for an International NGO (non-governmental organisation - it’s a pretty generic term now) is clearer, so we’ve elected to go that route. That requires that you be registered in the home country - here, Singapore - as a charity.

A Singapore charity has to be registered with the Registar of Charities as one of three vehicles: a trust, a society (ten people minimum, registered with another department towards some social purpose) or a corporation. A trust is the cheapest and most practical for Riverkids - basically, the three trustees will meet twice a year at least to oversee what the funds are being used for and are responsible for making sure that the funds are being properly managed and spent towards the trust aims - here, to prevent child trafficking in Cambodia. Their reports will, like all our other documentation, be published online at our website.

We started getting the trust paperwork in June this year. It’s now ready and will be submitted this week, many many thanks to two lawyers in Singapore who donated their time and expertise in drawing it up. I have no idea how long the approval process takes, but it should be at most a few months.

We will not qualify for tax exemption in Singapore because most of our activities take place outside of Singapore. You need to have 80% of your funds spent for Singaporean charitable purposes to qualify here.

What we’ve done in the meantime is to register Riverkids Project as a one-person business, under my name, here so I could open a separate corporate bank account for the project. I’m moving all the funds through that one account for a clear paper trail.

Financial accountability is a huge issue for us. A lot of aid money in Cambodia ‘vanishes’, and I’ve seen money donated to some places used for things that aren’t part of the project. As part of our adoptions, we were asked to donate money to an orphanage that almost certainly never went there, although it did pay for a very nice apartment for the facilitator. It’s very important to me to be financially transparent, both for the money we receive and how we spend it.

Another thing that’s been important to me and Sok Lyna has been that we don’t personally benefit from Riverkids. Jim and I donate US$500 a month to the project, and we’ve been covering shortfalls and extra expenses. All my trips up to Cambodia have been paid for by me, not using Riverkids money. Lyna and I don’t get paid for the time or work we put into Riverkids. So far, even fundraising costs like postage have been covered by us.

Everything donated goes to the kids.