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Charity stays at home


THE founder of a charity foundation in east China's Zhejiang Province wants to shut it down because most of the money it raised has gone to an advertising company.

Last year, the Ningbo Anti-Cancer Health Foundation gave away 306,000 yuan (US$44,791.06), 13 percent of the money it raised. The ratio is far lower than the minimum 70 percent set by the state, today's Oriental Morning Post reported.

Instead, an advertising company, which helped the foundation raise the funds, pocketed 45 percent of the income, the report said.

The founder, Ningbo Cancer Rehabilitation Association, late last month told the Zhejiang Civil Affairs Bureau to close the foundation, according to the association's chairman, Zhuang Songliang.

"We launched the non-government foundation to help cancer patients, but soon found it was missing our targets," Zhuang said.

According to a Zhejiang Health Bureau's audit, the foundation received donations of 2.33 million yuan in 2007 and spent 66.5 percent of the income on advertising, most of this going to the advertising company.

In the first two months after the company became involved, the company took nearly 700,000 yuan of the 1.5 million yuan raised.

In comparison, the foundation spent a mere 540,000 yuan on medical treatments for patients in the three years since its launch in September 2006. Last year, only 80,000 yuan was spent on medical treatments.

Du Xuchu, the foundation's director, confirmed the figures, but said there was no breach of regulations. He described it as "a result of a marketing operation" the foundation introduced in September 2007.

Under the marketing program, the firm helped it raise funds and took 45 percent of the money raised for its costs.

Du agreed the 45-percent ratio was high. But it was to cover the firm's high costs, he said. The country has no rules governing the ratio, he added.

He said the foundation has helped many patients in many ways, including paying medical expenses, organizing tours and holding science exhibitions for patients. He stressed that patients needed help in many areas other than financing.

But Zhuang said what patients needed most was financial aid, which was more practical for their treatment.



 

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