Christmas rhymes with generosity and sharing. With Lionel Mauguin, journalist at 60 million consumers we can decipher his survey on donations to associations. Where does the money for our generosity go? During the Holidays, there are many appeals for donations.
franceinfo: Last year, these donations increased by 14% in value in 2020 but the number of donor households has fallen in recent years?
Lionel Mauguin: Yes, we went from 5.7 million in 2015 to less than 5 million in 2019. It must be said that the average donation has increased. It went from 450 to 560 euros, so much so that generosity in France remains enormous, nearly 3 billion in donations in 2020.
These donations are used in particular to finance campaigns to collect them and the methods are sometimes questionable. For example, many of us have received objects such as pens or diaries from these NGOs?
Yes, there are 15 to 20% of donations that are used to collect other donations. And indeed, it has been calculated that NGOs sent nearly 160 million letters in 2019, which amounts to three letters per year per adult, which is considerable.
It can annoy some consumers because people feel that they are receiving part of their donation in the form of small gifts, post-it notes, notebooks, pens, cards. And it is true that it is at the same time annoying because it is not requested. It is guilty because some of these products are personalized. So we are encouraged to give to compensate for these gifts.
And then there are also the micro-donations that are developing. We remind you how it works?
You must have seen this in the cash register, it is developing more and more. You are offered to round up your bill to the next higher euro, and that goes to an association; it also exists for certain salaries or certain bank balances. We offer the same thing, but on the invoices of supermarkets, in particular.
Well, it can also be annoying because it makes you feel guilty if you don’t do it, and for a few cents. But hey, again, it works well, since we counted 8 million donations in this form in 2019.
The associations therefore use these donations to finance fundraising campaigns, to also finance their operating costs such as salaries and rents. Of course, this money is used for humanitarian missions. Once you take all that away, there’s money left, a lot of money. Where do these sums go?
This is somewhat what we revealed in this survey. We tried to see the distribution between the part that was paid to the mission itself, the part that was paid to the collection costs just mentioned, and what went to operating costs.
So, out of the 20 large associations, we consider that at least 80% of the money collected must go to action, this is quite normal, and there are some associations that are below this figure. We can find out in the survey, and we actually wonder where the money is going. Especially since we realized that the large associations almost all made profits, in any case surpluses.
In 2020, it represented 1.8 billion euros anyway, for the 20 main associations. If we count both the surplus resources for the year, but also the reserves, because they have a lot of financial reserves, which can raise questions, then when we question them, they tell us, it is to prevent contingencies, it is to have operating costs in advance. Everything is not spent on actions, far from it.
Rest assured, Lionel, there are controls. The Court of Auditors is responsible for the accounts of associations?
So yes, it normally has to audit the accounts and make a public report. But we noticed that it only made 1 to 2 per year, which means that some associations have not been “visited” for 5 to 10 years. So there are the auditors who certify the accounts. It is still something else. What I can tell you is that the associations are indeed checked, but not often.
There is also the “Don in confidence” label, which tries to reassure donors and which controls around a hundred organizations every year. But maybe it deserves more checks because it is still legitimate that when you appeal to the generosity of the public, you are able to know where the collected money is going.
It is clear that sometimes, it does not go where we expect, and it would be good if there were more checks or self-checks of the profession. Although I must say that for this survey, all accounts have been opened and all my questions have been answered. So there is nothing hidden, just good. There are a lot of figures that raise questions.