DEC warns some tsunami donations may take a month to process
Howard Lake | 2 February 2005 | News
The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has announced on its website that some donors might find that it takes until the end of February for their donations to the DEC Tsunami Earthquake appeal to be processed.
In fact, the DEC is giving out mixed messages to donors. On one page it reports that “We hope to have all donations processed by the end of February.” On another page it says “We hope to have all donations processed by the middle of March.”
It explains that “the sheer scale of the response has led to delays in processing a small proportion of donations.” It asks donors to “please bear with us” if donatons do not appear on their bank or credit card statement.
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Sadly, such an approach could damage the beneficial effects on charitable giving that some are anticipating after the massive public support for the tsunami appeal. If even the umbrella body can’t process credit/debit card donations for two months or more after they were received, especially when the gifts were for an emergency appeal, then the public would be entitled to wonder just how effective fundraising charities are.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.