Our aid for children with cleft lip and palate is based on strong structures in an international network. Our committed employees and many passionate partners drive our mission forward. In our project countries, more than 250 local doctors, therapists and project staff provide accessible medical care for patients in need, even in remote regions. German doctors support our local partners on a voluntary basis with their specialist expertise. Cooperations with international aid organizations enable us to substantially expand our projects worldwide. Numerous funding partners at home and abroad, committed companies and many private donors have supported us continuously and sometimes for many years, resulting in a sustainable aid offering.
Our charity is based in Freiburg im Breisgau. Eight permanent employees, some of whom work part-time, are responsible for the management, development and coordination of our aid projects, fundraising, communication and donor support.
Heinz Lübbe was not only an excellent doctor – he was also a visionary and worked as an active manager for the charity. He was committed to ensuring that cleft children in developing countries have access to qualified and comprehensive treatment. The establishment of the foundation was his last major initiative, which he initiated despite a serious illness.
Therwil and Dornbirn – our two partner associations in Switzerland and Austria are pursuing a great goal with us: to give children with cleft lip and palate a chance in life. Our Austrian partner association was only established late last year under the name Austrian Cleft Children’s Aid and is currently still organizing itself. Further information will follow shortly.
In cooperation with Swiss doctors, the board and employees of Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe founded a partner association in Switzerland in 2008. The Swiss Aid Society for Cleft Children (Schweizer Hilfe für Spaltkinder, SHfS), based in Therwil near Basel, was created to generate additional funds in Switzerland to aid cleft children. Since December 2013, the SHfS has financed more than 200 operations in our Indian treatment centers every year. This funding currently benefits the fission center in Patna. The Swiss team works on a voluntary basis.
In accordance with our statutory purpose, we act as a health insurance for needy patients with cleft lip and palate. With our donations, we finance the treatments carried out and maintain our aid structures in the project countries. The senior surgeons are reimbursed for their work, our partner hospitals often provide us with the necessary medical infrastructure at below the usual market rate. Every treatment is documented in our patient database by the doctors on site. After verifying the documentation, we reimburse the costs from Germany directly to our project partners every month.
We measure our success primarily by the number of surgeries carried out in our project countries. We have been fortunate to see a robust increase in the number of operations we have been able to fund in the past two years. This inevitably goes hand in hand with an increase in costs.
A detailed financial overview is available in our annual report. We will publish the annual financial statements for 2019 in October 2020 (only in German language).
We can’t do our work completely without spending money on advertising and administration. Without, we would be unable to raise donations and organize their use. Nevertheless, we try to keep this spending as low as possible. We do not use giveaway items such as pens, stationery or other “incentives” in our fundraising that unnecessarily cause costs through their production and in postage. Overall, the share of spending on fundraising, advertising and administration in 2018 was under 20 percent.
A token of dependability: Since 2012, we have been proud to bear the DZI Donation Seal for our responsible use of our donors’ funds. The first award was based on an audit of our 2010 spending and the certification process is repeated annually. The seal is awarded by the German Central Institute for Social Issues (DZI), based in Berlin. The DZI donation seal certifies that the organizations bearing it are responsible and careful in their use of the donations entrusted to them.
As a promotor of charitable purposes and public health, Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe eV is exempt from corporation tax in accordance with Section 5 (1) No. 9 of the Corporation Tax Act and exempt from trade tax in accordance with Section 3 No. 6 of the Trade Tax Act (exemption notice from the Freiburg-Stadt Tax Office, tax number 06469/47127, November 18, 2019 for the last assessment period 2016 to 2018).
Due to our nonprofit status, we can issue donation receipts for donations received. In order to reduce the administrative burden, these are sent out collectively at the beginning of the following year for all donations made by a donor in the previous year.
