Our aid for children with cleft lip and palate is based on a strong international network of passionate individuals committed to our mission. 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. Volunteer German specialist doctors support our local partners with their knowledge.
Cooperations with international aid organizations let us further expand our projects around the world to offer more treatments. Many charities and foundations at home and abroad, committed businesses and many many private donors support us – sometimes for many many years now – letting us provide dependable care to cleft children.
“Again and again I am touched by our ability to change a child’s life for the better. We want to motivate people to get involved and join our network of help. Together, we can make a big difference.”
Prof. Frank Feyerherd, MD,
Anesthesiologist and DCKH board member in an honorary capacity
Our charity is based in Freiburg im Breisgau. Nine permanent employees (some part-time), are responsible for the management, development and coordination of our aid projects, fundraising, communication and donor support.
You can download the complete charter here (only availabe in German).
Help and heal sustainably – that is the motto of the Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe Foundation, which supports selected projects of our charity. The foundation was established by the Stuttgart-based oral and maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Dr. med. Heinz Lübbe, who was the Chairman of the board of Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe e.V. from 2005 until his death in September 2015.
Heinz Lübbe was not only an excellent doctor – he was also a visionary and worked as an energetic manager for the charity. He was committed to providing cleft children in developing countries with 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, has funded more than 200 operations in our Indian treatment centers every year – since December 2013. The Swiss team works on an unpaid, pro bono basis.
Our Austrian partner association, the Austrian Cleft Kinderhilfe, was founded in cooperation with our supporter Amann Girrbach AG from Dornbirn in Vorarlberg. The association was founded in late 2019 and is based in Dornbirn. Austrian Cleft Kinderhilfe funds operations for cleft children in our projects in India and Bangladesh.
As per our statutes, we act essentially as a health insurance for needy patients with cleft lip and palate. With your donations, we fund the treatments and maintain our aid structures in the project countries. Every treatment is documented by the doctors on site in our patient database.
After checking the documentation, we reimburse the costs to our project partners on a monthly basis in the form of a flat-rate fee per operation or therapy session. Currently this is an average of 300 euros per operation performed.
This includes, among others. the hospital stay, anaesthetics and medication as well as an expense allowance for the doctors, nurses and project coordinators. Our partner hospitals usually provide us with the medical infrastructure below the usual market price; this is also covered by the operation fee.
We measure our success primarily by the number of operations provided in our project countries. Since 2016, we have been happy to see a large increase in the number of operations. In 2021, we funded more than 6,800 surgeries – an increase of almost 600 over our result from 2019, our most successful pre-pandemic year. We spent 2,484,920 euros towards our statutory purposes.
Our 2021 expense structure will be determined by our annual financial statement and published later this year (2022).
We can’t do our work 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. To win new supporters, our TV spot is an incredibly valuable tool. This spot is aired free of charge on various TV stations of the RTL media group, a huge gesture of support for which we are deeply grateful.
In 2021, the share of spending on fundraising and advertising was 14 percent, and administrative costs accounted for less than 3 percent of our spending. Almost 83 percent of spending went directly towards our cleft treatment projects.
A token of dependability: Since 2012, we have been proud bearers of the DZI seal of approval 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 seal of approval certifies that the organization bearing it is responsible and careful in the use of the donations entrusted to them.
Our annual financial statements are audited by an external company in accordance with the exacting DZI guidelines. This detailed financial report is published on October 1 of the following year in our online annual report, which you can also download as a PDF below. In the preliminary version, the focus is on a comprehensive review of the year with impressions from our project countries. You can also order this preliminary report from us in printed form. Simply use our contact form.
Only the annual reports since 2018 are available in English. You can download older reports in German from the German version of our site.
As a promotor of charitable purposes and public health, Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe e.V. 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, January 13, 2023 for the last assessment period 2019 to 2021).
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.
