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Pakistan appeal reaches £47m as DEC reviews accountability framework

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 8 Sep 2010

The Disasters Emergency Committee has raised £47m for the Pakistan flood emergency effort, as its annual report shows it is reviewing its accountability framework.

While in July 2009, Civil Society reported that some DEC members had been warned about their compliance with DEC rules, in 2009-2010 accountants Ernst & Young validated all 13 member agencies as compliant.

The organisation is now undergoing a review of its accountability framework, which it expects to release in a year’s time, at the end of 2010-2011. The framework, which asks that member agencies assess themselves, was introduced amid some controversy in 2008.

The report says the review is to ensure that the organisation adheres to best practice and assess the “objectives and nature of the self assessment process”.

The final total for the Haiti appeal has come in at £100m, including the money raised by member agencies (£34m), and £9.3m for the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam appeal, but the report has highlighted maximising income as a key priority for the future.

A fundraising database, paid for out of the organisation’s endowment, has been on the cards at the DEC, but implementation has been put off by the two major appeals, and so it is looking at bringing it into practice in the coming financial year.

 “The board requested an evaluation of DEC fundraising, which highlighted key challenges for the future. These include increasing fundraising expertise at Board level, making more use of our member agency’s fundraising experience, making the most of existing sources of income, and adapting to the changing nature of news and the media,” the report reads.

In the future, DEC predicts there will be changes to the activities of the secretariat and members as a result of the work of the fundraising subcommittee.

Social networking

Mike Walsh, chairman of the DEC, said in his introduction that social media had proven particularly important over the 2009-2010 appeals, with the organisation’s Facebook fans increasing 20-fold and establishing a critical and large following on Twitter.  Walsh is due to step down as chair and the DEC is recruiting a new leader. 

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