Reflections of a charity

Serving in a charity is never easy. It always seems that there is more to be done than they are people to fulfill the various roles and activities. Attracting and mobilizing volunteers is a never-ending, continuous process that one cannot become weary of doing. Activities have to be planned and coordinated with the various public stakeholders with whom a charity interacts. Yet...

...when you do get a moment to pause and think, even for a little while, the questions come.

1. Are we doing enough of the right things to help those for whom the charity was designed to help?
2. What if family situations change, especially when children are involved, what systems are in place to fill the gap? E.g. Divorces, the death/serious injury of a parent, and the list can go on. 
3. Coming closer to home; what are we doing other than trying to raise funds to help those with Cystic Fibrosis? 
1. Meetings have discussed getting doctors certified to assist sufferers locally and reduce at least the travel expenses of having to commute overseas for medical treatment. 
2. So far, we have been unable to contribute to the global effort of finding a cure. 
3. Our capacity for at least doing a local diagnostic is far from being able to determine if someone genuinely has CF, without them having to travel overseas. 
4. We need new fundraising activities as the public grows bored with the current programs. 
5. Research and development are needed so that we can determine what is needed to enable the foundation to obtain a headquarters, permanent staffing that can interact with the public when volunteers are earning their keep to sustain themselves and their families personally, new sources of donors, sponsors, and other supporters. 
6. Sound and dedicated administration practices and procedures implemented and sustained to ensure compliance of the foundation in a manner that's timely. Ensuring that we can capitalize on every available incentive that saves leakage of funds. 
4. Growing the volunteer base so that committees can be well established, and leadership can be changed on occasion to bring in a fresh perspective from others. 

The work of a charity is too important to be trivialized. Are you willing to step up to the plate and function with integrity and interact as a team player? How committed are you to continuous learning and development of networks? 

Stop and think about how you can make a difference via your contributions. Once you're clear on that contact us via www.cfbarbados.org we can use your help. 

Standards of a charity - The magnificent seven

For many, when they are affected by something / someone that moves them emotionally; in many cases there begins the need to start a charity. What then happens is that another organization begins, sometimes duplicating the work of another one, facing scarcity and lack at various levels.

If this seems like an odd thing to read, examine it closely and you'll see that based on observation it isn't.

There's a streak that runs through organizations of all types. The people involved often need to feel a sense of belonging. They want to give back and contribute. They want to ease the burdens of others. However, regardless of the organization, there's a need to have standards to ensure that everyone operates in alignment and on a similar platform with clarity, if not the result can be chaos.

What are some of these standards? Let's highlight a few of the more serious ones below:

• Transparency - decisions made and actions taken should always be without prejudice
• Accountability - helps in keeping everyone hones and corruption at bay
• Fairness - assists in ensuring that everyone is treated equally
• Documentation - is necessary for posterity and lends to historical value of decisions taken, meetings held, discussions which took place. Documentation can be done physically / virtually utilizing any of the available storage media which are now quite affordable
• Rules - established the parameters within which everyone operates
• Compliance - provides the controls to ensure the rules are adhered to
• Non-discrimination - goes a step further than fairness ensuring that any and all prejudices are eliminated at the root cause

Though there may be others, these "magnificent seven" capture the essence of all the issues. To be truly helpful, the charity must have a loving, yet discerning nature about it. At the Cffb we are committed to these standards and have them documented so that regardless of the individuals in leadership or among the members / volunteers; the organizations will remain true to its mission.

Why do we see the sense of setting standards within a charity? It's because, We're Aware to Care!

Are they aware of us?

When you're involved in something, it's easy to think that just because you know what your cause that everyone else should know as well. You work hard, putting structure in place all the while trying to ensure that you do the right thing.

In meetings you speak about the vision, mission, objectives, succession, who does what and when. Then before long, you realize that for all that you've done; for all that hard work and the projects that you have put on the plate for future seasons - No one outside the immediate group knows who you are, and to be blunt - neither do they really care.

We were no different. When we mentioned that we're established to help those with Cystic Fibrosis (CF); you should have seen the blank stares. After a pause for an indeterminate amount of time, they would then go....what did you just say?

Just imagine saying to someone that there are people here among us with a rare illness that is quite expensive to treat. They have no point of reference so in their head they go - here's another one. There's going to be always a group of people asking for money for their particular cause. It's that simple. Their cases will be unique in some instances. What we're finding is that as humans, we're diverse with a variety of special health cases. The stories seem to surpass the opportunities for assistance, and in these hard times; budgets are limited.

Guess what? Despite the aforementioned, we can stop. We can't fail the youngsters and their families of those afflicted by Cystic Fibrosis. We're working hard to make the awareness grow, and the truth is, we're under resourced and under capitalized; yet we can't and won't stop.

How are we raising awareness? We will go to where you are!

Take for instance some of the places we have been and are targeting:

• Universities, colleges, public affairs and their respective events
• We will host events - walks and galas that will get us noticed 
• We will use the internet with its opportunities for having websites, using a variety of social media[ including blogs and newsletter
• We will use traditional media in a planned way - newspapers, radio, television, magazines, and the newsletters of other organizations. 

When we think / focus of the opportunities that are available, we can't dwell on the problems.

We are well structures and becoming better organized, so that we can become the bench mark for charitable organizations. Is it easy? No!

One thing is certain, "We're the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Barbados", and though you may not know of us yet. you will cause we're building awareness one person at a time. You'll find that as an organization, We're "Aware to Care"!