SOS Children calls for "no UK deductions for Haiti"

The British public have given to Haiti as have governments and companies. G7 have granted Haiti debt relief and performers are performing for free. No one can undo the earthquake but we can all help and everyone is doing their bit faced with the horrible human suffering in Haiti. Everywhere we turn, there is commendable human effort. Well, nearly everywhere. One more effort is needed and therefore we are:

Calling on all British NGOs to pledge to make no UK deductions for Haiti. Specifically we are asking UK NGOs to promise not to use any donations or sponsorships given for Haiti in 2010 to pay for UK spend on advertising, fundraising, admin, advocacy or anything else in the UK (except specifically purchase of goods for transit to Haiti). See also our discussion on how big UK charity deductions might be.

This petition and pledge refers to UK costs. We have thought carefully about different pledges but decided this on carries the lowest risk of charities blurring the lines between fundraising, advocacy, administration etc.  The UK isn't where logistical planning or rebuild work for Haiti will be organised or project managed, what we do here should not count as "Haiti".

This is a very reasonable petition and should not be too hard for charities to sign up to. Most charities will have already fixed their annual budget plans when disaster struck Haiti on January 12. Major media partners gave free publicity. The big mailhouse charities might have spent some money on mailing but they probably would have got this for free or at least been planning the mailshot during the year. If it means one less charity mailshot over 2010 that is an acceptable price we feel. As responsible UK NGOs we all owe it to the British public and to the people of Haiti not to use this unexpected collection of millions of pounds to make deductions to pay for what we in the UK would be doing anyway. 

In this spirit we have set up a petition website at (Update: See our article looking at the response to the petition) where anyone who supports the petition can sign up and where we will list any British NGOs working in Haiti who have committed to this promise. People who agree with us are invited to sign the petition and display the "0%" logo on their blog or website linking to the campaign website.