admin wrote: ↑Fri Dec 28, 2018 8:15 am
well first, that is not how techos primarily works. most of their money is localy sourced from chileans and chilean companies. most the labor is local volunteers (mostly highschool and university students, local community members, etc). they build low cost emergency type houses, and they also build entire perment communitiies in track home fashion. think i also seen them building apartment buildings a few years ago in urban areas. it is literally about getting a roof over people's head first.
that said, bringing potential donors to spend some time seeing what an organization does is a very tried and true method of raising funds. they come to latin america, smash their fingers with hammer for week or two, go home, send more money, tell their friends. yea, typicaly not very productive as far as directly building houses, but made up for in confidence among donors that their money is going somewhere usefull.
i always loved an answer that jimmy carter gave in an interview about habitat for humanity. he was asked if he was concerned about amitures building houses. he said, "where a professional might put in one nail, we put in two".
but your missing the point. what would cost a foriegner just arriving millions of dollars to stand-up an effective organization to do something from scratch, and probably not be very effective in the end, the local organizations already have the infrastructure to put the money to work.
more importantly, do no harm.
do you know how the goverment subsidized housing and social services point system works?
because if you don't, you can cause people to loose their benfits. worse the people you are trying to "help" could be charged with fraud (they regularly prosecute people for housing subsidy fraud)?
do you know that most activities that a 501c(3) in the united states is allowed to do (e.g. own and operate for profit buisnesses), is actualy a criminal offence in chile?
do you know about the audits for none-profits? you make one mistake and you are wrong side of the tax authority and money laundering laws.
I was on the board of directors of a u.s. 501(c)3 in the u.s. many years ago. one of our members set it up over the phone with the u.s. IRS in an hour.
In chile your looking at about $50,000 u.s. and 6 months to a year, at a minum. that is just sufficient paperwork to get you in a lot of trouble. there are strictly enforced rules and regulations about the type of activities, sotrce of funds, yearly audits, and much more.
why?
because in the united states ( especially), and much of the world, historically, NGO's have been little more than tax evasion, money laundering, and just outright scams (e.g. Trump foundation, american red cross).
chile does not play that game.
why?
Do you see the neighborhood we are in?
i am sure the Pablo Escobar family foundation would love to help you fix some roofs in chile. i am also sure their are many "family" foundations out of places like Panama and Uruguay that would also help. Are you prepared to drop a million dollars a year just vetting sources of donations?
it is not an accident that Douglas Tompkins, after all his years in chile, and the millions of dollars he invested in his enviromental project, still mostly used private corporations.
so, think long and hard about how much it costs to put a nail in a roof in chile first.
If you are still asking what a temporary RUT number is good for, your not even remotely in the game. so go fix a hole in a roof in the united states. for everyone's sake. otherwise you are just a tourist draining resources and doing more damage than good.
