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Donation platform for seriously ill children and adults “HelpKarma” came out on Tuesday with an official position on bTV’s disclosures about dubious financial practices at the foundation.
In various reports, the television showed that the director of the company, Slavcho Slavchev, who is an IT specialist, receives a monthly salary ranging from 20,000 to 80,000 BGN. Fundraising campaigns for children with serious reporting gaps were also shown.
To date, the foundation has not released a summary financial report of its activities since 2017, but claims that its work is completely transparent. An investigation was initiated by the Prosecutor’s Office in the case.
“With the BTV reports of November 6, 7 and 8, 2020, the Help Karma Foundation received a hard and unfair media blow.” is the main message in the official “HelpKarma” post about the revelations made by television.
According to the foundation the “media coup” has blocked fundraising for many vital cases of children and adults.
The foundation accuses bTV journalist Maria Tsantsarova of entering its office with “lie.” “We were invited by BTV’s Morning Block to talk about our Covid campaigns. Instead, Maria Tsancarova barely touched on this topic, instead starting with personal questions to our employee and asking for immediate information on the foundation’s activities. We admit that we were not prepared We give her documented answers right away. Of course, we were also very naive that she really expected answers, not adequate shots to edit in a preconceived setting. “ says the president of the Kostadin Krastev foundation.
According to Krastev, the conversation with the journalist lasted 7 hours.
The foundation sent four letters to Tsantsarova with detailed information about her work.
However, the end result was “a one-sided, superficial and manipulative report, compiled from individual fragments, with the clear aim of completely discrediting the HelpKarma Foundation and shattering its credibility.”
“Almost none of the information we provided was used. We saw a great perversion of the truth,” Krastev writes.
He states that HelpKarma is trying to clarify the credibility of each campaign. For medical campaigns, the creator of the campaign must provide an epicrisis. But campaign creators are also responsible for credibility.
“Unfortunately, the risk of abuse by those in need exists throughout the donor sector. In that case, HelpKarma canceled the campaign and reimbursed it.” Krastev points out.
“There is an important detail that the BTV reports did not affect at all, and that distinguishes us from many other platforms. Is that the funds for the campaigns, in most cases, are transferred directly to the respective hospitals, hotels, schools, etc., against invoices and other payment documents provided “, it is written in your position.
Krastev admits that the foundation deducts 5% of each donation for their support, and for some of the campaigns donors can transfer 0-15% at will.
Promises to give “A comprehensive and documented response to all the specific campaigns that were mentioned in the November 7 report, namely the campaigns for: Reyan, Rado, Roberta, Angel and Nicola.”
Krastev commented that the salary of the director of “HelpKarma”, which ranges from 20,000 to 80,000 BGN, according to the bTV report, is not a salary.
The remuneration (of the IT specialists on the team) should not be seen as a “salary”, but as an acquisition over time of a particularly valuable and expensive intellectual product on which the entire donation platform is based (so Therefore, the amounts are very different This product guarantees our efficiency, which is why the leading specialist in information technology, Slavcho Slavchev, has a key role in the Foundation, which explains the loan that was granted to him, a common practice as a tool to retain a valuable employee, paid, and the interest on the loan will be used for the development of the HelpKarma Foundation, Krastev points out.
“Even if the goal of destroying the Help Karma Foundation is achieved, I am still convinced that it was worth creating and giving hope and support to many people,” he said. Konstantin Krastev graduated.
Meanwhile, since Bulgarian Association of Public Relations Agencies (BAPRA) announced that they are ready to help clean up the image of honest organizations dealing with donations in Bulgaria.
“We are ready to work together with representatives of the NGO sector to ensure greater transparency, full campaign security and the trust of non-governmental organizations working under all rules and laws.” indicated by the association.
“In these difficult days for our country, in conditions of severe crisis, compassion and charity need our trust. We are obliged to give it.” supplement from there.
Spread position and The Bulgarian Red Cross, who condemned the practices of abusing donor trust and recalled that he often works with public boards to ensure the transparency of his charitable activities.
Others 47 civil society organizations They came up with a joint position on the case with “HelpKarma”. The Bulgarian Center for Non-Profit Law strongly condemns such innocent practices, as well as the abuse of people’s trust. We hope that the problem will be resolved in a timely manner and that the responsible institutions fulfill their obligations, the post read.
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