Discover What Happens To Your Donation When You Support A Charity
Giving money to charity is a personal decision. While you can set up multiple standing orders to all the major charities, there are roughly 56,000 charities in Australia. In short, you can’t give to all of them. Choosing the right ones to give to can seem difficult. You need to support ones that are close to your heart, embrace the same qualities as you, and are genuinely helping others.
It generally feels rewarding to give, but you’ll feel even better when you know your money is being put to good use. That’s why you need to know what happens when you support Surf Life Saving Foundation and other charities.
Running Costs
Every charity has running costs, they have offices, paperwork to complete, research to undertake, and some staff will be paid for their role in the charity. It’s estimated that as much as 40% of donations are used to run the business. The rest is free to pass on to charity in some form or another.
However, when looking at the Surf Life Saving Foundation the situation is slightly different. They are not trying to raise money to buy food for starving children or build homes. The Surf Life Saving Foundation has one purpose, to save lives on beaches.
The simple truth is that the SLSA National Coastal Safety Report showed 136 coastal drowning deaths in 2020. The figure could have been much higher if the beaches didn’t have surf lifesavers. There are 315 different Surf Life Saving Clubs in Australia and over 180,000 volunteer surf lifesavers.
Equipment Costs
Surf lifesavers need observation towers to survey the beach and spot trouble. They need whistles, binoculars, buoyance aids, defibrillators, and a host of other items to ensure they can do their jobs properly.
All of these things cost money and they have to be replaced regularly. While some items get damaged, many have a short lifespan due to the harsh environment they operate in.
A large part of donations goes to purchasing these items, maintaining them, and replacing them when necessary to ensure the surf lifesavers are always ready for action.
Training
You can’t just turn up and be a surf lifesaver. Your swimming skills need to be assessed and then you need training. The Surf Life Saving Foundation spends $850 on every surf lifesaver. This ensures they reach bronze medallion standard and are capable of undertaking surf life saving operations.
The training includes basic medical skills, such as CPR, including the use of a defibrillator.
Vehicles
Surf lifesaving takes place on the beach but the beach is a large expanse and when someone is in trouble time is of the essence. A beach patrol vehicle costs $80,000, an all-terrain vehicle $23,000, and an inflatable rescue boat $21,500.
When you consider how many beaches there are in Australia and how many vehicles are needed, you start to understand why a lot of money needs to be raised.
Education
It’s not just the surf lifesavers that need educating. Your donations also help educate the general public about the risks of the sea. That makes a difference.
Think about the lives you could be saving next time you choose to give to the Surf life Savers Foundation.