Our admin fee covers its own cost many times over. Our enterprising Communications Team works with local offices to amplify the voices of struggling communities, sharing their stories and helping to raise funds to support vulnerable families.
Meet Owais Khan, Director of Communications at Human Appeal’s headquarters in Cheadle. Our admin fee helps him to hire and train skilled staff who are able to relay messages from the people we help through video, photos, and text. Find out how our admin fee helps Owais and his team to transform lives below.
When you donate £1, just 9p goes into keeping Human Appeal running.
Another 13p goes back into raising funds – this allows us to be ready to raise awareness at a moment’s notice when tragedy strikes. Between 2019 and 2021, we grew our income by a huge 189%, allowing us to support an extra 2.8 million people, by raising funds through that small 13 pence.
Finally, and most importantly, 78p out of every £1 you donate goes straight to helping the vulnerable people who need it most. If a charity doesn’t charge an admin fee, corners have to be cut and it’s the project quality, and those who are most in need of help who are put at risk.
Our admin fee keeps us accountable, safe, and ethical, and it allows us to find the most vulnerable people in an emergency, delivering life-saving aid to them quickly and efficiently.
We’re proud of the wonderful work that our admin fee does, and we hope you are too. Explore some of the ways it changes lives below, and donate to support the life-changing impact that our admin fee has.
Charity is a gift, offering endless mercy to those who give, as well as mercy to the vulnerable people who receive it. Our admin fee helps us to get your donation to where you intended it. That’s why we like to think of it as the stamp on the envelope of your mercy.
I’ve personally felt the effects migration can have on a family. My father and both my grandfathers migrated to Pakistan at the time of the partition of the Indian subcontinent. They had to leave their families, land and livelihoods behind to find a safe haven in Pakistan.
At a very early age, my father had to step up to support his family. He witnessed things no human being should have to and he struggled his whole life in order to support his whole family. He also started a free school in Rawalpindi to support some the most marginalised children, which he provided all on his own.
My mother taught me the importance of kindness and compassion too. She became an orphan at the age of five. Now I’m a father and I’m teaching my own children about kindness and selflessness, just like my parents taught me.
Quality people make quality projects
I chose to work in the humanitarian sector to help those who have been forgotten. I want to support the world’s most marginalised people. I also want to make sure that the people who work in my department are protected and given the opportunity to develop, so they are able to make a better life for themselves and, crucially, for the people they support around the world.
As a leader I feel blessed to serve humanity, but I also feel a great sense of responsibility because every single pound I spend must have an impact and be accounted for. Since joining Human Appeal, I’ve helped the charity to ‘get more for less’ and I’ve created a lean department that runs with the efficiency of a business. I’ve also invested in the skills, training and development of our staff, established a robust briefing process and implemented policies and procedures to make sure our work is delivered on time and to high standards.
Why invest in publicity?
We want our supporters to ask difficult questions. Why? Because it shows they care – they want to make sure their money is going to the people who need it most.
Why does Human Appeal invest in publicity? Because our donors need to know who, why and where help is needed. All of my colleagues are committed to helping those in need, with some risking their lives in some of the most dangerous places in the world. Our goal is to amplify marginalised voices and to highlight the silent crises that aren’t covered in the news.
Every piece of work that we produce aims to educate, inspire and connect our supporters to our beneficiaries to bring about positive change. Our work directly contributes to generating funds that help vulnerable people to fulfil their potential, and it even save lives.
Amplifying voices
In my career, I’ve travelled perilous roads and met with extremely vulnerable people in Yemen, Turkey, and Niger, to name a few. I also visited remote communities Tharparkar where Muslims and Hindus are working together to make a better life for themselves. With your help, we managed to install lighting and clean drinking water in their communities, helping them to lead dignified lives.
I remember visiting an island community affected by climate change a couple of hours away from Keti Bandar in Pakistan. It takes people five hours to get to a hospital. I met mothers who had to endure a ninety-minute boat ride in labour, two hours of off-roading and a further ninety minutes’ drive. Sadly, all too often, this long journey ended in death for mothers and their babies. How would our supporters know that help is needed in these hard-to-reach places without Human Appeal going into communities, meeting people and telling their stories?
In our communications department, we feel blessed that we can do this work. We’re not put off by the fact that we could earn much more working in another industry. We do what we do because we truly believe in our work and that we can make a difference.
Our admin fee helps Human Appeal to meet the needs of vulnerable communities. It allows Owais and his team to tell our supporters about the extreme hardships the people we support endure away from the cameras. This generates the support and funding that allows us to change lives for the better.
