CBF

You may have heard or read about the CBF Recognition system, a quality mark that is awarded to eligible organizations by The Central Bureau on Fundraising (CBF) (in Dutch: Centraal Bureau Fondswerving). It is a conscious choice of Stichting Ambulance Wens not to apply for a CBF Quality Mark. We have thoroughly studied the CBF Quality Mark and concluded that several things do not fit in with the work done by our more than 195 volunteers:

• The one-off assessment fee together with the application for recognition amounts to
  € 3,000 for our organization.
• We would have to pay € 3,045 annually to CBF (the more donations, the higher the amount).
• For a quality mark an audit report is required, which would cost us several thousands of euros a year.
• The quality mark application must be reapplied every 3 years, which involves extra costs.

Conspicuous concerns regarding CBF:

• The CBF does not verify whether the money donated to a charity is actually spent as promised by this charity.
• The CBF is not a government institution but just a private foundation. Anybody can start such a quality mark at will.
• The CBF spends € 1,000,000 on CBF salaries and another € 150.000 euro on promotional purposes.
• The CBF receives € 1,700,000 in total annually from charities. Money that was donated to charities but that is not spent as was intended by the donators.
• The CBF has several times been rapped on the knuckles for wrongly stating to have verified the expenditures of charities.
• The CBF in fact only verifies the annual accounts that are provided by the charities themselves and that have already been audited by accountancy firms.

In short, the CBF quality mark costs a lot of time and money, money that in that case will not be spent as intended. And time is lacking for our wish applicants. They cannot wait and are dependent on our prompt action.

And of course, it would be absolutely impossible for Stichting Ambulance Wens to have a CBF Quality Mark. That would imply making costs immediately that we by no means want to make, let alone costs for paying salaries, buildings and promotions for a different organization which in no way contributes to fulfilling last wishes.

You can inspect our accounts if you like. They are neatly published on our own website and are fully transparent as they should be. See annual accounts.

You could never explain to a patient that he cannot be helped because the money donated cannot be spent on his wish. Nor could you explain to a donator that his money is not spent on a wish, but on a quality mark, could you?