Hi Liz,

I'll never get sick of rants and rave about how good HAVOCA is.  I put in a lot of time to making this site the sort of place I needed when I was in my early throws of healing, so I get a great deal of personal satisfaction when things come together.

You must of been reading my mind about donations - I've just posted a reply about the same thing in another section.

What we need money for:-

Maintain this website with its breadth of helpful information and links to many other sites (which are constantly changing)

Add new articles and current information, and maintain our new pages

Provide links to discussion forums, online peer support groups, and chat forums, serving as a "lifeline" of support to many survivors and their families

Assist survivors and their families with helpful contacts and information

Aid professionals and victim advocates through fostering an environment where they can confer with one another, and aggressively work to grow this online community

Provide resources for professionals, churches, and other institutions

Help increase the visibility of other survivor groups to assist them in their efforts to help survivors and/or professionals

Educate the general public about child abuse, and be an advocate for social change in addressing these issues

Provide information services to the media

Legislative child abuse work

Coordinate volunteer efforts

Monitor relevant news stories and send them out as Media Updates to subscribers

Publish our quarterly eNewsletter

Organize conferences/retreats

Web hosting / Email hosting costs

Technical and administrative support

Publications, printing, and postage

Utilities

Supplies

We need hard cash for our internet hosts (£200/yr), running costs (stamps, phone calls, stationary etc) cost about £100/yr.  The Proud To Be Me booklet cost £4500 (received funding from the lottery commision through The Lantern Project).  We are trying to fund two books aimed at all abuse survivors, we may have funding for one of them, but as yet are still in the negotiation phases.  When the computer bust we were very lucky to receive a donation for more equipment - but ink cartridges and paer cost a fortune every month.

Volunteers are HAVOCA Friends who provide email support, but we also need help raising money, or raising our profile worldwide.  Christmas cards is a good idea, and I might look into it if I get the time.  Our bookstore and giftshops are good sources of money.

Over all we run at a loss - but show me an organisation like ours that doesn't!

If everyone on our mailing list, who receives our newsletter, donated one pound, we could fund ourselves for two years.  Now there's a thought.

Hope this helps,

Jamie

http://www.havoca.org/donations.htm

Because we are a not-for-profit group we don't have to pay tax.  If we register as a charity we would then have to pay tax.  It's a bit of a double edged sword.  If we register as a charity we get more recognition but we lose money.  If we stay as a not-for-profit we avoid tax but don't get the recognition.

Tough one.

Thanks everyone.

If we where helping animals or children it would be a lot easier to generate support.  as we all know through our own jounies, there is still a lot of stigma attached to victims of abuse and in particular adult 'victims'.  Difficult to generate sympathic responses from individuals who haven't been affected by abuse.

Doesn't mean we won't stop plugging away though!

Jamie