How it works — double transparency
Every donor asks the same question: “did my money actually arrive?” Most charities answer with an annual report. We have chosen instead to put you in a position to check for yourself, and in both directions. This is what we call double transparency.
Two circuits complete each other. The first runs from donor to beneficiary: you are the one who tells them about your gift. The second runs back from the field to you: the proof of completion returns attached to your donation, not to other people’s.
Why a platform
Because good works should be open to everyone, we built this platform to organise your giving, to alert you at once to an opportunity to give, and to let you follow the effect of your contribution. Every receipt it issues is one you send to the beneficiary yourself.
1. The bank transfer donation journey
Bank transfer is currently the only active payment method: it moves money from one identified account to another and leaves a record at the bank that can still be found years later. Four steps.
- Registering the donation order. You choose the project and the amount; your order is given its own reference. Only at this step are the bank details shown to you, with that reference, so that your payment is not confused with anyone else’s.
- Making the transfer. You make it at your branch or from your banking app, quoting the reference in the payment narrative. It is that reference which ties your payment to the project you chose.
- Uploading the transfer advice. You return to your order page and upload the photograph or PDF of the bank advice. Without it, the transfer stays a sum of unknown origin that we cannot attribute to you or to your project.
- Validation by the treasurer. The treasurer reconciles your advice with the bank statement, then validates it. Only then is the donation confirmed, the project’s goal meter updated and your receipt issued.
Let us be straightforward: this validation is done by a person, so it takes time and is nothing like the instant confirmation of a card. We would rather you waited a few hours than watch a goal meter move before the money has arrived.
[[TO BE COMPLETED: the time within which the association undertakes to validate a transfer advice, and the member of the committee responsible for doing so.]]
2. Forward transparency — you are the one who announces your gift
Once your donation is validated, the platform issues a donation receipt as a PDF. It is not a thank-you letter but a document that identifies your contribution precisely. It carries:
- the transaction number belonging to your donation, by which it can be traced in the accounts and on the bank statements;
- the project funded, the amount, the date and the time;
- the contact details of the beneficiary, or of their local representative if the beneficiary is a minor or vulnerable: the imam, the nurse at the health post, the head of the douar’s association;
- an authentication QR code, which we come to shortly.
And above all that, a single button: send the receipt by WhatsApp. This is where everything turns. It is not the association claiming to have passed your gift on: it is you announcing it, and the recipient learning from your own hand that a sum has been earmarked for them. Should it fail to arrive, they hold the proof that it was due, and the number with which to ask for it.
Sending remains an option, never a duty. And the contact details shown are those of someone who has agreed to be reachable in that capacity, and for that purpose alone.
3. Return transparency — the proof comes back to you
The second circuit runs from the field to you, without your having to chase anyone.
The receipt’s authentication QR code
Every receipt carries a QR code of its own. Whoever scans it — you, a relative, the beneficiary, a committee member — lands on a page that confirms it is genuine and shows the project it belongs to. A forged receipt leads nowhere: nobody can collect in AFTAS’s name with a sheet bearing our letterhead.
Publishing the completed work
When the project is delivered, we publish two things on its page, and you are notified:
- the completion video, filmed on site: the first water drawn from the well, the handover of equipment to the health post, a child leaving hospital if the family consents;
- the scanned invoices: quotations, suppliers’ invoices, payment advices to the healthcare provider, signed delivery notes.
The QR code on your receipt points back to that page. Six months later, scanning it shows you what became of the project. Nothing to keep, nothing to chase.
Where the beneficiary is a minor, is unwell, or belongs to a family that would rather not be recognised, faces and names are withheld: people’s dignity comes before showcasing our work. Only the documentary proof is published in such cases.
4. Automatic closure at 100%
A fundraising goal is not a promotional device: it is the real cost of the project, set out in a written quotation. The moment the total reaches it, the appeal closes by itself and a message points the visitor towards the projects still open.
This is our answer to a real risk in online giving: a project that moves people raises three times what it needs, and the surplus ends up in a fund nobody accounts for. We deny ourselves that convenience, and we accept two consequences:
- we raise less than we would if we let the meters run without limit;
- and if the real cost exceeds the quotation — a borehole that has to go deeper, an unforeseen complication — we do not dip into another project’s surplus: we reopen the appeal with a revised goal and publish the reason.
And what if a project never reaches its goal? Once the deadline has passed, the committee decides between three outcomes and tells every donor to that project: reallocating the funds within the same category, scaling the project down to what was raised, or refunding whoever asks.
What this transparency does not replace
These mechanisms establish that a donation arrived, that it was paid out, and that it was used for the purpose it was earmarked for. They do not replace the audit of the accounts, which is a matter for the general meeting and for the law. The activity report remains available on request.
[[TO BE COMPLETED: where and how the accounts and the activity report are made available to members and donors.]]