It is really heart breaking to read about the dire financial straits that Dar tal-Providenza is in. For the 125 adults and children with disability who are its residents as well as their families, this is very bad news indeed. And it is probably worse news for the 85 people on the waiting list.

Today, Dar tal-Prividenza is Lm700,000 in the red and has been running a deficit for the last three years. Mortified, yet with characteristic dignity, Mgr Lawrence Gatt, the director, announced that although donations from the public have increased, the home’s yearly expenses have shot up from Lm300,000 in 1987 to Lm1.5 million today. Over the years, quite a hefty amount of money used to be raised from the Kerygma Volleyball Marathon. Unfortunately, it will not be held this summer, making this year’s financial situation of Dar tal-Prividenza even more precarious.

The problem does not appear to be one of inefficiency or mismanagement. While the lion’s share of the financial outlay goes towards the salaries of Dar tal-Providenza’s 235 employees, it does not appear that the problem is one of over-manning. 180 of these employees are directly involved in taking care of the residents who, obviously, require a great deal of individual attention at all times.

So what is the problem? There are no rough and ready answers. What follow are some hunches and a couple of suggestions.

Over the last decade and a half voluntary organisations have mushroomed all over the place. Sometimes it appears as if anyone who wants to do a good deed sets up an organisation to do it withperform it. While most if not all initiatives are well-intentioned, they are not always exclusively so.

Culturally, this is a country which tends towards creating mini-empires whenever two or more people get together to do something for a cause. Everyone wants his or her little patch of the limelight. The unfortunate consequences are all around us, although they are rarely talked about in the media. As someone who knows something about l-Istrina, I see all the futile duplication of services and the pointless backstabbing going on between organisations which are supposed to be all pulling together.

In monetary terms, the result is that funds donated by the public are being divided among an ever-increasing number of beneficiaries. So even though per capita Maltese people are among the most generous in the world, there is a limit to their generosity. There was a time when Dar tal-Providenza was one of a few organisations asking for funds from the public. Now, it is one of a few hundred.

The unfortunate consequence of this undignified internecine warfare is that the very notion of giving is devalued in the eyes of the public. For people to give they must feel secure that their money is spent well and goes to an organisation that is here today and here tomorrow. It is easy to trust and give generously to Dar tal-Providenza because it has always been scrupulously run and collected money without much fanfare. Nevertheless, when it is surrounded on all sides by hundreds of other organisations clamouring for more and more funds it becomes a victim, along with them, of donor fatigue.

Secondly, like most local NGOs, I suspect that Dar tal-Providenza is suffering from the consequences of a traditional financial vision. In Malta we still believe that a voluntary organisation can do two things and only two things with money. It collects it and spends it.

Modern charities in Europe, and even more so in America, do a third thing with money. They invest it and put it in trusts. The financial arrangements vary from country to country but the basic principle is the same. The idea is to build a solid financial portfolio, have it managed by a reputable financial organisation and reap the dividends year after year. Locally, such an idea is still anathema because we think, very falsely, that a charity should not make money, that somehow it is ‘dirty’ to do so.

Now I know that this is easier said than done. When Mgr Gatt is faced with the daily needs and requirements of his 125 men, women and children with disabilities and a waiting list of 85 people it is difficult for him to think of putting aside funds into a financial portfolio. It must feel like invest the money for profit instead of buying a badly needed wheelchair. At face value it seems callous. Such thinking, however, would be very short-sighted. Investing money collected from charities is a good thing and guarantees long-term financial stability.

Finally, I suspect that Dar tal-Providenza’s efforts to raise funds have not moved with the times. Sending 160,000 free diaries to people’s homes and waiting for the donations to arrive in the post does not make a lot of sense. The diaries alone cost Lm27,000. Similarly, organising fund-raising walks and bazaars is all well and good but I am not sure that, given the sums that need to be raised to meet the expenses, these initiatives are worth the effort.

I certainly hope that those in charge of Dar tal-Providenza rethink their financial and fund-raising initiatives from scratch. Their services, their integrity and their love cost too much to be allowed to go down the drain because of something as mundane as money.

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