The Australian public has been incredibly generous in its response to the Boxing Day Tsunami appeals conducted by foreign aid non-government organisations (NGOs) but the time has come for the question to be asked -- how much is enough?
On the 26th February in England, British aid agencies will end their tsunami appeal having, like their Australian counterparts, broken all previous fundraising records.
Prior to this, a number of groups ceased taking money, most notably Medecins Sans Frontieres. Having achieved its stated target it stopped taking funds . However few others followed its lead. In fact, many aid NGOs just kept on taking even after their fundraising targets had been exceeded many times over.
Some aid NGOs in Australia have indicated that they are winding down their appeals or have ceased them. However, they have not communicated this clearly. There is still some confusion within the public as fundraising events and advertising continue seemingly unabated. For example, next week there will be yet another tsunami benefit concert and a number of sporting-related fundraising activities
While the desire to continue to help is laudable the danger is that all of this activity will cut fundraising for a host of local not-for-profit organisations such charities, schools and churches which also rely upon peoples' generosity.
The reality is that the charity dollar is finite and while there is a lack of hard data, anecdotal evidence in Australia indicates that many not-for-profit organisations are already finding it tough going.
On this page, youth worker Les Twentyman from Open Family gently reminded us how fine organisations such as his own can inadvertently become negatively impacted by the public's generosity on the tsunami.
In England, research by the Institute of Fundraising, which advises charities found that a fifth of its members raised less money (down between 10 and 50 per cent) in January than they did in the same month last year and almost all of these directly attributed the fall to donors diverting funds to tsunami relief
The picture in countries like Canada and United States tell a similar grim tale.
While foreign aid NGOs do have a responsibility to raise funds for people overseas, they also have broader social obligations, than just their own narrow institutional interests. This is certainly what they have pushed on government and business over the years, so it is not unreasonable for them to practice a little of what they preach.
By any measure, the international response to the tsunami disaster is extremely well-funded.
While it is difficult to keep track of the numbers, it is estimated that amount of money pledged globally is around US$10 billion ($13 billion) from all government, private and corporate sources. The English translation of the Japanese word tsunami may mean "harbour wave", but in the fundraising world of the aid industry the word means "money" and lots of it.
The international director of the British Red Cross Matthias Schmale has noted that aid agencies typically US$50 per affected person, whereas the tsunami appeal generated a staggering US$1000 per affected person.
The Times of London has reported that privately a number of aid NGOs have said that they will be struggling to efficiently allocate the large amounts of money that they have raised.
Already there have been reports surfacing of foreign aid waste and inefficiency from the parts of the region affected by the tsunami.
The Australian public's response to Asian tsunami disaster has been magnificent, but the time has come for all the foreign aid NGOs to close the tsunami fundraising appeals and get down to the business of assisting the tsunami victims get their lives back on track and leave as soon as possible.
The time has come for foreign aid NGOs to leave the fundraising limelight and let some our local charities have a fair go in raising money from the public.
If they do not, they do run the risk of their fundraising efforts been seen as less about the needy and more about the greedy.
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