Our answers to frequent questions

Donations are voluntary contributions in the form of cash or in-kind donations (also called cash or in-kind donations). In order for the tax office to accept donations as a tax deduction, the donation must be made to a tax-exempt or non-profit organization. These can be, for example, churches, foundations, political parties, and non-profit organizations or associations. Terre des Hommes is a non-profit organization.

Individuals, foundations, companies, or associations can claim tax deductions for donations. Terre des Hommes as a non-profit organization, issues donation receipts.

In order for your donation to be recognized as tax-deductible by the tax office, you will need a donation receipt, also known as a donation receipt. For annual donations of €20 or more, you will automatically receive a donation receipt from Terre des Hommes for all donations made in a calendar year. You will automatically receive this receipt by mail in February of the following year. The donation receipt contains, among other things, the annual donation amount and is proof that the donation is being used exclusively for tax-deductible purposes. It should be enclosed with your tax return as proof of your donation.

No donation receipt may be issued for the donation amount from donation collections, because every donor has the right to request a donation receipt. People who have participated in a donation collection can therefore request a donation receipt for the individual amount that they donated to the collection. Therefore, no donation receipt can be issued via the total amount.

In principle, donations in kind are also tax-deductible. However, Terre des Hommes Germany only accepts donations in kind in exceptional cases and after prior agreement. Any materials needed locally are generally purchased by our project partners themselves, thereby strengthening the local economy.

If you have moved or have made a bank change, you can inform our donation service at any time about these changes so that they can be taken into account in the future:

Email: Donation@
remove-this. tdh.de Telephone: 0541 / 7101-128
Post: Ruppenkampstr. 11 A, 49084 Osnabrück

To the contact form

If you have given us a direct debit authorization for a regular donation, you are welcome to send your change requests to our donation service via the following channels:

Email: Donation@
remove-this. tdh.de online: Change permanent donation online
phone: 0541 / 7101-128
Post: Ruppenkampstr. 11 A, 49084 Osnabrück

Report change

Many people take over a child sponsorship because they want to provide concrete help: support a child in Africa or Latin America, secure their training and thus invest in their future. The advantages are apparently obvious. The donor knows exactly where his money is going and takes over "real responsibility" with the personal commitment to the godchild. Sometimes she or he even gets letters from the godchild.

Terre des Hommes employees also receive requests for child sponsorships every month. Often, people are disappointed because we don't arrange child sponsorships or advertise them.

As a children's rights organization with decades of experience Terre des Hommes has consciously made this important decision. We believe that child sponsorships are incompatible with the public presentation of our proven principles of effective and sustainable development cooperation.

Help must be based on the community

Already in the 1970s and 1980s there was a broad debate among the aid organizations about the mediation of sponsorships. At that time it was mainly criticized that

• A sponsorship is individual aid that does not deal with the causes of poverty and development problems,
• Isolating the sponsorships and creating envy,
• Children accommodated in homes in homes and thus family and social structures are destroyed,
• Sponsorships cause high administrative effort and are therefore expensive.

For these reasons, Terre des Hommes decided in 1975 – not least at the request of its project partners – to discontinue sponsorship programs.

There has long been agreement that effective help must be oriented towards the community and promote self -help. Only an equal development partnership can be successful in the long term. In this understanding, there is little space in this understanding. A small example: Instead of only making a single child attending school, it makes more sense to repair a village school and train and further train teachers.
 

Sponsorships or project funding?

Child sponsorships appeal to our emotions, our protective instincts, and our willingness to donate. This becomes problematic when advertising uses them to create a false impression of local aid. If individual partnerships are advertised but in practice project funding is provided, Terre des Hommes represent this. This is another reason why we do not advertise sponsorships, but leave no doubt about the fact that we always support groups and communities of people – be they schoolchildren, village communities, or people who are committed to the rights of others. Terre des Hommes holds the DZI donation seal, which confirms the responsible use of donations. One important award criterion is "truthful, clear, and factual advertising in words and images." Terre des Hommes is committed to this criterion in its reporting and choice of advertising media.

Help may not promote competition

In its public relations work, Terre des Hommes also makes it clear that aid is provided in a way that does not encourage competition among aid recipients. It is particularly important that

• The commitment of people in the projects becomes clear. They are not alms recipients, but can take their fate into their own hands thanks to our support.
• Local partner organizations with which we work closely on site are not neglected in this representation.
• the causes of poverty and conflicts are also named.

Terre des Hommes is not concerned with quick, media-friendly successes, but with effective and sustainable change.

More information

The educational scientist Annette Scheunpflug, professor at the Otto Friedrich University Bamberg, presented a critical inventory of the public presentation of child sponsorships in a study. Annette Scheunpflug, owner of the chair for general pedagogy, has investigated the question of the influence of advertising for child sponsorships on the image of development cooperation in the German public.