The Malta Independent on Sunday
Marigold Foundation audit reveals bank balance of almost € 700,000 and € 150,00 surplus
The Marigold Foundation has once again generated a substantial surplus of €153,383 with assets of up to €696,266 of which €685,024 is cash in bank and in hand.
The foundation’s monetary fund also includes a €200,000 investment in the form of endowment capital from BOV, which can also be increased by contributions from third parties.
The Annual Report for 2016, which was audited by KPMG, revealed that the Marigold Foundation received donations totalling €503,348 and distributed €315,522 to NGOs. It also saw a marked improvement with roughly 60 per cent of all funds going to NGOs.
In 2015, the Foundation, whose mission statement is to support NGOs, only gave a quarter of its total earnings for the year to such organisations, after receiving €333,217 in donations and distributing €86,365 to NGOs, generating a surplus of €207,945.
The main objective of the Foundation is to support NGOs and associations financially or in kind, with the overarching aim to work and build a better community by addressing philanthropic causes related to societal issues.
Fund-raising events are vital for the Foundation to achieve its aim and are the major contributor to the donations it receives. However, the documents fail to specify the exact amount raised from each activity.
The Malta Independent on Sunday has sent questions to the foundation to provide more detailed financial figures of the various events it holds during the year, such as chairperson Michelle Muscat’s annual Swimming Challenge.
One of its events was a gala dinner commemorating the launch of The National Alliance for Rare Diseases Support, an NGO dedicated to rare diseases that was established by the Marigold Foundation in February 2016, where the foundation held a “fashion event portraying life before and after the individual discovers s/he is suffering from a rare disease”.
The Foundation has donated €10,000 and had €4,043 of its expenses paid by the organisation.
Roughly €500,000 was also raised from events held on World Autism Day and World Mental Health Day, an AFM Concert in aid of The Marigold Foundation, two ‘Fashion for a Cause’ events dedicated to Mental Health Awareness, and a number of other events organised by Sterling Jewellers.
This was donated to a number of organisations including the Action for Breast Cancer Foundation, Arka Foundation, Autism Parents Association, Caritas, Dar il-Kaptan, Dar tal-Providenza, Europa Donna, EURODIS, Inspire, MCAST, OASI Foundation, Oħloq Tbissima, Puttinu Cares, Special Olympics Malta and various other schools and public libraries.
The Foundation continued to support education through the Marigold School Programme by distributing book tokens and worked with Aġenzija Appoġġ on the ‘Sweet Sixteen’ project, a life skills programme for young adults who resides in care homes and orphanages around Malta.
The Foundation submitted its report in late September after it was granted a onemonth extension to submit its audited annual report for 2016 to the Commissioner of Voluntary Organisations after it found it difficult to call a board meeting to approve the annual returns and accounts because many members were unavailable at the time.
The Foundation, which applied for the extension on 20 August, was required to hand in its annual report to the Commission by the end of said month.
Without the extension, the Foundation would have been non-compliant with the Commission and would have lost its status as a voluntary organisation within the Commission, meaning that it would no longer have access to funds.