This is fantastic news! This has been a huge gap. I know that Charity Entrepreneurship (now AIM) has highlighted Belgium as a top priority for their effective giving incubator; hopefully Effectief Geven will meet their needs. The collaboration with the Dutch group is a great step so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
The tax-deductibility question is tough, but I’m sure there will be a way if enough people support it. I had hoped that there would be a way to make a charity like Effectief Geven itself a registered charity, but presumably you’ve already checked this.
In addition to the Roi Baudouin method to donate to AMF, I have found a way to donate to an effective direct-giving charity, Eight, based in the Netherlands and receive a fiscal attestation which works in Belgium. Might be interesting to add if you think they meet your criteria.
But I like the way the site is set up today, where you suggest that people can both support a tax-deductible charity and support an effective charity.
I live in Brussels, and if there’s some way I can help, let me know. Full disclosure, I had applied to the CE Incubator, and my vision was to set up something like Effectief Geven and investigate making it a registered charity—but I much rather the idea of it being set up by (I’m guessing from your names) native Belgians!
Really thrilled by this post, this news has literally made my day. I am sure this will be an amazingly effective organisation.
Setting Effectief Geven up as a registered charity and working on the tax-deductability is indeed in the works, but we predict it to be quite likely that this will be such a long term process, that we don’t want those plans to slow us down to get the main message out.
Eight is actually a Belgian organisation I think! They do amazing work, but I am not aware if they are/were in the process of being evaluated by a charity evaluator?
If charity registration in Belgium is likely to be a long term process, have you tried reaching out to the King Bedouin Foundation? It looks like they are already providing the direct disbursal of donor funds to the AMF and are broadly aligned in cause areas, so they might be willing to consider similar for the other overseas-registered charities you are prioritising.
Yes, that is a path that we are exploring, and we have a connection to them! However, the KBF (King Bedouin Foundation) main focus at the moment is to facilitate Belgian non-profit organizations or collaborate with similar national organizations within the EEA (European Economic Area) that also have their own national scope. AMF is approved in one of the countries in the EEA and therefor is supported by KBF.
Donations through KBF will make it tax-deductible for Belgians, but KBF will keep 5% as a transaction fee, which isn’t ideal yet.
KBF is also the public-facing organization that sticks to the list of recognized Belgian non-profits, but they don’t have direct authority of changing who is on the list of those entities, I believe. So we still have some further exploration to do on that front! :)
This is fantastic news! This has been a huge gap. I know that Charity Entrepreneurship (now AIM) has highlighted Belgium as a top priority for their effective giving incubator; hopefully Effectief Geven will meet their needs. The collaboration with the Dutch group is a great step so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
The tax-deductibility question is tough, but I’m sure there will be a way if enough people support it. I had hoped that there would be a way to make a charity like Effectief Geven itself a registered charity, but presumably you’ve already checked this.
In addition to the Roi Baudouin method to donate to AMF, I have found a way to donate to an effective direct-giving charity, Eight, based in the Netherlands and receive a fiscal attestation which works in Belgium. Might be interesting to add if you think they meet your criteria.
But I like the way the site is set up today, where you suggest that people can both support a tax-deductible charity and support an effective charity.
I live in Brussels, and if there’s some way I can help, let me know. Full disclosure, I had applied to the CE Incubator, and my vision was to set up something like Effectief Geven and investigate making it a registered charity—but I much rather the idea of it being set up by (I’m guessing from your names) native Belgians!
Really thrilled by this post, this news has literally made my day. I am sure this will be an amazingly effective organisation.
Veel succes!
Ey Denis,
Loving the enthusiasm!
Setting Effectief Geven up as a registered charity and working on the tax-deductability is indeed in the works, but we predict it to be quite likely that this will be such a long term process, that we don’t want those plans to slow us down to get the main message out.
Eight is actually a Belgian organisation I think! They do amazing work, but I am not aware if they are/were in the process of being evaluated by a charity evaluator?
Drop us a line on hallo@effectiefgeven.be will ya? Would love a chat!
If charity registration in Belgium is likely to be a long term process, have you tried reaching out to the King Bedouin Foundation? It looks like they are already providing the direct disbursal of donor funds to the AMF and are broadly aligned in cause areas, so they might be willing to consider similar for the other overseas-registered charities you are prioritising.
Hey David!
Yes, that is a path that we are exploring, and we have a connection to them! However, the KBF (King Bedouin Foundation) main focus at the moment is to facilitate Belgian non-profit organizations or collaborate with similar national organizations within the EEA (European Economic Area) that also have their own national scope. AMF is approved in one of the countries in the EEA and therefor is supported by KBF.
Donations through KBF will make it tax-deductible for Belgians, but KBF will keep 5% as a transaction fee, which isn’t ideal yet.
KBF is also the public-facing organization that sticks to the list of recognized Belgian non-profits, but they don’t have direct authority of changing who is on the list of those entities, I believe. So we still have some further exploration to do on that front! :)