Questions, answered straight

Use the donate page. Choose one-time, monthly or annual, pick an amount or enter your own, say which programme it should go to, and finish on our secure Paystack checkout — card, USSD or bank transfer. Prefer to move the money yourself? Our account details are further down the donate page.

Yes, at any time, with no notice period and no cancellation fee. Email info@helpthepoorinitiative.africa or call 0704 035 9748 and we stop it the same working day.

Yes. Tell us within 14 days and we refund it in full to the original payment method, without asking you to justify it. The full policy is in our terms.

One is emailed the moment a payment succeeds. If it has not arrived within an hour, check spam and then tell us — we will resend it. You can also check your donation's status directly using the reference number from your confirmation.

No. Restricted gifts are tracked separately in the accounts and spent only on what you chose. If that programme ever becomes fully funded we contact you and ask before moving anything. See restricted gifts.

Payment processors take roughly 3% of every gift. Covering it means the amount you intended actually arrives. It is entirely optional and never pre-selected.

No. They are separate published price tiers, each a real programme cost quoted in that currency. You are charged in the currency shown when you give.

Almost anyone. Some roles need a professional qualification, some need you to be local, and remote skilled roles — design, translation, grant writing — need neither. See the open roles.

Volunteers must be 18 or over unless a role explicitly says otherwise and a guardian consents.

For any role working directly with children or vulnerable adults, yes — and clinical roles also need proof of professional registration. We tell you before you apply, not after.

Volunteering is unpaid. Agreed, documented travel costs may be reimbursed. Applying creates no employment relationship — see the terms.

Directly in Africa through our own teams, and in Asia and beyond through vetted local partners held to the same audit and safeguarding standards. The full picture is on where we work.

Almost always because somebody local asked. Then we listen before planning, check we are not duplicating another organisation, agree who locally owns each asset, and agree how we eventually leave. See how we choose.

Because poverty does not arrive one problem at a time. A food parcel does not help much if the child eating it cannot reach a clinic. All six run side by side in the same communities — that is the whole approach.

Often yes, but never unannounced. The families we work with are not an exhibit. Write to us with what you would like to see and we will arrange something that respects everyone involved.

Honestly: we cannot give you an audited figure yet. We are a young organisation with no completed financial year behind us, so there is no track record to quote a percentage from. Once the first audit is done, the full breakdown between programmes, administration and fundraising will be published on our Annual Reports page, in full, not as a summary figure here. If you want that answer sooner, ask us directly and we will send what we have.

An organisation claiming 100% is either lying or having somebody else quietly pay its overheads. Audits, insurance and the small core team running things are real costs, and they are what make programme delivery possible in the first place — which is exactly why we publish accounts rather than a marketing number.

Roughly two months of running costs, so a feeding programme does not stop because a grant arrived late, and so we can move on an emergency before appeal money lands. Much more than that would be hoarding.

An independent auditor appointed by the trustees and rotated every five years. Their full opinion, not a summary, is in the audited accounts.

Yes. There is a section on the transparency page listing failures — wrong wheelchairs, a borehole nobody maintained, an admin ratio that slipped — and what changed as a result.

Only what you gave them for: replying to you, processing a gift, assessing an application, or sending updates you asked for. We never sell, rent or trade them. Full detail in the privacy policy.

No. Card details are entered on the payment provider’s own secure page and never reach our servers. We receive only a transaction reference, amount and result.

Yes. Ask and we act within 30 days, free, without asking why. The one exception is donation records, which financial law requires us to keep for six years. See your rights.

No advertising or tracking cookies, no social pixels, no cross-site profiling. The only external request is to Google Fonts for the typefaces. If that ever changes we will say so and ask first.

Within two working days for anything sent through the contact form. Safeguarding concerns and active emergencies are handled the same day — please call rather than email if it cannot wait.

Yes, and by somebody senior. Choose “Raising a concern or complaint” on the contact form and it bypasses the general inbox. If you would rather not use a form, call and ask for the person responsible for complaints.

Often yes — food, clothing, medical supplies, wheelchairs. Tell us roughly what you have and where it is, and we will say honestly whether we can use it. We would rather decline than take something that sits in a store room.