Dear Mums,
Did you know that there is an easy way to give to charity that will cost you nothing? I had no idea until recently when I was thinking as to how else we can help the children in Pacanow. I am particularly talking about Pacanow, as Mums and Tots have been helping children by arranging the Christmas bazaar and making Santa presents for 5 years. You will all see the full Santa 2008 report with photos in the February newsletter.
The issue relates to tax that you and/or your partner pay in Poland. By law every individual can send 1% of their total income tax payments to a charity. It costs you nothing to do so! Simply by filling one small section of your annual tax return, nominating a charity, the 1% will be transferred to their account by the tax office. Everyone has to complete their tax return this time of year, so now is a good time to consider this ’once a year’ issue.
Unfortunately, I discovered that no payments can be made directly to the orphanage Dom Ojca Gwidona. They are not legally registered as a foundation that would permit such payments to be made. After discussing the matter with Aga Stroina-Rasche, who initiated the Santa presents within M&Ts, we are requesting you and your husbands to consider Foundation Pro Bono II www.probono.art.pl
Aga personally knows people working in the management of the Foundation. For this year she made some further research and obtained the following confirmation. The Foundation will organize a summer holiday for 200 children from orphanages and poor families in Poland. They have already booked a place at the seaside near Wladyslawowo, the same as in the last two years. In the past 20 kids from Pacanow were able to enjoy such a holiday. The cost per child is about 1000zl for 2 weeks. There is, of course, some extra money needed for other costs such as transportation and excursions. However, all people who organize and participate in this are doing it out of their own good will, for free. Teachers and other volunteers have been arranging this for many years. The Foundation is always also looking for additional sponsors. For example in the past McDonalds in Gdansk to give some food, Algida for ice cream treats, Unilever were providing shampoos, shower gels, soaps, Procter & Gamble were giving toothpaste and brushes for everyone in the past few years.
I appreciate that some of you might already have decided on a particular charity for your tax return. However, if this is something new to you or you have no strong preferences as to where to allocate the funds, please send them to Pro Bono II. Let’s make more children happy by sending them for summer holidays. For all of them this is their only chance.
You just need to write the following details in the tax form:
Fundacja Pro Bono II ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 68
00-322 Warszawa KRS 0000222038
Now is the time to act as all 2008 tax returns must be completed in the near future. As the money will be transferred by the tax office and Foundation will not be able to identify individuals who nominated them. Please mention your intention to me alia.radford@neostrada.pl, so that we can give the Foundation some idea of how many people relating to M&T are nominating them. This in turn will give us the right to specifically request that 20 or more children from Pacanow are definitely included. This takes only a few minutes of your time but the result will help give two weeks holiday for a needy child.
With sincere thanks,
Alia Radford
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