WHY AFRICA INSTITUTE FOR CHARITY (AIC)
Philanthropy and Charity are key components of nonprofit, otherwise
known as the Third Sector. It has contributed tremendously to the
development of Nigeria and Africa; majorly through foreign aids,
grants and individual tax deduction based donations.
However, local organizations willing and ready to contribute through
nongovernmental mechanisms towards complementing the developmental
efforts of governments in our society are confronted with lack of
leadership and management manpower, verifiable database, transparent
impact assessment auditing system and partnership policy framework.
This is in contrast to what is obtained in the United States of
America where statistical data shows that the nonprofit sector
generates over 5% gross domestic product of their economy. It employs
over 11million workers, with 9% of all wages and salaries amounting to
over 500billion dollars.
In the United States also, 90% of nonprofit workforce is found in
healthcare, education and other social services. Cumulatively,
charitable giving from 1976 – 2016 in United States amounts to
US$400billion dollars. More than 2/3 of tax payers in United States
give to charity and three quarter of US$400billion dollars comes from
individual giving. In volunteering, 63million Americans volunteer for
charity and it is made up of 25% adults.
The numerous reported and unreported cases of misappropriation of
funds meant for charitable services, lack of public trust, and
unprofessional conduct of some domestic nonprofit practitioners have
resulted to withdrawal of some foreign aids, grants and donations
required to meet the critical needs of our communities.
These are propellers that challenged our working group to peer review nonprofit
capacity building guidelines, with international best practice ‘rooted
in principles of moral agency, stewardship, freedom of speech, freedom
of peaceful assembly, ethical practice, and transparency that
supercharge charity’.
Charitable practice in Nigeria is in desperate need of overhaul and
re-engineering, in consonance with new corporate laws, 21st century
industry standards and corporate social responsibility, new media
variations etc. This will innovatively empower nonprofit sector to
tackle many social and environmental issues confronting our
communities, in accordance with Part F, Chapter Three, paragraph 836 of the
Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020.