Where does WeMove get its money from?
When we launched in September 2015 we were able to do so thanks to the generous funding from Campact.de, WeMove’s sister organisation in Germany. While by no means covering full yearly costs, this funding has been distributed over three years in the financial plan of the organisation so as to ensure enough stability for us to work on becoming fully independent. In fact to this day, Summer 2017, thanks to small donations from the incredible WeMove community we are approximately 40% member funded.
Achieving full financial independence and stability is of vital importance for an organisation such as WeMove, which fights many important battles that target governments, corporations, institutions, etc. By receiving funding from thousands of our members we will achieve the financial independence and stability we need to keep up our work for many years.
Helping WeMove fill the gaps until we reach that full financial independence and stability have been: the European Climate Foundation, Charles-Leopold-Mayer Foundation, the Open Society Foundation for Europe and a number of private individuals, among whom Henry Tinsley. Link to financial report.
However our initial funding is decreasing and will be entirely depleted by the end of 2018 which is why we are increasing our fundraising efforts and focus on donations from members.
How does WeMove spend my money?
Normally we raise money for general purposes, which gives us maximum flexibility and stability for our work.
Regular monthly donations from our members go towards funding campaigning activities, campaign costs, campaign materials and action days and other necessary support to make our campaigns impactful. To give you a better idea: WeMove works in six languages, soon to be seven, and the effort required to translate the content produced is massive. Furthermore, we take the question of privacy and security when it comes to data extremely seriously, and we actively uses programs, tools and servers which are based in Europe, and therefore subject to strict privacy regulations. The easy to use and affordable tools are mostly hosted in the US, which is a nightmare for privacy, so our tech platforms and tech team work hard to build and customise tools that make our campaigns great but that protect our online security and privacy.
If we raise money for a specific action but the money raised is not enough we will get in touch to explain the situation and plans to make the action happen, but regardless, you will be given the opportunity to request a refund for your donation.
If you are donating to a specific campaign, your donation will go towards that campaign, including specific expenses like billboards or travel costs, staff costs and IT infrastructure. If you are donating for a specific campaign tactic, like printing an advert in a newspaper or helping to bring Spanish firemen, charged for human smuggling because of saving lives, to meet the Commissioner for Migration in Brussels, your money will go towards funding that action. Any donations that go beyond what is needed for a specific tactic will go towards the campaign in general.
Our audited yearly accounts will soon be made available online. We are currently in the process of preparing those for 2016.
Will I be kept up to date regarding what happens to my donation?
Whether you donated for a specific campaign, a campaign tactic, or have set up a regular monthly donation to the organisation, we let our members know where their donations have gone. This information will almost always come in one of our emails. But if you have any questions feel free to drop us a line at donation@wemove.eu.
What happens when you raise more money than you need for a given campaign?
If we were to be in a position where more money is raised than necessary for a campaign, the donation would go towards funding campaigns on a similar topic. If this is not possible, the donation would go towards researching more campaign opportunities or tech development for new campaigning tactics.
What happens when you raise money for other organisations and movements?
Since its launch WeMove has raised funds on several occasions, to be destined to other organisations and movements. During the protests in Poland against a draconian law to fully ban abortion in the country, the WeMove community raised €16,000 for women’s groups in Poland to fight this law and for women’s rights. During the harsh winter conditions, refugees stuck in Greece and Serbia were facing below zero temperatures with no shelter, clothes or food, so the WeMove community raised €70,000 to go to organisations helping people in these countries survive the winter. We hope to be able to run more actions like this in the future.
After these two incredible experiences, we noticed that around 5% of the money raised went to administrative fees (bank costs, credit card fees, internal and external accounting costs, etc.) which WeMove was spending in order to be able to donate the entire sum of the donations to the organisations. So we have decided that with future crowdfunding actions for other organisation and movements, 95% of those donations will go directly to the intended beneficiary, and 5% will be retained so as to cover the administrative fees.
How secure are my payment details?
WeMove takes pride in ensuring extremely high standards of data privacy and security and this particularly applies for your donation.
We use 128 bit SSL technology to secure your donations, just like a bank does. This means that all the details are encrypted and no one else can read them. It's not only for your donations, but these security measures extend to when you sign a campaign or fill in a survey.
For credit card donations, we use Stripe, a common provider of online bank transactions, to securely process your donations. We use CiviCRM to process and manage donations made with direct debit. We also offer the option to pay via PayPal so once a user has been transferred to the PayPal website to make a donation we are unable to control what happens on PayPal’s website. It is important to note, for those wishing to make a donation, that the fees from direct debit or direct money transfers to our bank account are much lower than for donations we receive from credit cards or PayPal .
Refunds and cancellation
At any point in time that you wish we can cancel your recurring donation. All you need to do is send an email to donation@wemove.eu and we will get back to your request within a few working days.
If you make an error in donating, be it a one time donation or a regular donation, we can offer you a full refund if you email us within 3 months of making the donation. Just send us an email to donations@wemove.eu and we will get back to your request within a few working days.
How can I change or edit my donation?
For recurring donations, our team is available to make changes to your donation at any time -- whether that be to change your donation details, to increase the amount, or decrease it. For one off donations we ask that you write to us within three days of making the donation for any changes to it. Write to us at: donation@wemove.eu
For refunds and cancellation please refer to the point above.
Where is WeMove registered?
WeMove Europe SCE mbH is registered in Germany with the District Court of Charlottenburg under number GnR 777 B. The legal address is Planufer 91, 10967 Berlin, Germany.
What is an SCE?
An SCE (societas cooperativa Europaea) is a European Cooperative Society. WeMove is therefore a registered European Cooperative. This legal form aims to facilitate cooperatives' cross-border and trans-national activities and is required to unite residents from more than one EU country. This means as a legal entity it is recognised at a European level. The reason WeMove SCE is registered in Germany is that it needs to be physically based in one EU country, and that process is simpler in Germany than in other countries, but its status is truly European -- just like the work we do.
For more information on European Cooperative Societies see here.
Who checks WeMove’s accounts?
WeMove’s accountants C.O.X., (C.O.X. Steuerberatungsgesellschaft und Treuhandgesellschaft mbH) are a recognised specialist in auditing charities and not-for-profit organisation. They audit WeMove’s finances yearly. WeMove SCE is also audited by the “Prüfungsverband deutscher Konsum- und Dienstleistungsgenossenschaften”. The full audited accounts will soon be made available online.
The financial responsibility of WeMove lies with the Executive Director and the Board of Directors. The executive director is Oliver Moldenhauer. The board of Directors are Blanche Shackleton (London), Dr. Günter Metzges-Diez (Berlin), Oliver Moldenhauer (Berlin).
Are my donations to WeMove tax deductible?
Please note: We have not applied for charitable status for the the WeMove SCE and therefore do not issue any donation receipts. Following this path we thus reduce administrative costs and ensure political independence. In Germany, but also even more in many other EU countries, charity law limits the work of citizens’ movements like ours that can often be politically uncomfortable.
How much does WeMove pay their staff?
WeMove’s staff is paid according to several criteria, based on experience, role in the organisation and the cost of living and competitive salary in the place they live in. We want to use our donor’s money wisely, but we also want our staff to have a good living wage, and we aim to balance both goals with our salary structure. We also orient this structure based on what other NGOs pay their staff. WeMove’s Executive Director received the salary of a Senior Teacher at a public school in Germany (“TVöD 15/4”), i.e. €68,000 gross a year.