BROTHER KEVIN CROWLEY of the Capuchin Day Centre for the homeless in Dublin has said he does not believe in organised fundraising and stressed the importance of making it clear where donations are going, ahead of the centre’s annual festive feast this evening.
In an interview with TheJournal.ie, the Capuchin Brother said the recent charity top-ups scandal has had little impact on public donations to the service.
“People have been very generous to us – and continue to be, I hope – especially over Christmas time,” he said. “The amount of food we got in here was absolutely – it was unbelievable – the amount of donations that we got, and certainly it hasn’t affected us in any way.
I suppose our main concern here is that we’re not an organised fundraiser, I don’t believe in that because I believe that when people donate to a charity that the money should go directly to the charity.
Crowley established the service in the 60s, serving soup and sandwiches to about 50 homeless people a day and he has worked tirelessly since then to grow the centre, serving hundreds of meals a day and providing over 1,000 food packages a week to people experiencing food poverty.
“We get €450,000 from the government and our running costs are €2.2 million so without the generosity and the kindness of the people it would be impossible for us to keep this lifeline in operation, so certainly we appreciate everything that we get and, certainly, I being the, as you might say, the CEO or whatever, my salary is nil,” he commented.
The centre has seen no increase in its government funding since 2007, though numbers using the service since the beginning of the recession have more than doubled.
Crowley added that it was “only right” for people to ask questions about where their money is going and the main concern of himself and the centre’s volunteers is that “every ha’penny that’s donated to this centre from the public it goes directly to the charity and to the food and all the services that are attached”.
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