PRESS RELEASE
21 June 2022
Organisation in receipt of donations
THE LUCIE CARE ENDOWMENT FUND
The Court of Accounts ensures, during its audits of organisations making public appeals for
donations, that the funds collected are in line with these
organisations’ stated objectives. If this
is not the case, the Court issues a declaration of non-compliance, which is then made public.
Formed in 2015 by the non-profit organisation Union Nationale des Aveugles et Déficients
Visuels (UNADEV - National association for the blind and visually impaired), being its sole
founder, the Lucie Care endowment fund was intended in particular to offer donors the
opportunity to support the cause of visually-impaired young people. With an initial
endowment of €3 million
from UNADEV, the endowment fund has gradually spent most of
it without managing to raise any significant new funds over the 2017-2019 period. While it
did carry out some projects for visually-impaired young people in line with its stated
purpose, it spent most of its money on fundraising. For these reasons, the Court of Accounts
finds that the expenditure incurred for the financial years 2017 to 2019 by the Lucie Care
endowment fund did not comply with the objectives pursued by its public appeal for
donations, which leads it to issue a declaration of non-compliance.
The implementation of projects in line with the stated remit of the endowment fund
The Lucie Care Endowment Fund was created to increase the work done to benefit visually-
impaired young people. The projects that were financed match this purpose, ranging from
grants of a few hundred euros (for the financing of trips or carers, the purchase of special
equipment or one-off medical care) to the setting up of a sensory pathway within the Musée
d’Aquitaine
(payment of a grant of
€50,000 to Bordeaux council). Its tangible actions for the
benefit of visually-impaired young people, however, represent only a small part of the total
expenditure of the endowment fund.
The bulk of the endowment fund’s expenditure is on fundraising, to the detriment of its
charitable works.
The endowment fund has spent most of its money on fundraising. Expenditure on charitable
works was consequently in the minority according to the Court’s calculations, i.e. 30% in 2017
and 2018, and 27% in 2019. In addition, the fund had included a flat-rate proportion of
fundraising expenses under the heading of awareness-raising activities, without having any
evidence to justify allocating these sums to charitable works.
In total, and after restatement of the share improperly charged to expenditures on charitable
works, fundraising expenses represented 62% in 2017, 60% in 2018 and 62% in 2019 of the
amount of funds recorded in the accounts.
The donations collected by the endowment fund, as well as the consumable endowment
granted to it by UNADEV at the time of its creation, have therefore essentially financed the cost
of collecting and operating the fund.
For these reasons, the Court of Accounts finds that the expenditure incurred for the financial
years 2017 to 2019 by the Lucie Care endowment fund did not comply with the objectives
pursued by its public appeal for donations.
T
he Court further recommends that the endowment fund rectify how it constructs the ‘Use of
resources’ account to reflect the reality of fundraising costs, and that in future it adjusts the
use of funds collected from the public to direct more towards charitable works.
Implications for the Lucie Care Endowment Fund
It is now up to the Minister of budget responsibility to decide whether or not to maintain the
tax benefits attached to donations, legacies and payments that may benefit the Lucie Care
Endowment Fund in the future.
Read the report
PRESS CONTACTS:
Emmanuel Kessler
◼
Director of Communications
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T
+33 (0)1 42 98 55 62
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+33 (0)6 62 48 07 81
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emmanuel.kessler@ccomptes.fr
Julie Poissier
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Head of Press Relations
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T
+33 (0)1 42 98 97 43
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+33 (0)6 87 36 52 21
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mailto:
julie.poissier@ccomptes.fr
@Courdescomptes
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