B Desh Foundation

Who is B Desh Foundation?

The B Desh Foundation is a Northern Virginia-based non-profit charitable organization whose mission is to serve humanity through natural disaster relief, poverty alleviation, health and sanitation, and educational projects. They have undertaken a variety of projects in Bangladesh since 2009, including: childcare centers for Rohingya refugees; funding mobile medical clinics; and Project Women Care, which provides women with primary health care, sanitary hygiene aid, and livelihood initiatives. B Desh Foundation maintains low overhead costs, while ensuring effective usage of funds through independent audits and surveys in order to validate project execution and expenses, as well as a Key Performance Indicator matrix for all projects. In response to Covid-19, they have prioritized food relief and hygiene kit programs.

Highlights

B Desh Foundation is noteworthy for maintaining remarkably low overhead cost (4.5%), so your donation would go much farther compared to other registered organizations. They also plan to spend funds in accordance with the donor's intentions, and are able to customize their relief efforts with guidance from us. They also have reach among the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Responses to Vetting Questions 

hese are the responses we were provided by Mr. Sohel Ahmed, the Chief Executive Officer of B Desh Foundation, with regard to B Desh's general activities and their plans for using the funds donated through our fundraising campaign. We researched and asked the same set of standard questions to the other NGOs we vetted as well. 

Question: With our donation, what is the geographical spread of the relief recipient (e.g. Dhaka city, rural Mymensingh, etc.)?
Response: Dhaka, Mymensingh, Cox’s Bazaar, Sylhet, Kustia, Pabna, Barisal 

Question: With our donation, which groups will be helped (e.g. LGBTQ community, Transgender community, street children, Garo indigenous population, sex workers, gypsy community)?
Response: We don’t discriminate based on the color, creed, sexual orientation, or what kind of job anyone does. As a matter of fact we don’t even ask any of these questions to our recipients of our aid.
 
Question: With our donation, will you reach out to the Rohingyas?
Response: Yes we are also reaching out to Rohingya Refugees.
 
Question: Can you give us a price breakdown of how much money is spent towards food relief (e.g. with 1000 taka we offer lentils, rice, onions, and potato for a family of 4 for two weeks) or how much cash is handed to each household (e.g. 1800 taka for each adult in a household)?
Response: For every 1000 taka (roughly 11.90 USD) donated, we provide one household 10 kg rice, 2 kg lentil, 1 liter cooking oil, 2 kg potato, salt, soap 2 pieces, mask 2 pieces, and etc. It also includes packaging and distribution costs.

Question: We prefer our donations be used for cash transfers or food relief. Nonetheless, what type of other services, if any, other than food relief or cash transfer will be provided with our donations?
Response: Hygiene kits

Question: Can you ensure our donation money is spent only on food relief or cash transfer? If not, can you provide a list of services our fund will be used for?
Response: Yes it will be used per donor intention
 
Question: Are you able to customize your food relief or cash transfer efforts based on what we want the donation to be used for?
Response: Yes as long as it is within the budget.
 
Question: Do you have any mechanism to ensure transparency of exactly where our money is going?
Response: We could share the project budget plus expense report after the completion.
 
Question: Can you give us an estimate of what percentage of our donation is used up in overhead cost i.e. if we donate 1000 USD, what fraction of that will go directly to the poor?
Response: Our overhead cost is 4.5%. We are able to keep it low by maintaining zero payroll. We have no full or part time staff, most of the admin works get done by dedicated volunteers which includes B Desh board members, we only take professional services on as needed basis. B Desh's board members have invested (BOD members donated their own money) heavily on building highly efficient IT infrastructure to minimize human interaction. B Desh also recruits high school and college interns for outreach and marketing activities in order to keep the expenses low.
 
Question: Is your organization secular or religiously-affiliated? Does this affect who you serve?
Response: We serve everyone regardless, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, or any other denomination.
 
Question: Can you give us a very brief history of your relevant past efforts that makes you uniquely suited to carry out relief efforts in the face of Covid-19?
Response: Recently in last two weeks we distributed 1000 food packages among Rohingya Refugees and poor households in Ukhia Cox’s Bazaar. In the first week of the May we distributed more than 4000 food packages among the needy families in Dhaka, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Pabna, Barisal and Kushtia districts of Bangladesh.
 
Question: Do you have any mechanism in place to ensure that you are aware of which households are getting help from the government, so as to avoid overlapping coverage with government efforts?
Response: We do coordinate our efforts with the NGO bureau of Bangladesh and local UNO( Upazila Nirbahi Office) and TNO (Thana Nirbahi Office) in order to make sure there is no overlapping efforts going on.
 
Question: Do you have any results from non-profit assessment organizations (i.e. Givewell)?
Response: Not at this time.