WOSP Poland charity - is it value for money?

I hear worrying things about poor value for money, the charity's founder employing relatives and using the whole thing for self-promotion, money from the charity going towards funding a festival.

Surely not.

Can anybody fill me in on this?

I'm interested in stuff like: what % of revenue goes to real charitable causes (e.g. a pop concert isn't one in my books) and is the medical equipment bought and donated to hospitals or are there any shananigans involved?

And the first person to bring politics into this is an idiot! I want some facts here, not tribal chanting.

SO difficult to find it on the Net??? Come on....

Or do you suppose that Owsiak will issue an official statement in the PF for you??? :):):):)

Don`t be silly.....

You can always give money to Caritas Polska or to your preferred charity. I don't trust Polish charities in general, so it's best to give to the ones that you trust.

I know of people who have organised bands for Woodstock, no one got paid any money except for expenses transport and hotel everything was kept to a minimum. My friend who organised the bands was given a free train return ticket to the festival and a pass to the VIP so he could act as a translator for the bands. Regarding his family it is his daughter who organises it all without her the whole thing would collapse.

As for costs he operates on the mantra - I pay for nothing you can donate and we will promote your band or business and the money is for the cause.


This I doubt.

sure it is - the broadcast time on the tv that they use is much more expensive (like tenfold or more) than the amount they typically collect - TV would do much better thing if they spent a day income from their commercials on charity

yes Owsiak is using this for self promotion
and yes it has another bad impact - people tend not to think about supporting charities unless there is some big action on the TV

As far as I know, according to Polish law a charity can commit some fixed % of rised money on charity marketing and itself. The money which could be alloted on marketing, WOSP decided to destinate on the Przystanek Woodstock festival organisation which is a way of thanking the volunteers who rise money on the January's happenings. The festival, despite being free admission, also earns some money from food, alcohol and souvenirs concessions (which I believe are channeled for self-sponsoring of the festival).

I was on Przystanek Woodstock twice, years ago. I have good memories of those events. I know that conservative circles especially Radio Maryja related ones are against this festival and the charity.

I hear you coming from faraway on this one. I suppose you prefered Mr.Maybach and his "shipyard scheme" ?

Lol, even one of Rydzyk's biggest critics, Gazeta Wyborcza, admits the Maybach story is a fake.

Nobody has to agree with Rydzyk's opinions, but spreading misinformation only serves to undermine your credibility.

Please!
Does someone have some facts? I mean numbers.
In the UK charities declare what percentage of their revenue goes on admin and costs etc
You lot seem to be entirely uninformed - how depressing!

(Who's Maybach?)

Maybe your wife can help you?

She's uninterested in stuff like this.
So, I take it that no-one has any figures at all?

s2.wosp.org.pl/uploaded/files/files/Bilans%20Fundacji%20za%202011.pdf

This is for 2011

It seems they had 59.5 million zł coming in in 2011. And they spent 38 million on medical equipment, 2 million on neo-natal hearing tests, 3 million on other charitable initiatives, for a total of 43 million zł spent on charity. They spent about 6 million on publicity (and "public benefit", which is vague) and 10 million on administrative costs.

So for every złoty donated, 72 groszy is spent on charity. Maybe an extra 10 groszy, depending on what "działalność propagatorską, informacyjną i pożytku publicznego" actually means, but I'm assuming most of it is probably bullsh*t, so I wouldn't count it unless we know that whatever public benefit/information campaigns they run is actually charity.

Thanks.
72% isn't bad at all, for example Caritas Australia manages 78%

Another question - I hear from medical staff that the equipment is loaned, not donated. Do you know anything about this? If it's loaned, this would throw up other issues.

I can't say. I've heard nothing of the sort, so I doubt it, but then again, medical staff are in a better position to know. I am pretty sure that WOŚP does plenty of good, genuinely charitable work. Owsiak, the guy whose initiative it is, is quite a controversial ageing hippy type figure, and some people take issue with his views and activities, and so prefer to support another charity.

I must admit I only know of WOŚP by being assaulted at school

now imagine that Caritas is allowed to have such an action as Owsiak makes on the TV - I tell you it's an ideological issue - btw all those rockgroups that play in the WOśP final receive payment - it's a show - a show that allows people to quiet their consciousness throughout the year

1 hour of commercial time on the TV is about 1.5 million PLN (prime time is as much as four times more expensive) - now I don't know how much time is spent on Owsiak's show but years ago the Owsiak's publicity went for hours on the state-owned tv - let's say the time that is dedicated to Owsiak now is 5 hours - then it costs some 7.5 million - that's a significant present to Owsiak from a taxpayer's purse

btw Caritas collects 10 times more than Owsiak without any support from the state and has also a better result in how much value is spent on the real help - all this without media propaganda and without the donations from big business who want publicity and thus prefer the Owsiak action

you may call me stupid but Owsiak is not a politically neutral figure too

No, you're not stupid. He hypocritically poses as a rebel, but he's totally in cahoots with Big Business and the post-communist establishment. Many people don't like him. The WOŚP charity isn't that bad, but it serves to legitimise people, organisations and ideological trends that aren't that good.

lukaszwarzecha.salon24.pl/379102,wosp-dlaczego-nie-wielbie-owsiaka

an article in Polish on Owsiak - it takes courage in Poland to say that he won't give money to Owsiak

Merged: WOŚP likely to set a new record. Owsiak - "thank you, haters"

In a very heartwarming piece of news, the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy - WOŚP) has more than likely set a new record this year for the total amount raised. The founder of the charity, Jerzy Owsiak, endured a torrent of abuse from government supporters over the last few weeks, including threats by the government that no-one employed by the state should take part in the event held last Sunday.

Oswiak thanked the online and offline haters that gave so much attention to WOŚP over the last few weeks, which undoubtedly provided WOŚP with a considerable amount of support from rational people that saw through the primitive attempts to insult and discredit the charity which provides direct funding for the treatment of children in pediatric and oncology wards and treatment of the elderly.



wyborcza.pl/1,75248,19461017,wosp-zebral-juz-ponad-44-mln-zl-owsiak-dziekujemy-wszystkim.html

In addition...


Thank you, Poland and Poles for your support!

"Look! He's raising money for sick children! Destroy him!!!"

What kind of sick life-hating m8therfvck3rs are against raising money to help sick children????

The PiS kind?

The same that convinced Owsiak (to use him for their nasty goals) he is some outstanding individual that should speak up and take sides on all the social and political issues. Nasty ********.

You hit the nail on the head! It's good that money is raised for medical equipment, but the whole shebang stinks of the post-nomenhlatura syndrome and hardly can be called politically neutral. Owsiak was born into a communist militia family (his father was a militia colonel or big brass!) and he himself worked for communist-controlled radio and magazines. He is a prime example of someone enjoying the goodies of nomenklatura entitlement under III RP. His call to youth "róbta co chceta" (do whatever you damn please) triggered outrage amongst Polish families. He contineus to deprave minors who wallow in alcohol and drugs at his annual Woodstock spectacles.

Caritas do not create a big once-a-year splash of razzle-dazzle hoopla downdumbing youth with all those moronic wows, whoos and yippees the way bombastic Owsiak does but work round the clock and assist a great many more people than the loudly over-promoted Owsiak orchestra does.

I asked....


And was answered.


Ya know.... charity doesn't have to pick sides. You can support anyone doing good work.....

Personally I couldn't care less who his father was and minors use to wallow in alcohol and drugs whenever they get away from their parents, including Catholic camps and events. The thing is that Platfuses hijacked the whole thing talking the guy into speaking up on controversial issues thus provoking "hate" from the other side and so it goes. They turned country wide action that even majority of conservative people used to support into a political thing. Same as they use to come up with "hide ID of your grandmother" (so she can't vote) "jokes" when older folks used to vote PiS and then turned into "hopefully these feckers won't find jobs in Poland and emigrate" once the mood has changed and they lost support among the young. They don't mind to divide society and turn anything into political issues just to use it for their nasty goals.

It's like PiS found some conservative minded guy organizing actionspromoting blood donation that has nothing to do with politics, talk him into speaking up... let's say against abortion, "refugees" or whatever, provoke "liberals" to attack him and then "Loooook !!!!11 They are against donating blood !!!!!1". Nasty propagandists.

That's what leftists of every ilk are about -- Stalin's Komsomol, Michnik's rag or Owsiak's extravaganza -- they always try to drive a wedge between parents and their children and turn the latter agaisnt their famileis. It's an old story. And why: becuase most parents are the voice of reaosn and experience experience, can readily see through hidden agendas and silly fads and want kids to grew up into decent people, not depraved, fad-prone, popculturised idiots!

Polonius, you do realise that the more you make such comments, the more that WOŚP sounds like something fun and worth taking part in?

I'm sure it won't be long before you get your answer.


Does he live in a house that is far too large for his income and must have been purchased from the state for a knock down price?


I'm regretting that I didn't give more. But on the plus side did manage to donate to ten different collectors (there several near my flat and lots more in Arkadia) and thus got ten stickers, nine of which are still on the backing paper, so I'll be able to wear my WOSP badge for several weeks.

Haha, I couldn't put that better! You've made my day.

WOŚP is a secular effort. Jurek Owsiak is a liberal person and he's very inclusive and transparent about his finances. And that's precisely why right winged media try to discredit him. He's not even anti-religious, just religion-neutral.

They would love to say* that Catholic Church is the only possible source of morality and ethics. That without religion, it's all rotten and degenerated. Jurek Owsiak and WOŚP prove this line of thought is bull**** - just by existing and being successful.

Church is anything but transparent, so people hesitate to fund Caritas.

* and Jarosław Kaczyński even said that.

Well apart from the religious angle, PiS tends to hate any example of citizens organizing that they're not in charge of.


Doing good in an entirely secular way is a major threat to those who think that organized religion is all that stands between humanity and chaos. The happy unbeliever is not supposed to exist.

The Church's charitable effort, notably but not exclusively that of Caritas, is several times greater than that of nomenklatura boy Owsiak. The difference is that they don't go on stage shouting wow and siema, jumping about like jumping jacks to impress down-dumbed young people, rolling out brass bands and turning the brouhaha on full blast for one big, noisy and dazzling mega-spalsh a year.