Acceptance criteria for members

Aktion Deutschland Hilft, Germany's Relief Coalition was founded as an alliance for the purpose of a single appeal for funds. The alliance is open to all organisations that fulfil the following acceptance criteria*: charitable organisations with their headquarters in Germany can become members when they:

•  have actively provided humanitarian aid abroad for more than five years,

• are personally responsible for decisions at a national level in respect of financing measures, and assure factual and calculative administration and reporting,

• acknowledge the principles laid down by "Germany's Relief Coalition", especially the regulations for control,

• are prepared to maintain the "VENRO" code of conduct, and obligate themselves to make explicit and factual advertising in words and images,

• obligate themselves to maintain the following standards and agreements for providing aid:

• maintaining the "Code of conduct for the international movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent and nongovernmental organisations for catastrophe relief",

• maintain the "twelve basic rules of German aid abroad" and

• the "Criteria and personal engagement of humanitarian aid" of the Humanitarian Aid coordination committee,

• support the "Sphere Project" (www.sphereproject.org)

• and the "NGDO Charter" (Basic Principles of Development and Humanitarian Aid NGOs in the European Union, (www.oneworld.org/liason/pubs/chart_gb.htm)

• and the "Guidelines for Drug Donations" (Pub. WHO, Caritas Internationalis, ICRC u.a.; revised edition 1999),

• maintain the "Guidelines for Device Donations" (Pub. FAKT/Fördergesellschaft für Angepasste Techniken, Evangelisches Missionswerk in Deutschland, Misereor; Stuttgart 1998),

• "Sustainability of Humanitarian Aid" (VENRO work paper No. 8, September 1999)

• or are members of the "Coordinating Committee of Humanitarian Aid" or the "Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Freie Wohlfahrtspflege",

• are not obligated to the general provision of donations to international umbrella organisations and

• are nongovernmental organisations independent of governmental- and UN organisations and do not have the aim of fostering UN- or governmental organisations.

As before, the aim of Germany's Relief Coalition is the establishment of a uniform donation account for all relevant German aid organisations for humanitarian aid.

*) A well-founded exception among the member organisations is the Deutsche Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband, which as an organisation itself has not fulfilled the acceptance criteria. Nevertheless, smaller organisations that are members of the Paritätischen Wohlfahrtsverband, are enabled participation with Germany's Relief Coalition.