Where does your donation go? A transparent breakdown

At The Fred Hollows Foundation, we appreciate the need for transparency when it comes to helping people understand where their donations go. 

Charity transparency is important for ensuring you know that your generously donated money is going to a good cause and being used for its intended, effective purposes.  

To help you understand the breakdown of how your donation to The Fred Hollows Foundation is used, we have put together this handy and informative guide. If you have any further questions, please reach out to the team at The Foundation today. 

Where does my donation go? 

The Fred Hollows Foundation is dedicated to its mission to end avoidable blindness and restore sight to thousands of people worldwide. Every donation we accept and every contribution we receive gets put towards this goal. 

Let’s outline down the different ways in which your donation is making a difference. 

1. How we end avoidable blindness 

First and foremost, the donations we receive directly fund the high-quality eye care we provide disadvantaged communities both in Australia (regionally and among Indigenous communities) and worldwide. 

This healthcare can include screening to ensure eye-health and wellbeing, medication to prevent or treat eye-related issues or surgery to restore treatable blindness. Our programs also work to provide critical education to underprivileged people to help them prevent future avoidable blindness. 

The most immediate and tangible impact work comes in the form of sight-restoring surgeries. For example, cataracts remain the leading cause of avoidable blindness globally, and each year, we help thousands of people regain their vision through cataract surgery and other eye treatments. These surgeries transform people’s lives, enabling them to return to work, care for their families, and participate actively and with dignity in their communities. 

Samson experiences the world with sight for the first time after cataract surgery, bringing hope and joy to him and his family in Mazeras village, Kenya

Photo credit: Michael Amendolia

Your donation covers the costs of: 

• Surgical equipment and consumables required for safe and effective operations 

• Medical staff salaries and training to ensure high standards of care 
• Outreach programs to identify and bring patients from remote areas to surgical centers 

2. Training workers and strengthening systems 

The mission of preventing avoidable blindness also requires a support structure around it to ensure sustainable change. Donations we receive also fund the training of ophthalmologists, nurses, technicians, community health workers, and teachers in developing countries. 

This funding can be in the form of scholarship programs or specialised training courses to equip professionals with advanced skills, funding partnerships with local institutions to help strengthen their health systems from within, or education focused on continuous professional development and support in fostering ongoing medical excellence. 

By doing so and enabling local professionals to recognise, diagnose, refer, and treat eye problems in their own communities, we are strengthening the healthcare system in general and hopefully providing truly long-term benefits. 

For example, recently our training efforts achieved the following in a single calendar year (2023): 

• 36,804 ophthalmologists, community health workers, and teachers trained, including: 

• 232 eye surgeons; 

• 27,127 community health workers; and 

• 4,202 teachers trained 

• 1,951 medical facilities provided with necessary equipment 

And what was the result of these activities? 

• Over 612,000 operations and treatments delivered 

• 6.9 million people treated with trachoma antibiotics 

• 4.4 million people screened  

• Nearly 5.9 million schoolchildren and community members educated in eye-care and health  

By training local eye health workers, the Foundation helps build self-sufficient and empowered healthcare systems, ensuring communities can continue delivering resilient and quality eye care long after our team has gone.  

By strengthening infrastructure, the Foundation ensures eye care is accessible, affordable, and sustainable for generations to come. 

To extend our reach even further, the Foundation utilises social impact investing as a sustainable financing model. Take for example, our Alina Vision initiative in Vietnam, where by providing seed funding for social enterprise networks we leverage private capital to scale eye care infrastructure sustainably. 

3. Funding research, advocacy and technology 

The Kathmandu Intraocular Lens Laboratory, built with support from The Fred Hollows Foundation, now produces world-class lenses to restore sight

Photo credit: Michael Amendolia

In addition to the on-the-ground work, the donations we receive also go towards funding important, innovative research. Some of this research and work goes towards forming partnerships with governments, global organisations, and community leaders, and developing policies that drive long-term systemic (and thus invaluable) change for underprivileged communities.  

Donations we receive are also used to fund the improvement of eye health facilities, development of supply chains for essential medical equipment, and advocacy focused on integration of eye care into national health systems. These activities ensure and secure affordable, accessible and quality medical treatment for underserved communities. 

Insights from studies, such as the one commissioned with PwC, have shown that for every $1 invested in ending avoidable blindness, there's a $4 return in economic benefit to a community or country. This sort of research doesn’t just help advance the eyecare, treatment, and medication we offer. It also ensures that we are making best use of our donor’s money and ensures charity transparency across our work. 

Funding accountability and charity transparency 

The Fred Hollows Foundation is committed to transparency and accountability. We issue annual reports and financial statements which can be accessed online here. 

WATCH: CEO Ross Piper outlines The Fred Hollows Foundation’s 2024 results and the impact of our work restoring sight worldwide.

These public annual reports share income and expenditure breakdowns, program results, and impact metrics, ensuring that our rigorous internal controls and external audits are working in line with our ethical fundraising principles.  

We are committed to ongoing communication with donors as well and regularly share updates on how their generous donations are helping us restore over 3 million people’s sight across more than 25 countries. 

Your donation could make all the difference 

So, when you ask The Fred Hollows Foundation team, “where does my donation go?” The answer could be towards helping farmers blinded by cataracts regain his vision through surgery so that they can support their family once more; or towards training an eye health nurse who provides ongoing care locally thereby reducing preventable blindness; or towards funding a local clinic improving the lives of thousands of community members annually. 

Dr Senglar performs surgery on a patient in Laos. She is just one example of how your support is helping train local eye health professionals to restore sight and transform lives.

Photo credit: Michael Amendolia

Your donation could be creating positive ripple effects across families, communities and even countries. Whether you donate monthly or one-time, when you begin to look at the donation breakdown, you will realise just how impactful your generosity really is. Our donors do a lot more than just fund surgeries. They are helping to build sustainable eye care systems and a future without avoidable blindness.  

Plus, The Foundation offers flexible giving options with clear information on how to update or pause contributions at any time. 

If you are interested in partnering with us to bring the gift of sight back to those who need it most or if you would like to know more about our efforts towards charity transparency, please make sure to reach out to the FHF team today. 

Join us as a Visionary or give a once-off donation, and help transform lives. Your gift can restore sight, empower communities and create a future without avoidable blindness.