Almost everything Lechem Foundation receives is given, not paid. Part A governs donations — how a pledge works, how funds are applied, what a donor receives in return (an acknowledgement and a tax certificate, and nothing else), and how we handle donor information. Occasionally the Foundation also sells something: surplus produce from its garden, or items recovered at cost from its own team. Part B governs those sales. The two are different transactions with different documents, and the difference matters — a sale is not a donation, and no donation certificate is issued for one.

A. Donations

1. Who we are

Lechem Foundation (“the Foundation”, “we”, “us”) is a not-for-profit organisation registered as a welfare organisation under the National Welfare Act, 1965, registration number W.O. 524, with its registered address at 100 Tunschel Street, Pionierspark, Windhoek, Namibia.

The Foundation is governed by its constitution and administered by its Board of Trustees.

2. What these terms apply to

These terms apply to all donations made to the Foundation, in cash or in kind, whether once-off, pledged, recurring, made by electronic transfer, card, cash or online. Where a document issued by the Foundation refers to these terms, they form part of that document.

3. Nature of a donation document

Any invoice, statement or request for payment we issue in respect of a donation is not an invoice for goods or services. No goods have been supplied and no services have been rendered to the donor. Such a document is issued only to:

• confirm in writing a donation the donor has pledged or intends to make;
• give the donor a reference and the correct payment particulars; and
• allow both parties to record the gift accurately for accounting and audit purposes.

Where such a document displays a “due date” or “amount due”, these are administrative fields generated by our accounting system. They indicate the date and amount the donor has indicated, not a debt claimed by the Foundation.

4. Pledges are voluntary

A pledge is a voluntary expression of intent to give. A donor may vary, postpone or withdraw a pledge at any time before payment by written notice to finance@lechemfoundation.org. The Foundation will not charge interest, raise penalties, or take collection or legal steps in respect of an unpaid pledge, and an unpaid pledge is written back in our records rather than pursued.

5. No goods, services or benefit in return

A donation is given without the donor receiving anything of value in return. In particular, a donation does not entitle the donor to goods, services, advertising, branding, sponsorship benefits, preferential access to our programmes, a share in any surplus, or any beneficial interest in the Foundation or its assets.

If a supporter wishes to receive benefits in exchange for a payment — advertising, naming rights, event branding, or a supply of any kind — that is a sponsorship or commercial arrangement, not a donation. It is dealt with under a separate written agreement, is recorded differently in our books, and may carry a different tax and VAT treatment. Please contact us before making such a payment.

Where the Foundation sells goods — produce from its garden, or clothing recovered at cost from its own team — that sale is governed by Part B and is not a donation, however much the buyer supports the work.

6. Value-added tax

A donation is not consideration for a taxable supply. No VAT is charged on, or claimable in respect of, a donation, and no VAT is shown on our donation documents. The Foundation is not a registered VAT vendor as at the effective date of these terms.

7. Payment

Fraud warning. The Foundation will never notify a change of banking details by email, SMS or messaging application. Before making any payment on the strength of changed details, please telephone us on +264 81 203 6423 and confirm verbally. The Foundation accepts no liability for funds paid to an account other than the one confirmed in this way.

8. Receipt and tax certificate

On receipt of a donation the Foundation issues a written acknowledgement and receipt, normally within 10 business days, reflecting the donor, the date, the amount or a description of the goods donated, the fund or purpose to which it has been applied, and the Foundation's welfare organisation registration number.

The Foundation is registered as a welfare organisation under the National Welfare Act, 1965, under registration number W.O. 524. Section 17(s) of the Income Tax Act, 1981 provides for a deduction, in the hands of the donor, in respect of donations made to a registered welfare organisation, supported by a certificate issued by that organisation. The certificate the Foundation issues is prepared to serve that purpose and carries the particulars required of it.

Donors should note that the deduction is claimed by the donor in the donor's own return, and that its allowance rests with the Namibia Revenue Agency. The Act provides in particular that:

• the deduction may not create or increase an assessed loss; and
• no individual may be nominated by the donor as the beneficiary of the donation.

The Foundation issues the certificate; it does not give tax advice and does not warrant the outcome of any assessment. Donors should consult their own tax adviser.

9. How donations are applied

• Unrestricted gifts. Unless a purpose is specified in writing, a donation is unrestricted and is applied by the Board wherever the need is greatest.
• Designated gifts. Where a donor designates a fund or project in writing, and the Foundation accepts that designation, the donation is recorded against that fund and applied to it.
• Necessary costs. A reasonable share of the Foundation's administration, governance and fundraising costs may be met from donations, including designated donations, so that the work can be carried out and properly accounted for.

10. Redirection of designated gifts

If a designated purpose has been fully funded, has been completed, has become impracticable, or can no longer be carried out in a way consistent with the Foundation's objects, the Board may apply the donation, or the unspent balance of it, to another purpose as close as reasonably possible to the original one. Where the affected donation exceeds N$25 000 the Foundation will notify the donor before doing so and, where the donor prefers and the funds have not been committed, will discuss an alternative designation or a return of the balance.

11. Refunds and corrected payments

Donations are made voluntarily and are not refundable once applied to the Foundation's work. The Foundation will, however, refund a payment made in genuine error — a duplicate payment, an incorrect amount, or a payment intended for another party — on written request within 30 days of the payment, to the extent that the funds have not already been disbursed. Any refund is made to the account from which the payment originated, and to no other account. The Foundation may delay or withhold a refund where it is required or entitled to do so by law, including where clause 12 applies.

12. Donor identification and financial-intelligence obligations

The Foundation is a registered non-profit organisation subject to Namibia's anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism-financing framework, including the Financial Intelligence Act, 2012 and the directives of the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC). The Foundation is registered with the FIC and maintains an internal AML/CFT compliance programme, a donor screening procedure and a stakeholder engagement policy. These obligations are not optional, and they apply to charitable giving as much as to commercial payments.

In practice this means:

• Screening. All new donors are screened against the applicable United Nations and other sanctions lists before funds are accepted.
• Identification. A donation of N$5 000 or more requires the donor to complete the Foundation's Donor Details Form and provide proof of identity — for an individual, an identity document or passport; for a company, trust or other entity, its registration documents and details of the persons who ultimately own or control it. The same applies to a series of smaller donations that together reach that amount.
• Source of funds. The Foundation may ask a donor for reasonable information about the origin of the funds, and may decline a donation where that information is not provided or is not satisfactory.
• Donations on behalf of others. By making a donation, the donor confirms that the funds are the donor's own or that the donor is authorised to give them, that they derive from a lawful source, and that the donor is not acting as a conduit for an undisclosed third party. Donations made for another person who is not disclosed to us are not accepted.
• Cash. Cash donations are accepted subject to identification and to the Foundation's cash-handling limits. Above N$10 000 the Foundation requires payment by electronic transfer instead.
• Records. Identification and screening records are retained for at least five years after the donation or the end of the relationship, as the law requires.
• Reporting. The Foundation is obliged to report suspicious or unusual transactions to the FIC. Where it does so, it is prohibited by law from telling the donor or anyone else that a report has been made.

Because of that last point, where the Foundation delays, declines or returns a donation, it may be unable to explain why. This is not a judgement on the donor, and donors are asked to understand that a lawful constraint, rather than discourtesy, is at work.

13. Donations we may decline

In addition to clause 12, the Foundation may decline or return a donation, without giving reasons, where in the Board's view:

• the source of the funds is unclear, or the donation may derive from unlawful activity;
• accepting it would conflict with the Foundation's objects, values or beneficiaries' interests, or would harm its reputation or independence;
• the conditions attached are impracticable, or would cost more to administer than the gift is worth; or
• accepting it would place the Foundation in breach of any law or of its constitution.

A returned donation is repaid to the account from which it came, less any irrecoverable transaction costs.

14. Recognition, anonymity and use of names

A donor may ask to remain anonymous, and we will honour that request in all public material. Otherwise, the Foundation may acknowledge a donor by name in its annual report, newsletters and on its website, but will not publish a donor's logo, or the amount given, without the donor's written consent.

Public anonymity is not the same as anonymous giving. Anonymity means the Foundation does not name the donor publicly. It does not mean the Foundation does not know who the donor is: the identification requirements in clause 12 still apply, and donations that cannot be attributed to an identified donor cannot be accepted.

A donor may not use the Foundation's name, logo, registration number or any image of its beneficiaries in advertising, marketing or public communication without our prior written consent. Consent, where given, is limited to the specific use approved.

15. Personal information

We collect only the information needed to process a donation, issue a receipt and tax certificate, meet the identification and screening obligations in clause 12, comply with our legal and audit obligations, and keep donors informed of the work they support — typically name, contact details, address, identification particulars, payment details and giving history.

• We do not sell, rent or trade donor information.
• Access is restricted to the staff who need it, and records are stored securely.
• We share it with our bank, payment provider, auditors and professional advisers, and with the Financial Intelligence Centre, the Namibia Revenue Agency, the Welfare Board or any other authority where the law requires disclosure. A donor's consent is not required for a disclosure the law compels, and we may be prohibited from telling the donor that one has been made.
• We retain donation and identification records for the period required by financial-intelligence, tax and welfare legislation, generally at least five years, after which they are destroyed in accordance with our retention policy.
• Donors may ask us at any time to correct their details, to stop sending communications, or to be removed from our mailing list, by writing to info@lechemfoundation.org. We will still retain the underlying financial and identification records where the law requires it.

16. Recurring donations

A recurring or monthly donation continues until the donor cancels it. A donor may cancel or change the amount by written notice to finance@lechemfoundation.org at least 5 business days before the next collection date, or by cancelling the instruction with their own bank. Cancellation does not affect donations already collected.

17. Donations in kind

Goods, produce, equipment and services are gratefully received, subject to the Foundation's discretion to decline items it cannot store, use, transport or lawfully distribute. Our acknowledgement describes the goods donated and, where the donor has provided one, records the value stated by the donor. Establishing and substantiating that value is the donor's responsibility, and the Foundation does not value donated goods for tax purposes.

18. Accountability

Donations are administered by the Board in accordance with the Foundation's constitution. The Foundation maintains accounting records that identify each fund and its balance, and its annual financial statements are audited and available to any donor on written request.

19. No partnership or control

Making a donation does not make the donor a member, trustee, partner, agent or joint venturer of the Foundation, does not confer any right to direct or participate in its operations or the selection of its beneficiaries, and does not create any interest in its assets.

20. Liability

The Foundation carries out its work with reasonable care but does not guarantee any particular outcome from the use of a donation. To the extent permitted by law, the Foundation is not liable for indirect or consequential loss arising from a donation or from the use to which it is put.

21. Changes to these terms

These terms may be amended from time to time. Each version is dated, and the version in force on the date a donation is received governs that donation. The current version is published at lechemfoundation.org/terms.

22. Questions and complaints

Please contact us at info@lechemfoundation.org for general enquiries, or finance@lechemfoundation.org for anything concerning a donation, pledge or refund, or telephone +264 81 203 6423. We aim to respond to any donor query or complaint within 10 business days.

23. Governing law

These terms, and any donation or sale to which they apply, are governed by the laws of the Republic of Namibia. The parties submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of Namibia sitting in Windhoek.

B. Sale of goods

Part B applies where the Foundation sells something rather than receives a gift. Selling is incidental to our purpose, not a business we are in: proceeds fund the work, and the range is small and seasonal. Clauses 21 to 23 of Part A (changes, complaints, governing law) apply to sales as well.

B1. A sale is not a donation

When you buy something from the Foundation you receive goods in exchange for your money. That is a sale, not a gift, and it follows that:

• no donation receipt or section 17(s) certificate is issued for a purchase, and a purchase cannot be claimed as a donation;
• the document you receive is a sales invoice or till slip, numbered in a different sequence from our donation documents; and
• the donor identification requirements in clause 12 do not apply to an ordinary purchase.

If you would like to both buy something and make a gift, please keep them as two transactions so that each is documented correctly. A payment above the marked price is not automatically treated as a donation.

B2. What we sell

The Foundation may from time to time offer:

• Surplus fresh produce grown in its garden, sold when there is more than its feeding programmes require;
• Branded clothing and small items recovered at cost from staff, volunteers and team members (see B7); and
• occasional other items the Board has approved for sale.

Nothing is held out as being continuously available. Produce is seasonal, quantities are limited, and feeding the Foundation's beneficiaries always takes precedence over a sale.

B3. Prices, orders and payment

• Prices are as marked or as quoted at the time of the sale, are in Namibia Dollar, and include no VAT (see B5).
• An order is only accepted once the Foundation confirms it. Where stock runs short, we may supply a reduced quantity or cancel and refund.
• Payment is due on collection or before delivery. The Foundation does not sell on credit and does not operate accounts.
• Where an invoice is issued, it is payable by its due date; the Foundation may withhold goods until payment reflects.

B4. Fresh produce — condition and food safety

Produce is grown in an open garden and sold in its natural state.

• It is sold as harvested and unprocessed. It has not been washed, graded, packed or certified to any commercial standard.
• Buyers must wash and prepare produce before use. Chillies in particular are pungent and should be handled with care; keep them away from eyes and out of reach of children.
• Weights, sizes and heat levels vary naturally and are indicative only.
• Produce is perishable. Once it has left our premises we cannot vouch for how it has been stored, and the risk of loss or deterioration passes to the buyer on collection.

Nothing in this clause excludes any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence.

B5. Value-added tax

The Foundation is not a registered VAT vendor as at the effective date of these terms, so no VAT is charged on a sale and our documents are not tax invoices for VAT purposes. Being a welfare organisation does not by itself exempt the Foundation from VAT on goods it sells; the Foundation monitors its taxable turnover and will register if it becomes liable to do so.

B6. Returns, shortages and refunds

• Please check goods at the point of collection. Shortages or visible defects must be raised before you leave, or on the day of delivery.
• Perishable goods are not returnable once they have left our premises, except where they were defective when supplied.
• Where goods were defective when supplied, the Foundation will replace them or refund the price paid, at its election.
• The Foundation does not accept returns of correctly supplied goods on the basis of change of mind.

B7. Clothing and items supplied to our own team

From time to time the Foundation buys branded clothing or equipment for staff, volunteers and team members, and recovers the cost from the individual concerned. Where that happens:

• the amount recovered is the Foundation's actual cost, with no mark-up, so that the Foundation neither profits nor subsidises;
• the individual authorises recovery by the agreed method — payment on receipt, or deduction from remuneration where the individual has consented in writing and the deduction is permitted by the Labour Act;
• the item becomes the individual's property once paid for in full; and
• branded items remain subject to the Foundation's rules on the use of its name and logo (clause 14) — a Lechem shirt should not be worn in a way that implies the Foundation endorses something it does not.

B8. Collection, delivery and risk

Goods are collected from the Foundation’s premises, or from another point notified at the time of the sale, during the collection times arranged when the order is confirmed. Risk in the goods passes to the buyer on collection or, where the Foundation delivers, on delivery. Ownership passes only once payment has been received in full.

B9. Where the proceeds go

Money received from sales is applied to the Foundation's charitable work in the same way as unrestricted donations, after the costs of producing the goods. Sales income is recorded separately from donation income in the Foundation's accounts, so that what has been given and what has been earned can always be told apart.