Victim Support Official Page: Christchurch Shooting Victims' Fund

The question that needs answering is will each family of the victims receive an equal amount of total donated. That means X amount donated divided by number of families?

Because the word needs is quite vague, I think everyone here wants the total donated to be spread out evenly and paid as a form of compensation for the lost lives. So each family should get about 100k each atleast to do what they want with it.

Quite a few people are asking about funding to help cover specific expenses like funeral costs for the families, etc. Apologies if it’s been shared somewhere here already and I’ve missed it, but just thought I’d try and copy and paste the update I saw that ACC released yesterday in relation to what assistance (including financial help) that ACC will be able to provide families. Part of that looks to include funeral grants:

“Released 17/03/19

ACC is boosting frontline resources in Christchurch to ensure urgent help is provided to the victims and their families following Friday’s terror attacks, says Chief Executive Scott Pickering.

“Everyone who was injured in the shootings, and the families of those who were killed, are entitled to support from us, irrespective of whether they're residents or just visiting New Zealand,” Scott Pickering says.

“For those with injuries, all acute medical care costs will be taken care of, as well as support with longer-term medical treatment.

“Anyone who was working in New Zealand will be entitled to weekly compensation while they recover. There is also a range of supports such as home help, transportation assistance, and child care where required.

Weekly compensation - getting paid if you can't work

Ways we can support your recovery

“Our team in Christchurch is connected with the Police family liaison officer, who's directing victims and families to us,” Scott Pickering says.

“We have two senior staff at the community hub at Hagley College, including our Christchurch branch manager. We’re getting employees fluent in a range of languages spoken by victims and their families to Christchurch to support our staff.

“A fact sheet is in the process of being translated into multiple languages to explain entitlements and support available for victims and their families.

“We'll fast-track all claims so there are no delays to any weekly compensation payments. If victims need medical transfers, ACC is willing and able to pay for family to accompany that person.

“Two members from our specialist Accidental Death Unit have travelled to Christchurch, and we'll work directly with funeral directors to ensure the process is as seamless as possible for grieving families,” Scott Pickering says.

Accidental death payments

“Families of those who lost their lives will receive an immediate funeral grant, and a survivor’s grant for their partners. There is additional support for those with dependents, such as children.

ACC pays a tax-free funeral grant of up to $6,219.44. This is paid irrespective of whether the funeral takes place in New Zealand or abroad. A top up provided by the Ministry of Justice for murder or manslaughter victims will take that figure to $10,000.

A one-off tax-free survivor’s grant is paid to the deceased's partner, children, and dependents. ACC will pay:

$6,668.03 to the partner

$3,334.04 to each child under 18, or other dependents.

If the child or dependent is under 16, this money will go to their parent or caregiver. If the deceased had children living in New Zealand, those caring for the children can get weekly payments to help with childcare.

If the deceased was earning an income in New Zealand when they died, families may be able to get compensation of 80% of the deceased's earnings. ACC will keep making payments to a partner for five years from the date payments started or until the youngest child turns 18. Payments can continue until that child turns 21 if they are in full time study.

If someone lives overseas, they can still get these payments provided they have a New Zealand bank account and an Inland Revenue number.”

Victim support is who NZ Agencies call in any emergency around our country. NZ Police, Nz Fire Service, any traumatic event!! Even our own president donated to these guys yesterday. I can say loud and clear that anyone who is a victim has support from these guys. Every family will have different needs of support I know this first hand. Give these workers a break for goodness sake let these people do their job. Rather than asking questions let them aid the people that really need their help right now.

This tragedy happened on Friday afternoon. It is now Monday morning. How unreasonable of people to expect VS to have an exact plan to account for every penny donated. LEAVE THEM ALONE.. They have hundreds of families to support as a priority. Give to another charity if you would rather. Honestly - what is wrong with people.

The public just want to know that these funds go to the families easily. It must be pretty obvious which families have been directly affected by death or injury or both and t should be a gift from people all over the world, obviously that someone has to coordinate, but only in the respect that it gets to them and doesn't get swallowed up in admin fees which is what happens in many huge well known worldwide charities.

Speaking for myself only, I'm humbled by speed at which Victim Support was so quick to respond. They did not expect the volume of donations by all the wonderful people out there and their systems have groaned under the pressure.

I also understand why some people may be cynical about how the allocation of funds are managed - but I also know that a percentage of my donation is required to manage this process.

It's simply not possible to allocate 100% of all donations to victims and their families because there are costs that are unavoidable - but I trust a good process will be in place (given the reputation of Victim Support) to ensure all these donations are used to provide the maximum support to the victims and their families.

Let's all be positive at this delicate point where we need to trust and help each other and the community. There will be plenty of time to review the details at a later point in time.

Thanks to everyone else out there who has done what they can to help.

Hi there. Thanks for setting this up.

Is there any chance a good chunk of this money raised could be turned directly (and quickly) over to the two mosques affected to distribute/use in a way that they see fit as a community?

They may wish to set up a memorial, or education funds, or fly in relatives quickly.

They would logically be in the best position to effectively determine need and provide appropriate support/grants etc. Avoiding a lengthy (costly?) ‘assessment’ process. They already have all the info on the families and their needs. They may need to set up spaces for the affected community to gather and talk to each other - rather than formal counseling. Presumably they will have their own ideas/experience for what works.

Would this be the most efficient, least wasteful way in this special case?

I agree with C. Victim support are doing a fantastic job here! Everyone here has donated of their own free will, hopefully having read the intention for the spending of the money. If you don’t agree then don’t donate here, but please don’t comment, claiming to speak for all 63,000 of us and what our expectations are.

Jay, you do realise there is a small workforce to pay? 150 staff supporting 650 volunteers to provide 24/7, 365 days of the year free service to any New Zealander in need. You can’t run this type of service on nothing. $6 million probably pays for modest below average salaries. And they probably work longer hours too than most, stretched to capacity. Give them a chance to work out a robust and fair plan. It’s going to be complex. This is unprecedented for all of us.

Irene, find another fund to donate to if you are unhappy. Victim Support are a very reputable charity, I don't believe they have misled in any way. They have stated that because we are only 2 days out from the attack they are unsure as yet what the best way to use the funds are and that they are dealing with far more donations than they ever expected.

The ramifications of this attack will be long lasting, I am positive victim support will use the money only to help the victims and their families, and to distribute it in a way which makes sure that it not only covers the immediate needs, but the future needs which are not yet apparent but may become so in the coming weeks, months and years.

Hi NZCVSG,

I started a give-a-little page with the exact same objective as this one (just a bit sooner). Seen as this is the "official" page i'm keen to staple my supporters over to you. I don't know if this is possible? Rest assured I'll send the funds your way when the page ends.

Morg

Also. I am running a fundraiser for you guys,

https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/christchurch-mosque-shooting-christchurch-muslim

It has already raised thousands which give a little will automatically transfer to the grand total. I expect this will go into the tens of thousands. :)

Serious question.

I see this fundraiser lasts until MARCH 2020.

Is this page really going to be active for a whole year? The money is going to be held by give a little for a year?

What's the story here???

I want to donate, but I am wondering why ALL the money being donated isn't just shared equally among all the directly affected families ie. the immediate families of those who were killed and those who were injured. Why am I reading in your replies to other questions that you will be providing "resources and support" to the victims? I am pretty sure 100% if not the majority of donors to this page are donating with the expectation that 100% of the funds raised be given directly (cash) to the affected families, not allocated to "other" resources including wages for your staff. I'm sorry but if you are a legitimate organisation, you should already have funding in place for events like this, or provide support as your funds allow. I do not think you should be raising funds (if this is the case) to fund your organisations services, 100% of the money donated on this page should go directly to the victims not to your organisation to fund your services. I'm sorry but you should not be using this page to raise funds to help you provide the services your organisation should already be providing (within your capacity of course). I hope I'm making sense. Basically, all the funds raise on this page should go directly to the affected families as cash payments, every single cent. We are not donating to your organisation so you can carry out your services. That is an entirely separate situation. Please be honest, and disclose EXACTLY what the funds will be used for, OR give the funds to someone who can manage a 100% distribution of funds in cash to these families.

We should aim for 50 million, to aid families of those who lost their lives.

They have funerals and have to face a tough life thereafter.

Keep up the awesome work Victim Support! Thank you for taking the time amidst the chaos of this aftermath to provide updates to the donors which is so important to those who have, are currently or thinking about donating to your page. The support has been overwhelming from every corner of the globe and we are so grateful to ACC as well for helping these families and victims. Arohanui Belinda and Tony

Thank you for update re funds 🙏🙏🙏

Hi

I put thru donation yesterday as a guest and in a hasty mode. I can't see a donation confirmation email being sent to me. Will one be sent or did i have to tick a box?

Roger

Hi, I am not affiliated in any way with Victim Support I am like many of you, someone fortunate enough not to have been involved in this horrific event, and wants to show my support.

I can't help but feel some negativity and pressure on Victim Support reading various questions submitted about how the money will be spent. Victim Support is a charity and will have disclose their financial statements each year. The fact that the money will be ‘ringfenced’ therefore not spent on earthquake support or domestic violence etc.. should be sufficient for us to know our money will go where it is NEEDED the most. I am not educated in what victims need in what situations, so am not going to tell those who do, how to do their job. If, as many of you are suggesting that this money be divided evenly between the families (I am guessing of the 49 deceased) and passed on as a cash sum, then what? are these families expected to fend for themselves? What about those that didn’t lose someone but were there too? How to do you decide who was affected and who wasn’t? What about those injured do they get nothing? Some families will have lost their breadwinner, others not, some will have adult children or none, while some will have very young children. Some victims will have fled war-torn countries, so already experienced trauma. Some will have been very close to the carnage, while others not. Some will have not been involved at all but lost friends and/or are hurting along with their fellow Muslins. There will be schools particularly those predominately Muslim, that will need trauma councilors. There will be costs associated with restoring, or perhaps rebuilding these sites of worship, are you suggesting then this is not good use of our funds? Their whole community needs help, helping everyone WILL directly help those families of the deceased as they will need to lean on their community now more than ever.

Each person’s story and how they will cope will be very different and to expect the money to be evenly divided between just those effected (however you define that) doesn’t not sound like a prudent use of donations. There will be more to victim support than just throwing a lump sum of money to someone in mourning, so I trust in Victim Support to do their job. But if you did want to make sure your money was going directly to the family of someone who lost a loved one, then I would suggest looking at the associated fundraisers on Givealittle, for which some appear to have been set up by individual families, or I would contact the NZIIC, which has also raised a staggering $1.6m.

Thank you to Victim Support (and Givealittle and Spark) for facilitating this and my thoughts are will the support workers too at this difficult time.

Thanks Victim Support for taking on this role around supporting those impacted by this atrocious and heartbreaking event. Reading through some of the comments raised on this page I've been thinking about the tricky decisions you face around the use of funds given the number of people affected; those who have lost loved ones and those who have been injured, along with their families, and the trauma of those people who directly witnessed this occur as well as those who were in the immediate vicinity and feared for their own lives/tried to help others. The scale is huge so best of wishes as you work with the community and those affected. Thanks again.

I have a question about the questioning on here. I honestly don't care how you spend my donation, as long as it helps somebody in some small way in NZ. I watched this reach half a million after my first donation. I watched this reach a million last night. I woke up to two million. I came home from errands today, to three million. I am in Bellvue, Colorado, USA, but have visited Christchurch (a long time ago). For me, this fund sends a message more than anything. People all over the world are fed up with the hatred and gun violence. I'll ask an actual question. What are you doing to publicize this fund among major news outlets worldwide? The fact that you've raised so much in such a short time deserves more attention.

This is a time of great tragedy the like of which this country has never seen before. It is absolutely amazing the amount of donations that have been given, but this does not then provide the opportunity to challenge the integrity and reputation of this organisation. This is an amazing organisation that supports victims of crime in this country 365 days a year and remember apart from the small number of paid staff it is predominately made up of volunteers. It is also great to see people continue to donate even though a small number of people seem to have issues with giving and then not being in control of making the best decision for effectively using these funds.

Suggestions step one please pay for funeral costs of the victims.

VS is a reputable organisation, who will be incredibly stretched at this point, and dont need to be spending all day answering questions on how the donations are going to be spent. Honestly, what is wrong with people. Either give here or find somewhere else you prefer.

I agree entirely with Tony below. Please calm down people. Over $3m has been raised now. Victim Support didn’t expect that much and you can’t expect them to have a robust and binding plan for the money less than 48 hours after the incident! They have clearly said that all the money raised will be used for the victims of this incident. But that doesn’t mean they just take the money raised and divide it 50 ways and give a huge cash injection to every family. Every family affected by this horrible incident will be affected in different ways and will have different needs. Some might need a few seasons of counselling. There may be some orphaned children now who will need 18 years of on going support. The organisers of this fund will need careful planning, with legal and financial assistance, to ensure the generosity of donors is used for what we want it for. When I donated I expected that every dollar will help the victims - it will - but I certainly didn’t expect Victim Support to write a cheque to each family and send them on their way. That would NOT be helping properly.

Must have something to hide if you can't answer a few hard questions ! Dodgy ..

Kia ora

It would be useful to list how the funds will be utilised for example:

Funds will cover the following:

Family and Individual Therapy

Funeral Service

Family and Individual Cash Payments

Mosque Renovation

Victim Support Services Christchurch (available 24/7)

Aroha for the work you will undertake for our muslim community and wider whanau in Christchurch and across Aotearoa.

Noho ora mai ra

David

Goodness I think folks need to relax a bit! While I have never had to use the services of Victim Support myself (thank goodness) I have heard nothing but good things about them. They work closely with the Police all year round.

By saying the funds will be ring-fenced they mean the funds here will be isolated from the rest of their funding so all of it can be used solely for helping the victims of this terrorist attack. They don't mean money will be withheld from the victims.

I know the blood bank staff in Auckland have been working overtime through the weekend to supply blood to Christchurch as unfortunately some facilities in Christchurch fell inside the Police cordons. I'm sure there are a lot of busy people everywhere at the moment, Victim Support included.

I think folks just need to relax a bit and let them work through it and more detailed answers will be forthcoming in the time ahead.

Personally my expectation would be for some of the money to be used for counseling but also financial assistance for help with funerals, family travel costs, mortgages paid. I don't expect it to be distributed evenly because not every family would have been affected in the same way.

That word that's causing all the trouble....ringfenced. At a cost of at least $200 for a PTSD counselling session, are you planning on keeping quite a lot of this money and distributing it as people come to you for assistance, for things like this which will no doubt be needed? Why not give them all the money, and let them work it out. There are free helplines to get them started. I thought they were getting all the money.

1) What does “Ring Fenced” mean?

2) Will the money be evenly split between the victims families?

I would like to donate. What transparency of spend will there be please, and who will audit it?

Thanks

Clinton

Can you please make clear to everyone donating that this is not cash directly given to the victims families. It's very misleading and people are donating thinking it will go to them. However I have read your policies about what you do and don't do and I feel you have mislead people about what assistance you actually will be providing to these families.

Just want to thank you for your update provided. Having worked setting up recovery programs following major disasters, many will push to spend the money quickly. I commend you for taking a considered approach to ensure that there is long term support to the survivors and their families. It is often not fair to just split the proceeds— people have different needs and many will last for decades to come. As a donor I support your approach.

I have donated to this fund but I am now feeling some unease over how the funds raised will be used. I donated in the expectation that 100% of the funds raised will be used specifically to support the victims of the Christchurch massacre. Please confirm that the total raised will be used exclusively for the benefit of the victims of this atrocity and will not form part of Victim Support Group's general fund?

Hi, I am wanting to donate but first I would like to know the break down of how these funds will be distributed ?

I see that you are based in Wellington so I would like to know who you are working with in Christchurch to distribute funds and if you are connected to the Muslim community in Christchurch.

I don’t think it should be up to your organisation to know how best to support these communities. The victims need cash urgently to ease the stress right now, and your copy and paste vague answers are very worrying.

If these funds will not be evenly split as a cash payment to each victim I will not be donating !

Hi, I am wanting to donate but first I would like to know the break down of how these funds will be distributed ?

I see that you are based in Wellington so I would like to know who you are working with in Christchurch to distribute funds and if you are connected to the Muslim community in Christchurch.

I don’t think it should be up to your organisation to know how best to support these communities. The victims need cash urgently to ease the stress right now, and your copy and paste vague answers are very worrying.

If these funds will not be evenly split as a cash payment to each victim I will not be donating !

Hi there, seems to be general theme in the questions, regarding the funds .. I donated myself assuming the funds would go direct to the effected families.. we all need clarification around this please????

I did comment previously, and thanks for the generic reply.

I know myself, and others who have donated, donated to this cause promptly after the incident as it was the only real one available, with the intention that cash funds are available to the families.

I’m sure Victim Support, as a charity, understand that many NZers who donated did so with the intention to provide direct financial support to those affected.

I’m sure the current balance exceeds what anyone had anticipated, and in doing so there will be heightened scrutiny as to how these funds are used.

I can only speak for myself; but I do hope victim support put a large portion of these funds directly back to the families and local community; the large donations are a reflection of NZers feelings towards this horrific incident, and the fact that victim support started the page vs any other charity/organization was less relevant, at least to me.

Hi,

It is understandable that there will be some overhead costs related with managing such a large amount of money. I understand that flexibility is necessary.

I hope that for individuals affected they will have easy access to funds without too many forms or reporting requirements. People have donated on the expectation that people will receive cash and this should be facilitated as quickly as possible. We are now beyond the 24 hour period following burial. You have confirmed that this will be part of the purpose of the money.

Will you provide a detailed report on where all funding is spent? Can this be specific to these funds, not buried within your other operating costs?

I have read your other responses and hope that you can write an individualised response to my question for reporting on every dollar donated.

Best wishes,

Elizabeth Peacocke

Hi there, I feel like people are donating based on the assumption that a cash out payment will be made directly to victims families to help cover lost wages/financial pressure and allow time to grieve. (I know we did). To have an official givealittle page and raising this kind of money, I guess people just want reassurance that the families will receive some/all of the money as a cash payment.

Hey team. I have donated in thinking that the funds will go directly to the families involved for help financially for things like funeral costs, counciling and support etc. please make sure that you give funds to the families directly involved for financial support and the Muslim community. Once you have an answer to wether you will be giving the people directly affected financial help then please answer this as I have seen your stock reply to the other questions and I am aware that you are not sure yet how it will all be used/distributed but I will wait until you know more and are able to fully answer. Cheers ❤️

To measure people's expectations, the response being copy/pasted by Victim Support states that the donations collected here aren't all going to result in lump sums of cash given out to affected families.

It is clear they are saying "ring-fenced to provide resources and support" etc. Saying "resources and support" often means using the funds to hire support workers, generating capacity for the Victim Support organisation to increase their service capacity. The money is therefore most likely to be used on wages. I'm not suggesting there is anything untoward about this approach, but I think it's worth donators being aware that the money won't be divided up into envelopes and dispersed to each family.

Of course, Victim Support are welcome to correct me on this, but that's how I understand these things normally work.

Big shout out to Spark Foundation for having decided "to sponsor the service fee of this page (excluding third party transaction costs)."

<3 <3 <3

A thoughtful gesture from the kind souls behind the big name!

Again, thank you for providing this site and its services.

I am very concerned about the potential dis-information given by the organisers of this "official" appeal. Despite repeated questioning, they refuse to clarify what the funds will be used for, or guarantee that all funds raised, including Spark remitted fees, will go directly to the victims and families. These repeat a deliberately obfuscating phrase that the funds will be used for victim support. As written this could mean NONE of the money will be given to victims families. This needs URGENT definitive clarification that the 100% of the money WILL NOT be used to fund the Victim Support bureaucratic overhead. Leaving this unanswered is undermining the confidence in the GiveALittle page.

Thank you so much for organising this platform so we can donate. I hope there will be coordination with NZIIC - New Zealand Islamic Information Centre LaunchGood platform as they have also raised a staggering amount to date and it's really going to need a coordinated approach. Good luck and thank you for all the amazing work that Victim Support do.

I like many have donated to this cause to support the families through your amazing service but also on the presumption actual funds will go to the families. Please confirm that ringfencing includes providing funds to these families. It is important given people's compassion shown that this happens

Ringfenced means that funds received for a particular purpose will not be spent on anything else.

Are funds ring-fenced to provide resources, support and FINANCIAL support for people affected by the shootings? I think people would be happier if that were the case and - indeed - I assumed that was the purpose of this page?

Can you please advise what ringfenced means please. People are asking genuine questions and would like to know their donations are going directly to the families to pay for their funerals and counciling support etc. Will they be recieving these donations all families like it says. Or are you taking it for victim support services. I have no idea what ring fenced means. Could you please elaborate in depth what this means please.

I am not associated with the Victim Support Charity.

The charity website confirms the following:

"All donations received will be ringfenced to support the dozens of families who have been bereaved and many more injured by yesterday’s horrific shootings"

I also note that Victim support is a registered charity, and prepares annual financial statements that are audited and publicly available.

As the funds are being ringfenced, there is a good level of financial transparency required, and given this organisation has as its core purpose the support of victims, I was confident to make a donation here.

Please ensure ACC pay for all 49 funerals and this money goes directly to the victims families thank you

I hope all this money gets equally put to all family injured or killed, or where it happened at the time.

Funerals, counciling, therapy, ONLY TO DO THIS THESE VICTIMS. not to others who weren't directly affected.

Are the funds raised going to the victims, or the victims supporters?

My question is along the same lines as La Toya. I would like to think that my donation goes directly to the people and community affected.

Will all donations collected here go to the Christchurch tragedy? I just want to know that our donation will only go to this tragedy and not other causes that Victims Support is involved in. Thanks.

I donated to this cause, but can you please advise how much (proportionately) will actually go to the families effected; not just into victim support slush fund.

My intention was to donate to the families and community; and hope money goes back in that form including assistance, funeral costs etc

Please donate the 5% to the families who will need it more than anyone right now. Thank you!

I would like to request a 100% reversal of fees in the form of a donation to the victims of this travesty.

Thank you for this site and the amazing funding it has provided to so many.

Very good concerns & suggestions Netta, Alexandra and Kerryanne. Being part of the affected community I always felt at home in NZ and overwhelmed with the support by Kiwis so far. Community is facing challenges of burial and it is a time sensitive matter for the community, if New Zealand Council of Victim Support Groups can do something regarding it, it will go a long way: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12213260

In general I would encourage anyone, from any walk of life irrespective of any differences, who is anywhere around NZ especially around chch cbd try to reach out to any muslims around you. Ask them if they need anything or even just your physical appearance would mean a world to a very peaceful community of NZ

Will Spark and Give alittle be willing to take no commission on this page given the amount of people that will need the support financially, and how everyone is coming together to help. Can you please wave your cut in this appeal.

To Lucan. You will get a receipt. It may take several hours or a day given the site being overloaded. Thanks.

Hi i was'nt sent a receipt when i donated was i scammed? Is there anyway you could find out for me thanks

Hi Givealittle,

Please consider waiving or reducing your 5% fee for this fund so that more of the donations can go to those who need it.

Thanks

So amazing to see how much generosity is pouring in for victims! Can you provide us with details about how these funds will be distributed and how the affected community will be involved in the decision making process of distributing the funds. TYVM