Click on the links to view the answers:
 | What are you trying to do? |
Build rapid disaster response capacity in areas where it is most needed. [Top of the Page]
| Why not let Africans do this? |
Rapid disaster response is difficult enough for northern and western countries. Many African countries do not have a balanced budget and are not yet strong enough to fund such a service. [Top of the Page]
| Why not let commercial companies do this? |
Wings Like Eagles cannot answer for them, but it observes that commercial contracts have penalty clauses and may prevent rapid response and that holding equipment and surge capacity ready to respond is expensive, and may not offer best shareholder value. [Top of the Page]
| Why can't the military respond quickly? |
Wings Like Eagles cannot answer for them, but it observes that holding aircraft at high readiness is very expensive in stores, engineering support, training and pilots. [Top of the Page]
| Isn't disaster response the UN's business? |
The UN has a huge contribution to make, of course and we will accredit with their Humanitarian Air Service. But responding to disasters that affect its people is a national responsibility and the governments we have consulted are all doing an impressive job trying to prepare for and respond to the high disaster frequencies that they suffer.
| Aren't there enough NGOs? |
There are a lot, yes. If there is an organisation that we should consider merging with, then please tell us. [Top of the Page]
| What is so special about Wings Like Eagles? |
We think we can join the brigade of NGOs with something unique - a rapid response helicopter capability that will leave when economics make helicopter support replaceable by cheaper forms of transport. Outside of disasters, we aim to generate a return from the investment you make and thus multiply the resources available to help the needy. [Top of the Page]
| Why did you pick helicopters as your form of transport? Aren't they very expensive? |
Yes they are expensive but they have almost universal utility in the early days of a rapid onset disaster, when reaction time is important. [Top of the Page]
| Why is your charity doing commercial work? |
We aren't. We will lease our aircraft to local operators for commercial work. Such work will help build the GDP of the countries where we operate and through the taxes paid help the countries grow and develop. [Top of the Page]
| Who will you work with? |
We look forward to working with all those who seek to assist the needy in disasters. [Top of the Page]
| What do you believe? |
We believe in the humanitarian imperative and that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the son of God, who died to bring salvation to the world. [Top of the Page]
| Why is your faith so important to you? |
Because we have seen it in action for good. [Top of the Page]
| Will you proselytise your faith? |
Wings Like Eagles does not require a Christian faith in those who work for it. Neither do we wish those who work for us to use relief or development as a method of advancing any creed. [Top of the Page]
| How much of what I give you will be spent in Africa? |
We aim to ensure over 90% of all donations are spent in Africa and to produce a return greater than inflation on our capital assets. [Top of the Page]
| What are your grant-making policies? |
We aim to be a grant making trust because others have much more experience of delivering development projects to the needy in the areas where we operate. We are particularly called to respond to disasters and thus where possible our grant making will aim to build disaster resilience. We will require those who receive your grants to achieve agreed deliverables to agreed time scales. [Top of the Page]
| What is your policy on reserves? |
To ensure we can respond rapidly to disasters, we hold equipment and hold resources for fuel and spares. We currently have no target for our reserves but anticipate that they need to be nearer the top of the acceptable bracket (3-12 months) because of our need to respond rapidly. [Top of the Page]
| Do you pay your trustees and why? |
We do not pay trustees. However, one of our trustees is also our Chief Executive and we remunerate our Chief Executive at a rate disclosed to and accepted by the Charities Commission. We do provide insurance for our trustees so that their families are not disadvantaged by their exposure to the risks of aviation and disease. This will be reported in our Annual Report. [Top of the Page]
| Have you exchanged any commitments with third parties? |
No. All we offer in exchange for donations is a commitment to achieve our Charitable Objects. [Top of the Page]
| Is your Annual Report is easy to find on your website? |
We think so. It will be under the Reporting tab on the About Us page. [Top of the Page]
| What are your future expenditure plans? |
See our Annual Report. [Top of the Page]
| What are your current risks and how do you manage them? |
See our Annual Report. [Top of the Page]
| What are your staff numbers, salaries and roles? |
See our Annual Report. Our highest paid executive works in Africa and is paid under £60,000 per year. [Top of the Page]
| What are your major sources of income and expenditure? |
We seek to have the majority of our funds provided either by personal donors or by commercial revenue. [Top of the Page]
| What is your investment policy? |
We aim to invest in buildings that allow us to respond rapidly to disasters, this requires us to be able to work with national governments and the national HQs of NGOs and to keep our assets secure from disasters so that they are ready to respond. Based on the disasters suffered in individual countries and discussions with other NGOs we will invest in capabilities and equipments, including helicopters, that speed the delivery of aid. We do not invest in organisations that produce arms or tobacco; we aim to be ethical in our investments. [Top of the Page]
| What is the performance of your investments? |
See our Annual Report. [Top of the Page]
| What are your plans for the next two years? |
See our Annual Report. Our current goals are shown under the Our Goals tab on the About Us page. [Top of the Page]
| What have your reserves achieved and what action are you taking? |
See our Annual Report. [Top of the Page]
| What contribution is made by your volunteers? |
Our first legal support was volunteered; our initial engineering and pilot advice was volunteered; relief delivery specialists have volunteered their advice over equipment requirements and likely operating patterns; friends in Africa have volunteered free accommodation and advice; our Advisory Board has volunteered its time and commitment; an aircraft procurement specialist volunteered to help specify our first aircraft; our IT support is volunteered; our website was built and is web-mastered by a volunteer; several fund raisers have volunteered their expertise and contacts; individuals experienced finance, marketing, PR and HR management have volunteered their time and expertise. We anticipate accessing accounting, survey and architectural expertise to help ensure we seek the right professional services abroad. We owe our volunteers so much. [Top of the Page]
| What is the economic value of your volunteers? |
Up to date information will be in our Annual Report. It is difficult to estimate how much we would have paid for all the advice we have received, but we believe over £200,000 has been donated free in time and expertise. [Top of the Page]
| What property assets do you hold? |
We wish to minimise our UK footprint; so we do not have a full time UK office - it is the study of our Chief Executive - under a minimal remuneration arrangement declared to and accepted by the Charities Commission of England and Wales. Abroad, we need offices in each nation's the capital of each nation in which we operate (to maintain links with the Ministries of Disaster Response, Foreign Affairs, Transport (and Civil Aviation Regulation), and Commerce (including with Investment Institutions and Communications Regulators), the Ministries of Defence and Finance. [Top of the Page]
| What have we done to achieve your stated purpose? |
So far we have built the charity in UK, articulated its role to two African governments, obtained the assistance of the relevant aviation regulators, (without commitment), and identified local organisations happy to assist us with delivering our mission. [Top of the Page]
| How do your achievements compare to your plans? |
See our Annual Report. [Top of the Page]
| What is your stated purpose? |
Our Mission and Vision are on our homepage. Our Charitable Objects are half way down the Our Solution page accessed through the Our Solution side tab. [Top of the Page]
| Against what targets and indicators are your successes measured? |
See our Annual Report. Our current targets and indicators are also declared under the Performance tab at the top of the About Us page. [Top of the Page]
| Which of your trustees were serving at year end and who served in year?_ |
See our Annual Report. [Top of the Page]
| How are your trustees appointed? |
Wings Like Eagles was a Company Limited by Guarantee between 12 January and 7 November 2007. The Chairman founded the Company with the assistance of two London-based lawyers, who the resigned. He then invited 3 friends to join him. The friends had to satisfy 4 requirements: having a commitment to the vision and mission; having the right expertise (Legal, Banking and Finance, and Commercial Pilot expertise); having the moral courage to oppose the Chairman when he is not acting in the best interests of Wings Like Eagles; and having an age range that gave an immediate succession capability. Subsequently, the trustees recognised the need for Company Secretarial and Accounting expertise on the Board. They agreed to invite a suitably qualified individual to attend a Board meeting to determine any mutual suitability. This process is under way. [Top of the Page]
| What are your future income streams? |
Where we operate the local aviation markets lack capacity and thus are fragile. For our operating costs, we aim to build our routine donations stream and the income from our investments to provide for fluctuations in the local aviation markets and for changes in inflation and in currency values in different countries. The majority of our future operating costs are planned to come from the commercial lease of our assets between disasters. For our capital growth, we look forward to donations to assist us to develop regional disaster relief capabilities and will use surplus income either to fund or to top up those donations. Our growth may be constrained by our commitment to an expenditure stream of at least 10% of our annual operating surpluses on projects that enhance disaster resilience, or otherwise assist human development. [Top of the Page]
| What is your fund raising effectiveness? |
See our Annual Report. [Top of the Page]
| What subsidiary companies have you formed? |
See our Annual Report. As a matter of policy, it is our first choice to conduct our trading through pre-existing local companies that meet our requirements; we are consider the professional coaching of such companies (by us or others) as the provision of logistical resources advice and support services and advancing education and thus in line with our charitable objects. Where such companies do not pre-exist or the capacity building of pre-existing companies will take longer than is desirable for rapid disaster relief, we will form our own subsidiary companies, inn line with the laws of the country in which we are operating. [Top of the Page]
| Is your stated purpose focused on outcomes or output? |
Currently it is focused on output (disaster relief), we publish our outputs and our building for the future targets (outcomes) half way down the Performance tab on the About Us page. We admit we have much to learn about setting the right performance metrics (see bullet one on the Performance tab). Advice is welcomed, and as we network with other NGOs with similar missions we look forward to becoming more outcome-based. [Top of the Page]
| Have you made a clear description of organisational structure? |
See our Annual Report. [Top of the Page]
| Do you present fund raising and income-generating graphs? |
See our Annual Report. [Top of the Page]
| Do you disclose your performance on your income targets? |
See our Annual Report. [Top of the Page]
| Do you disclose your problems? |
We wish to be a learning organisation and have made feedback a feature of most pages of our website. We have actively sought feedback from diverse quarters in order to learn quickly. Our friends have been frank and we are most grateful. We hope you will find us open and responsive. [Top of the Page]