I wanted to take some time to discuss ADAPP as an organziation to dispell many of the rumors that have been placed throughout the internet questioning ADAPP, its activities and its funding. First off, I want to reiterate that ADAPP is a human rights organization and all of its work goes to education of and advocacy on behalf of Azerbaijani political prisoners and activists. It is a registered non-profit in British Columbia which means that it has to follow British Columbia’s guidelines. Therefore ADAPP has a board, president, executive director and bylaws, which mirror the BC non-profit organization suggested bylaws.  It has tax-exempt status in BC. The British Columbia (BC) government has undergone a number of changes in recent years with the introduction of new taxes, and elimination or adjustment of others. One of the key objectives in these changes has been to ensure that the tax system is fair, equitable, efficient and competitive. You can check here at https://taxfyle.com/blog/independent-contractor-taxes about filing tax as an independent contractor.

Currently, ADAPP is in the process of applying for charitable status and we are restructuring to do so. With charitable status, ADAPP can issue tax receipts for its donations. A requirement for this is that 80% of ADAPP’s funding that is received under its charitable account must go to education and only 20% is reserved for other expenses such as overhead and advocacy. Fakhteh is the Executive Director of ADAPP, but not a member of the board of directors. She heads a working group, which including myself, are mostly Iranian Azerbaijanis, with a few Canadian and American human rights volunteers.

Furthermore, ADAPP boasts a 6-member board, headed by newly-elected president Margaret Morgan, who are all current members of Amnesty International in Canada, neither of whom are Azerbaijanis. Now to those who think ADAPP has questionable activities: a board of Amnesty members would hardly allow this organization to participate in pan-Turkic activities. Every position on the board is completely volunteer.

As for funding, ADAPP receives a nominal amount from human rights organizations. Other funding comes from donations and membership fees. To be honest, a lot of the organization’s expenses have come from Fakhteh’s own pockets. ADAPP operates on a very tight and small budget. At this point, Fakhteh and I, have been involved in grantwriting to various funds to receive money for some future educational projects that we hope will raise awareness on racism in Iran.