2022 Report of the Ratsadonprasong Fund, Part 1: Donation Summary

Graphic design by zerotwostudio

On the first anniversary of the Siddhi-Issara Foundation’s chartering, we present the movements of the Ratsadonprasong Fund from 26 April 2022, when the Ratsadonprasong Fund came under the foundation’s care with a new bank account in the foundation’s name, to the end of 2022. In this period, donations from the public totaled 3,492,204.19 Baht from 9,812 transactions.

This Donation Summary is Part 1 of the Annual Report. Up next, we will tease out more stories from anonymous donation data with “Top Donors,” “Top Numbers,” “Donation Breakdown by Category,” and “Donation Drives.” Then, we will go into the fund’s operations with “Expense Summary: Cash Bail, Defendant Travel Costs, and Inmate Living Support,” “Top Expenses,” and “Case Hotspots.”

The Ratsadonprasong Fund thanks every donor and supporter for making it clear that, in the protection of people’s freedom and the affirmation of basic legal rights, the people’s first resort as well as last resort is the people. The compilation of the fund’s data into graphs and infographics in this report serves to make it even more clear that every donation, no matter big or small, high-profile or anonymous, is a manifestation of the people’s will.

Down from the sky, rain falls to earth,
Amassing into a great wide current;
It rocks the land with clamorous roars,
Unstoppable its torrential force.

—Siburapha

This graph traces the fund’s account balance at the end of each day. You can see the plunges from the almost 10 million Baht (9,960803.98 Baht) in April 2022 at the outset of the new account to the danger zone of under 1 million Baht in August, October, November, and especially December, with the lowest point on the 17th at 724,663.37 Baht. It is called the danger zone because at under a million Baht, we risk running out of funds to pay for upcoming bails in cases about to be filed.

On the top is a bar graph comparing donations with expenses from the fund. We will analyze these expenses by category, namely bails, defendant travel costs, and inmate living support in Part 6 of the Annual Report. Note that this graph does not display the total income of the fund, but donations only. This means it excludes the bail returned to the fund after the conclusion of cases or after revocation of bail.

On the bottom is a monthly overview of the fund’s balance.

This graph shows the surges in donations on four special occasions. Three of these occasions are donation drives announced by the fund’s caretakers on 14 August, 18 October, and 29 November, that is, after the fund goes into the danger zone of under 1 million Baht. The other occasion is a spontaneous fundraising initiative by the people in a state of emergency on 18 November when 25 people from the rally #RatsadonStopAPEC2022 were arrested, requiring 20,000 Baht each for bail. We will dive into these donation drives in Part 5 of the Annual Report.

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