Why you should question all charities before giving

[oyster]

rich888 said:

I stopped contributing to charities some years ago after a conversation with a manager of one of the more well known charities who said they no longer focused on selling second-hand clothing and had instead focused on selling new merchandise which offered higher margins due to the fact that they paid no rates for their high-street shops and their staff were volunteers. She was of course earning plenty and the upper management were on loads more. Is this where charity stops?

And what made me even more cross was learning that the very well promoted charity often seen on the telly thanks to hugely expensive TV advertising, whom shall remain nameless for the time being, was paying its staff to stay in the best hotels wherever they liked and spend pretty much whatever they liked on food and drink. This is so wrong when the money should be spent on our wounded troops, not spend on lavish accommodation and freebies for all involved in the charity... next time you see them on the street ask them where they are staying?

This attitude is all so wrong...

Whenever I am confronted by the charity of the day I now ask how much is their CEO being paid, tends to shut them up.

How much should a charity CEO be paid?

And also if you were recruiting for a new CEO for a charity, how would you attract someone who was very good?

[Digga]

oyster said:

How much should a charity CEO be paid?

And also if you were recruiting for a new CEO for a charity, how would you attract someone who was very good?

other questions to consider:

Should a charity CEO be in it for the pay?

Who sits on the pay commission and what do they get paid.

Is generous remuneration really a sure fire way not to have a recurrence of the "Crystal Methodists in charge of other people's money" scenario?

[s2kjock]

eccles said:

s2kjock said:

eccles said:

I remember a few years ago there was an 'expose' of charities overheads.The article listed various charities and how much of £1 was actually spent on the cause that the charity was set up to help. Most of the large national/international charities had overheads up in the 60p to 85p in the pound. There were the usual excuses why some CEO's were on many hundreds of thousands salary.

I'd love to see how these figures are calculated. Particularly as "overheads" is not a term used in charity accounts.

I also don't think any charity chief execs are on "many hundreds of thousands" of salary.

Overheads is my term. You could use expenses or whatever term you like. What you think about the chief execs salary is up to you, I remember what I read.

I did some googling later last night and did indeed find one on "many hundreds of thousands" of salary. Some mental healthcare charity whose chief exec was on c £600k - apparently he was doing 2 or 3 different jobs and therefore had a salary for each role. No doubt the trustees thought that made sense

A few others were in the £200-300k range.

There was a Grauniad report which had extrapolated a sample review of accounts to come up with I believe 55 earning £250k plus.

Most large ones actually listed in reviews of higher level chief exec pay seemed to be in the region of £70k to £150k.

[anonymous-user]

Medecins Sans Frontieres use 89 % of donations for their project work. That seems pretty good to me.

[hornetrider]

NicD said:

I only have a problem with waste and duplication.

I do really get angry when a so called celebrity exhorts me to give.
First I think, are they getting paid, and how much is the advert costing to screen. Then I think, you are worth an awful lot more than me and most people watching this. If you think its such a good idea, why not just give a big donation yourself.

I'm minded to agree.

When fat potato face Rooney came on the telly last night asking me to donate a fiver by text I thought, tell me how much you've donated, Mr 300k a fking week. tt.

[The Don of Croy]

I have two anecdotes related to charidee;

My daughter was contracted to do some telesales for a well known international charity, working from a call centre in London. She and her colleagues quickly developed some key skills in separating elderly folk from their winter heating allowance (money they wouldn't miss on an everyday basis) for the good work of said charity. Especially when the donor was in tears having heard/seen/read about the appalling conditions abroad.

My Mum left a large portion of 'my' inheritance to a London based charity (way to go Mum!!). She then spent a week working in situ to see how the money was being used...this then developed into a formal complaint issued against the charity with the charity commissioners, which is now awaiting a formal inspection.

Much as I like to think people do things with the best of intentions, too many times I find reasons to not support them...

[NicD]

Breadvan72 said:

Medecins Sans Frontieres use 89 % of donations for their project work. That seems pretty good to me.

One very good one then.
And no tear jerk TV adverts to catch the old folk, no chuggers....

[NicD]

Here is celeb to my liking: giving her own money rather than exhorting us to give ours:

Lily Allen: Band Aid is smug and I’d rather donate actual money
Lily Allen has become the latest artist to criticise the Band Aid single in aid of the Ebola crisis, revealing that she refused to appear on it because she considered it smug and preferred to donate “actual money”.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/23/lily-...

[gpo746]

NicD said:

Here is celeb to my liking: giving her own money rather than exhorting us to give ours:

Lily Allen: Band Aid is smug and I’d rather donate actual money
Lily Allen has become the latest artist to criticise the Band Aid single in aid of the Ebola crisis, revealing that she refused to appear on it because she considered it smug and preferred to donate “actual money”.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/23/lily-...

hmmm but then again Lily Allen is an annoying bint who is most adept at getting puiblicity.

[BlackLabel]

There was an Afghan heroes charity in the news earlier this year which collected 550k but spent just 15k in helping people.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Afghan-Heroes-Charity...

The charity even took legal axtion (paid for by donations of course) to try and stop the media asking them difficult questions.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/andrew-penman...

The charity was closed down but no criminal charges were ever made.

[mph1977]

BlackLabel said:

There was an Afghan heroes charity in the news earlier this year which collected 550k but spent just 15k in helping people.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Afghan-Heroes-Charity...

The charity even took legal axtion (paid for by donations of course) to try and stop the media asking them difficult questions.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/andrew-penman...

The charity was closed down but no criminal charges were ever made.

http://www.afghanheroes.org.uk/ ?

charity number 1132340

http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/R...


charity NOT closed down the interim management are trying to untangle the mess

sounds like typical amateur run charity mismanagement and poor governance -

[elster]

Nevermind little charities like Afghan Heroes.

Look at the bigger businesses of Oxfam, NSPCC, RASPC, etc. The amount of work they do is minimal compared to their budgets.

A friend is a Chief Exec of a charity and has his charity st list. Red Nose and Children in Need are on that list.

[greygoose]

gpo746 said:

hmmm but then again Lily Allen is an annoying bint who is most adept at getting puiblicity.

Indeed, aside from Robbie Williams there can't be a bigger attention we.

[mph1977]

elster said:

Nevermind little charities like Afghan Heroes.

Look at the bigger businesses of Oxfam, NSPCC, RASPC, etc. The amount of work they do is minimal compared to their budgets.

A friend is a Chief Exec of a charity and has his charity st list. Red Nose and Children in Need are on that list.

have you looked these charities reporting figures up on the CC site and downloaded their annual reports ?


i'd agree that the RSPCA need looking at but that;s becasue of the political nature of the NHQ lobbying and the Deluded Walter Mittyism of the Inspectorate.

[anonymous-user]

The suggestion that Oxfam does minimal work is absurd. It's one of the major players in provision of relief in many areas of the world.

I am never sure why people moan about celebrities being in the public eye. It's what they do. Lily Allen is an entertaining performer, in my book, but no one is forced to like her or her work. She's put her money where her mouth is. I agree with her that the Live Aid song is (and always has been) smug and condescending, but if it mobilises some people to contribute to disaster relief, it serves a purpose.

[Rovinghawk]

Breadvan72 said:

The suggestion that Oxfam does minimal work is absurd.

The comment was 'relative to their budget'. I don't know the figures and would be curious to see a comparison.

Breadvan72 said:

Lily Allen............ put her money where her mouth is.

This. It puts her streets ahead of many others.