Discussion
StairDominator said:
Majority of the donations ends up lining the directors pockets; hence why I never give to charities.
I thought I was the only one who thought like that. Do you get funny looks and raised eyebrows when you tell people?I'd rather give to a beggar on the street than any of the big charities.
NickM450 said:
I thought I was the only one who thought like that. Do you get funny looks and raised eyebrows when you tell people?
Can sort of get away with it with a rye sense of humour and the appropriate audience. Usually you'll get the majority of guys who crack up and nod agreeably, but you're always going to offend the certain lefty liberal types (
) - so state your views with caution. 
Playing it safe, public places are easy. 'Hard mode's' the workplace when the HR / payroll girls are walking through the office shaking charity receptacles - depending on the importance of the employment, I'll grudgingly donate the odd piece of copper.
NickM450 said:
StairDominator said:
Majority of the donations ends up lining the directors pockets; hence why I never give to charities.
I thought I was the only one who thought like that. Do you get funny looks and raised eyebrows when you tell people?I'd rather give to a beggar on the street than any of the big charities.
What I've tried to do in the past is work out what type of charity I'm interested in (you've done that, so a Google will throw up some names) then get their Registered Charity number from their website and bung it into the search on this site ... http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/R... ...
That will give you an idea of how much has come in, how much they've spent and (I guess for your bang for buck comment) how much they've actually spent on charitable activity.
Alder Hey Children's Charity, for instance, look like they spend 18% of their income on 'income generation and governance', 26% is 'retained for future use' and 56% is actual 'charitable spending'.
A very dry way of choosing a charity, obviously
That will give you an idea of how much has come in, how much they've spent and (I guess for your bang for buck comment) how much they've actually spent on charitable activity.
Alder Hey Children's Charity, for instance, look like they spend 18% of their income on 'income generation and governance', 26% is 'retained for future use' and 56% is actual 'charitable spending'.
A very dry way of choosing a charity, obviously
NickM450 said:
StairDominator said:
Majority of the donations ends up lining the directors pockets; hence why I never give to charities.
I thought I was the only one who thought like that. Do you get funny looks and raised eyebrows when you tell people?I'd rather give to a beggar on the street than any of the big charities.
However, was there not a case involving a beggar in Sheffield, who was found to regularly drive into the city centre and spend the day begging, before driving back to quite a nice home on the outskirts of the city?
I expect that's an exceedingly rare scenario, but it just shows what a bit of enterprise can do.
StairDominator said:
Majority of the donations ends up lining the directors pockets
Yipper, is that you?It's trivially easy to find out the financials of any charity.
Let's take Oxfam, simply because they've already been mentioned.
£409m income last financial year (to end March 2017)
£303m spent on charitable activities. £231m of it spent outside the UK.
£98m spent internally.
http://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-detai...
That's broken down in the trustee report to 10% on "support costs", 8% on fundraising, and 3% on campaigning and advocacy.
Bottom of p8 - http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Accounts/Ends...
p55 of that trustee report gives salary breakdowns - the eight directors were paid £833k between them, of which the chief exec got £127k. p54 shows the total UK payroll was £72m, for 2,383FTE people - an average of about £30k.
bigandclever said:
What I've tried to do in the past is work out what type of charity I'm interested in (you've done that, so a Google will throw up some names) then get their Registered Charity number from their website and bung it into the search on this site ... http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Showcharity/R... ...
That will give you an idea of how much has come in, how much they've spent and (I guess for your bang for buck comment) how much they've actually spent on charitable activity.
Alder Hey Children's Charity, for instance, look like they spend 18% of their income on 'income generation and governance', 26% is 'retained for future use' and 56% is actual 'charitable spending'.
A very dry way of choosing a charity, obviously
Excellent thanks, wasn't aware of that. That will give you an idea of how much has come in, how much they've spent and (I guess for your bang for buck comment) how much they've actually spent on charitable activity.
Alder Hey Children's Charity, for instance, look like they spend 18% of their income on 'income generation and governance', 26% is 'retained for future use' and 56% is actual 'charitable spending'.
A very dry way of choosing a charity, obviously
The problem is (as per the Oxfam comment referenced above) how much of the money actually helps those in need. Charity can be big business!
TooMany2cvs said:
StairDominator said:
Majority of the donations ends up lining the directors pockets
Yipper, is that you?It's trivially easy to find out the financials of any charity.
Let's take Oxfam, simply because they've already been mentioned.
£409m income last financial year (to end March 2017)
£303m spent on charitable activities. £231m of it spent outside the UK.
£98m spent internally.
http://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-detai...
That's broken down in the trustee report to 10% on "support costs", 8% on fundraising, and 3% on campaigning and advocacy.
Bottom of p8 - http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Accounts/Ends...
p55 of that trustee report gives salary breakdowns - the eight directors were paid £833k between them, of which the chief exec got £127k. p54 shows the total UK payroll was £72m, for 2,383FTE people - an average of about £30k.
I'm not sure why there's an expectation for those running a charity business to do it as a charitable act. Anyone?
plums said:
The problem is (as per the Oxfam comment referenced above) how much of the money actually helps those in need. Charity can be big business!
Is that necessarily a bad thing?To raise £100 costs Oxfam £8. Or, to turn that around, every pound spent on fundraising brings in £12.50. That's not bad at all, is it?
Another £10 of that £100 is spent on internal organisation and administration. Again, that's not bad, is it?
p1esk said:
I'd go along with that.
However, was there not a case involving a beggar in Sheffield, who was found to regularly drive into the city centre and spend the day begging, before driving back to quite a nice home on the outskirts of the city?
I expect that's an exceedingly rare scenario, but it just shows what a bit of enterprise can do.
Yes it did happen in Sheffield, along with organised gangs dropping off people around the city, and picking them up later in the day - https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/beggars-part-of-org...However, was there not a case involving a beggar in Sheffield, who was found to regularly drive into the city centre and spend the day begging, before driving back to quite a nice home on the outskirts of the city?
I expect that's an exceedingly rare scenario, but it just shows what a bit of enterprise can do.
but professional beggars are all over the place - https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/649207/Street-be...
(as if he paid £50k for that TT though...!)
Back to the OP - I'd find a local charity to you that offers respite care for terminal kids or similar,
Seems to have gone on a slight tangent so I will offer a realistic suggestion.
Don’t know if you’re a dog person but this is a charity I came across after we got our Viz Monty
https://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/about-us/m...
We met Cerys and Wendy who you can see on the site - Wendy plays with Monty and Cerys is at school with our daughter.
They train and provide dogs who can smell chemical changes and alert of (in Cerys’ case) a diabetic episode - talking to her Mum it really hits home the changes it meant for them.
Cerys has a permanent insulin monitor attached to her but I’ve seen Wendy react before the machine! It’s amazing.
They are also working hard on the early detection of cancer with Bio detection dogs - have a read.
Children - tick
Cancer - tick
Not a great big behemoth of a charity ridden with scandal - tick
Don’t know if you’re a dog person but this is a charity I came across after we got our Viz Monty
https://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/about-us/m...
We met Cerys and Wendy who you can see on the site - Wendy plays with Monty and Cerys is at school with our daughter.
They train and provide dogs who can smell chemical changes and alert of (in Cerys’ case) a diabetic episode - talking to her Mum it really hits home the changes it meant for them.
Cerys has a permanent insulin monitor attached to her but I’ve seen Wendy react before the machine! It’s amazing.
They are also working hard on the early detection of cancer with Bio detection dogs - have a read.
Children - tick
Cancer - tick
Not a great big behemoth of a charity ridden with scandal - tick
Cotty said:
What sort of distances are you talking about? Just curious.
I'm doing the Llangollen Round (35 miles), Oswestry Round (33 miles) and the Rotary Cross Wales (42 miles). All 1 day challenge walks. I did the Oswestry Round last year and raised something like £400 and dropped a few pounds at the same time so win!
LivingTheDream said:
Seems to have gone on a slight tangent so I will offer a realistic suggestion.
Don’t know if you’re a dog person but this is a charity I came across after we got our Viz Monty
https://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/about-us/m...
We met Cerys and Wendy who you can see on the site - Wendy plays with Monty and Cerys is at school with our daughter.
They train and provide dogs who can smell chemical changes and alert of (in Cerys’ case) a diabetic episode - talking to her Mum it really hits home the changes it meant for them.
Cerys has a permanent insulin monitor attached to her but I’ve seen Wendy react before the machine! It’s amazing.
They are also working hard on the early detection of cancer with Bio detection dogs - have a read.
Children - tick
Cancer - tick
Not a great big behemoth of a charity ridden with scandal - tick
That sounds interesting, thanksDon’t know if you’re a dog person but this is a charity I came across after we got our Viz Monty
https://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/about-us/m...
We met Cerys and Wendy who you can see on the site - Wendy plays with Monty and Cerys is at school with our daughter.
They train and provide dogs who can smell chemical changes and alert of (in Cerys’ case) a diabetic episode - talking to her Mum it really hits home the changes it meant for them.
Cerys has a permanent insulin monitor attached to her but I’ve seen Wendy react before the machine! It’s amazing.
They are also working hard on the early detection of cancer with Bio detection dogs - have a read.
Children - tick
Cancer - tick
Not a great big behemoth of a charity ridden with scandal - tick
LivingTheDream said:
Seems to have gone on a slight tangent so I will offer a realistic suggestion.
Don’t know if you’re a dog person but this is a charity I came across after we got our Viz Monty
https://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/about-us/m...
We met Cerys and Wendy who you can see on the site - Wendy plays with Monty and Cerys is at school with our daughter.
They train and provide dogs who can smell chemical changes and alert of (in Cerys’ case) a diabetic episode - talking to her Mum it really hits home the changes it meant for them.
Cerys has a permanent insulin monitor attached to her but I’ve seen Wendy react before the machine! It’s amazing.
They are also working hard on the early detection of cancer with Bio detection dogs - have a read.
Children - tick
Cancer - tick
Not a great big behemoth of a charity ridden with scandal - tick
I have been lucky enough to visit this charity twice.Don’t know if you’re a dog person but this is a charity I came across after we got our Viz Monty
https://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/about-us/m...
We met Cerys and Wendy who you can see on the site - Wendy plays with Monty and Cerys is at school with our daughter.
They train and provide dogs who can smell chemical changes and alert of (in Cerys’ case) a diabetic episode - talking to her Mum it really hits home the changes it meant for them.
Cerys has a permanent insulin monitor attached to her but I’ve seen Wendy react before the machine! It’s amazing.
They are also working hard on the early detection of cancer with Bio detection dogs - have a read.
Children - tick
Cancer - tick
Not a great big behemoth of a charity ridden with scandal - tick
They do the most amazing work.
They will receive a donation from my estate, after I die.
I am pleased to support them.
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