So how much money I donate goes to intended cause?
Discussion
I have always wondered about this, when I donate money to charity. How much actually goes to the cause?
When I was in University, a friend used to be one of those people hanging around in shopping centres asking people to donate £2 a month to save... what ever they were trying to save that week! and they were paid to do it (just an hourly wage, not on a commission basis), so there is one hand grabbing out of the pot instantly.. Then there are the other admin people in the UK, the directors salaries look healthy, as do most of the people, and that is before it even leaves the UK. (note, in the charity shops, I was told that there is a paid manager and the old people who scorn that you dared to give a bag of slightly worn clothes are mostly volunteers (but not sure how true that is as the person who told me is known to be a lying self publicist).
Then, there will probably be some skimming where ever they are in the world the money is heading, increased prices for Western charities (as everyone knows they will pay)...
So how much actually goes to the intended purpose?
When I was in University, a friend used to be one of those people hanging around in shopping centres asking people to donate £2 a month to save... what ever they were trying to save that week! and they were paid to do it (just an hourly wage, not on a commission basis), so there is one hand grabbing out of the pot instantly.. Then there are the other admin people in the UK, the directors salaries look healthy, as do most of the people, and that is before it even leaves the UK. (note, in the charity shops, I was told that there is a paid manager and the old people who scorn that you dared to give a bag of slightly worn clothes are mostly volunteers (but not sure how true that is as the person who told me is known to be a lying self publicist).
Then, there will probably be some skimming where ever they are in the world the money is heading, increased prices for Western charities (as everyone knows they will pay)...
So how much actually goes to the intended purpose?
The Charities Commission used to or does produce a table showing how much of every pound goes on the admin, that is for direct donations, chuggers and the con men who deliver plastic bags for households to fill are a different ballgame.
Before you donate to any charity have look at their balance sheet and consider how much money they have in reserves. I also look at CEO published salaries.
Before you donate to any charity have look at their balance sheet and consider how much money they have in reserves. I also look at CEO published salaries.
Edited by K87 on Saturday 24th July 14:46
For Oxfam:
On average for every £1 Oxfam spends, 84p goes on our emergency, development and campaigning work, 9p is spent on support and running costs and 7p is invested to generate future income.
Of the 84p spent on emergency, development and campaigning work, the breakdown is as follows: 43p went on humanitarian emergencies, 39p on longer-term development and 2p on campaigning and advocacy. (These figures are taken from Oxfam GB's 2019/20 Annual Report.)
This seems a perfectly acceptable breakdown to me, anyone who has worked in a large organisation knows that there are overheads to accomplishing any difficult task.
On average for every £1 Oxfam spends, 84p goes on our emergency, development and campaigning work, 9p is spent on support and running costs and 7p is invested to generate future income.
Of the 84p spent on emergency, development and campaigning work, the breakdown is as follows: 43p went on humanitarian emergencies, 39p on longer-term development and 2p on campaigning and advocacy. (These figures are taken from Oxfam GB's 2019/20 Annual Report.)
This seems a perfectly acceptable breakdown to me, anyone who has worked in a large organisation knows that there are overheads to accomplishing any difficult task.
PiesAreGreat said:
So how much actually goes to the intended purpose?
IIRC I looked into this several years ago and the bottom line was the larger charities appear to give 5% or less to the actual cause ... It is why I support a small local rescue and a cat rescue where I know the people involved and they also spend their own money on it. Jasandjules said:
PiesAreGreat said:
So how much actually goes to the intended purpose?
IIRC I looked into this several years ago and the bottom line was the larger charities appear to give 5% or less to the actual cause ... It is why I support a small local rescue and a cat rescue where I know the people involved and they also spend their own money on it. That five percent claim is nonsense. I work for a mid sized charity and we aim for over 70% of everything to be directed where it is most needed.
No charity would only grant 5% to the relevant charitable cause- unless corrupt in some way.
Those who work in the charity sector generally are not in it for the money.
No charity would only grant 5% to the relevant charitable cause- unless corrupt in some way.
Those who work in the charity sector generally are not in it for the money.
Mr-B said:
Interesting 223 people earn over £60k a year. if each of those people took a 25% paycut directly to charitable causes that would be a lot of extra money generated!Not sure what jobs people can do in a charity which are deserving of that much, £60k is a rather large salary.
I don't know how I feel about charity - on the one hand we should help those less fortunate if we are able to spare a few quid, but at the same time, I think the way some of the charities go about getting you to put money in is pretty bad - I think the term is "chuggers", whether on the street or the overly emotional adverts showing a Ugandan baby with a Fly on their Face
To be brutally honest I think we have a lot of Poverty in the UK which goes unspoken about, and I'd much rather help re-home someone in the UK than another country
Another poster mentioned larger corporations spending proportionally perhaps higher on advertising / salaries etc - I would much rather donate to a cause which is substantially "cheaper to run" and ergo can support their causes better
I remember donating to the NSPCC for a few years, when I cancelled my Direct Debit they sent what felt like Debt Collectors not only to my door but to ring me multiple times asking me to re-donate - I got quite frustrated in the end
CarCrazyDad said:
Interesting 223 people earn over £60k a year. if each of those people took a 25% paycut directly to charitable causes that would be a lot of extra money generated!
Not sure what jobs people can do in a charity which are deserving of that much, £60k is a rather large salary.
Seriously? Not sure what jobs people can do in a charity which are deserving of that much, £60k is a rather large salary.
Take a look at some of the other numbers there,
4600 employees & 40,000 volunteers. I’d wager you’d need some decent HR managers to keep everyone happy/motivated & the organisation covered. (I’ve 1st hand experience knowing it can be much harder to manage volunteers)
Assets around £900million & liabilities (£600million)
then look at how close income & expenditure are, £700million ish, what sort of calibre of individuals would you attract to manage all of that with a sub £60k salary…. Handling other people’s money you have a duty to do the best you can & that means managing things well. Accountants, Controllers, Finance Directors, CFO.
Scientists - fairly sure it you’d need to attract some who understands all that research & development
Legal people are also not cheap & you’d need a few of them.
It only works out as 1in20 employees on that level (which considering the level of volunteers supporting them really is not a lot.
Edited by AndyAudi on Thursday 29th July 20:22
CarCrazyDad said:
Interesting 223 people earn over £60k a year. if each of those people took a 25% paycut directly to charitable causes that would be a lot of extra money generated!
Not sure what jobs people can do in a charity which are deserving of that much, £60k is a rather large salary.
£60K would be a ridiculously small salary for some of the key positions in a nationwide large charity. As said, thousands of staff and a turnover in the hundreds of millions. Not sure what jobs people can do in a charity which are deserving of that much, £60k is a rather large salary.
Isn't it better to pay a CEO who used to be a big name in The City £300K a year to shmooze all their City contacts and raise £10m in extra donations, rather than pay some nobody £30K with no wealthy business contacts?
webstercivet said:
For Oxfam:
On average for every £1 Oxfam spends, 84p goes on our emergency, development and campaigning work, 9p is spent on support and running costs and 7p is invested to generate future income.
Of the 84p spent on emergency, development and campaigning work, the breakdown is as follows: 43p went on humanitarian emergencies, 39p on longer-term development and 2p on campaigning and advocacy. (These figures are taken from Oxfam GB's 2019/20 Annual Report.)
This seems a perfectly acceptable breakdown to me, anyone who has worked in a large organisation knows that there are overheads to accomplishing any difficult task.
I read somewhere that a lot of Oxfams went on ladies of the night.On average for every £1 Oxfam spends, 84p goes on our emergency, development and campaigning work, 9p is spent on support and running costs and 7p is invested to generate future income.
Of the 84p spent on emergency, development and campaigning work, the breakdown is as follows: 43p went on humanitarian emergencies, 39p on longer-term development and 2p on campaigning and advocacy. (These figures are taken from Oxfam GB's 2019/20 Annual Report.)
This seems a perfectly acceptable breakdown to me, anyone who has worked in a large organisation knows that there are overheads to accomplishing any difficult task.
Mr-B said:
It does all depend on what you view as "admin" - the headline figures on the Charity Commission site show costs broken down into "fundraising" and "charitable activities" which are required headings under charity accounting rules.For more detail on what makes up the "charitable activities" costs you need to look further into the accounts themselves, and there are a variety of different approaches as to how you allocate costs.
You are required to separate costs into those that are directly incurred on charitable activities, and those that "support" them and this is subject to interpretation. It is therefore not as simple as identifying and comparing "admin".
In addition, you simply can't have the direct expenditure without an overhead or administrative support function to deliver it once the organisation gets beyond a small, personal volunteer led size and that needs to be funded.
There are valid arguments to be made about specific costs that you might query as to whether they are appropriate for a charity to be incurring, and also why certain activity should have charitable status at all, but people focussing on "admin" is simplistic and not helpful. It should be on outputs and what the overall cost is to deliver them.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
CarCrazyDad said:
Interesting 223 people earn over £60k a year. if each of those people took a 25% paycut directly to charitable causes that would be a lot of extra money generated!
Not sure what jobs people can do in a charity which are deserving of that much, £60k is a rather large salary.
£60K would be a ridiculously small salary for some of the key positions in a nationwide large charity. As said, thousands of staff and a turnover in the hundreds of millions. Not sure what jobs people can do in a charity which are deserving of that much, £60k is a rather large salary.
Isn't it better to pay a CEO who used to be a big name in The City £300K a year to shmooze all their City contacts and raise £10m in extra donations, rather than pay some nobody £30K with no wealthy business contacts?
bristolbaron said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
CarCrazyDad said:
Interesting 223 people earn over £60k a year. if each of those people took a 25% paycut directly to charitable causes that would be a lot of extra money generated!
Not sure what jobs people can do in a charity which are deserving of that much, £60k is a rather large salary.
£60K would be a ridiculously small salary for some of the key positions in a nationwide large charity. As said, thousands of staff and a turnover in the hundreds of millions. Not sure what jobs people can do in a charity which are deserving of that much, £60k is a rather large salary.
Isn't it better to pay a CEO who used to be a big name in The City £300K a year to shmooze all their City contacts and raise £10m in extra donations, rather than pay some nobody £30K with no wealthy business contacts?
For management level and technical specialists it was not good. Pay was much less than the private sector. A lot of people were working there because it was a charity (many including myself had taken a big pay cut to do so).
At the very top is seemed to be a different story. Top 0.5% seemed to get pretty decent packages.
Pay structure was very rigid so there were a lot of consultants (their technical knowledge was needed but not many would work full time at low rates offered). IR35 was making that difficult.
Large charities are as or more complex than similarly sized private institutions. It is naive to think they don’t need really competent staff to run them.
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