I wasn’t is a great mood today as I was being dragged around the sales and she bought nothing, I was then stopped in the street by someone with a NSPCC reflective vest on asking for money, I asked if it was a charity, he said yes, so I asked if he was getting paid for his time to that he replied yes.

So is it a charity if its workers get paid or is it a business in disguise as a charity ?

I have no problems with what the NSPCC do and I’m sure they do a good job but if donations are going to pay wages of employees I fail to see that it’s a charity.

The guy also wanted me to sign a contract for 12 months, not just give a monthly DD but sign a legal document to say I would do it.

Maybe I’m just in a grumpy mood ?

its a question of outlay/income.

I imagine some very boring accountants have done the maths for the charities and worked out that they can harvest more cash for a good cause by initially paying out on wages than if they just had static advertising.

Presumably then by signing the document, and subsequently having a change of mind, they'd try taking you to court, how very charitable.

I understood charitable donations were entirely voluntary.....

But yes, welcome to the Grumpy Club........

Have a look into how many of the big UK charities actually hand over the majority of the cash collected.
Many are just becoming money collectors who just about pay their wages and not much else.

I've heard of up to £90 per signature incentive for direct debits for the collectors..

Im not tight, nor flush, but I doubt 10p in every pound ever gets to the charity involved or actually see's an involvement

I also, always turn away door to door charity sellers for the same reason

Steve

you're not grumpy, just fed up with the government taking all your money and then everybody else wants the 2 p that's left.

i picked the charities i wanted to support, and set up a dd myself. I never give on the street or boxes in pubs etc, to easy for it to go astray.

My dad does the full 10% of his income thing

I used to give to half a dozen charities a few quid (up to £10) each, each month as a standing order.

I then found out the % that makes it's way to the intended carity case (ie the people/children/orphans/cancer researchers/etc) for a few of them, and (so I learnt at the time) the NSPCC are one of the highest in % NOT going to the intended...

That's one of the ones that I stopped...

I'm obviously not suggesting that anyone else stops their own charitable gifts to wherever they are going, but it really did bother me it being squandered in a way that I personally found slightly wasteful. I think they use the term "Administrative Costs" to cover their arses...

ATB

Graham, I think that the money-raiser's attitudes have changed slightly over the last couple years, so whilst I'm in no doubt that you could be getting grumpier (), I suspect that you were prob pretty close to the mark!

[Edited on 29/12/10 by Steve Hignett]

There are people out there living grand lifestyles off of the back of charities, thats what gets my goat. Ive got no qualms about giving £50 to feed someone in Africa but I'll be buggered if the person in Africa gets a fiver and some @rsehole in Kent gets the other 45 quid to buy a Beemer.
Cheers,
Bob

I feel the same i fact I was going to post about it.

My particular beef is that I have a load of old childrens clothes, that I would like to give to a worthwhile cause.
Now consider that the current fasion is to bombard our letterboxes with about 3 differnt charity bags every week and the promise of them being collected.
However the small print if it exists shows only a very small amount of the "cash" by way of a "minimum donation" goes to the charity, the rest is kept by the collecting company/pikey/collector whatever.

So I still have them, in bags. Any suggestions? Sorry for the minor hijack

quote:

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Originally posted by ReMan
I feel the same i fact I was going to post about it.

So I still have them, in bags. Any suggestions? Sorry for the minor hijack

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for old clothes, we take in person to the local hospice shop.

Yeah I normally put the kids outgrown clothes in the Sally Army thing at Asda or take into a charity shop in town. I'll be buggered if I'm giving them in bags to the collectors to sell on at a profit then donate 10p to the charity.

It's a good source of binbags though, I usually get bout 3 bags a week (in 1 pack) and use them for the garage bin