Scalped on my doorstep – it left an unpleasant taste in my mouth.

[WearyParticipant @weary]

Posted by Bazyle on 06/06/2021 14:04:57:

…. half the takings were going to someone's pet project supporting Yugoslavian hookers.

It's a tough job, but someone has to do-it I guess!!!

Phil.

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Well, what with Covid and everything, they'll need some financial help until they get back off their feet.

I'll get me coat…

Rob

[Stephen SpindlerParticipant @stephenspindler87715]

I used to have a debit donation to a well known dogs home (not dogs trust). One Saturday I received a call from a company employed by the dogs home to raise funds. The caller was quite open and explained they were being paid thousands for one months work and would raise sufficient extra funds to cover their cost and provide a profit to said dogs home. It would appear the sole strategy was to call existing donors and ask for more money. After a fairly pressured phone call I declined to offer more money and instead transferred my donation to a hopefully more worthy cause. Charity is indeed all about business these days.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I have small direct debits to the two local air ambulances and Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital, there were others in the past, but when they started getting greedy, I finished with them.

[Pete.Participant @pete-2]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 06/06/2021 12:15:21:

Posted by Pete. on 05/06/2021 23:53:06:

There aren't many genuine charities I'm afraid, take a look at how much even the big names of 'reputable' charities give out of their total received money, it's in the 30% to 50% range, some of the less well known giving 5% to 30% of what they receive, it's all a business these days, a good business model.

As someone who managed a middle-sized charity for 17 years (and I could have earned more managing a supermarket) I can't agree with that.

Whatever happened in Zambia 50 years ago isn't a good guide to British charities. Your example also shows that even then people were checking up on how money had been spent.

Neil

Of course not all are bad, but the whole charity industry just doesn't sit right with me, elderly people with dementia being put on easy target lists shared amongst these organisations, then fleeced for their life savings, charity employees standing in the street aggressively trying to take your bank details, a donation isn't good enough, they need your bank details, although I think this one got banned.

As pointed out by others here, the salary of some of these charities to their top staff is disgraceful.

Maybe they should implement some kind of standard, when they donate at least 80% of their takings and don't pay employees more than the national average wage they could get some kind of recognition so people would know they're genuine.

[Robin GrahamParticipant @robingraham42208]

Thanks for replies / discussion. I posted about this here because I was reading this forum before retiring to bed, and the thing was still festering in my mind. I had perhaps imbibed a Talisker too many, and wanted to let off some steam. An unwise posting policy!

I wasn't intending to spark a debate about charities – I contribute to a few on a regular basis, have worked with REMAP contributing time and materials, and have no problem with all that. It was more about the near criminality of this approach on my doorstep and my inability to identify and resist. We actually had a minor tug of war with a £20 note. But how do you know if it's someone genuinely trying to get out of hole, albeit by trying to dignify a request for charity by cloaking it in the guise of mutually beneficial commerce, or a scalper?

I was once approached by a guy who asked me for 20p towards a cup of coffee. I really had no change, and told him I had nothing smaller than a tenner. No problem, he dug in his pockets and diligently counted out £9.80 change. I doubt that it was actually a cup of coffee he was after, but it made me smile and he was 20p closer to a wrap. I'm OK with that – it was an honest transaction, he knew that I knew it wasn't about coffee.

Robin.

[Author]

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