Charity?

jellyroll

Chalky said:

I'm certain that the majority of donors thought "The money I'm giving will go straight into the pockets of the survivors who lived there".  But no, it has to get stuck in red tape, and processes, and assessments, and overheads will whittle it down to three-fifths of buggerall in the end. And in 5 years there will be calls for a judicial inquiry into what happened to all the money.

Overseas charities do just the same and the local community leaders nick Bob Geldof's line "Just give us the effing money".  Charities have the arrogance of "We know what's best for people" and then spend the majority of the donations paying their OWN salaries while they decide 'what's best'.

Any facts to support any of this or are you just having a moan?

Grunfeld

WezV said:

I really hate the door to door charity collectors....  I have had a few that actually became offensive when I have refused.  Even the nice ones act like you have just kicked a puppy.

Had one call the other night, really cute Polish girl. 
Totally straight with her before the spiel and said I wasn't going to do any sign up but it didn't hurt to be friendly just for half a minute and wish her well. 
The only time door-to-door worked was with a guy who got me to choose to change utility supplier.  I was fascinated by how he was persuading me.  I wanted to learn how he was doing it but I ended up signing up!

Fretwired

Drew_TNBD said:

Charities are crooks. Try telling chuggers that though.

Not all charities are crooks. I'm a trustee of a charity and 100% of cash raised goes to helping people which in our case are young men (and women, but the issue is mostly with men) with mental health problems. It grew out of my old rugby club after there had been some suicides and we now work with the NHS and RFU which has rolled out a scheme for pro rugby players. We provide a 24/7 hotline for people to call and have professional, qualified counsellors to help people. We have no overheads and no salaries. Even our bank, Barclay's, doesn't charge us. In the last 12 months we have helped dozens of people and riased awareness of mental health issues.

For those who maybe interested here's a video made on the cheap (we don't waste money) - it was hilarious to shoot as the club had a team from Wales on a tour of England:

Drew_TNBD

Very cool fret.

WezV

Chalky said:

thumpingrug said:

WezV said:

How many hoops should you have to jump through to access your share of the £20m?

In addition the Govt has already coughed up £5000 per family for immediate needs, which can only be clothes.  

You suddenly give them their share of this £20m which i recon works out to be around £60k each person what are they actually going to do with it.

Its not just about handing over a wedge of cash and walking away.

Perfect description of the problem with charities.  

I'm certain that the majority of donors thought "The money I'm giving will go straight into the pockets of the survivors who lived there".  But no, it has to get stuck in red tape, and processes, and assessments, and overheads will whittle it down to three-fifths of buggerall in the end. And in 5 years there will be calls for a judicial inquiry into what happened to all the money.

Overseas charities do just the same and the local community leaders nick Bob Geldof's line "Just give us the effing money".  Charities have the arrogance of "We know what's best for people" and then spend the majority of the donations paying their OWN salaries while they decide 'what's best'.

So what's your solution?   How do you make sure it gets to the people who need it?  How do you get it straight into the pockets of the survivors? 

I fully agree that a problem with many charities is the need for some kind of admin work, but how do you get past that?

Chalky

WezV said:

Chalky said:

thumpingrug said:

WezV said:

How many hoops should you have to jump through to access your share of the £20m?

In addition the Govt has already coughed up £5000 per family for immediate needs, which can only be clothes.  

You suddenly give them their share of this £20m which i recon works out to be around £60k each person what are they actually going to do with it.

Its not just about handing over a wedge of cash and walking away.

Perfect description of the problem with charities.  

I'm certain that the majority of donors thought "The money I'm giving will go straight into the pockets of the survivors who lived there".  But no, it has to get stuck in red tape, and processes, and assessments, and overheads will whittle it down to three-fifths of buggerall in the end. And in 5 years there will be calls for a judicial inquiry into what happened to all the money.

Overseas charities do just the same and the local community leaders nick Bob Geldof's line "Just give us the effing money".  Charities have the arrogance of "We know what's best for people" and then spend the majority of the donations paying their OWN salaries while they decide 'what's best'.

So what's your solution?   How do you make sure it gets to the people who need it?  How do you get it straight into the pockets of the survivors? 

I fully agree that a problem with many charities is the need for some kind of admin work, but how do you get past that?

I don't know, I'm not a charity process Expert . But I'll bet you a penny to a pinch of shit on next year's anniversary of Grenfell, the media will be full of stories asking "And what happened to all the money that was raised? Where did it all go?". Mark my words

Ravenous

Chalky said:

But I'll bet you a penny to a pinch of shit on next year's anniversary of Grenfell, the media will be full of stories asking "And what happened to all the money that was raised? Where did it all go?". Mark my words

Easiest prediction ever.

thumpingrug

I almost admire your optimistic belief that all this sorting, assessing and checking can be done at no cost just so that every single penny can get through to the victims.  The reality is that people have to do it and as some one who has working in the charitable world for 30 years, I have bills to pay  so need to be paid for the work i do.  Even volunteers have costs.  We make sure they get their travel expenses and training costs covered to enable them to do their jobs.  With something as big as this you are right questions will be asked in months and years to come so everything will need to be accounted for.  That means admin and bookkeeping and given the amounts probably audited accounts.  All at a  cost.  Who do you think pays for this.    

robgilmo

 Come on guys, 20 mil, 800k released, that's a bit more than admin costs, 19.2 million.

Chalky

robgilmo said:

 Come on guys, 20 mil, 800k released, that's a bit more than admin costs, 19.2 million.

Exactly.  I gave a old dosser a fiver last night, and a charity bloke told me off, saying he'd just spend it on booze. I asked what should I do and the charity bloke said give the fiver to him instead to make sure it was used properly. So I did. Charity bloke ran off with it shouting "Thanks, now I can help people!".

The lesson is, if you want to help people just give them the money quietly and unconditionally, otherwise some patronising git of the "I know what's best for other people" brigade will take it and spend it on something else.

Chalky

Oh look - the Charities are still not giving the money out and are being accused of not being transparent...

Grenfell Tower fire money 'not reaching survivors' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40895134

Sporky

Tavernor said:

 spare a thought for the next charity cold caller who knocks on your door. 

Why? They don't "spare a thought" for me, they just want my money.

thumpingrug

Chalky said:

Oh look - the Charities are still not giving the money out and are being accused of not being transparent...

Grenfell Tower fire money 'not reaching survivors' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40895134

Yer, its beginning to stink a bit now.  

bingefeller

Charity begins at home.