IanSmithCSE
Guru
- Location
- Worcester, Worcestershire
Good afternoon,
Clearly this can't be a one liner or even a one paragraph answer as trying to find a sensible definition that fits a homeless people's shelter and a bike repair and restoration project is going to be tricky, but the one liner is
A charity is an entity that provides a service or product at below the fair market rate without causing harm to reasonable non charitable entities in the same market and without exploiting the funders, the volunteers or the beneficiaries.
So it offers something that is reasonably necessary or desirable but is unavailable;
From the state because of restricted availability, such as Macmillan Cancer Support, scholarships to specialised educational establishments or Meals On Wheels.
From the free market because it is not available at all.
From the free market because it is not available at an affordable price and the charity is not using donated resources to undercut existing suppliers by offering substantially the same product or service by subsidizing labour, premises or equipment to the point of making the existing suppliers business's unviable.
A charity could take canal find bikes/donated bikes and bring them to the market at a price or free and this would be reasonable as no business is offering a similar service. Normally the labour, parts and premises costs for this restoration will be greater than the market price. There does need to be some realism here, if charity normally spends three hours and £25 bringing a bike up to sale standards is donated an immaculate 753 Team Replica well that's a one off.
A charity can't offer bike repairs at below the fair market rate by using volunteers where that will affect the existing repairers, although it can undercut an existing provider by being in a cheaper location or using cheaper parts.
A charity can offer bike repairs at below the fair market rate by using volunteers where there is no likelihood that the work would ever be undertaken at that rate, such as a £100 full service on a bike worth £25.
A charity can't attempt to escape the responsibility that a business would have, such as the consequences as offering bad advice and as many here know restoring bikes can get expensive.
In general a charity can not offer sliding scales where those scales get anywhere near the fair market rate, once it starts offering sliding scales part of the charity can easily become a pure business. For example my LBS offers a standard service for £50, if a charity offers the same for nothing, £10, £20, £30 etc. when does it become a business?
The charity accepts that volunteers are volunteers not unpaid employees and can not be held to demands that might be reasonable of an employee, such as long term fixed commitments of time or completely ad-hoc requests.
In the mid 1990s I started doing voluntary work with what was then the Woman's Royal Voluntary Service, I was a freelance computer programmer and free IT support was welcomed. This experience has been very interesting in seeing how financial and other resources are allocated and used, what the expectations of the volunteers was and what the volunteers expected and wanted.
Bye
Ian
Clearly this can't be a one liner or even a one paragraph answer as trying to find a sensible definition that fits a homeless people's shelter and a bike repair and restoration project is going to be tricky, but the one liner is
A charity is an entity that provides a service or product at below the fair market rate without causing harm to reasonable non charitable entities in the same market and without exploiting the funders, the volunteers or the beneficiaries.
So it offers something that is reasonably necessary or desirable but is unavailable;
From the state because of restricted availability, such as Macmillan Cancer Support, scholarships to specialised educational establishments or Meals On Wheels.
From the free market because it is not available at all.
From the free market because it is not available at an affordable price and the charity is not using donated resources to undercut existing suppliers by offering substantially the same product or service by subsidizing labour, premises or equipment to the point of making the existing suppliers business's unviable.
A charity could take canal find bikes/donated bikes and bring them to the market at a price or free and this would be reasonable as no business is offering a similar service. Normally the labour, parts and premises costs for this restoration will be greater than the market price. There does need to be some realism here, if charity normally spends three hours and £25 bringing a bike up to sale standards is donated an immaculate 753 Team Replica well that's a one off.
A charity can't offer bike repairs at below the fair market rate by using volunteers where that will affect the existing repairers, although it can undercut an existing provider by being in a cheaper location or using cheaper parts.
A charity can offer bike repairs at below the fair market rate by using volunteers where there is no likelihood that the work would ever be undertaken at that rate, such as a £100 full service on a bike worth £25.
A charity can't attempt to escape the responsibility that a business would have, such as the consequences as offering bad advice and as many here know restoring bikes can get expensive.
In general a charity can not offer sliding scales where those scales get anywhere near the fair market rate, once it starts offering sliding scales part of the charity can easily become a pure business. For example my LBS offers a standard service for £50, if a charity offers the same for nothing, £10, £20, £30 etc. when does it become a business?
The charity accepts that volunteers are volunteers not unpaid employees and can not be held to demands that might be reasonable of an employee, such as long term fixed commitments of time or completely ad-hoc requests.
In the mid 1990s I started doing voluntary work with what was then the Woman's Royal Voluntary Service, I was a freelance computer programmer and free IT support was welcomed. This experience has been very interesting in seeing how financial and other resources are allocated and used, what the expectations of the volunteers was and what the volunteers expected and wanted.
Bye
Ian
Last edited:
Will deter the half sensible sober at least
