Charity giving.

[postman]

Due to the double dip.Are Charities feeling the pinch and to help are their bosses lowering their salary demands.I only ask because for the first time in 25 years my wife said no last night to a request of giving.
Like many Church goers we give a small part of our income,we also sponsor three families abroad.Food,clothing school attendance.Our girls are always bringing home school raffle tickets,and some one somewhere wants sponsoring.And the girls want to go on some trip or other.
Well this past fortnight there has been four requests for more money.And last night the wife said no to one in particular.That is the first time ever in 25 years.So are Charities feeling the pinch and how does it affect them.

 

[sunnyjim]

Not due to 'double dip' , but I feel increasingly less inclined to give as charities become more like ordinary businesses, subcontracting collecting & processing to for-profit businesses, employing apparently highly paid management, high pressure sales tactics etc. As it's so easy to transfer money by credit card or bank transfer, and only a statement of UK taxpayer status is required to get the gift iaid, It's hard to see why there should be so many middlemen. It feels like some charites are run more for the benefit of those involved than the claimed cause.

 

[ASC1951]

I think you have to distinguish between different sorts of charities. I have recently been in contact with a local 'charity' which aims to rehabilitate drug offenders. It gets all its income from grants i.e. from the taxpayer, filtered through politicians. Despite only covering the area of one council, it has a staff of forty and a Chief Executive on £50,000+. Last month it sold for £165,000 an office building which it bought four years ago for £400,000. It has just lost its 'contract' with the council so most of the underlings will lose their jobs while the CEO will swan off to another similar post. These sorts of organisations don't feel the pinch in any real sense because they just pop up elsewhere.

What I would call proper charities i.e. most of their income comes from bequests and individual gifts, IME are feeling the pinch. Their income definitely drops at the same time as demand for their services increases. One heartening thing is that in tough times people generally keep donating, just at a reduced level.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

I have just stopped my direct debits i had going to charity..outgoings are seriously up in chateux Boab...i'll pick them back up when i can though.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Some, especially animal and Cancer charities, but others I have stopped giving money too.
Despite all of this, they still waste their money sending me things in the vain hope I'll suddenly magically change my mind, so it seems they aren't short of the cash anyway

 

[gambatte]

I'm another one who won't give to 'big business charities'. I'm also averse to being asked for sponsorship. I do give, but to my charities.
I especially now dislike developments like justgiving etc. As a kid I always thought there was an element of risk to sponsorship. Sponsored silence? Don't keep quiet, don't get paid. People came to collect after they'd done it.
Nowadays it's all up front. Sponsor someone for a marathon and even if they don't turn up at the start line, they've got your cash.
There also used to be an element of 'can I do it?' to sponsorship. Couple of years ago I got someone at work asking for sponsorship for a 15 mile bike ride. At the time that was my commute, 1 way.
Sponsor me to run a mile!... yeah, right
But probably my biggest gripe has to be 'gift a donation'
Our lass got one of these. One of her friends sent her a card for her birthday. They were the sort of friends who sent presents too. Inside was a preprinted card.
"I've made a donation in your name to XXXXXXXX which will provide meals for XX children in Africa"
Nice thought?
No
You want to make a charitable donation? Do it in your own name.
The thoughts what counts? Its only half thought through. It also can say "I don't think you're charitable enough, so I've done this in your name"
<RANT MODE OFF>
annnnd relax.....

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Yes I've always wondered that if you don't complete your challenge, what do you do? Pay it all back? (oh the shame).

 

[sunnyjim]

Ah Justgiving. That's one of my pet hates. Asking for my money then needlessly giving 5% of it to a private company is an insult to my generosity.

 

[oldfatfool]

I was really shocked when Jeremy Vine had some local charity volunteers on his program a few weeks ago, they where up in arms because they had raised a fortune in their village (25k a year+) over the years but the national charity in question had decided it could increase its gain from the village by employing agency staff to cold call with DD mandates.

Another pet hate is them sending out mass mailings with 'free' pens etc. All cost money. The poppy appeal disgusted me last year, they appeared to target the elderly (though I suspect it was more aimed at past donators) but in their mailing they included a nicely mad cross with a poppy wreathe, they suggested that a gift of £5 should be made to cover the cost!!

As for just giving, when we (Sighthounds online) where looking for a method of collecting sponsorship for my ride in July we where shocked at the commision some of these people charge, iirc Just Giving (which is probably the most used by the lge charities) rake off 5% + a £15 a month fee.

BT on the otherhand do the whole job for free, so much as I don't care for BT I have to take my hat of to them for this service.

 

[ohnovino]

I work for a small charity, and almost all of our charitable funding has dried up. Five to ten years ago we largely depended on donations, so if the recession had hit then we'd have folded. Thankfully we're now (just about) self-sustaining so we've survived, but only with redundancies, friendly lending terms, massive scaling back of what we can offer and some close calls on paydays.

It's definitely the small charities that have been hit hardest, with many going to the wall. Which is why I'd ask that if anyone's thinking of making a donation or raising some money, please have a look around your local area and see if there's a small, struggling organisation you can help.