Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[chrisgixer]

Permission to rant a bit please?

[Sir Tigger KC]

Oh go on then ............. 

[chrisgixer]

Oh go on then ............. 

No guesses what about. Really starting to annoy me at least...

[chrisgixer]

No?

Ok, charities. The sort that have a cause so over subscribed they can afford to advertise on tv.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping little bears, donkeys, even children of all things. But the manor of advertising, the expense and regularity of the ads, pulling at heart strings, poor little Dacey etc.

Cystic fibrosis is a cause dear to our hearts with Amy's issues, hopefully mostly resolved after her lung transplant. H sorted out a sponsored walk across the seven bridge in aid of the charity, which involves signing up as a member, which obviously means giving personal details such as email and postal addresses, phone numbers etc.

Big mistake. We've been inundated with points of sale on all fronts. Would you like to donate more? Via email, text message, sales calls, bumpf through the doors, a monthly magazine.

Christ almighty how much does all this cost to produce? And therefore how much( little ) is left to go to research? Support? I should ask them.

In short, seems to me charity no longer exists. They are excuses to keep people in jobs, and i bet the minions of these companies do so on a volunteer basis while the big wigs qualify as fat cats at their earliest convenience.

What an utterly sickening business model. ...or am I being cynical again.

[BazaJT]

Cynical?You?Nah,surely not!Seriously though I agree with you,Iknow charities have to use some means to make Joe public aware of their cause but T.v. advertising is mega expensive-or do they get some kind of cut rate deal?Like yourself I too wonder how much money the actual cause finishes up with once everyone has creamed their wedge off the top.

[Bigron]

I am totally with you there, Chris (and my sympathy with your personal issues), and I have an additional moan about the advertising by charities - "Please give £2/£3 etc., per month". How DARE they decide for me how much I am to donate, it is my decision, not theirs, how much, if anything, I choose to give.

Ron.

[jonny2112]

No arguments from me either 

[chrisgixer]

I am totally with you there, Chris (and my sympathy with your personal issues), and I have an additional moan about the advertising by charities - "Please give £2/£3 etc., per month". How DARE they decide for me how much I am to donate, it is my decision, not theirs, how much, if anything, I choose to give.

Ron.

Absolutely right. It's disgusting. They want the steady income to pay the fat cats.

[Kevin Wood]

It's clear to me that some advertising agency is making a fortune out of these <insert name of victim here>, <Insert sob story here> adverts.

They hope that £3 is below the radar, and once you've set up the DD, you forget about it or can't be @rsed to cancel it, so give more than you first intended.

They can all go forth and multiply, as far as I'm concerned.

[Mr Skrunts]

Totally agree, I read years ago that the donations placed in the collections tins for the Dr B?'s fund raising that 89% actually went towards admins and collection costs etc and that the charity only gave a tad of just over 10% to the children it was collected for.

I dont mind giving to charity but I feel it should be up to us whom we choose to donate to and not have it thrust at us on TV, but these save the animal funds that want to sent us post cards and write to us, who pays the admin wages for all the work involved.

Sky with thier save the jaguar charity, for every £ we donate they will match it, so what happens if someone dies and leaves the charity £20M via sky, do the subsriptions we pay have to go up to match it? 

[Stemo]

I went into TKMAXX in Barnsley yesterday and, before you items were totalled, the cashier asked if you would like to add £1 to your bill for cancer relief. I could see people were sheepish about saying so, when it was my turn, I said " No, thank you" very loudly. This seemed to give the people behind me the courage to do the same.

Incidentally, I donate to cancer research each month by direct debit.

[Rog]

In "the old days" somebody would rattle a can at you on the street, you would take a look at what is is for, dip into pockets for some change, chuck it in and walk on.

Now, you get approached by some smiley and incredibly "cool" guy/girl with a clipboard who will try to engage you in conversation about Children/animals/cancer/disabled/somethingelsesuitablyheartrending . . . and try to get your bank details to set up a regular monthly amount of "Only" £2,£3 or whatever, less than a starbucks coffee.

From me, they have lost out. I certainly would/will part with change, I certainly will not give bank details to a total stranger and comit to a regular donation. Who knows what the future holds ?

I also have strong views on professional fund raising, and they are not good ones 

[Rods2]

It seems to me that they have been hijacked by vested interests and the normal snouts in the trough classes of senior managers / directors / chairman / patrons, so they become a self-propagating means unto themselves. What a charity spends on causes is essentially what is the profits for a normal business. Their turnover goes up with all of this advertising, but also their costs and the numbers that they employ. It is much easier for the senior people to justify their x * £100k salaries, when they can say that the charity is growing y percent per year. But, I suspect that the amount as a percentage and total that is spent directly on the cause is going down. As these charities get bigger they will also spend more on professional lobbying groups to trying and get more tax money, new or changed legislation in favour of their causes (which might or might not be good for society as a whole) and the EU is open to all of this and grants for a price, that is they support xyz directive. So the next time you see some charities supporting some sort of unreasonable climate change / social policy / green agenda / energy policy* (choose as appropriate) to add legitimacy to that cause, remember, they are being paid to do so. 

To me charities show and display all that is wrong in our crony capitalist country, where the fat cats and vested interests are creaming it in at our and societies expense, filled with their own sense of importance, where they actually, in reality, contribute very little or nothing to society as a whole. 

Sadly, these days because of this I won't support any large charities, only small ones, where I know the management and overheads are small and they have a direct interest in seeing that as much as possible goes to their chosen cause.

[tigers_gonads]

Nah, you have it spot on Chris 

If i've had any money to spare over the last few years, I tend to walk into a local hospice when i'm up that way  and leave a few quid in the box.  At least you know it actually got were it was intended.

Another one is the RSPCA.  Did some work for a shop many moons ago who was about to dump half a pallet of dry dog food in the skip because the bags had been damaged.
Nah, not having that ............. stuck them in the back of the car, took a few for myself and the rest went to the local dogs home   

For me its my family, my friends, my countrymen.
I really couldn't give a toss about the rest of the world.
Sad but fare in my book 

[D]

Those adverts must be very expensive. You would think that someone would use that money for a better cause.

I would rather give directly to the local hospice/league of friends etc.