Charity TV adverts

What is going on with charities these days? I'm very happy to donate to the local shops and have a standing order to a few charities I know but I don't want my money spent on a fluffy toy or regular updates, or even an overpaid CEO. Obviously they need admin staff but some salaries sound dubious.
Now some of them have turned into lotteries - donate £2 and win £2,000 or some such. Surely if we donate to a charity the money should go to whoever or whatever is the object? Also why are there so many for similar causes, all presumably with their own staff, premises, expenses etc.?
How much do the adverts cost or do they get special rates?
Then there are the seasonal mailshots sent to all - are they worth the cost?
Getting a bit cynical.

I don’t know about the UK., but in North America the Media, includes TV, Radio and Newspapers, are required to give a certain percentage of Free time to Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) which are free to Registered Charities.
Perhaps this is the case in your situation.
What shocked me was the RNLI giving huge sums of money to dress women in Burkinis! Or as a spokesperson stated, only a small goes to African Nations?! Yup.

I’ve tried several times to write this post, not knowing how to start it, so please forgive me if I ramble a bit. Like most people, my charity donations were only when someone rattled a tin at me when shopping, or putting loose change in the can on the counter in shops and bars, but we really don’t stop and think about where that money actually goes, and I don’t think we even feel good about the donation, it’s just something we might feel society expects of us. That changed for me a few years ago, because I was using contactless to pay for things I wasn’t able to put money in the tins, so thought I’d donate by direct debit to a couple, which I did for about 18 months. I was shopping in Tesco one time and saw they had a charity of the year which they donated to, so that gave me the idea to do similar, only I picked on that was lesser known, which I donated to for a year. The following years I did the same, from January through to December, I’d donate by direct debit.

Roll on to 2017, I now have a great-nephew who is severely disabled, he’ll never walk or talk, he’ll never develop beyond a 5 months old state, his condition is called Lissencephaly, or smooth brain syndrome. Look it up, it’s bad. For a while I’d been thinking about doing some form of voluntary work in the community, but having family with a disability, I decided I’d volunteer for Scope, which campaigns for the disabled. So I’m feeling good about myself because I’m giving up almost every Sunday to help in a shop. After a few months, I’d noticed things but never voiced my thoughts until we got a new assistant manageress, who I hit it off with straight away.

During one of our conversations she voiced her annoyance that Scope was using charitable funds to have stuff specially made for sale in the shop, and if you go into any charity shop these days, you’ll see almost all of them do it. For some, it might be pottery savings banks styled on a VW camper, or pottery cats about 10” tall, (they’re hideous and so 1970’s!), or snow globes, or...well, you get the picture. it was what I’d begun to notice but didn’t want to say anything, that funds were being used to have crap made, supposedly to raise more revenue. The truth is, we’ve got boxes of all manner of crap that’s never sold, just a total waste of money. But the galling thing is being told one of the directors visited the shop, driving a £70k Mercedes, and wearing a handmade suit and Rolex watch. He’s doing very well off the back of charitable donations!

it’s the same with most of the big charities, the CEO’s earn huge salaries. Apparently big salaries attract a higher calibre of CEO, who can use his/her contacts and influence to help the charity, but does it really? In the case of Scope, I believe they try to lobby Parliament to have better rights and conditions for the disabled, but that should be a given these days, just because someone is disabled doesn’t make them less of a person; at least to me anyway. And people will always donate their goods, their money, or in some cases, their time to help charities, so I don’t believe highly paid execs are really necessary.

Going back to the original post, which was about tv adverts, I’ve never seen nor heard an advert for Scope on tv or radio, maybe it’s only the bigger charities who are allocated air time, and I’ve never seen an advert in print either., but they have prize draws, usually win a holiday or a few thousand pounds. Also, every shop has targets to meet, and so they must sell so many tickets, which means a lot of tickets are bought by volunteers just to help meet that target. The bosses have no shame in their demands, each shop must sign up so many people for gift-aiding their donations, and the tin on the counter must get at least £14 in donations every week. You can’t force people to donate, so again, most weeks the tin target is met by a volunteer making a donation. All this to generate revenue for a charity, where the bosses are handsomely rewarded.

I still volunteer but it does irk me that some people are doing very well on the back of my efforts and on the goodwill of others.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by joxville

I’ve tried several times to write this post, not knowing how to start it, so please forgive me if I ramble a bit. Like most people, my charity donations were only when someone rattled a tin at me when shopping, or putting loose change in the can on the counter in shops and bars, but we really don’t stop and think about where that money actually goes, and I don’t think we even feel good about the donation, it’s just something we might feel society expects of us. That changed for me a few years ago, because I was using contactless to pay for things I wasn’t able to put money in the tins, so thought I’d donate by direct debit to a couple, which I did for about 18 months. I was shopping in Tesco one time and saw they had a charity of the year which they donated to, so that gave me the idea to do similar, only I picked on that was lesser known, which I donated to for a year. The following years I did the same, from January through to December, I’d donate by direct debit.

Roll on to 2017, I now have a great-nephew who is severely disabled, he’ll never walk or talk, he’ll never develop beyond a 5 months old state, his condition is called Lissencephaly, or smooth brain syndrome. Look it up, it’s bad. For a while I’d been thinking about doing some form of voluntary work in the community, but having family with a disability, I decided I’d volunteer for Scope, which campaigns for the disabled. So I’m feeling good about myself because I’m giving up almost every Sunday to help in a shop. After a few months, I’d noticed things but never voiced my thoughts until we got a new assistant manageress, who I hit it off with straight away.

During one of our conversations she voiced her annoyance that Scope was using charitable funds to have stuff specially made for sale in the shop, and if you go into any charity shop these days, you’ll see almost all of them do it. For some, it might be pottery savings banks styled on a VW camper, or pottery cats about 10” tall, (they’re hideous and so 1970’s!), or snow globes, or...well, you get the picture. it was what I’d begun to notice but didn’t want to say anything, that funds were being used to have crap made, supposedly to raise more revenue. The truth is, we’ve got boxes of all manner of crap that’s never sold, just a total waste of money. But the galling thing is being told one of the directors visited the shop, driving a £70k Mercedes, and wearing a handmade suit and Rolex watch. He’s doing very well off the back of charitable donations!

it’s the same with most of the big charities, the CEO’s earn huge salaries. Apparently big salaries attract a higher calibre of CEO, who can use his/her contacts and influence to help the charity, but does it really? In the case of Scope, I believe they try to lobby Parliament to have better rights and conditions for the disabled, but that should be a given these days, just because someone is disabled doesn’t make them less of a person; at least to me anyway. And people will always donate their goods, their money, or in some cases, their time to help charities, so I don’t believe highly paid execs are really necessary.

Going back to the original post, which was about tv adverts, I’ve never seen nor heard an advert for Scope on tv or radio, maybe it’s only the bigger charities who are allocated air time, and I’ve never seen an advert in print either., but they have prize draws, usually win a holiday or a few thousand pounds. Also, every shop has targets to meet, and so they must sell so many tickets, which means a lot of tickets are bought by volunteers just to help meet that target. The bosses have no shame in their demands, each shop must sign up so many people for gift-aiding their donations, and the tin on the counter must get at least £14 in donations every week. You can’t force people to donate, so again, most weeks the tin target is met by a volunteer making a donation. All this to generate revenue for a charity, where the bosses are handsomely rewarded.

I still volunteer but it does irk me that some people are doing very well on the back of my efforts and on the goodwill of others.

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That just about sums up my feelings. I used to give by DD to two charities until I started seeing poor press about both (not at the same time). I had a friend who was a finance manager for a sight loss charity. She said every six months the directors all got new cars! This was to 'improve' the image of the charity to the outside world. They also had generous expenses and big salaries.

I now donate directly to a small registered charity that rescues greyhounds and lurchers, I've met the lady that runs it and know what she does with the money.

As mentioned, the tv adverts lose the power to move you because there are too many all saying the same thing. You get immune to them, no matter how sad. When African based charities are after money, but you know the country is corrupt and can afford to purchase arms shipments and the dictators wife has property all over the world, it sort of makes you switch off.

I stopped donating to charities by DD altogether. I used to pay by DD, just a few pounds a month, thinking it might help a little. Then the letters started rolling in asking me to increase my donation. First it was every few months, then every month then it was two to three times a month. I was just so fed up with it that i cancelled my DD and then i got a letter asking why i cancelled it, i told them that i gave them money to use in a charitable cause, not to waste on ever increasing mailshots asking me to give them more.

Then the requests from other charities to open up a DD started pouring in. A quick check with the mailing list number above my name on the envelope showed that the charity had sold my details onto other charities, not something i had given them permission to do but they did so anyway. I now put my money to where it is most welcome and where i can see it being used properly and that is by local charities.

Also, on another note about donating by DD, a friend of mine's mother had died around 4 years previously and her house had been untouched since the funeral as it was in probate. My friend couldn't bear the thought of going in and emptying the house so asked me to do it for her as she needed to get it cleaned up, decorated and put on the market.

I went round all prepared and stuck the key in the lock and pushed.....very hard! It felt like there was something blocking the door so i went round the back and went in that way. Yes there was indeed something blocking the door...a huge pile of mailshots which had almost reached the letterbox! it spread out around 6 or 7 feet around the door too. 7 bin bags it took to get rid of all the junk mail! not to mention opening everything that had something other than paper in it so that it could be recycled properly. in the end i was left with a shoe box full with over 200 pens of all descriptions, around 100 fridge magnets and numeorus other small trinket type stuff.

Out of the gigantic pile of mail, there were just a dozen or so normal letters. Turned out the old dear before passing away had been paying nearly £300 a month to various charities over the years which all started from one sincere DD and had escalated into more than 40! My friend read through a few of the begging letters and one of the charities was asking her if she could increase her £20 a month donation to £30, accompanied by a heart tugging story about how much that extra £10 would help. Needless to say she wasn't at all happy about it all. She actually blocked the letterbox because within a week of me clearing the house, she told me there were 23 more begging letters stuck through it.

My late mother in law came to live with us in the latter part of her life and I was having to look after her finances for her, when I had a close look at her bank statements she was paying various amounts to seven different charities by direct debit and it seems she had little knowledge of any of them. It seems she signed up to a cat charity and they sell her information onto other charities because they see her as an easy target to get money out of, she got so confused with it being pestered by phone and letters she just said yes and gave her details. It amounted to a fair bit of money they had taken before I put a stop to it and it proved almost impossible to shake some of them off, even after she died.

A genuine charity in Scotland must be registered with OSCR https://www.oscr.org.uk/ or in England and Wales with the Charity Commission https://www.gov.uk/government/organi...ity-commission so maybe it's time for a few complaints to get these charities sorted. Unfortunately even the well known ones do everything complained of here so time for the regulators to tighten up on the rules. It's scandalous that so much money donated in good faith is mis-spent and wasted. Or maybe a BBC investigation as they don't take adverts? They would need some examples. Watchdog or Panorama?