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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