When is a Charity ,Not a Charity

[SunnyChick]

If, however, all of these costs are going towards the ultimate goal of improving the lot of children with health and social problems; if their wages are not over generous; if their office is not over priced; if all these things are costing money is it not money well spent?

Agreed!!!!

[dozy]

Agreed!!!!

How about if we do it this way ,just to see the response .If i asked you to sponser me in a 10k run for cancer research and you give me a £20.00 donation .What would you say if i keep £16.00 for it for food ,trainers and nice a tee shirt and only pass on the remaining £4.00 ...
Would you feel that it was only fair because i have to pay bills as well and after all its me doing the work, or do you feel that i have cheated you out for £16.00 ..
Things should be made clearer by Charities if they stated that 50p in every £1.00 taken get directly to the end user ,that way you could choose not to sponser the ones with 1p goes to the end user .
How can it be a Charity when its the folk that run it get ALL the benefits ,when that happens (i my eye's ) "its a scam" not a charity

[Carole]

It's a bit confusing really. Not all charities give money. Say a charity is running a project to help disadvantaged young people access activities which improve their health or social behaviour. They have to pay an instructor, they have a volunteer who does the admin but they have phone bills and postage costs even if they work out of someone's garage. They may have office space costs too. If, however, all of these costs are going towards the ultimate goal of improving the lot of children with health and social problems; if their wages are not over generous; if their office is not over priced; if all these things are costing money is it not money well spent?

Squidge is right. There are different types of charities. For example, there are community swimming pools which are registered charities and are able to draw on funds from many organisations as well as raising revenue through coffee mornings, sponsorship, raffles, etc. They do not pass on money to the needy but provide a service to the community.

so how about naming the charity concerned so we can all make an informed comment on the situation.

Perhaps, as NickinTheNorth says, you could let us know which charity you are concerned about? Apologies if you have already responded to his post - perhaps I have missed it?

[rob1]

How about if we do it this way ,just to see the response .If i asked you to sponser me in a 10k run for cancer research and you give me a £20.00 donation .What would you say if i keep £16.00 for it for food ,trainers and nice a tee shirt and only pass on the remaining £4.00 ...
Would you feel that it was only fair because i have to pay bills as well and after all its me doing the work, or do you feel that i have cheated you out for £16.00 ..
Things should be made clearer by Charities if they stated that 50p in every £1.00 taken get directly to the end user ,that way you could choose not to sponser the ones with 1p goes to the end user .
How can it be a Charity when its the folk that run it get ALL the benefits ,when that happens (i my eye's ) "its a scam" not a charity

I would probably call you a selfish git! When you fundraise you do so as a volunter. With cancer research as an example, what would you consider to be the end user? Cancer reasearch in a very large charity. It needs full time staff to manage, lead and undertake its finances, stratagies, marketing, administration and research. Some of the scientific equipment used costs over £1million but its not going to cure cancer over night.

Although you heart is in the right place I don't think you appreciate what it actually takes to make a charity work.

[Bill Fernie]

When does a Charity break the rules on "being a Charity" as we would know it .Would you say its still a Charity when its spends 42% for its income on Wages ,25% on offices and cars,13% on loans and interest and only" 20%" on making life better for the folk that should be at the center ,after all its suppose to be run for their benefit ..What if running it this way is against all the rules ,would you speak up .So "when is Charity not a Charity"

I am not clear what the thrust of your question is asking. If it is to imply that there is something wrong with spending 42% on wages then I am slightly at a loss. As Squidge has said "Not all charities give money. Say a charity is running a project to help disadvantaged young people access activities which improve their health or social behaviour. They have to pay an instructor, they have a volunteer who does the admin but they have phone bills and postage costs......"

Perhaps it is your overworked sense of cheating as in your other posts such as on Damn Lies and Cover Up http://forum.caithness.org/showthrea...s-and-Cover-up

Some of examples that I am connected to might illustrate as local charities where I am involved -
All of them have staff and volunteers.

HomeStart Caithness
I am the chairman and a director of the group as an unpaid volunteer in both capacities. We have other directors all unpaid and we have a number of volunteers who deliver a service to families with young children. The paid staff are senior co-ordinator, coordinator and an admin person who are paid. We get grants from the Health service and the council. We make reports To HomeStart UK and have agreements with the Health service and the council as to what services we will deliver. A high proportion of our funds go in wages and expenses. Note neither myself or the other directors have claimed any expenses. Our volunteers and staff are entitled to claim their travel expenses to visit families. We incur some costs in training in addition to our running costs. We publish annual audited accounts submitted to OSCR.
More details about our work can be found at http://www.caithness.org/community/h...homestart1.htm

Laurandy Day Care Centre
I am a committee memebr and director (unpaid) and have never claimed any expenses.
Again we run services for the elderly and we pay staff to run the service and have the help of dedicated volunteers who are not paid.
We have a service level agreement with the council and the health board for the serivces we deliver to frail elderly people. Our services include meals and baths and showers to folk who have difficulty living on their own due to their frailty. We organise their transport to our centre near Wick airport with a minibus.
Our staff are paid and we have all the usual expenses of running a building to pay and for food costs.
So a high proportion of our money is spent on wages. Again our audited accounts are submitted annually to OSCR
See more about Laurandy at http://www.caithness.org/community/h...ntre/index.htm

I have just last week ceased to be a director and committee member of Highland Housing and Community Care Trust who also employed one part time member of staff for most of its years of existence. We wound up the charity last week after 13 years. We built 41 house for the elderly and disabled around the Highlands. We handed over our homes to housing associations and developed some schemes aimed at alleviating the problems associated with povery and renting a house on low incomes particularly those on benefits. I was one of the founding directors when it was set up and was very glad to have served on it for 13 years. We handed £100,000 to Highland council's housing department to run a scheme we had set up connected to rents to assist our communities and the council will administer the fund into the future for the purpose we set it up for. We also donated £58,000 to Highland Housing Alliance being a charity with similar purpose in assisting people in need to get a home. Again our accounts were submitted annually to OSCR. Without staff costs we would not have been able to function. We raised several million pounds mainly from grants over the years to build the houses and carry out other works. A couple of days ago I received a copy of the minutes of our final meeting.

Previously I have been a committee member of Highland Community Care Forum as a directors and committee member as well as being on the local community care forum as a committee member. Again a lot of the funds were spent on wages to paid staff who carried out work on our behalf.

I have given these examples that I am closely connected with to show that there are many places that pay out a high proportion of their fund in wages and salaries and other expenses to deliver many valuable services. There is not always an ulterior motive as your posts seem to imply. Indeed both the volunteers and the staff who are often paid fairly modest amounts carry out the services in the best interests of our communities. I and the other committee members and fund raisers do so for the reason that we want to make life better for as many people in our areas as we can.

Across Caithness, the Highlands and the rest of Scotland there are thousands of charities delivering many needed services. A high proportion have expenses such as wages and salaries and in any charity where services are the main purpose as opposed to distributing funds then the percentage will be heavily weighted to wages the highest cost in any service led organisation including the council.

I am sure we could always use another member on our committees if you would like to volunteer.

[Gronnuck]

How about if we do it this way ,just to see the response .If i asked you to sponser me in a 10k run for cancer research and you give me a £20.00 donation .What would you say if i keep £16.00 for it for food ,trainers and nice a tee shirt and only pass on the remaining £4.00 ...
Would you feel that it was only fair because i have to pay bills as well and after all its me doing the work, or do you feel that i have cheated you out for £16.00 ..
Things should be made clearer by Charities if they stated that 50p in every £1.00 taken get directly to the end user ,that way you could choose not to sponser the ones with 1p goes to the end user .
How can it be a Charity when its the folk that run it get ALL the benefits ,when that happens (i my eye's ) "its a scam" not a charity

You've made your point dozy.
At the end of the day the donor makes a choice whether or not to support a given charity. They/You have a free choice and if you are in any doubt there are avenues you can pursue to find out everything you need to know.
If you want detailed information about a charity in Scotland you can go here
If you want detailed information about a charity in England or Wales you can go here
You will find that all charities will provide you will a copy of their last annual account (probably for a small fee).
If you wish to know more about the charity, its work, its campaigning, its accounts, then visit the appropriate registration authority and ask.
If you feel so strongly that a charity is a ‘scam’ then don’t support it ‘simples**

[bagpuss]

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/index.aspx

deal with charities in England and Wales- and have the overview for the whole of the UK

http://www.oscr.org.uk/

deal with the picture in Scotland

[shazzap]

What i can't understand is. All the charities that ask for donations for equipment for safe water.
This has been going on for umpteen years. Why has the problem not been sorted yet. Where is the money going.
I am not being funny, thid is a genuine question.

[rob1]

What i can't understand is. All the charities that ask for donations for equipment for safe water.
This has been going on for umpteen years. Why has the problem not been sorted yet. Where is the money going.
I am not being funny, thid is a genuine question.

There are a hell of a lot of places that don't have clean, safe, fresh drinking water. Plus once you have the equipment installed it still needs to be maintained.

[Gronnuck]

What i can't understand is. All the charities that ask for donations for equipment for safe water.
This has been going on for umpteen years. Why has the problem not been sorted yet. Where is the money going.
I am not being funny, thid is a genuine question.

Charities have been active across the African continent for as long as I can remember. I can only imagine poor governance is responsible for not allowing these countries to develop adequately. It would be interesting to know how many sub Sahara politicians have very large deposits in bank accounts all over Europe,

[Shabbychic]

When is a Charity not a Charity? When it becomes a multimillion-pound business.

[shazzap]

Charities have been active across the African continent for as long as I can remember. I can only imagine poor governance is responsible for not allowing these countries to develop adequately. It would be interesting to know how many sub Sahara politicians have very large deposits in bank accounts all over Europe,

This is what i mean. How long do you go on, plowing money into something, that the corrupt goverments are spending.

[golach]

This is what i mean. How long do you go on, plowing money into something, that the corrupt goverments are spending.

Check the video link titled £346 on Thurso Lifeboats FB now thats a real charity closer to home, and gives you the breakdown on what the money is spent on.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001833608833