I used to donate to certain charities; but no more.
One charity that I sponsored for many years was Amnesty (International). Founded in London in 1961, it campaigned against the taking, and torturing, of Political Prisoners, worthy ideals that I wholeheartedly supported.
I gave them a reasonable £100 a year, and was more than happy to do so; until they did something so completely-stupidly out of character, that I wrote to the director saying that my 'giving' days were over.
I don't remember the exact details, but Amnesty sent 5 UK representatives to the US to demonstrate outside a prison where a man was about to be executed. The man concerned was the worst type of inhumane scum imaginable; he had been found guilty of raping, torturing, and dismembering (alive) about 13 women (the police suspected he had killed many many more). If anyone merited the death sentence, it was this monster; and regardless of the Amnesty posse, he was put to death!
However, Amnesty saw fit to send these 5 employees to protest. It cost 5 airline tickets, 5 restaurant bills, 5 hotel bills, car hire, shopping trips, and goodness knows what else. At the time, I estimated the cost of their trip at a minimum of £10,000; a 'jolly' that my own small donation would have taken 100 years to pay-off. And, as far as I was concerned, it was totally unjustified.
But all this fades into oblivion compared with Irene Khan's (the recent director) salary and severance payment. When she resigned as director of Amnesty at the end of 2009, she was paid £553,103 on top of her annual salary of £134,490. It would have taken SIX THOUSAND, EIGHT HUNDRED, AND EIGHTY donors such as myself, to have paid for her final year's employment and severance. That's a helluva lot of donations; and she's only ONE out of hundreds of employees.
If you give to a charity, do you really know where your money is going? Of course there are good ones, but most are there to raise money for their employees' salaries; it's that classic vicious circle. The percentage of money that goes to their 'good deeds', is usually minuscule.
N.B. This post has been prompted by a TV ad' I saw last night. A woman who gives £3 monthly to 'help starving African children', was sent off to Africa to see how her cash was being used.... It was being used to buy her air fare, hotel room, taxis, the film crew, etc; but they didn't mention that.
Rant over!
We make annual donations to three charities - three whom we know use the most of what they receive to help those in need -
ReplyDelete1. Legacy, the Australian organisation set up to assist War Widows and the dependant children of deceased servicemen;
2. St Vincent de Paul Society who run 'Op shops' to provide good clothing and bedding to those in need, accommodation and support services to their clientele and men's refuges and soup kitchens.
3. The Salvation Army, an organisation like StV de P but who are on the 'frontline' providing support to victims of disasters (Fire, Flood, Storm, etc) in Australia and run their own mobile canteens to provide hot meals to those (mostly volunteers) assisting during disasters.
Now, their may be a small amount of 'skimming' for administrative purposes but I know that all three organisations are heavily reliant on volunteers and keep their paid administration to the absolute minimum.
The SA was also on MY list, but one of the administrators (UK) stole a fortune!
DeleteWe have St V de P here too. Nowadays I'd rather give 'things', than cash.
Sorry to hear that the UK's Sally-Anns suffered such a humiliation - they'll recover. There's a limit to what you can give in 'kind' to St V de P, it must be 'saleable'. I know of one very large well off inner-city Op Shop where the volunteers were taking quality donated goods home, paying a pittance for them.
DeleteThere will always be the rotten apple in every barrel.
Everything is bound to be 'sorted', before what's left appears on the shelves. Again; all part of the 'giving' process.
DeleteI give to several charities but only in the form of charity shops - when I have made other donations the worst thing is that they keep hounding you for more money, sending raffle tickets with free pens etc. all that postage and wasted money.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Big charities. I used to donate regularly to Save the Children - until they began pestering me (preaching to, and sucking the life from, the already converted) by phone, post and email and started spending all of "their" money on television advertising.
ReplyDeleteI never liked Amnesty - they have always picked and chosen who was worthy of "their" support using their own political/social agenda. A highly laudable aim, subverted by folk who seem to relish basking in a warm limelight glow more than they relish the good works that got them there.
Ditto the Salvation Army, undoubtedly a worthy organisation doing commendable work but they spend A LOT of money lobbying politicians on matters that have nothing to do with people in need and a lot to do with dogma.
Now I only ever support small, local charities that I can visit, the ones without London offices, an admin career structure and the money to blanket television with professionally-filmed advertisements.
"...Ditto the Salvation Army, undoubtedly a worthy organisation doing commendable work but they spend A LOT of money lobbying politicians on matters that have nothing to do with people in need and a lot to do with dogma. ..."
ReplyDeleteThis statement needs specific substantiation - they certainly lobby governments but so do the 'right to lifers', 'shooter's rights', anti-abortionists, euthanasia opponents/advocates, etc
Hi John, pleased to make your acquaintance. As a statement it only needs specific substantiation if I feel the need to justify my opinion/viewpoint to you on your rather curt demand. Let's not mess up Mr Magnon's nice blog now.
Delete"Right to lifer's", "shooter's rights", "anti-abortionists", "euthanasia oppponents/advocates" don't claim to be pearly-white charities. Etc. The Sally Bash do make such a claim (and you agree with me that '... they certainly lobby governments...').
Sorry if your belief and value system was upset by my use of the word "dogma". I could have used a less value-laden word and I will go away and think of one now. Cheers.
I agree - WE should not mess up Cro's page!
DeleteWe support the small independent charity, the rescue where we adopted our 2 dogs. We were volunteer fund raisers for several years and served in other voluntary roles, so we know that the money we collected was used to pay essential bills and care for the dogs. With no other funding, the charity relies totally on the generosity of supporters. When the managers accommodation was in desperate need of refurb, it was all done by a team of volunteers (including me). We were happy to do it, in order to save the charity's money for the dogs.
ReplyDeletePeople helping hands-on is as valuable as cash. My bug bear is that the National Lottery does not give a penny to animal charities.
We too give to the charity where Monty was discovered. Lady M hands-over very healthy cheques, which we know goes towards food and care exclusively. No-one's on the pay-roll!
DeleteI agree with this post Cro,I have commented on another ladies recently she was stating the exact same thing..now what we do is we only give to things that effect our town or where our children live,I run an op shop,14 volunteers and we all live in this little town and we have a rule,when you are sorting,if you wish to buy ,you can but your workmates do the pricing,that way it is totally fair,we find that because every cent goes back into town and absolutely no wages that the girls are happy to pay,I imagine in some places things happen,with us as we are banned from selling electrical things I used to put them out front for free until we found we are still liable!!so now if the staff do not want the electrical item it has to go to the tip...it was St Vincent De Paul manager that pointed out to me that although I thought I was helping by doing this in fact I was putting the shop at risk..you can only do your best and use your discretion..
ReplyDeleteMy friend is a graphic artist and her office does work for one of the big "save a child" type of charities. Along with 2 others from her office, she is being brought into one of the countries for a week to get a feel for the operation so she can create better glossy brochures. Personally I disagree with this. I am sure the front line workers could convey with video or photos and narrative enough of the plight to convey the message of what needs to go into the advertising. I think if necessary, the Company should pay for them to go see the "client", but it is the agency footing the bill. She's not happy with me that this doesn;t sit right with me.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds very much like the TV ad' I saw. It shows a total lack of priority.
DeleteThere are three here in my community and US. The Salvation Army office here in town and to our local homeless shelter, I also donate my pet nursing skills as an ICU critical care nurse to badly abused pets to our local humane society, where I have had the pleasure of saving many to be able to be adopted to families (including me). I donate very small amounts of funds as I am pretty slim in income also, and I also give garden produce to the Salvation Army during the summer and seeds and transplants to the homeless shelter where they have their own greenhouse, and gardens to feed the residents.
ReplyDeleteThat is it.
The homeless shelter provides its residents with skills in growing and being responsible for very large percentage of grocies for its residents and gives skills to work and to work an outside job as they also have a booth at our local farmers market.
That is the extent of my charity giving.
It seems to come down to who leads these organizations. Some people are the kind of folks who know how to put money where it belongs, and others want to think of a million creative PR schemes that will waste money. I think we'd all like to believe a charitable organization is doing the right thing, but we can't know. Frustrating.
ReplyDeleteWhen I had opportunity to find out the six figure salaries at the Humane Society I took a good look around and my pocket book snapped shut. Now I give locally, where I can see my dollars feed people, animals, keep the lights on and the rent paid. Take a good look and realize how many in your community, could use some help. New shoes or coats for the kids. Charity and kindness begin at home.
ReplyDeleteOur giving is limited to the RAF Benevolent Fund -- my husband is RAF retired so that is important to us; and to our church, which we trust to decide wisely which charitable institutions they will support. I expect it's a kind of cop-out, but it is so difficult these days to know which charities to support -- but I am always suspect of those who send lot of stuff through the post and those who spend lots on television advertising.
ReplyDeleteI have a few places i like to give money to, as well as time if possible. One sends an annual report each year, so every penny is accounted for.
ReplyDeleteI give to a couple of local charities - a hospice and the air ambulance - both of which have a huge impact on life in this rural community. I also give freely of my time, and to some extent my purse, in supporting and promoting village events - more 'big society' than 'charity' perhaps, but contributing none the less.
ReplyDeletehave you heard about Kiva? http://www.kiva.org/
ReplyDeletemicro loans to women internationally which are paid back and reinvested in other women's businesses. I've been very happy with it.
Also our local animal protection group (SPCA) runs a thrift store that makes a profit of $200,00 a year which all goes to support the local shelter. I love donating clothes, furniture and appliances.
almost got me cro.. but my blood pressure is already up today to I will repeat several times
ReplyDelete"out with anger ...in with love" and will keep my mouth uncharacteristically shut
Final word from me on this. We do still, of course give to several charities, my favourite being an organisation here in France that runs a 'plane equipped with a surgery, that flies around the world (mostly in Africa) repairing sight. It's called 'Opus' and all the fund raisers, pilots, and surgeons give their time free of charge. Our donations go simply for the upkeep of the 'plane, and equipment. Wonderful people.
ReplyDelete