This is just a chance for me to share my woes really - I know theres not much than can be done and I don't want to post in AIBU.
I started a charity 15 years ago. I can't give away the full details as it's too outing but think vulnerable people who have helped serve others before suffering from a trauma. (I'm trained in this field). Anyway, we start working with the people (our service users) as soon as they experience this trauma, to provide free therapy, and mentoring, and when they are on the road to recovery we offer free training and qualifications in counselling. Since we started we have supported hundreds of our service users to retrain in counselling / therapy, get qualifications and now they are successfully working as counsellors themselves supporting others who have experienced trauma. Every year we have an award event where our service users get a certificate and the first part of their qualification etc. I say all this to paint the picture of what we do. We are only a very small charity with 2 full-time office staff and our funding is really precarious - it was easier when we first started but since austerity much of our funding was cut and we have had to work really hard to stay afloat. We can only forecast for 6 months ahead at a time due to having to reapply for funding each time. We only work with small numbers (say around 30 a year) but over the years that has added up to 100's we have helped, and its been quite life changing at times.
Anyway, a very minor celebrity got involved with our charity a few years ago - said they would come and help by offering their time. They had absolutely no experience in therapy / counselling or training but were sort of connected with the other aspect of our work (through a role they played) and it was a good opportunity for us. They met some of our service users and observed some of our training as well as attending some of our events.
Fast forward to a couple of years later and this person set up their own new charity - replicating everything we do. Because they have been on TV, they have lots of high profile connections, and donors, and have managed to get some very well known names to endorse their charity and big names in the field to come onboard. They have also obtained significant funding from one of our funders, as well as celebrity donations, which means they can keep running for the next 5 years at least. With their funding and connections they've set up a huge marketing machine and have done really well to establish a name for themselves in this area.
So far, I think good for them, and it's important work, and as long as it's helping people that's what matters there's room for all of us, but obviously a part of me felt that they wouldn't have known anything about how to operate the kind of model if they hadn't been involved with our charity so I was a bit surprised they didn't say anything. A month or two after setting the new charity up the person contacted me directly to "let me know" they had set up their new charity and to assure me that "there was no competition". They also asked me about one of our service users by name, and whether they could work with them, but I said that this service user had already qualified and had a full-time job now. I thought this was a bit strange conversation and I suddenly realised I wasn't sure about their motives. Nevertheless I suggested we could work together.
Since then, some time has gone by and the new charity has continued to gain large amounts of funding and celebrity endorsement. This would all be good - the more help the merrier, but... they have started working with service users who had already worked with us for a year or so. So instead of starting to work with their service users right at the initial point of trauma, (which is the hardest part) they have been taking on people who have already received a year or two of therapy, or training from us (and also from other organisations) and then sort of 'claiming' the credit for their success. So for example, someone who we worked with for 2 years did amazingly well, and then got offered a free training with the new charity, on top of the training they had already achieved with us. In the marketing the big charity put out, they described this person's 'background' / their trauma etc and how they have had success working with the big charity, but ommitted the fact that the service user spent 2 years working with us (the small charity) in the meantime to make their recovery first. So basically they make it appear that they are helping people in the midst of trauma, but really they only engage service users who have already spent time in recovery / therapy with us and other smaller charities. So it feels as if my charity and others have done the hard work and the big charity sweeps in one they have recovered to do the easier bit and then claim the glory / credit.
I don't know if this makes sense - trying to keep what we do under wraps not very successfully! I also realise I could come across as bitter about it - which I don't want to feel. On bad days I wonder why I couldn't have made my own charity much bigger and more successful, but then I remember that a) I don't have all the connections and b) I am choosing to work with people at the hardest point.
As I said there is nothing that can be done but is it awful I feel sad and sometimes frustrated and angry about this? Today I saw that the celebrity has won an award for their work setting up their charity which made me think about all this again.