To be thinking twice about donating money to flood victims in Pakistan?

[Nancy66]

One of the most corrupt countries in the world - is there, realistically, any chance at all the money will get to the victims?

Infuriates me that 8 months after the Haiti earthquake most of the residents are still living in squalor and chaos, while tens of millions sits in bank accounts.

pagwatch, every charity is different and not all large charities are untrustworthy. Charities are hanging on to their reserves a lot more than they were before because of the recession, and if the attitudes on here are anything to go by, they're right to hang on their money!

I hope I have never been horrible to a chugger but I do now just walk on as quickly as I can and try to avoid eye contact. I really really do not want to be chirpily stopped in the street and not allowed to move on until I have handed over my bank details and arranged a direct debit.

They see me coming - I ALWAYS get approached. Must look like a soft touch. Fact is though I already give to my chosen charities, but still feel awkward about giving the chugger the cold shoulder. I am not surprised people are rude. There must be a better way of encouraging charity giving?

girl

I didn't say they were untrustworthy. Isaid people should be wary
And my stats for NAS were about five years ago so pre-recession.

I'd be interested to know why the NAS should be hanging on to their money in your opinion, rather than spending it to benefit children with ASD?

Riven. I am always charming to chuggers Of course . But some of them are surprisingly rude including the guy who told me I was selfish to seek to support charities dealing with ASD. And the girl who lectured me until I asked which charities she paid into...

But i am on the High Street rather a lot

Even non-chugging (proper authootrised appeals based fundraising) can be horrid as each time you ask for help or whateverr you are well aware you are asking for that raffle prize not knowing if their wife was dx'd yesterday, or their child died last week....

You could hear it in their voices sometimes, I swear.

Goodness only knows how awful chugging would be; couldn't do it myself. Would end up sitting down with teh forst person with a tale of woe and sorting all their probs only to go home to no 'sales' (that's why I am no longer a nurse in fact: luckily I realised before I finished training though that was 2 years of my life gone).

When tehy go back the boys are going to ask if we can make the bake sale that raised pushing a hundred for shelterbox in the spring a termly thing.

She (the Head) may well say no- she refused non uniform for Haiti- but we will try, I think that the boys learned more from that than anything else last year.

WRT to nuclear countrieds- I would vote yes. But carefully. I had stats for uni (2005 so not that long ago) suggesting that as a nation a large majority of kids still had no access to sanatation becuase in the villages it is still so different to the developed cities. I wouldn't give to anyone though; my ex Lecturer helps fund a school there for young girls (IIRC) and takes students out there annually (I didn;t get to go, over Christmas and being a mum negated that) and I would trust her to spend every penny wisely. I wouldn't trust everyone.

Charities have to hold on to large amnounts of reservrs- such as for redundancies, what it would cost to run down projects and commitments which can skew things but

Even as someone who has been helped by the NAS (to a limited extent) that seems too much

Some of the charities approaches are pretty questionable though.

I've had

'DO YOU CARE ABOUT ABUSE OF THE ELDERLY?'

shouted at me when I've come out of Sainsbury's.

Would never give a penny to NSPCC, but sponsor a child in Kenya. Currently never give to UK health charities when there is such a high mortality rate for children in the rest of the world, but not ironclad position.

No problem giving to Pakistan, after all if the Con Dems can slash essential services and make the lives of the poor and vulnerable worse, yet hang on to our weapons, then it must be ok!

I've been all over Pakistan, I was married to a Pakistani. Yes, give. MSF is a good organisation. I give via monthly direct debit (after a bit of research ).

Charities need to hang on to a bit of money in the event that their donations are dramatically reduced - or more than a bit as needed - it can be hard to predict these things in difficult economic times. Many charities such as NAS I believe pledge money in advance to certain projects who then depend on that money.

I worked for a charity who ran a fundraising campaign for a new building which was going to cost £16million. The eventual cost of the building was £22 million and the campaign only raised £13 million - so £9 million of their reserves had to be used. The reserves are there for a reason.

If their fundraising income comes in at half what they thought it was, which is a danger in times such as these, they need to have enough money to fulfil their promises and money pledged to projects and also just to keep going, pay salaries, etc so that they can try and raise more money.

I agree with SanctiMoanyArse.

www.shelterbox.org is fab.

They respond instantly to natural and manmade disasters by delivering boxes of aid to those who are most in need.

You can even find out how/where/when your donation was used and who benefitted from it by tracking your disaster relief box online.