To wonder if the Teenage Cancer Trust can cope with the volume of donations from Stephen Sutton's plight

[Bearbehind]

The awareness of teenage cancer raised by Stephen in his last few weeks and the donations it has triggered are awe inspiring but do you think a fairly small charity like Teenage Cancer Trust will know how best to use that kind of money?

Actually, for a charity, more money coming in DOES make things better - charities generally have strategies in place for these kinds of events for unexpected bumps in donations.

As TCT is already an excellently managed charity, I assume they'll absorb these donations into their strategy for future activity without much trouble at all. As I don't work for TCT I can't comment as to what their strategic plans actually are.

My question was a genuine one, things like the Bodyshop donations is an integral part of their income but any charity suddenly receiving this kind of money has big decisions to make and I started the thread to find out how it works, not to criticise them

Funny how you didn't ask how it would work in your opening post and this is hardly a question for "Am I being unreasonable?"

Feels more like you were hoping to start a critical thread based on nothing factual.
And considering the poor guy only died yesterday you're a bit quick off the mark.

Cunt how do you know if a charity is well organised?

You don't set up and fund hospital units within the NHS without being well organised!

I have no idea how organised they are. I said they are already well-managed which is evidenced by their already excellent fundraising activities as has been spoken about earlier.

chipped you can chose to think that if you want- why does everything on AIBU have to be critical- I'm genuinely interested to know how a charity would cope with such a large and unexpected donation- I thought the same when the lady died during the London marathon last year.

I apologise if some people think it's insensitive, it wasn't meant to be. I think Stephen was remarkable and achieved more in his short life than most of the rest if us will and he deserves to have that legacy honoured by using the donations in the most effective way.

Then why ask:

"do you think a fairly small charity like Teenage Cancer Trust will know how best to use that kind of money?"

Because that question is hugely critical.

Exactly!

The Teenage Cancer Trust is an excellent charity and if you knew a teen with cancer you would't even need to question what the specialist teen units mean to them. The are an absolute lifeline to a little bit of normal.

My bestfiends son was diagnosed at 16 and is still receiving treatment at just under a year later. The unit has meant there is a half a chance of juggling life for him, his parents and siblings (including a toddler).

When first admitted to our local hospital he was a schoolboy on an adult ward with his mum only able to be there at visiting hours and

You cannot even begin to imagine how much difference the unit and its fabulous staff have made.

Why? I didn't say 'I don't think they can cope, do you?' I asked what people's thoughts were.

Quite. Also, most charities find that actually paying staff - as a pose to relying solely on volunteers - means they have a suitably qualified, reliable workforce to carry out their charitable aims. The number of suitable people who are willing and financially able to work for free is surprisingly (or maybe not) small.

And after a long time working in the voluntary sector, I have to say that I have never found having more money to be a problem. Can't see it in this case either as the supply of teenage cancer suffferers is hardly drying up .

What a shitty fucking thread.
And what shitty comments from some about execs in charities and wasting money - as if they're all the same read wasteful money-grabbers and as if charities don't need to employ qualified people to ensure funds aren't misappropriated.

Do fuck off and go do a good deed why don't you.

I work for a very small non-profit. I can tell you that we have big plans. If someone came along and gave us a million pounds, we would be able to put it to very good use. Most people who run and work for charities work hard, knowing they could do a lot more with more money. We all get tarred with the same brush as the worst of the bunch.

Sorry titusflavius I don't doubt that you are right.

All well run, ethical charities will take and pay for the best staff they can get, and will try to get the most out of every pound they earn. I would expect any decent charity to do just that.

I meant that I am sure the TCT does the same. My family have benefited greatly by the work of the teenage cancer trust, and I respect them enormously.

Chuggers get my goat though. I really object to them, and I don't donate to anyone without researching them first.

The RSPCA for instance, I have totally written off.

They have the option of investing the money to have an income stream. That is a good use, and enables charities to fund longer research projects or ongoing support programmes, because they can be confident about having the money the next year. That is a very worthwhile position to be in.

Have to put my oar in here - I'm head of fundraising for a national charity (smaller than TCT) and have worked here for 10 years so I'm pretty clued up. As many others say upthread, TCT is perfectly well-equipped to cope with this amount of money. They will no doubt have already had a meeting of their executive committee to discuss what to do with this money once it became obvious that a lot was going to be raised and it's a high-profile donation so people will be asking.
The great thing about the money is that it's the holy grail - unrestricted income which the charity can spend on whatever it sees fit, rather than money which has been given for a restricted purpose. So I imagine that the board will earmark various amounts for different things, which could be anything from more staff to new units, or quite possibly to pay for some of the unseen but absolutely essential things which you can't actually normally ask people to fund, like office rent costs, insurance, accountancy/audit.
I expect that a significant amount will be held for future use, as they will already have a strategic plan in place for the next 3 years. It can actually sometimes harm a charity sometimes to have an extremely large donation as other potential supporters then don't think that they need to contribute (whether that's individuals, grantmaking bodies or corporate supporters), so TCT will need to make sure that the income is spent in a planned and measured way to achieve specific objectives, and I have absolutely no doubt that this is what they will do.

sometimes I repeat myself

That's interesting about large donations actually harming future donations skeepychunky, also about many donations being for a specified purpose.

How do charities generally meet normal running costs if much of their income is for restricted purposes?

They fundraise, Bearbehind. That's why they fundraise, and are happy to get many small donations, so they get unrestricted funds. Every penny they get from unrestricted donations helps to support the actual existence of the charity, and what's left after that goes to support the aims of the charity.

Most restricted grants or donations tend to be from large corporations or government departments for specific tasks or goals. Every penny a charity receives in restricted funds goes to support the activities of the charity - and can't be used to support its existence.

With great difficulty. It is a serious problem for many charities. What you have to do is build up your unrestricted income through membership, legacies etc to cover your core costs.

Much easier to get money to build, say, a hospice, than to find the funds to run one. Staffing costs are very dull and funders like exciting, new initiatives that you can have a big public launch for and put a plaque on.

I am just home from work and as a perfect example of 'unrestricted funding', this afternoon we had a case of a young mum who desperately needed toys for her young baby, however, all our funding is allocated to specific things so we couldn't simply just go and buy a toy pack for her to use with the wee one, despite having several million in funding. Luckily we were able to rely on the good will of our volunteers who were able to locate some toy donations. But yes- unrestricted funds are such a necessity for all the extras!

www.telegraph.co.uk/health/10834003/Stephen-Suttons-legacy-to-include-extra-beds-and-nurses-for-teenage-cancer-patients.html

Looks like they've got a plan to me...

Bearbehind I really really hope you never have to see the fantastic work that the teenage cancer trust do. I unfortunately am in the position where my 16 year old son is fighting cancer and unfortunately it's not rare. 1 in 565 (I think are the statistics) that your child will have cancer. The teenage cancer trust provide specialist units and staff who are dedicated to providing care for teens with cancer. Without this trust every child over the age of 16 would be treated on adult wards. However I'm lucky as my son was diagnosed after the teenage cancer trust was formed so he is on a teenage unit with people his own age and staff who liaise with his school so he can continue with his studies and feel like a teen. As I said before I hope to God you never have to find out the million reasons I'm grateful to the teenage cancer trust and those who've donated. An four your information they are the charity of the year for the body shop and the FA so I'm sure they know exactly how to spend the money which is to help every single inbetweener and there families

Bearbehind I really really hope you never have to see the fantastic work that the teenage cancer trust do. I unfortunately am in the position where my 16 year old son is fighting cancer and unfortunately it's not rare. 1 in 565 (I think are the statistics) that your child will have cancer. The teenage cancer trust provide specialist units and staff who are dedicated to providing care for teens with cancer. Without this trust every child over the age of 16 would be treated on adult wards. However I'm lucky as my son was diagnosed after the teenage cancer trust was formed so he is on a teenage unit with people his own age and staff who liaise with his school so he can continue with his studies and feel like a teen. As I said before I hope to God you never have to find out the million reasons I'm grateful to the teenage cancer trust and those who've donated. An four your information they are the charity of the year for the body shop and the FA so I'm sure they know exactly how to spend the money which is to help every single inbetweener and there families

I hope so too britney and I'm sorry you've had to experience the work TCT do first hand.

I never doubted what they do is vitally important, I just wondered how such a huge sum (one of the links on here claimed it to be a third of their usual income) gets allocated when they weren't expecting it.

I'd never stopped to think how logical it is that all the big donations want 'glory' and how that doesn't pay the day to day stuff.

I do hope a good chunk of the money raised does go to long lasting projects that honour the memory of such a brave young man and benefits those in similar situations.