To be sceptical about this charity now?

[wickedlazy]

Donated £5 through text to save the children. Just had a guy on the phone trying to talk me into giving £10 a month. Through the course of the call, he said save the children's aim is to raise £324,000 in the next four years. He then added that this years add had cost £82,500 and ended on 31st January. I asked him would they repeat the campaign each year. He said they might. So if each years campaign costs £82,500 that is £330,000 spent to raise £324,000. And of course "some" of the money raised goes towards funding the campaign. Either he has gotten his figures wrong, or they are wolfs in sheeps clothing who won't be getting any more money from me.You think you're doing a good deed, helping children until you wonder if you are really just giving some advertising executives a lovely christmas bonus instead

All this came up because I had asked could I not just give via the website when I wished, and he said no we loose money if you do that and I asked why. He did say several times "I don't think I'm making sense". And when I seemed a bit over £82,000 he gave me a full "disclosure" stating he was legally obliged to tell me he was ringing on behalf of listen, the company that runs the campaign, not save the children. Can anyone shed some light on all this?

People give because they are asked, but fall into two broad categories...
"Please" or "Thank you"
Eg "Please find a cure for the disease my family member has, or find one before I get it too."
"Thank you for helping someone through whatever the difficult time was."

Simplistic, but true.

I think the adverts on TV worked really well and we have sent 2 text donations recently but I am annoyed that I am now being hassled by phone as a result of donating.

Never put your phone number on a form when donating to charity. Solves most of the hassle problem.

Adverts on the TV have the worst return on investment of any fundraising response mechanism (ie cost the most for the least income) but strangely people don't mind that kind of spend.

Probably because it is less personal. But if you like the charitable cause, don't you want it to raise good income? I have often seen on MN "I give my donations to X charity because they don't use telephone methods" but they are clearly buying TV advertising space, which costs shedloads more for a poorer return.

Couldn't agree more, Dido.

Agree with dido.

I too am increasingly sceptical about how charities spend their hard gained donations.

Having lived and worked in West Africa, I personally would not donate to any large charity that operates out there or indeed do anything like sponsor a child.

But I do see that those who wish to give have no other recourse to do so. I think if you are going to donate to big charities, accept that a substantial portion of your money will be whittled away by admin and corruption.

It's very difficult.

Tryharder but is 15p out of £1 a big proportion to u? 15p towards fundraising and running costs seems fair to me.

This pisses me right off. We've just stopped sponsoring a child (after 10 years) because we were being inundated with begging letters asking for more money with a side order of emotional blackmail every couple of weeks.
Then I had a chugging phone call allegedly from Christian Aid, v similar to the one in the OP. I'm a regular donor and I have organised the annual collection locally for years, I thought it was the local office phoning, but no, it's someone in a call centre being paid to hassle me. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt this time, if it happens again they'll be needing a new mug local rep.

Also let's not dump admin and corruption into the same thing. I feel they are totally different things.

I agree with the OP - I used to think text message donation was a great idea, being the kind of person who's constantly thinking 'that sounds lke a good cause, I should give them some money' then not getting around to actually doing it. I only made the mistake of actually giving money that way once, though

People who complain about charity salaries and fundraising costs, please watch this: www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong

Charities spend money on whatever money gives them the best return - that is the bottom line.

If you dont want follow up then ring them up and say so.Their fundraising software will have a "do not contact button" so you will be taken off the mailing list.

I worked in the accounts dept charity and sometimes money was donated for the specific purpose of advertising. This money was restricted funds and we were not allowed to spend in any other way.

TalesOfTheCity- that is one of my favourite TED talks. I think a lot people think everyone working for a charity should be a volunteer.

I work for a tiny charity in a deprived seaside town, I wish we had 15p out of every £1 to spend on fundraising and admin! I think if you want to get the most "bang for your buck" as far as charities go, you're best donating to smaller charities and not the bigger ones who can afford big ad campaigns and attract celeb "endorsement", look at the charity commission website for a breakdown of where your money goes

Sorry SantasfavouriteHo, i dont necessarily agree. Small charities have their place but money is money. a charity with £1,000,000 to spend but 15% overheads will do far more good than a charity with £10,000 and little or no overheads. As pointed out above money spent on advertising may well have come from donations that are to be spent on advertising.

This is by restricted funds and by law they are not allowed to spend it on anything else without the agreement of the donors.

I think that "bang for my buck" is giving £1 to a charity that spends 20p turning it into £3. Why wouldn't I want a charity that is turning over tens of millions to be led by someone with serious business acumen?

Charities that don't spend much on admin always worry me. How are they safeguarding the money entrusted to them? How do they make sure they have good governance? How are they making sure they comply with employment legislation? How are they minimising legal risks? How are they ensuring they are in a stable position to keep services running when things go wrong (which is often when services are most needed)? How are they ensuring they stay current or try out new approaches and don't stagnate with inaapropriate services down the line.

Good admin is vital. Organizations that don't spend on admin are often really badly run.

Bakingtins- I am very suprised about Christian Aid! I hope it wasn't actually them but a scam in many ways...

That's exactly what it boils down to Figfog people expect every penny of what they donate to go to the cause, forgetting that the people who work for the charities deserve a living wage, that the electric and gas and wifi and telephone bills etc need paying, that you can't print forms or indeed mail them without cost and that even getting the money to it's destination costs.
I used to work for a non profit and it was unfortunately not uncommon to get letters complaining about stuff like this. It's very depressing when you put your heart and soul into a cause but people think you don't deserve a fair wage for you and your family for it.

We make an annual donation, as a family, to a charity at Xmas. We now do this annonymously without putting our name on it simply because we got bugged continually like this. One group [Sally Annie I'm look at you here] kept it up for years. I don't mind my donation being used for admin and/or further fundraising - it's the subsequent badgering that gets me.

And don't get me started on chuggers!

I support a couple of local charities. When I donate, they email me a very lovely thank you note, not ask for more money ffs.

I was wondering why I hadn't experienced the post-donation pestering described above and realise that, like Umizoomi my donations have been ad hoc cheques either to a local charity or to the local branch of Samaritans. In both cases I have had a charming letter of thanks and no further requests.

If people wish to see the accounts of any charity in England and Wales they are available online via the Charity Commission. There are strict rules about transparency in accounting and it is easy to see where the administrative charges are being spent. Scotland's charity regulator currently does not have this provision - you have to ask the charity and they must send you these - but you can see a financial overview and there is a review underway about making more provision for the general public to access accounts and so on via their website.

The UK as a whole has one of the best regulated and most transparent voluntary sectors in the world. There is always room for improvement but we are quite fortunate. Many other countries have no such stringent requirements on being transparent to the public, including how much is held in reserve. Most major charities will also publish a laypersons version on their website so always worth checking out if you want to make a donation. Many are pretty leanly run and must spend money on managing such income as well as raising it.

Not all charities are so reliant on direct marketing activities. Some are mainly funded through statutory and others by trusts or major donors.

Agree with other posters that no organisation worth its salt will waste time on various fundraising activities if they don't end up generating any profit after the cost. That goes for big or small.

Personally I don't like direct marketing as an area of work but it does make a huge difference. Charities like Cancer Research UK receive 90% of their income through donations of £10 or less, are one of the largest (if not the biggest) charity in Europe and are responsible for several of the most transformational breakthroughs in cancer research leading to tens of thousands of lives being saved. All as a result of those donations. It goes to show that small gifts really can make a change.

I made a donation last year through gift aid on their website to a well known charity - the equivalent after tax of nearly a weeks wages. They then spent five months sending endless begging letters and emails, four times specifically asking for the same donation again, and once I even received a letter saying "we don't normally ask for further donations, but we desperately need your help or people will die" - which asked for double. Fortunately I never give out my phone number, so no phone calls. I ended up emailing to complain and got a call straight back from a very nice chap who basically said that harassing people is cost effective. I told him to take my details off his post and email lists and not to contact me again, and fair dues, I have not been contacted by them again since.

Chuggers I avoid where possible, and when accosted just say, "sorry, I don't speak English" and walk on.