shocked at charities..

[cuckoooo]

My brother is an auditor in the charity sector and he was telling me that the big charities, particularly the 'sponsor a child' ones are pointless.

He was telling me that the biggest childrens charity - UNICEF - only 14p in the pound gets spent on actual causes the rest of the money goes to advertising, offices and staff costs. He also added that Unicef's boss has a company Rolls Royce and $1.2m salary.

He said for worldvision/plan uk/save the children only between 15p and 23p in the pound gets to the children sponsored and not even directly to the child - just allocated to the local area. The majority of costs are rent, advertising, mysterious 'consulting' costs, and staff costs. He said they have swanky offices in really expensive places - Belgravia/Mayfair etc and the execs have high-ish salaries with lots of perks (chauffeur, paid holidays, lots of annual leave etc)

He said Red Cross was the worst offender of all, but wouldn't go into details.

I just felt a little outraged, though not entirely surprised. It feels like that even the good things of this world are corrupt.

Im not sure why small charities are deemed to be better.the money wonr necessarily directed in the right place and they are limited how they can spend the funds.

Size is such an arbitrary measure. Out puts and value added is what's important imho.

Of course one can give money to anyone and base the decision on whatever arbitrary factor suits.

size is such an arbitrary measure. Out puts and value added is what's important

Couldn't agree more movingon

If you look at somewhere like UNICEF, that is a massive charity run by a massive organisation. I accept it's probably less efficient and more politically motivated than my local hospice. But only a huge machine of a charity with lobbyists on the payroll can do things like eradicate malaria and polio, because to do this you have to work across governments and borders. Sometimes a big brush needs to do a big job.