To think this was a bit mean...

[Anon1993]

A local charity has recently been awarded several thousand pounds of funding. They are using that funding to pay for various clubs and events in our local area; which is incredibly deprived.

Now I’ll declare my bias first; I have a quiet personal issue with the chair of this charity; which may be colouring my thinking. So here’s the aibu:

As part of this funding her charity (and everyone round here does think of her when they think of the charity), are paying the expenses for me to put on a community event next saturday.

Basically, I’ve organised and paid for everything needed for the event; and then I’ve put my receipts in to claim the money back. One of them got turned down - £15ish on refreshments to feed the volunteers at the event.

Due to the nature of the event, most of the volunteers are children; many of whom due to the demographics of the area are free-school meals; and who will be at venue from 11am to 10pm. When I asks why this money had been denied; she told me they could just bring a pack-up. I reminded her that many of these kids are fsm; so wouldn’t be expected to bring pack up to school trips or similar; and in this case we’re giving up their whole Saturday near enough for the benefit of the commmunity.The answer was still no.

Okay then - I’ll pay for it.

The thing that annoys me is she has approved money for refreshments to sell; with the money going to her charity, she has approved marketing with her name all over it (Yes, her name not her charities name), but she will not approve £1.50 per child so a group of disadvantaged, likely fsm, kids, who are volunteering for their community, don’t have to worry about lunch.

I would strongly suggest you do some digging here. Look at the charity accounts and aims. Look at the salaries and expenses she receives back each year. Also consider where their funding comes from and what criteria they're supposed to meet. Then whistle blow.

There was a charity local to me which started with noble aims and originally ran from an old church hall. Then it began to grow, which was great to begin with. At some point though that changed, the board suddenly were employing people (3 to begin with, with a total salary bill in 6 figures!). At the start they spent almost 100% of their funding on the front line, by the end they were spending less £££s as an actual figure despite a massively increased income. (For example £10,000 funding in the beginning meant £10,000 being spent on the front line. By the end though they were getting say £40,000 funding yet only £5,000 was being spent on front line.) The board (in my opinion) found themselves onto a good thing. They expanded into 3 different retail premises, setting one up as a charity shop, one an office and one the food bank arm. All 3 were rented at cheap rents from board members companies. All very convenient. In the end there were fraud charges brought although I'm not sure of the outcome now. They took money out of the pockets of the most needy and it sounds like perhaps something similar may be going on here. :(

You've got bigger issues to tackle if parents aren't feeding their children than putting on a community event

Have you read the OP's post? One of them got turned down - £15ish on refreshments to feed the volunteers at the event. Due to the nature of the event, most of the volunteers are children; many of whom due to the demographics of the area are free-school meals

It's a disadvantaged area. Are you suggesting the OP shouldn't bother putting on a charitable event because of the area the kids are from?

You've got bigger issues to tackle if parents aren't feeding their children than putting on a community event.

The OP has said the event is being held in a disadvantaged area and most of the volunteering kids are on fsm - parents in that situation can feed their kids a lunch at home much cheaper than a pack up.

Plus there are obviously bigger issues in the area - that’s why events like the one being held are there.

I agree with PP about asking local supermarkets. The one I work in has provided bottled water/fruit/bread/a gift voucher etc for local schools etc. You could even put a sign up saying "volunteer refreshments donated by XXXX"

TheBigBangRocks, that is wrong, reading from some on here who have used volunteers, you absolutely have to provide refreshments, if you are wanting volunteers to work all day, through lunch. Especially child volunteers, who come from deprived area, whose parent's barely can afford electricity to cook meals. Very mean, I am glad you are in the minority.

Are u ok bigbang? You are talking about children over a whole day. You wouldnt feed them? Seasons greetings to you.

longwayoff Quite!

BigBang your post said a lot about the type of person that you are unfortunately. Good on you op, for putting your hand in your pocket and providing those vulnerable kids a little something to eat when they are volunteering.

Some people are miserly. It's £15 ffs - for some children who are giving their time - especially considering they won't be benefitting financially - she/her charity will.

I think that is mean. I volunteer and if we have an even that is longer that 4 hours we either get fed or we can spend up to £5 On food/drink and claim it back.

It's standard for a letter to be signed by the head of the organisation and not a random volunteer/staff member. On that point, it's definitely your bias that's colouring your view.

This is mean. I’ve got a £5 co-op gift voucher somewhere I’d be happy to send out to you? Could get you a couple of multibags of crisps a few big bottles of pop, some carrots and dips? Xxx

Just an update;

I spoke to the treasurer and he confirmed that “he doesn’t see how it can be claimed for” and “what’s the issue with them bringing pack-up or going home for lunch?”

I did mention again that these are disadvantaged kids who are mostly FSM; and if they went home some of them would have to walk home and back alone to get fed across town and be back within an hour... but no.

I’ll pay for them to have a bloody sandwhich, I don’t care about the £15; it’s the bloody principal from this so called charity!

Charity funds are massively restricted as someone set out above. You are literally told you can have x amount but are told exactly how you to spend it. It sounds like a tiny charity if there's only 3 on the board so I'm guessing they really are made count their money to the penny and genuinely have no wiggle room for this sort of thing.

They have three on the board; their funding is worth £250,000!

Sorry; I’m ranting now; but they have been given a whacking great sum of money; they’ll refund us adult organisers to have tea and busicuits every week at meetings but not for this?

Sorry, I’ll go away now; it’s just really got my goat for some reason!

OP, when I helped at a charity event where lots of the volunteers were Scouts/Guides, we approached a local chip shop to ask about group rates - and the owner provided every child with a bag of chips and a can of drink . It might be worth asking any chippies in your area whether they'd be prepared to do the same...?

If your charity is using volunteers there are codes and practices that must be adhered to. The charity should not be exploiting minors in this fashion which is failing them additionally on several fronts. Small or not, I'm surprised the administration appears to be only in the hands of 3 people Chair, Treasurer, Secretary? If the Treasurer cannot authorise £15 as petty cash to pay for this then something is awry.

As far as I know the charity don’t keep petty cash.

It’s not about the money. I’m happy to pay for it as I believe it’s the right thing to do; but thank you for your suggestions; I will ask my local super market and chip shop to see if they can restore my faith a little.

If they can authorise tea and biscuits for the adults once a week they surely pay that from petty cash? Whatever they term it should come from that budget. Absolutely ridiculous.

The way it works as I understand it, and I may be wrong as I have only done this once, is that for small refunds; the woman pays out of her own purse and then bank transfers the cash from the charity account to hers.

A packed lunch doesn't even seem enough tbh. They're volunteering 11 hours between 11am-10pm, they deserve lunch and a hot meal and supplies of water/squash.

It’s totally exploiting minors. You can’t not feed children all day . If it were my charity I’d happily write the justification and let some pious prick take it to court to say we shouldn’t have spent £15 on lunch for minors volunteering all day without means to provide their own lunch. They’d get hung out to dry if they turned out to be sourcing merch from a sweatshop, easy to make the formal case this is similar, and add a thorough argument that feeding them is in line with the charity’s mission and meets their stated goals x y and z.

I’m sure she is a nightmare but she is right that providing a personal benefit to volunteers is not the aim of the charity and a lot of charities are going massively over the top in not paying volunteers’ expenses in order to avoid criticism from CC or anyone else.

I've encountered this. It's highly problematic because many (potential) volunteers are time rich but cash poor. So they might need travel expenses if they are to volunteer at all but a charity might not stump up for this. And it is often more expensive to provide a packed lunch than to eat at home so this may also be a barrier to volunteering.

One charity I worked for as staff refused to pay for my meals whilst I was away from home working for them. I kicked off about that because a meal away from home, however cheaply you budget, will always cost more than something you get at home. IME charities are often run by people who just cannot understand what it's like to be on a very tight budget. And I don't think working in a food bank would necessarily teach her this - it's just more of an opportunity for her to lord it over the poor.

I would go to the AGM and bring it up there.

I would also speak to your local Tesco as they have designated money for this kind of thing..... and I would imagine for a photo op they would be more than happy to lay on a sandwich meal deal per child and some donuts etc for snacks.

Timeisnot is right. And the Chair should not be paying organization money into her personal account no matter how justified she believes it to be. Treasurer should make this clear.