a few thousand pounds behind the bar

[necromumda]

We have a local charity driven organization which serves the public and for which volunteers give their time to help. They are constantly raising money for the organization. I just found out that their end of year do involved having a few thousand pounds behind the car for the volunteers. The next day, back again with raising funds via bucket collections.
AIBU to feel this is taking the piss or am I being mean?

I don't believe that charities should be all hair shirt scrimping, and I recognise that they need to reward their volunteers to help keep them engaged in the organisation...but yeah, I don't donate to charity in order for them to throw a lavish Christmas party (I'm public sector - senior managers put their hands in their own pockets for drinks at Christmas, so I call a free bar lavish )

Taking the piss. Absolutely.

I have been involved in many charitable organisations and not one of them allowed alcohol with a meal in just their expenses

It’s possible the party was fully donated by another local business.

It's quite possible they raise money for the volunteers separately.

Also, how did you find out and how many is a 'few'?

Unless you know where the money has come from I think it's unfair to speculate and bad mouth the charity.

For all you know a local business or benefactor, having seen the hard work people put in for free, may have donated the money on the condition it's used for the volunteers party.

It's a meaningless statistic. If a few thousand were £3000, and the do was for 300 people, that would be £10 each. If it were £100 each, that would be less reasonable.

Are you sure this is true? It seems unlikely. I work for a charity and we organise and pay for our own meal for any celebration.

Volunteers save charities thousands though, they are investing in them.

I don't see how they would square this in their charity accounts which would have to be audited. Seems odd.

Depends on the number of volunteers. I know there was recently an award that charities could bid for that would pay for a Christmas party for their volunteers. If you look at the Charitiea Commission financial returns then you’ll see the figures in detail and judge whether it all seems reasonable.

I don't believe that charities should be all hair shirt scrimping, and I recognise that they need to reward their volunteers to help keep them engaged

They're not really allowed to do that. It's been a while since I did the volunteer and the law thing but charity funds aren't supposed to be used like that for volunteers. Unless you know the ins and outs you'll have to assume the money came from elsewhere like a grant for that purpose I think.

It sounds highly highly unlikely that this has been taken from donations. I’d get facts entirely straight before repeating this to all in sundry - it could ruin the charity’s reputation very unfairly. Unless you have seen it in black and white from the person who signed it off. The money could have come from anywhere frankly

Sounds like such a benefit could make them employees, certainly I think it's unlikely that the charity is doing it, although it could be an individual related to the charity in some manner using their own money for it.

It does seem an unlikely story, and probably just a story to gain chatter on mumsnet...

A charity I used to work for did a Christmas do and the (wealthy) trustees used to pay for drinks. It could be something lie know that, or it could be sponsored, unless you know the details I wouldn't judge.

Basically any benefit to being a volunteer beyond essential training/equipment/travel, means you're no longer a volunteer, and tax on the benefit and minimum wage then required. The laws around it are mainly to stop abuse of the charity laws to avoid tax / employment rights.

I would find out where the money came from. It could be a specific donation or part of a trust that was intended to be used for this purpose. Happens in public and voluntary sectors all the time. It could be allowable expenses agreed by the charity’s trustees.

So not mean, but perhaps ill informed and judgemental

It seems very unlikely. Most charities have policies which specifically stop alcohol being purchased for volunteers/staff.

As a third sector professional, I’ve been involved in volunteer management for a long time. The majority of volunteers I’ve managed would balk at money being spent on them. Smaller things tend to go down better.

So I wouldn’t take it at face value.

It might not have come from their own funds, or could have been donated for that purpose.

Personally I’d be more pissed off about the “big” charities spending stupid amounts of cash on advertising/salaries while not doing what they should be doing (aye, Macmillan I’m looking at you, among others)

I started a thread about this last week... well, similar.

I volunteer for one of the big high street charities. Eyebrows were raised by some members of my family when I mentioned that the big charity contributes £11 per person towards our Christmas volunteer night out. (Doesn't cover the whole amount and we buy drinks - alcoholic or soft - ourselves).

I have no idea where the money comes from, whether it goes into the shop's running costs or from a separate "pot" for volunteer retention. But what I do know is that charities are subject to so much more scrutiny than regular businesses and have to justify every spend, to everyone from donors to journalists. The big charities are all over these issues and we wouldn't be getting the £11 each if it wasn't 100% legal and ethical.

OP's post seems very sketchy - she doesn't know the exact details but thought she'd put the boot in to these dodgy charities and their grabby volunteers anyway.

Oxfam id thé worst of the worst

Is

Macmillan do what they say they’ll do

Macmillan do what they say they’ll do

Stick your face. They not only did hee haw for my Mum, they actually delayed her return home because they couldn’t get their shit together. So no, they don’t. She lost valuable time at home because of them.

I recently spent some holiday time volunteering for a charity and there were such strict rules about claiming for expenses that it was bordering on the absurd.

E.g., you had to provide a print out from your Oyster card that details the journey you took to get to the charity and home and that's what you could claim for. Any deviations (e.g., you went home via another station or stopped off for a class somewhere) and you couldn't claim for that journey. It wasn't even that they would look up that your journey cost £2.80 ea. way so you could claim £5.60 for the travel (say).

Other organisations for which I volunteer have very detailed policies, need receipts for everything, and we must demonstrably be seen not to over claim by a penny or we become liable for taxation on the whole sum.

So, I'm surprised that any charity can put money behind a bar for their volunteers.

I volunteer for a national animal charity. We had a Christmas gathering for the centre staff and volunteers. People bought their own drinks and food but there was a small budget so everyone present had one drink bought for them. I think something to the value of up to £10 to £15 per head is acceptable and it shows a level of appreciation towards the volunteers.
I used to work in finance and before things went wrong there were ridiculous amounts of money spent at Xmas parties which I don't agree with.