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?

Doh! Missed the second half of the thread...

.. I doubt that crew member is in full possession if the facts, or was talking shorthand and 'funds' doesn't mean donations.

It is nigh on impossible for bucket collections to be used for anything other than the stated charitable purpose. There would have to be continuous theft from the buckets, day in day out, year on year, each treasurer being fully aware that not all donations were bring declared!

Once they are declared there's very little that can be used without having to be fully accounted for. And staff parties aren't allowed.

It’s actually not Unusual.
I used to work in a professional capacity as a supplier to a cancer charity- they used t take us to expensive lunches/ theatre we would try to pay they wouldn’t let us.
Friends of parents used to raise mega bucks (10,000’s) for a local
Hospice, they did that for over 5 years, then found out from a friend of a friend the ‘chief fund raiser’ they loaded with was on a 70k salary from the hospice! They quit fund raising immediately horrified that basically everything they raised hadn’t even covered wages for what they assumed was a volunteer position.

*liased not loaded!

Oh it's so boring this idea that charities should run on a shoestring and goodwill.

Shock horror a professional fund raiser gets paid a professional wage. Much better that the unqualified, inexperienced person who has a couple of hours spare a week does the job. Obviously as a volunteer they can pick and choose when to turn up, and as their mileage isn't paid they might not fancy driving to all those meetings.

I used to have retail shops. One Christmas a woman went out to her car, bought in a charity collection box for Children with Leukaemia, opened it a removed the money to pay for her shopping. I have never been more gobsmacked and it totally destroyed my illusions.

She probably stole it from another shop.

There was a flurry if it happening round here again recently.

No she didn’t steal it as she had been in early in the morning to say she was fundraising in the area and she had picked out what she liked.

She then returned and opened the collection tin in front of me.

Did you report her User?

No I didn’t. I regret I never but was just so shocked.

Friends of parents used to raise mega bucks (10,000’s) for a local
Hospice, they did that for over 5 years, then found out from a friend of a friend the ‘chief fund raiser’ they loaded with was on a 70k salary from the hospice! They quit fund raising immediately

Somewhat shortsighted of them. 10s of thousands in the context of a hospice’s costs is small change ( albeit valuable as it’s unrestricted funding- can be spent on what they like) and wouldn’t pay for a nurse for 6 months. The bulk of the hospice’s funding ( other than fees) presumably comes from private grants and gov. commissioning for which 70k is 70k well spent if it releases hundreds of thousands of funding. When looking at fundraising you need to look at the incremental leverage - ie what £ does £1 raise? It’s better to spend 70k on someone who can raise £1m than nothing on someone who only raises a quarter of that. When you’re dealing with private foundations you really do need a dedicated fundraiser/development manager unless the CEO is going to do it all. Volunteers tend ( understandably) to approach all fundraising from a retail fundraising approach ( heart appeal) whereas that won’t work with foundations/government who are much more outcome focussed. Additionally, big donors require detailed monitoring reports. It’s not just cashing the cheque and writing a thank you letter.

It’s difficult because what retail donors want ( all money spent on direct beneficiary with guaranteed impact) isn’t necessarily in the long term interests of that beneficiary group or in large scale change. One of the larger charities that regularly gets a bashing on here does a lot of government technical advisory work which has resulted in the creation of a child protection system in China but retail donors aren’t interested in funding that because it’s not beneficiary facing and you can’t guarantee it’ll work. But if it does work then it’s genuinely transformative.

i've no issue with volunteers who risk their lives, and their families who keep the home fires burning being rewarded with a piss up.

If it was a pet charity/ ecology type thing that didn't risk mortal danger or dealing with some really heavy stuff (suicides etc) then i'd be a bit 'meh'.

I volunteer (not in a mortal danger way) DH doesn't (because we have kids and his 'job' is minding them while i do what I do) he gives his time as much as i do to that charity, as do our kids.

a friend of a friend the ‘chief fund raiser’ they loaded with was on a 70k salary from the hospice! They quit fund raising immediately horrified that basically everything they raised hadn’t even covered wages for what they assumed was a volunteer position.

Why on earth would anyone think that a head of fundraising role in a hospice would be a volunteer position? Have you any idea what a Head of Fundraising role entails because it’s certainly not just a bit of bucket shaking. It’s a highly strategic, numerate position which requires a vast range of skills. It will generally oversee community fundraising (runs, rides, climbs, cake sales etc), corporate fundraising which is generally building relationships with businesses, restricted funding so grants from trusts and individuals usually for specific projects, legacy fundraising so money people might leave in the wills, major donor fundraising which is essentially building relationships with wealthy people to encourage them to support the charity and individual giving which is usually payroll fundraising and similar.

The head of fundraising will usually be part of the senior management team, be involved in the strategy of the charity, have very high targets to meet and if the money doesn’t come in and services are cut then the buck will stop with them!

Do people really think such a role should be run by a volunteer? Abc is £70k such a huge salary for someone responsible for generating £3-5m a year which is what that kind of salary would entail? Could a volunteer working as and when suits them deliver the same amount and take on that level of responsibility? No.!

Hold on! Re paid charity fundraisers please see my earlier post. Most just take over and take credit for existing efforts of volunteers, are like the PPs example, experienced and successful. They just take the efforts of the many volunteers and claim them as their own. Re the charity involved in implementing a child protection policy in China. I am sure the people of China are quite capable of implementing their own policies. How patronising is that. China is a successful country with an advanced education system. I have visited China

I have visited China

Bless. Hope you enjoyed Shanghai and the Terracotta Warriors. I've lived here for 10 years and been involved in the NGO sector for the same amount of time. Actually, the Beijing government invited the NGO concerned to advise them on the setting up of the system based on the fact that China actually had no system at all (I.e if you suspected a child was being abused there was no effective referral and escalation system in place at all) previous to 2014. You could call the cops and they would arrest the parents for assault but that didn't really help the child as typically parents would either get imprisoned if it was serious enough (child sent to orphanage) or (more typically) just released with a caution to beat kid for grassing them up. Setting up the systems and referral processes optimally (comprehensive civil plus legal) to protect the child is actually very complex and China was keen to avoid mistakes of precedent.

But yes, you're right. The fundraisers that get multi-year million dollar grants are just piggy backing on the success of the people shaking tins outside Tesco on a Saturday. Also, I'm slightly confused as your earlier example suggests we shouldn't be relying on volunteer fundraisers at all as they're likely to have their fingers in the tin.

Yadnbu

Johnnycomelatealy1 I take it you work for a charity then. The Chinese may not have systems in place but it is a very family oriented society and as such many generations are involved the the child’s upbringing and well-being. You sound pompous and defensive and of course the UK system of child protection works sooo well doesn’t it, just ask the children of Rotherham and Oldham or the children abused in care. Wind your neck in. We can’t teach the Chinese anything. You carry on collecting your salary on the back of other people’s efforts.

nope. actually on the other side of the fence. But I'm sure that your one week tourist trip told you all you need to know about China and makes you feel v v superior to your friends who went to Tenerife, so you just keep shaking that tin. Just loving the fact that you're not backing down on your 1 week trip vs 10 years living here. Love your spirit.

ps google "left behind children" before you reply. I honestly advise it to prevent you looking dumb as.

"I come from a Naval/sea-faring family and the RNLI is a charity extremely close to my heart."

Same, people don't respect the Sea or realise how dangerous seafaring still is. It took too long for the Merchant Navy to be recognised in the Remembrance Day tributes.

" It receives NO government funding whatsoever and the hard, dangerous work undertaken by its volunteer crews is entirely self-funded." "

It should be a fully funded emergency service. Although I doubt it would be as well ran. They really know what they are doing and do it well.

OP did you deliberately leave out the charity in your OP and not tell us that the 'volunteers' risk their lives and give a lot of their life over to this Vocation? It is a vocation and one which should be well rewarded.

I'd quite happily give my donations to RNLI for a piss up. I give whenever I'm in Wales, which has most shops collecting for them.

User You really do need to look at the realities of the Chinese family value system and the consequences of people needing to leave their rural homes for work. The Chinese government did and requested external help. That's quite a well known fact, the topic of at least one documentary and a lot of scholarly papers, social research etc.

A WHO bulletin is a good place to start

www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/95/12/17-196329/en/

Johnny I love the assumptions you are making about me and my life. Does it make you feel superior to think I or my friends have never been further than Tenerife! So you live in China. Have you actually made any friends with that supercilious, patronising attitude you have. O sorry, they all need your expertise and help.

Left behind as in left behind with family to bring them up whilst their parents work. May I draw your attention to the fact that many men leave their families to work away. European’s leave their families for economic reasons.

Re paid charity fundraisers please see my earlier post. Most just take over and take credit for existing efforts of volunteers, are like the PPs example, experienced and successful. They just take the efforts of the many volunteers and claim them as their own

No they don’t. Volunteer fundraisers are part of a much wider aspect of fundraising. If a charity is big enough to have a paid head of fundraising then the role of the volunteer fundraiser is totally different to that of a paid Head of Fundraising.

I am a paid charity fundraising manager. I'm absolutely staggered by your comments user. But just so you know, I raise IRO 5 times my salary every year. And I don't "take credit for the efforts of others", or whatever your claim was; all my work is my own. HTH.