Fed up with charity adverts

[Littleraindrop15]

Aibu to be fed up of watching shock and awe charity adverts on tv.. And guilt tripping you into paying £3 a month or another little sum that you could afford but some months it's tight and can't.

When the ceo is on thousands!!

Puts me off giving to charities

YANBU I now only support local charities where I know where the money actually goes

Are you suggesting that people who run huge charities should work for free?

Bibbitybobbityyhat. I am poster is not saying that,but she does have a point. The larger charities do have ceo’s on large salaries that in my opinion they don’t do a lot for. I too am fed up of these ads and the bleeding heart ‘stars’ ov tv/film heading them

They upset me greatly because I feel bad for those that suffer but have nothing to give.

I didnt say they have to work for free... But over 200k à year is piss taking.. If they need £3 a month from us

Many years ago I had cause to visit the offices of a charity abroad that a particular community in Britain and several other countries collect huge contributions for.

What I saw shocked me.

Plush beautifully furnished offices in the centre of a very expensive area, large staff sitting around not seeming to do very much in the way of productive work, they had it all.

I think a lot of charities spend far too much money on 'admin' and I agree there seems to be one ad after another for these charities sometimes.

I'm assuming they get a huge reduction in charges for these ads, given that most of them are far longer than most advertisements and would in the normal scheme of things cost thousands.

Very few charities pay their CEOs that much - only large national/internatinal charities. And being paid 200k to run an organisation with a turnover of £50m + seems pretty reasonable to me - you need good people at the top.

Those CEOs could get much bigger salaries in the private sector. They are taking a pay cut. Charities have to be allowed to be a bit competitive in order to attract talent.

I knew the CEO of a charity and believe me, he earnt his money. Weeks away from his family at a time, sometimes in very dangerous places. Extremely complicated and traumatic decisions. Having to deal with the death of his staff and volunteers. It was pretty harrowing. Personality-wise he was no different to any other corporate CEO other than he felt a big responsibility to give back, hence doing a role with the same amount of stress and responsibility but with maybe a third of the salary he could have expected in a corporate role.

No advert guilt trips me - ever. I will never ever ever sign up, and totally ignore chuggers. I don't owe them anything so they can fuck off.

As a pp said, the people at the top cream off the lion's share of the money that is donated, and the people it's meant for get very little.

Also, the charity SHOPS make a fucking killing. Free stuff, free staff, low rates and rent. BARGAIN! Again, the people at the top do very nicely.

Hell will freeze over before I will give fuck-all to charities.

And everyone else should do the same.

Fun fact; there are around 185,000 registered charities in the UK.

And they all expect donations/money. With most of it not going to the people it's allegedly for.

As I said, they can fuck off.

I work in middle management for a charity.... Unfortunately they need to pay "decent" wages in order to do their work.
People are paid according to their qualifications and their position. I am not sure if a highly qualified individual would work for less or nothing just because their employer is a charity. On that, larger charities are like many other business structures. They need people who are able to stay in their position for years, not weeks or months.

Ceo salary aside I just want them to stop the adverts... It be different if its once a day or something but this is every single advert break sometimes they fit two in one advert break.

I used to feel bad seeing them now they just piss me off. I know I could fast forward or switch to another channel but its still annoying and can't always remember to switch back in time for the programme to start so miss bits of it.

I really dislike the adverts, they seem to target the elderly, if you ever watch Countdown or 15 to 1 you will so see many of these ads. The same as chuggers tend to get elderly or vulnerable people signing up.

I think the adverts will tail off eventually because people are much more savvy now.

I think part of the reason charity CEOs are paid highly is because the pot is often in millions, or hundred of millions for the big ones, you need someone who is experienced in handling such large budgets and has the strategic experience not to mismanage the reserves and ensure the correct governance is followed in adherence with the regulators. Someone on £30k wouldn’t have that same knowledge.

I never understand why chuggers hang around train stations. Either people are in a hurry to get to work or rushing to catch a train...and when they want "a minute of your time" you know its at least 5 min, and setting up a direct debit. Having said this I do donate to several charities via dd, and one smaller charity that calls me every few months. Sometimes I make a one-off donation , sometimes I buy lottery tickets and sometimes I say I am unable to give that month and they are always fine with it. A few I have started , donated for a few months and cancelled the DD, some I donate via text and you can skip a month.

The ads themselves annoy me, they’re all so similar-
1.Sad back story and sad music
2.Name of main character experiencing hard times
3.Things turn happy and bright when the charity come along
4.Named character is now doing well

1. will YOU give just £? a month - whichcan pay for x,y,z
2. Voice over says “thank you” in very serious voice

Same formula every time, whether it’s children dying of starvation or abandoned donkeys

my DH had a friend who worked for a charity and a perk of the job was a paid for flat in Kensington. (they were not the CEO or anything particularly senior)

I think the question of whether charity CEOs earn too much and whether there are too many mawkish and manipulative adverts on day time tv are two different things.

I really hate it when people like Olivia Coleman or Euan MacGregor (or similar) ask for money. No logic, just annoys me!
I give to local charities because I got a bit put off by the Oxfam scandals and wondered what else was going on.

But imagine young kids seeing this on a loop am all up for education but the manipulation that comes with adverts are piss taking.

I donate to the smalllocal charities where I can see where the money goes- the lunch clubs for old people to stop social isolation, the day clubs for adults with disabilities that teach them life skills. I wor for a teensy charity that help with advice and support for the small guys that do a huge job
The tv ads irk me. Especially the ones with some paid for celeb that are paid the salary for a few project workers to front the ad. These also do us ( the small community groups and charities) so much harm- people understandably get fed up of continually being asked, especially when so many are struggling to get by anyway. Smaller groups are running out of funding and going bump. Such a shame

Hi Littleraindrop 15,
As former RNLI lifeboat crew (both as a volunteer and occasionally full time), I have a fair amount of experience within a (very large) charity. I also worked for a major international finance company and a lot of the senior roles there, were replicated within the RNLI. As such, to get the best people, with the experience and skills to fill those roles within the organisation, they need to offer a salary that is competitive against the whole job market, not just the charity sector. So whilst a charity may in the main, rely on donations for funding, many also have various types of investment portfolio etc (much like a company pension scheme for example), as a way of building revenue. These, along with all the other areas of a business (HR, marketing, training etc), need managing and if you want the best people, you need to pay for them. And going back to your figure of £200k, yes that is a lot of money and a very nice salary. If you take Cancer Research UK for example, they have a turnover of around £700m p/a, and pay their CEO around £230k p/a. However, if it were a private sector business with a similar turnover, you would be hard pushed to find a CEO on less than £500k p/a. So yes, £230k is a good salary, but when you look at the bigger picture, it’s also quite good value for money for somebody at that level.

Have a look at the accounts of one of the big charities. The amount of money they’re sitting on is mind boggling.

Puts me off giving to charities

I work for a charity.
A lot of our staff are on minimum wage.
We have highly experienced staff delivering services and using skills that could command much higher salaries in the public sector but they are on half what they could get in such an area.
We get funding from the local authorities to deliver essential services that the council have given to us to do - because we are cheaper.

We have been told that if we want a pay rise, then people will have to be sacked to afford it.

If we weren't doing our job, then a lot of people would notice our absence.

But yes - we are all fat cats on large salaries living the life of Riley

It's interesting to see what makes people donate to charities.

We are currently really trying to emphasise the localness of what we do and the difference we make to local people. Yes, it does involve telling stories and how your donation can make a difference.

Because your donation does make a difference to people.

Whilst bored one rainy day I got a notepad and wrote down every charity begging advert and how much they wanted. Kept it up for a month and ended up with a list totalling nearly £100 in requested donations. Oxfam was on there three times with four different campaigns, Water Aid was listed twice and Save The Children three time!

Adverts and chuggers don’t get much if anything from me. I don’t have that much to spare and I’m picky about where it goes.

I’m not convinced that all charities do good work. I once read an article about an African county (I forget which) and mosquito nets which rather changed my perspective. The article said; a man in a hut in this country makes and repairs mosquito nets. Business does well and he employs five other people. Hot shot celebrity publicly donates a million mosquito nets to this country. Man and employees are now out of work as no one needs new nets and repairs are not enough to keep them in business. So did the celebrity do a good thing or not? Things aren’t black and white not even charity.