Manager asks to volunteer for a charity they are connected to

[thezoz]

I work for a large employer and one of the priorities for 2019 for staff development was to encourage volunteering - everyone got a couple of extra days off, people are encouraged to share their charitable activities and stories on the intranet etc.
My manager organised a group volunteering opportunity for the team with a small charity. The choice was surprising for some people (not a pet / family / sports / health organisation, but rather supporting a very niche cause, not close to everyone's heart, and some even may say controversial). After some social media research, it turned out that the manager's close family member is involved in managing this charity (this was not disclosed to us), and it is very likely that another family member is a user of the charity's services.
AIBU to raise an official concern about this situation? I am all pro volunteering (and do volunteer and fundraise myself), but it does feel like we are just being used as free labour to someone else's benefit, and this does not sit right with me. Shouldn't there be a transparent selection process in such cases?

The OP isn't obliged to support an immigration charity if she doesn't want to. It might be supporting genuine refugees, equally it might not. OP might well feel there are more worthwhile charities she could use this time to support.

Presumably she was hired to carry out a specific role in the company and this wasn't it! Companies shouldn't be able to redirect an employee's time away from their actual job, unless this was agreed when the employment contract was signed. I'd opt out if I were you and spend the day supporting a charity you feel a greater connection to.

I can't be doing with all this enforced and public virtue signalling. Real charity is what you do when nobody is watching.

I think it depends how much pressure is being put on people to volunteer. The manager saying "I've organised this for people if they want to do it" and genuinely meaning that its optional is fine. If there is any sort of unspoken pressure, or a sense that people who choose to volunteer elsewhere will be looked at in a negative way by the manager than YANBU.

I think the manager has just taken the easy option. We've all done that. Better would have been to say there are three local options which are feasible for a group day of volunteering, which do we want to do team?

Would it be OK if the manager arranged for everyone to volunteer in their children's school as a corporate effort?

I actually don't think this is acceptable, a school is not usually a charity (some private schools are but for tax reasons and you'd be even less likely to volunteer for them).

Sounds like a small charity that could do with the help, and if your company wants to organise a volunteering day with a large group of staff members at one charity that's pretty difficult to accomodate. I've been a charity fundraiser (for various charities) and one off volunteers aren't always that useful and can be way more trouble than its worth. However, when i have been organising fundraising or volunteering family members of staff or existing supporters are always my first port of call - why would they not be.
If you don't want to volunteer, then don't but I can't see anything wrong or unusual with what's happening at all from what you've written

There’s no such thing as being a charity for tax reasons.

e.g. almost everyone probably has some familiarity with cancer or mental health, many people have pets etc

I think you're massively overestimating how easy it would have been for him to find a group volunteering opportunity at one of these charities. About the only useful thing you could do for a cancer charity for a day or two with no training is shake a tin.

It would be totally different if, for instance, you were holding a work bake sale and your boss had insisted the money go to this cause, because then it could just have easily gone to a more mainstream charity. But if it was supposed to be a group bonding activity where you actually did something then the sorts of charity you describe would have been really, really hard to set something up with - if you don't believe the people telling you this, offer to organise the next company volunteering day and see!

Private schools are charities. For tax reasons.

Better would have been to say there are three local options which are feasible for a group day of volunteering, which do we want to do team?

Again, I think this comment is said with no idea of how hard/time consuming it would have been to set up not just one but three potential volunteering days

There is no such thing asking a charity just for tax purposes.

You either are a charity and fit one of the heads of charitable purposes and have all the oversight and regulation that goes with that, or you’re not a charity.

Being a charity just for tax purposes doesn’t exist.

I think if the manager has been transparent it may have had a different reaction to it.

I have a similar issue with a lady at our PTA. When we discuss a possible charity she always picks causes that do not really benefit the major issues that directly effect our country.

But I suppose every one has a different perspective.

*being

No idea where my phone got asking from.

There’s no such thing as being a charity for tax reasons

To have charitable status, an organisation must fulfill various criteria, but they DO get tax benefits. They don’t pay tax on most types of income, as long as they use the money for charitable purposes.

As I said:

There is no such thing asking a charity just for tax purposes.

You either are a charity and fit one of the heads of charitable purposes and have all the oversight and regulation that goes with that, or you’re not a charity.

Being a charity just for tax purposes doesn’t exist.

I think YANBU. This does not sit right with me at all either. It's easier for them to organise, but I would not want to volunteer somewhere that I didn't feel anything for. Would much prefer helping take some dementia sufferers on a trip out or sitting with those on chemo.

I just expected the team volunteering effort to be for a cause that is a bit closer to everyone - e.g. almost everyone probably has some familiarity with cancer or mental health, many people have pets etc. All charities are struggling, but cancer charities and pet charities are the ones that everyone will put their hands in their pockets for. The more niche charities, or those helping unpopular groups, are the ones that are really struggling, and to me it makes sense to support those.

“I just expected the team volunteering effort to be for a cause that is a bit closer to everyone - e.g. almost everyone probably has some familiarity with cancer or mental health, many people have pets etc.”

And how do you know your manager hasn’t tried contacting charities and was turned down by them? Because charities just sit around and wait for 20-40 people who know fuck all to show up for a couple of days and be able to “help”?

There is usually a specific event they will need volunteers for, which is often planned and coordinated months if not years in advance!

Why not ring a few charities close to your heart and see if gig can organise an alternative volunteering opportunity? Too much work for you? You don’t get paid to do that? Yeah, neither does your manager but has volunteered to organise a group event for your office. And you and you colleagues bitch about his charity choice.

Education is one of the criteria or purposes for achieving charitable status, and fee paying schools absolutely do seek charitable status for tax reasons.
If they didn’t, theyd pay more tax.

Would much prefer helping take some dementia sufferers on a trip out or sitting with those on chemo.

I think this is a shining example of how unrealistic people are about what charities want. Dementia sufferers would not benefit from some random, untrained people taking them for a day out - it wouldn't even be safe. And if you were having chemo, would you want a random person doing it as a one-off day off work to come and sit with you? Really? Those are both things people do as long-term volunteers with training and demonstrated commitment - they aren't things you can have a play at for a day or two.

The OP isn't obliged to support an immigration charity if she doesn't want to

Nope. I wouldn't help something like Battersea Dogs home for example. although I would help a wildlife charity and am a member of a local wildlife trust. Nobody should feel that they have to donate to, or help with, any charity, it's a very personal thing, which is why, for example, all the virtue signalling with poppies is so annoying. I always buy a poppy (or two or three, as I lose them) but why is it "compulsory"? I don't think you are being unreasonable at all OP.

I don't get your idea that his nephew will benefit from this in his career.

I think your boss had to organise this thing at short notice, and has ended up asking his relative who manages it for a favour. He may or may not have asked other charities first and been turned down.

I expect that he took it as read that people knew his heritage and would guess that he'd picked the organisation because he had connections there, so didn't think an official announcement was needed. I expect its initiatives are a known quantity to him, but the person who is being done a favour is still your boss. His nephew or whatever is not going to benefit from this that much!

And of course such volunteering shouldn't be compulsory - but OP has said it wasn't. She did feel pressured, which is unfortunate but happens a lot with work things - volunteer days aren't compulsory, and nor are drinks after work, or cooing at someone's new baby, or attending a networking event - but if you don't do these things you may feel a bit left out and less liked for it. It shouldn't be how it works, but I don't see how you could possibly stop it?

YANBU.
I think your manager is being really cheeky. Not because he’s choosing support a charity that he has personal ties to - I think that is perfectly reasonable. But because he is using his senior position to get the other staff to do the same, and they presumably feel they can’t decline (and volunteer for something they care about more), as he’s the manager, and it wouldn’t look good to go against him.

The OP should just organise her own charity. I doubt she will be missed.

A quid says the OP voted leave.

Oh ffs grow up. Pathetic.