to think that if you donate money to stop people drowning, you shouldn't have an issue if aome of that money is used to stop people drowning in poorer countries

[chomalungma]

Yes - the RNLI

They have been spending 3% of their income on supporting projects in poor countries to help prevent people drowning - even though it has had to lay some staff off.

They give a project to buy burkinis so women in Zanzibar can learn water safety skils.

They help support a creche because children are often left unsupervised as their parents have to work and many children drown each day. The creche project has helped reduce drowning deaths by 82%.

I can see that some people would be annoyed that a tiny percentage of their donations is going towards supporting poorer people in foreign countries and reducing their chances of drowning at a time when the RNLI lay off staff.

But it's a good thing to teach people water safety even if they are not in this country, isn't it?

I had no idea the RNLI worked overseas, but I my image of them is of their orange and blue boats bouncing through the waves to dramatic rescues and it think that's because its the kind of image used in their advertising?

RNLI isn't one of my charities, I think there are better causes. Actually, the overseas work OP has mentioned seems more "worthy" to me but either way, I'd expect their advertising to be clear at the point of donation, about the kinds of projects they support,so the key is, is it?

We are an island nation. It's fucking despicable that our Lifeboat service is a charity. Love tbe RNLI . Hope their donations soar after this nonsense.

I don't donate to charity so it doesn't bother me what they do with their money

Donations look likely to have soared.
I, for one, am very pleased.

The long and the short of it is that anyone with a bad word to say about reducing preventable deaths by drowning, wherever and however they may occur, is a prize cunt.

Change my mind! (you won’t)

Well, I'm off to set up a direct debit. As a rich nation surrounded by water historically given to sea-travelling land-grabbing, we've had good cause to develop excellent lifesaving skills. Why wouldn't we share these with other less wealthy nations?

Fucking mean, small-minded DM readers.

Ooh this is a sore point where I live. Many people here donated to the RNLI here without realizing that some of the funds are being donated to projects outside of the UK and Ireland. The RNLI behaved despicably and withdrew their lifeboat here, albeit for just a few weeks. They have really lost any support from me .

The RNLI behaved despicably and withdrew their lifeboat here

Why? What happened?

I should add that I have absolute respect for all lifeboat crews but, I believe, that as a charity it is badly run and does not spend its funds wisely.

It turns out that most of the money going to the international projects is given separately from the normal fundraising. It's always been possible to donate to these separately from the main lifeboat fundraising, and a lot of the money has come from large donations by a few wealthy individuals, specifically for those projects.

I don't think that the people who throw £1 in a bucket on their holidays need to worry that any of their cash went outside the country.

to think that if you donate money to stop people drowning, you shouldn't have an issue if some of that money is used to stop people drowning in poo..

On Active this is how the thread comes up, which is why I clicked.

@Passthecherrycake, it's your post that's daft, particularly as you haven't apparently taken in my follow up. Of course I'm not saying that the RNLI should choose not to rescue those who don't donate. But it remains the fact that proclaiming your decision not to donate because you find their practices unacceptable makes you a tad hypocritical if you wouldn't hesitate to call on their help. I suspect that most of the protestors wouldn't spurn rescue from someone in a burkhini, either.

Echoing what previous posters have said really, but I would say it is true that past advertising campaigns aimed at getting donations have always focused on the local aspect - often with photos of your local boat and (volunteer, unpaid) crew.

But why not, considering that 98% of there income is spent on their work in the UK?

False advertising / information by the charity !

How is it false information when the facts are all set out on their website?

If you want your money to go to help people overseas them there are s lot of Mediterranean refugee ferry charities who will take your money

Which ones? How much lifesaving do they do? Do they help non-refugees?

@oooft the point is it’s not got some level of complexity that means only the British/ a select few know how to train lifeguards, has it?

I hope all those posturing on Twitter actually donate

I think people donating their money to charities like to know exactly where their money is going. There are loads of overseas charities and they are popular. If I give to the lifeboat trust I expect the money to be spent on UK lifeboats. If they have enough money they should stop fundraising or tell people they have enough for the lifeboats and are now helping overseas. It's like if I give to the Woodland Trust I expect the money to be spent on UK forests not the Amazon rainforest.
Not that giving to the Amazon is not a priority but if I wanted to give to the Amazon I'd give to a different charity. Similarly if I give to a rainforest charity I don't expect the money to be spent on Surrey woodlands.

I have family who volunteer for the RNLI and absoulutley no one has an issue with this. Realistically a lot of what they do involves rescuing entitled people who think they know better (and risking their own life to do so). Which brings me onto...
All the entitled sailors/climbers/ amateur explorers who head off to some wilderness in the under-developed world and then get into trouble. Yes it is on their bucket list but is it really okay to depend on locals and local resources to intervene when you get into trouble?

I’m not really sure why other countries would need them to show them how to stay safe in their own waterspace

It’s such a paternalistic view too. It almost seems racist, like ‘how dare you not help people in other countries, they need our help!1!11’ as if GB had the solution to all our problems overseas. Fuck off, tired of these NGO know-it-alls who often show contempt for the locals they purport to help.

Truth is that most countries have their own charities and someone coming in from outside who don’t understand the language/culture is just not going to be as effective. It’s best they stick with what they know and what they are good and what people respect them for

^And it’s just disgusting that the international project picked is burkhinis in Africa.
Fucking Muslims.
Fucking Darkies.
“Journalists” should be ashamed of themselves.

Whether anyone thinks their international work should be a topic for debate is secondary to the fact that those papers have chose to use racism for clicks. Bastards.^

Spot on.

Today I'm Proudly going to display some RNLI tat I got to please my daughter - a fetching pink pen.
Actually, their merchandise has picked up recently although it's too late to buy the cheap Christmas cards that I always pick up in the sale in January.

It’s such a paternalistic view too. It almost seems racist, like ‘how dare you not help people in other countries, they need our help!1!11’ as if GB had the solution to all our problems overseas. Fuck off, tired of these NGO know-it-alls who often show contempt for the locals they purport to help.

There are some massive assumptions right there, MangoFeverDream. Do you actually know anything at all about how the RNLI operate in relation to the help they give internationally? It's not difficult to discover that they don't give help directly but work with local organisations.

If I give to the lifeboat trust I expect the money to be spent on UK lifeboats.

If I give to a charity, I expect them to spend the money in the way they declare it is spent.

They weren't hiding anything.

If you want your money to help only certain people, you need to choose your charities more carefully.

If you want your money to help only certain people, you need to choose your charities more carefully

I wonder when the Times and The Daily Mail are going to release the names of the many other national charities that use their expertise to advise and work abroad in other countries - or is it just the RNLI they have an issue with?