Charity - what is your feeling?

[Orangejuicemarathoner]

I have been active in many charities for a long time.

There was a time when you could go around asking for contributions and get a "yes" or a "no".

These days I keep getting "OMG- how racist/patronising/politically incorrect/non-woke is that, you are a terrible person".

I don't get it really. Poorer people need help and support from richer people. Sometimes the poorer people are next door, sometimes hundreds of miles away and sometimes on another continent. Sometimes in the past, the poorer person has been me and I have needed and accepted charity

Why have people stopped thinking sharing is a good thing?

I know some charities are ineffective, and some unhelpful, maybe even damaging. I am not talking about specifics. I am talking about the general principle, if you know the charity is effective.

YABU - charitable giving is evil - stop it at once

YANBU - altruism is important

Why does it matter how much people are paid? If you pay a CEO £70k and they're great at fundraising and raise £2m for the charity, is that worse than paying a CEO £20k who raises £200k for the charity?

Personally speaking, this is what really annoys me, though: the funds that have been 'raised' are treated so impersonally like money that's been organically earned - profit. Apart from all of the kudos going to the CEO, when they likely had nothing personally to do with 'raising' it, nobody seems to care about the many sacrifices made by the people actually donating the money.

In theory, you could pay somebody £990,000 for 'raiding' a million - even if they themselves have been hands-on in 'raising' every penny - and then it's 'worth it', because the charity has benefited overall to the tune of £10K. In practice, thousands and thousands of people have given money that they could possibly ill afford - often children giving their pocket money - they've spent a lot of time and money on ingredients, electricity, petrol etc. on making cakes or organising events, they've gone without in any number of ways, because they figured that 'the poor, sick children need that £20 even more than I do'.

If, in fact, it was more clearly presented as a case of 'do the sick children need 5p more than I need that £20', the scales would rapidly fall from an awful lot of kind, well-meaning people's eyes.

Even for those who haven't in any way struggled to donate the money, I find it breathtakingly arrogant to treat somebody's kindness and altruism as nothing more than a cell in a massive spreadsheet - and if the figure right at the bottom looks good, they couldn't care less about how they arrived at it.

• 'RAISING' a million - not suggesting they're outright stealing it!

I don't want my money going to charity bosses on six figure salaries. I still give to the charity shops because it suits me to get rid of stuff. And I think those chuggers should be banned. And phoning folk up and knocking on doors.

To add, I've no issue at all with charities spending sensible amounts of money on running costs, staff, admin etc. - that's a fact of life; although, as has been mentioned already, the likes of the Salvation Army and Islamic Relief manage to pay people a reasonable living wage without handing over megabucks.

It's just the ones who so glibly ignore the source of the money and don't seem in the least bit grateful to all of the many, many ordinary folk for their kind (and often sacrificial) support.

What annoys me is that giving a cash donation doesn’t seem to be enough anymore. It’s now direct debit- some don’t even bother with a collection tin now. I don’t give my details out to strangers on the street but would happily hand over a few quid.

I think people don't realise that the government is the biggest charity backer in the country, this has lead to these inflated salaries for very little performance.
I really struggle to give to any now for reasons that PPs have already mentione, and some are so far off their intention that I'll never support them again. The only one I consistently support now is guide dogs UK and I daren't take too much of an interest in how it's run in case I find out something that really pisses me off and then stop supporting them too

So much scandal surrounding charities recently including financial and sexual exploitation and I think people are also waking up to the fact that a lot of the major charities rely on volunteers to do a lot of the actual hard work whilst those at the top are on obscene salaries.

This ☝️☝️

@ABCeasyasdohrayme

Your options are really odd.

Some charities are great, others are racist, homophobic or generally things people wouldn't support for a host of reasons.

I support what I belive in and really resent being stopped, or hounded at my door, by chuggers who get paid quite a bit, emotionally blackmailing me into supporting a charity they don't support themselves.

Agree with this. I said yanbu because of what you described that vote to mean but I don't think its as clear cut

It also doesn't help when charities act as though they are the only charity in the world, and thus see it as their 'right' to your donation.

I know they have to be positive and look after their own interests, but notice that the initial 'we're asking just £2 a month' (that is just their foot in the door and before long invariably turns into 'oh, that's not much - surely you can give us a lot more?') is ALWAYS juxtaposed with what you might spend on takeaway coffee/lunch/alcohol/a daily newspaper or whatever and NEVER with what you might want to give/already give to another charity that you consider far more worthy.

As a PP said, if enough charities get their claws into a vulnerable person - even if not for a huge amount for each one - it can cause immense distress and financial problems. It's quite ironic that a bank will only lend you what they believe you can afford with all your other commitments (obviously, not primarily for your benefit), but certain charities actually seem to maintain a 'sucker list' with the intent to push and push and push the people who have already given ground.

Additionally, my heart always sinks when you see all the charities advertising (during daytime programmes with an often older demographic who watch them) for will bequests. The wise thing to do, if that's your wish (and you can't/don't want to leave instructions with your children/main beneficiaries), is to bequeath them 'a gift of £XXX' - but they will then often squeal about inflation eroding its eventual value, by the time you die, and pleading with you for a percentage of your house/estate instead.

If you do that, you then get on to their spreadsheet where they 'manage their future asset' (possibly also monitoring your age/personal circumstances and when they can statistically hope to cash in) and a shedload of added grief for your children when they come to deal with your estate and have the charity's demands at every stage and acting like Lord of the Manor over YOUR parents' house.

Even if they send you a Christmas card every year, supposedly in gratitude for your kindness, it'll be partly in the hope that it gets returned one year as a clue that they might be 'in luck' and time to strike.

Charity is big business nowadays. For people to earn big money and for businesses to use for PR purposes.

So much scandal surrounding charities recently including financial and sexual exploitation and I think people are also waking up to the fact that a lot of the major charities rely on volunteers to do a lot of the actual hard work whilst those at the top are on obscene salaries

Spot on

The usual response, of course, is that they "need to pay high salaries to get the best" ... in which case, why are their supposedly highly skilled managers so often unable to squash the more appalling behaviour that some of their staff indulge in?

Highly rewarded leadership usually comes with responsibilities, but just try expecting the latter

Most charities, especially big ones, are not exactly the ethical of organisations, so I'm not at all surprised the OP gets a bit of stick. Especially in a place like Brighton, known for it's "woke" attitude - the idea that foreigners are inferior to British people is really not acceptable and I'm not surprised it gets challenged.

It's one thing to have a hedgehog rescue centre that relies on volunteers and donations for funds, that's not controvesial because most people can get behind the idea that we should help our wildlife. But raising money to improve education in Malawi is basically saying "look at them damned Africans, they're incapable of sorting their own affairs out so they need British people to tell them what to do, after all we're so much better than they are." People who promote these charities and try to raise money for them are displaying a very colonial attitude that we are GOOD and Africans are BAD. What we believe is RIGHT and they are WRONG.

And you wonder why people call out this racist behaviour?!

I don't give to charity, got to look after number one more than ever, I wouldn't be horrible to anyone asking though, I'd just say; no thanks.

These days I only donate food through supermarket foodbanks or to the church (mainstream, where I know the clergy and team)

There have been too many scandals regarding money being misappropriated, people being abused, or funds being used to indoctrinate against people like me (and millions of others who happen to be the main charity donors). I was shocked to learn what's happening to the National Trust, for instance. I'm not going to facilitate or finance any of this madness.

Also, for any regular donations or subscriptions one may have, it's a good idea to reassess annually, as organisations can go pear shaped very quickly

I think more and more peopleare thinking like Biker47. Let the multi millionaires deal with the charitable giving and leavd us ordinary folk alond. We have enough to cope with our own expenses and families.

We need successful space programmes, or we will eventually go the same way as the dinosaurs

Respectfully, this is bullshit. No country needs a space programme. The current space programmes are either white rich men's vanity projects or weapons races. It is the arrogance of humans to think Space is another resource to strip and mine - once we get the technologies.

Irrespective of charities, if all the money in space and weapons programmes was pumped into proper education and health care and social supports, the world would be a much better place.

We have enough to cope with our own expenses and families

Yes. I wouldn't be rude to a chugger though (even if they call me 'miss' when it's very obvious I could be their nan ). I just wave, walk past and ignore, they are just doing their 'job'.

white rich men's

Why the constant need to stereotype on these threads?

@mustlovegin

white rich men's

Why the constant need to stereotype on these threads?

Was that directed at my comment?

If so:
Elon Musk
Jeff Bezos
Richard Branson

Rich. White. Men

More concerned with spending their non tax paying money on a dick measuring competition than people.

I don’t like being pestered by people to donate to charities of their choice. Or to support their sponsored run/walk/marathon/alcohol-free month especially when they keep trying to raise more money eg through JustGiving. And keep sending you links to their page and plastering photos of it all over FB with ‘there’s still time to donate’ etc. There must be a better way to raise funds for charity than doing endless sponsored marathons?

I also find it irritating when people ask for ‘donations to my favourite charity’ for their birthday instead of gifts. Usually via a public FB post, which shows who has donated what and how much has been raised. Surely if people want to give you a gift it’s a specially chosen, thoughtful birthday gift not a charitable donation?

Most people I know give to charity but they do so privately and selectively.

I don’t like feeling pressured into giving money to charity.

@sillysmiles
"Was that directed at my comment?
If so:
Elon Musk
Jeff Bezos
Richard Branson
Rich. White. Men
More concerned with spending their non tax paying money on a dick measuring competition than people."

CCP
India
So not all white but could be rich and mostly men.

Unfortunately so many of us have been bombarded with unsolicited donation requests once we gave to 1 charity and there have been so many scandals around misused funds, that most people will be very wary of donating nowadays.

Your attitude isn't great either, you're really not coming across well at all so have a think about what you must be saying in real.life to put people off so much.

@madisonbridges yes good point.

YANBU.

I think the charity sector has its problems, but the reactions you're getting sound unreasonable.

My main worry is probably charities becoming self-serving. More effort, and possibly money, going into fundraising than into doing good. And a situation where the charity doesn't truly want to solve problems because that would remove its reason for existing.

And several big charities have been marred by scandals recently. (Scandals that mostly come down to misogyny and male violence.)