To hate it when major national charities don't actually do anything but boast about signposting ? ?

[koalakate999]

I really like the idea of supporting a charity.

But for goodness sake, you need to have an actual purpose.

E.g the Samaritans may not be perfect, but they provide a 24/7 phone line for lonely people to actually chat/ share worries/ get human contact, ( could be pretty useful at 3.00am on xmas day if feeling very low).

But so many of the other "big ones, " e.g. Age U.K, Macmillan, Mind etc seem to take a lot of money just to "signpost," people to local services they likely already knew about, e.g their local Citizen's Advice.

In fact, a lot of them all just seem to signpost to each other !?

Am I unreasonable in thinking the big charities should actually help individuals more, e.g. grants, services etc.

If anyone could suggest big charities that are providing tangible help I'd be very grateful.

I partially agree. There are a lot of amazing charities, doing brilliant work and providing direct services. However I know what you mean about signposting. Signposting is important, as often people don’t know how to access things that are already available. However I think it needs to be in conjunction to other services.

during the pandemic the charity I work for proposed a phone line, that we would help staff. When I asked what information/support we’d be giving out, it was very woolly. Luckily it didn’t happen in the end.

my major issue with charity….is that any service that is needed by people should be funded and not reliant on charitable hand outs.

I no longer donate to large charities as they become self serving organisations. Local grass roots charities are much better at supporting people and give much more bang for their buck too.

You really have no idea what you're talking about.

Firstly, signposting, when done well, is a labour intensive service that involves well trained staff or volunteers talking one on one with users to make sure they understand the situation and can make sure the user gets the right advice from the right people and knows how to access it. It also involves staying up to date as services and legislation changes. None of that is cheap or lacking in value. (When done poorly, unfortunately, it wastes everyone's time.)

Also, the charities you've mentioned don't just do signposting. Age UK, for instance, as well as lobbying politicians and businesses to try and ensure legislation and policy is suited to their users also runs day care centers, adult education, assistance services, etc. MIND run drop-in centers, counseling, training schemes and crisis help-lines. Macmillan provide grants, coaching for people trying to change their lives after a diagnosis, a host of legal and medical advice, etc.

Macmillan give grants but IIRC they are restricted by amount.

Age UK organise activity / support groups, coffee mornings, befriending services etc, as do Alzheimer's Society.
Dementia UK have a helpline and Admiral Nurse service.

Military charities give monetary grants to those who are eligible, usually via specific items eg white /brown goods, carpets, funeral grants, training grants etc, but not cash grants.

Christians Against Poverty provide free debt support and money management courses.

What support do you need and what charity have you tried to get help from?

I work for and with a number of small local charities. They all have funding spends of 95%+ on direct support.

And they're all a fucking wasteful shitshow behind the scenes. Some of them it's only a matter of time until a safeguarding issue results in someone's serious injury or death.

I do paid and voluntary work specifically trying to address the weaknesses of small charities and this is rife. They're always well meaning, and always disastrously underskilled.

The signposting thing annoys me too but it's often tied to funding. If someone gave you £10k to support treating individuals with X need in Y location, then they want to hear that you did that or they want their money back.

I only donate to large charities who I have a decent impression of.

Macmillan were absolutely fantastic when my DH had cancer. They gave really good one to one support for both of us, including counselling, physical therapies, endless cups of tea and listening ears and access to specialist information.

Barnardos doesn't just signpost. They do lots of work with vulnerable young people, can give families grants and still run children's homes in some areas too.

Local voluntary animal rescues are the ones I support. They seem to do so much more for animals in distress than the great behemoth that is the RSPCA

This. Charities need to spend money on things that keep the charity running well, brings in more money (trust fundraising, anyone?) and lobbies politicians / influences policy. Smaller charities who spend all their income on services are often not supporting their volunteers or are downright exploiting them.

You're right about Mind. I worked at national Mind for a number of years. The only services they provide is the Infoline which is, as you say, signposting, and Side by Side, their online community. Most people don't realise that local Minds are independent charities not run by national Mind, which is more of a campaigning, information and fundraising organisation.

Local Minds do those things, not national Mind. National Mind does not run local Minds.

I completely agree. When my severely disabled child was young, I was completely fed up of the number of charities I phoned who could only give me print outs or website addresses or books or worse still sympathy visits for cups of tea. I did not want sympathetic people sitting round my house offering me leaflets. I wanted Saturday clubs, respite carers, school holiday activities etc etc. Many told me 'Oh we don't offer any services for young people.'

I will never again give money to Macmillan, when we needed them they were nowhere to be seen our small local charity helped, so did Marie Curie but Macmillan? Useless. In my experience from chatting to others in our situation the help you get from the big charities very much depends on where you live. When we called the Stroke Association, the advisors on the phone could listen but there was very little local physical help so once again we felt alone.

Macmillan were absolutely useless when my dad died of cancer, they offered no support, couldn't offer any help, one person made one visit and said it seemed like we had things sorted (we didn't, we managed day by day like many other people in the same boat) then when dad was having meds dispensed by a syringe driver and asleep this wierd woman came to see how we were doing and spent all her visit on her knees in front of dad's bed pawing him, stroking him telling him he was a prince among men (she'd never met any of us before!!) it was all a cringe inducing performance for the GP who was there who also looked uncomfortable.

Local district nurses however are unsung heroes who were utterly bloody amazing and get hardly any thanks in comparison to Macmillan but they were angels.

Please get your facts straight if you're going to name names. Macmillan provided invaluable support to members of my family throughout their illnesses. They provide grants and they've also had active representation at one of our local support groups. They provide therapy like hand massage while patients are on the chemo drip. They provide counselling for relatives.
Until we're in the position to need the support of these charities we really have no idea what they do. I have had direct experience of Macmillan. One example that I can remember is that they navigated the benefits system when my dad needed care. They filled the forms in for financial help I had no idea existed let alone knew where to start. I've no idea what the others do because I haven't been in the position to need them. I hope I never do.
Saying they only do signposting is disrespectful

@LessonsinGurning

Local Minds do those things, not national Mind. National Mind does not run local Minds.

That's the same set up as many Samaritan branches, which OP held up as a "good" charity that "does something". Samaritan help lines are manned in part by volunteers from local branches that are separate organizations affiliated with the national organization.

This is a common set up for charities with a national or international mission because it gives autonomy to react to local conditions and allows groups already in place that work on the same mission to join rather than being replaced by a National behemoth while providing a lot of the benefits of a larger organization.

Just as with the Samaritans, the work of local chapters in setups like this is made possible by the National. These set ups provide branding that is vital to fundraising and coordination that magnifies the impact of things like research, policy and advocacy work as well as other services. The work of an umbrella organization coordinating a national network of charities is a lot more than "just signposting" too.

Sorry, I'm joining the racks of people saying that you are in the wrong.

I've worked in the charitable sector for charities you have mentioned for the better part of 37 years. All provide highly specific services and dedicate huge amounts of time and money to help people. What we do not do is duplicate efforts where it can be avoided. On a local level, where I work, we cooperate with each other, meet frequently and know what each other's services can provide and who is better at a particular subject. We also help each other out when under pressure, and believe me the last 2 years have seen many of us pushed to extremes that have been unknown in all my time working in the sector.

You are being so unreasonable that I'm gobsmacked by your affrontery.

Yes much easier to lobby and swan about at international forums than actually get your hands dirty and help people. I am guessing that you work in the charity sector.

OK, so rather than turning on the OP, maybe consider WHY this is the view they have of those charities?

For example, my DF worked for Barnados as a case manager for a local youth service, but there's 200+ miles between that location and the next service. That means huge swathes of the country will have no idea these services exist.

When you phone the main Samaritans phone number, you get a human who listens to you. That's what they are known for. I'd no idea they had local services.

When you phone Macmillan, you get advice on benefits etc. You used to see more information about the nurses that came to peoples homes in the late stages of cancers to provide palliative care - I've no idea if it's even still something they offer. My DM was a District Nurse (Sister) who used to get upset that Macmillan made out they were th me only service for this - despite thousands of DNs like her helping people through their worst times. She went to a lot of their funerals, my mum. I don't think she's quite got over one young lad's death.

People working in the charity sector can expect to know more about what's available, but if the public don't know then don't blame them - look at corporate communications.

I’ve seen London charities take A LOT of money then get volunteers to provide the work and services.

The paid staff, who are paid to deliver what the charity is fundraising for, are trained to ask for free goods and free labour. Which they do, but not very well. They go home early.

I was horrified. But it’s the working method of a lot of these places, and the culture is of underachievement. No one ever leaves cos there’s a real world out there, so it goes on.

Can anyone tell me what National Energy Action does? I went on their website to see about donating my energy rebate, thinking that they will be best placed to get that money to someone currently struggling with their energy bills. I came away from their website thinking it was the biggest example of "signposting" I had ever seen, but maybe they are doing loads behind the scenes??

I work (volunteer) for Citizens Advice. Each branch is a stand alone charity run mostly by volunteers purely because of lack of funding. Signposting to organisations that have more specialist knowledge or expertise is us providing the very best support to our clients. However it is annoying when we get clients coming in saying I was referred to you by X organisation where it is clear this is lazy client management on their part a d we can’t in fact provide the help required

Yabvu. I used to work for one of the charities you mention. We supported veterans, people affected by cancer and people, people in poverty and with mental and physical and mental health conditions with a huge array of things including applying for benefits and supporting with appeals, completing blue badge and other forms, applying for energy grants and discretionary housing payments, sorting smoke alarms and assisted refuse collection, navigating the care sustem and advocating for people for care assessmenys, and reporting problems to people's GP surgeries which in many cases enabled cancer detection and onward referrals to services such as falls prevention. We were so invaluable we were invited to attend mdt's at GP surgeries and worked closely with health professionals.

The benefits system is highly complex and this especially required a huge amount of knowledge.

I suggest you know very little about the amazing work many national charities do. Many work in a franchised way and support people in different ways according to local funding available. And we worked bloody hard for what was often a very small pot of money. We had to be accountable for all of it when really we always went over and above by doing extra hours.

I agree about Macmillian. l visit where she took notes and said she couldn’t promise anything !! Then we never saw her again in the 7 months Dad was on palative care at home. When I rang to follow up was signposted to Marie Curie. All that fund raising where does the money go ?

Mind is the worst for this

In areas where it provides counselling and groups, it is commissioned to do this via nhs money. Locally they act like they are doing it via fundraising when actually they won a contract over nhs services and hold all the local funding to do so. They make it seem like it is done from the charity side rather than government contract. In the same way virgin care are running out the goodness of their hearts

Nationally they offer campaigning rather than practical support. It's people go to mental health charity when it offers very little and those that have been offered more from it will have done so because mind undercut other services