I'm hoping to do a macmillan coffee morning? Aibu to think that this will be harder as nobody carries cash?

[whatthehellnpw]

Anyone hosted a macmillan coffee morning before and able to give me any tips? How do you actually charge for items etc? I'm a total novice but really want to do my bit.

I was very very grateful for the MacMillan nurse who explained to my brother and me what would happen as our Mum passed away. I was not expecting her to be there, she just appeared and she was a wonderful comforting presence. I say this as someone who takes a while to warm to strangers and would not have requested help.

If I was invited to one I would take cash. If you don't think people would automatically realise this make it clear in any advertising or texts you send.

My friends mum does it. It's like a revolving door in and out the house. She said she spends about £200 on ingredients etc and makes about £1000.

She doesn't charge per item but most people put in a donation of about £15 (I'm really sad to have looked at the gift aid form)

£2 seems very reasonable to me, still much cheaper than Costa and the cakes will be nicer. Cake is bloody expensive in cafes these days, all you have to do is price a bit more cheaply than that.

How does it work? Is she able to claim costs for the ingredients from the £1000 raised?

McMillian were the only people who could help my DH when he was dying in agony, during covid I couldn't even get to speak to a doctor. The may well have highly paid executives (running a large organisation) definitely spending money on other things too. It's a shame a chaity has to do that work, but I don't think I'd have made it through without them.

Yes, we found the same. My dad was glad they were there, and they gave my mum some respite.

I don’t always donate to colleagues raising funds but I do when they’re raising for MacMillan.

I’ve ran them for the school and for Marie Curie.

Usually we charge an amount to enter. £5 per adult and £2 per child normally, although depends on the event, and then you can have pretty much as much coffee and cake as you want. Vast majority of people have one piece of cake, maybe 2. To be honest we’ve never had an issue with people not having cash on them. Maybe that’s our area, but I’d never go to something like that with no cash.

Normally the raffle makes a decent amount too.

The cakes are donated by the organisers and local community, along with the raffle prizes.

If you set up a just giving page it can generate a QR code so people can go there to make a donation.

On pricing, I tend not to put a price on anything. I say it is for charity and say pay what you like. Some people will just give you 50p but most others will give a fair price (£2-£3). Last one I did was at my works head office so some of the directors gave a tenner!

Why is it stupid?

@Serencwtch in no way is saying that Macmillan don't do amazing things.

They are actually correct. Macmillan salary bill was over £1,000,000 last year with lots of directors paid HUGE sums of money.

A friend of mine worked for BlueCross for 6 years and was absolutely horrified by how much some people got paid, and how much money was wasted on frivolous things, parties, stuff for the offices etc... Yes, they do lots to rescue and rehome animals, and the people that do the ground work are usually unpaid volunteer or staff on minimum wage.

I tend to support the much smaller and local charities because I know my money is more likely to be put directly to support the charity.

All the sales I've been at are in low income areas at toddler groups, primary schools etc. I suppose they are priced so people who can't afford costa etc don't feel left out. I think under £1 is too cheap and have raised this point before when they literally made less from my cake than the ingredients cost.

Yep I couldn't agree more agree with this. I worked for them for a while and the amount of money wasted on ridiculous things was crazy and part of the reason I left. More bloody ( nasty) managers than staff and most of them useless.
And yes I get that there are lots of great macmillan Nurses who deal with people through cancer treatment but these are paid for by the NHS. Macmillan might fund a new post for the first 12 months or something but then the NHS takes over, so it's all very misleading. They want people to think they pay for these Nurses, because it keeps the money rolling in for them/.

Paying charity staff is supporting the charity though. They can’t be run by 100% volunteers and salaries are dictated by the market. Pay peanuts…get a lot less good work done.

I'm just bumping your post, OP. I agree that McMillan are wonderful. I wouldn't go to a bake sale but I support them by direct debit. Good on you for arranging this, hope it's fun and that you make a heap of money for them.

I always have cash

People will bring cash if they have notice

Yes, paying the charity staff is fine, but it's the OTHER expenditures and HUGE unnecessary salaries that take a lot of money from the charity. Levels of management that are just not needed. The sort of company structure from a badly run private business and not what a charity should look like.

Speak to anyone who has worked for a large charity like this and they will tell you the same story.

I think you'll find that those that do most the fund raising and hard work are unpaid or on minimum wage.

Can I suggest that you don't assume all national charities have well paid staff? SMiRA for example, the national charity for the anxiety disorder selective mutism, certainly does not - almost entirety volunteer run.

We had involvement with them when dh was end of life with cancer. Awful woman. They rang the next day after he’d died and I put the phone down on her.

Animal charities only from now on.

I don't think she can reclaim those costs. She sort of sees it as that's her donation.

Recently diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer .McMilllan have been super helpful and supportive .Often cant reach NHS nurse and the have been brilliant!

Wow, that's very generous of her.

Macmillan Nurses are funded by the NHS unless you are speaking to one on the macmillan national helpline?

I haven’t assumed anything.
I’ve simply made two related statements.

You just need to advertise it's cash only.

Utter nonsense. Macmillan do excellent work and gave me a lot of help.
Some people seem to make an argument against donating to any charity to excuse their own selfishness.
Just say cash only on your publicity OP.