Merlins Magic Wand changing criteria.

[MincePieFlavouredVoidka]

*Dear Merlin?s Magic Wand Applicants,

For those of you wishing to take advantage of our complimentary tickets for 2012, there has been a change in the way that Merlin?s Magic Wand will manage applications in 2012, for those families whose children are on the Autistic Spectrum or who have any Autistic related disability.

This year (2011) Magic Wand handled over 5000 applications, nearly 50% of these were from families with children with ASD.

Our Charity has very limited resources and funds and unfortunately we are no longer in a position to be able to manage these applications as efficiently as we wish. Therefore we have had to put in the following process in order for us to continue to work with families of Autistic children.

Applications from individual families will no longer be accepted. You will need to contact your local National Autistic Society Branch (NAS) in order for them to apply for tickets on your behalf. If you are not a member of your local NAS, you will need to contact any other organisation that you are a member of (incl Special Needs School ) that specifically handles children on the Autistic Spectrum. They will be able to submit an application on behalf of all their members.

The NAS are aware of this new procedure and the regional offices will be asked to contact the families on their books to see if they wish to take advantage of our attractions complimentary tickets.

We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause, however, this change needs to be made so that we can help as many children as possible and for us to continue our promise of giving children magical experiences.*

For the info of anyone thinking of applying in the spring.

I agree with everything AT said re the NAS.

As for MMW, I think it's appalling. Imagine if they were choosing an ethnic group to single out! Autism is a disability like any other and children like ds should not have to jump through extra hoops because their disability is (sometimes) invisible.

As with the ethnic group comparison it's sending the message that services are being 'swamped' by asd kids. And it leaves a really bad taste in the mouth

Actually I'm going to be the one dissenting voice here.

I'm all for anything that makes running the charity easier. If they are struggle to process applications, makes more sense for them to join up with other organisations that can help. We assume that children with Autism are being singled out, it might just be that the NAS are the first large enough organisation to be able to help, others may follow. It might even be that the NAS only one with the right mix of national and local structure to be able to provide that. I for one would hate to see Merlin's ward say they are unable to help autistic children simply because they cannot mange the organisation of it.

Aboveall It's a charity, it's there to help not provide by rights. Whether for tax purposes or otherwise, Merlin supports the charity and the charity provides disabled children with free tickets. Merlin don't have to support a charity at all.

This is not about 'rights'.

MMW is the charitable wing of a transnational corporation which will provide ample and efficient tax benefits to its parent corporation. My point is simply that it is disingenuous for it to portray itself as an independent struggling charity.

It could be suggested that independence by incorporation as a charitable trust is legal technicality for tax purposes.

My concern was also the request for money as a result when these tickets are being provided by such a wealthy corporation.

it is disingenuous for it to portray itself as an independent struggling charity

Exactly.

I wonder if they are hoping this will put people off applying?
I do hope not.

Why can't we just be grateful that charities do exist to provide such experiences?

The other option is for them to say they are being swamped by applications from children with ASD and don't have the resources to continue to offer complimentary tickets. I for one would be sad if that happened.

Incidentally the tax breaks for giving aren't sizable if you actually look them up. Especially compared to places like the US where philanthropy is far more widespread and the tax system is far more supportive. Why should Merlin prop up a charity when there is a more efficient way of the charity providing the same support?

I think it's sad that people look for ulterior motives (that may or may not be there) in charities as opposed to appreciating them for what they do do.

What request for money?

This is a bit crap, we dont even have a local NAS. And what about those kids in ms school?

Lunar I got an email from MMW only last week suggesting that as me and DS would have had a lovely day out we may consider making a donation. I was too skint to at the time (due to a benefits F* up). Now I know they are not an independent struggling charity I feel less guilty about it than I did.

Lunar, I think people are most certainly grateful. I know of people that have actively fundraised after benefitting from free tickets.

I think people just cant get past the fact that its only us parents of autistic children that have to now jump through hoops to benefit from the charity.

It does seem unfair.

This is crap. I actually agree with all the negative comments about NAS but am still involved with my local branch, because it is the only local group and we do achieve some positive things locally, we are however regarded as militant and have been threatened with disbandment by the NAS on more than one occasion for rattling the LA cage too roughly (says it all). To be fair we find the NAS umbrella gives us more leverage in local press etc

But, I am also worried because I know nothing about this and as a parent volunteer I don't see why I should spend hours of my time form filling. I don't get paid and I doubt the regional team are going to do it. Why are they telling people to contact branches when my branch hasn't even been informed. If I hadn't seen this here I would have been telling our members to bog off. Why should one charity use the volunteers of other charities to do their work? Why don't they just say if you have a NAS membership card you can get in for free and ditch the paperwork.

I agree with everything zzzzz said.

Why don't they just say if you have a NAS membership card you can get in for free and ditch the paperwork
In some ways they already do this, carer goes free, free carers annual pass...

I got an email from MMW only last week suggesting that as me and DS would have had a lovely day out we may consider making a donation
know of people that have actively fundraised after benefitting from free tickets
Who I think it's possible to read the above two comments together to get a better understanding of he emails intention.

as a parent volunteer I don't see why I should spend hours of my time form filling. I don't get paid
Actually this to me is a big concern, that it puts people off volunteering

right of even disabled children to question motive and provision
Even people giving you a sweet can have other agendas
Don't take the sweet.....

Lunar - if you read the thread, you will see that I have said several times that I received a request for money from the charity which put itself forward as struggling in hard times.

You say it does not have to 'prop up a charity' but I think you are getting confused. MMW is Merlin's charity. It gives away free tickets to its own sites (which cost it nothing) but which it is able to claim a tax benefit for because it has created a charity to receive and disperse the tickets for it. If it did not do this, it would simply be giving away free tickets and there would be no tax benefit.

I think this is win win for Merlin as it gets tax benefits (however small these may be in the scheme of things for a multi-million (if not billion) pound enterprise), it gets a PR benefit with photos of children happy at its site and it gets people through the gates spending money on other things. The only cost is the admin cost and now it wants to pass that on to another charity or to parents.

The fact is - no, Merlin does not have to support any charitable giving. But most big companies do out of good corporate governance and because there are, whatever you say, tax benefits to charitable giving.

If it doesn't want to do this - fine. No problem. We have no 'right' to tickets as you say.

If it does - it shouldn't be asking the parents of disabled children for money and it shouldn't be dumping admin on the volunteers of another charity.

I also agree with Zzzzz. If they were singling put a specific race of people the media would be up in arms about it. Why has this story not gone to the papers? It's alright saying we should be grateful for it and I am but that doesn't excuse discrimination.

I have asked them to clarify whether this new scheme applies to autistic children only or whether all children applying to their charity are obliged to apply through another charity which may, or may not, require membership.

Has the words charity for charity's sake not occurred to anyone? That actually (shock horror) people who set up this charity might genuinely have wanted to give something back? Funnily enough if you ever hear people or companies talking about giving to charity in private, it's not often you hear the words tax breaks. Normally you hear about the personal circumstances that have led them too it.

Words escape me, anyone would have thought there were giving something away for free to try and spread a little happiness

Wait a minute...

Our local NAS group does not require membership, although alot of us are.

Thinking about this, whilst I wouldn't be comfortable with the ongoing commitment of joining the commitee I would be more than happy once a year to ask the group for anyone wanted to apply and complete the paperwork for the necessary tickets. (guess I'd better go and volunteer myself and put my money where my mouth is ). Guessing Bignev if you were happy to have contact email, mail or otherwise with a group this arrangement would resolve the problem for you...

It doesn't say people will be contacting me once a year in a group though. People could be ringing or emailing me all the time. Its still my time which I haven't been asked if I can spare. The NAS or MMW should have asked their branch volunteers first.

You can only apply once a year, so to my mind makes sense for the applications to be collected in one go in december ready for anyone who wants to go the following year. Hence email out december all applications back and sent to Merlins wand in Jan. maybe a second set of applications in july. Assuming regional branch allows you to organise the applications that way. You may find that if the process is formalised like that, there is someone like me who wants help more but doesn't know how.

Diagnosis rates of ASD are increasing, individual with autism are representing an ever increasing proportion of the population. I simply don't see streamlining the administration of a workload that is growing as discrimination. I see it as looking for the best way to offer something good to as many people as possible.

I think it's insulting to think of charities in terms of tax break and incentives (as has been done alot in this thread) and totally inaccurate. Most people/ Companies who give time or money to charity give a hell of a lot more than they receive.