Before donating to any charity, think on this.

[ktlight]

From eddieb of DIF:

"A few years ago I worked for a company that had a contract with one of the largest charities in the World. One day I was sent to their Head office. It took me several hours to complete my task, when I was finished the person who was showing me around the various offices etc offered to show me around the setup. There were numerous offices with computers etc, a large cafe, the car park was full of company cars. I commented it must cost a fortune to run this sort of setup, to which he replied, ( and I have/will never forget this ), for every pound that is donated 97 pence go to Administration!!!!! leaving a grand total of three pence to the people who really need it!"

[crosby]

i am still amazed by the power of greed.
regards, corson

[Davidallany]

I can see through their lies, some put children images while asking them to cry, so that people may feel sorry and send money. Some say "its just the price of a cup of coffee a day", but if it's so, why don't those scammers donate some of their property for the cause? For the crying of children part maybe they make them sniff onions?

[Star1111]

Doesn't suprise me at all Ktlight, that's why I don't donate to charities in the conventional sence. My question has always been why don't the governments of the country do more to help their own people. Simple answer they are generally corrupt and greedy so why would they.

[phillipbbg]

Charity is an industry in the UK.......

[Davidallany]

Charity is an industry in the UK...
Following in religions' hoof steps.

[etheric underground]

We would be better going down to our local homeless person and buying them
a blanket and a loaf of bread.

[phillipbbg]

Charity or the Company registration of a company just means that they have to be "Not for Profit" or to put it another way "Spend the profits so you don't have to declare a Profit" what a great business model, you get your income tax free so long as you spend all the money........on..????????????? anything but the slogan... Its almost as good as registering a religion for tax purposes.

Our society is sick and needs to be detoxed so that organisations can get back to doing what we all think they should be doing with our support..

[Corncrake]

Please don't stop giving to charities they really do need your help - just pick your charities with care. In an ideal world we would not need charities but as we are all too well aware this is not an ideal world. I have done a lot of voluntary work for small organisations over the years where not a penny has been wasted and very little has gone on administration. I also have a highly qualified friend who has spent much of his adult life working in senior management in Oxfam for a low salary. He is a wonderful humble person who believes in what he is doing - not everyone is out there to make a quick buck.

[phillipbbg]

Fully agree with Corncake... don't give up on charities... just follow your donations up and be satisfied with there use... also the greatest donation you can give is "your time" it is far more expensive for many charities to employ people so any time for free is precious... Also you will find you get much more out of it than just throwing some money at a name.

[ouporblowup]

thats discusting


ooo

[fifi]

I used to donate to UNICEF, but stopped a while ago when having a doubt that my donations might not go the the needed. Is there a list a charity organizations that we can trust? Are Covenant House, Peta, ASPCA reliable?

[Curt]

I don't know what's more alarming to me...that this actually happens, or that I'm not surprised by it. It's almost never good when one's own cynicism is nakedly confirmed.

[ktlight]

Charity is an industry in the UK.......

Only in the UK?

[shadowstalker]

this is why I never donate money, but only donate food or clothes to folks

[ktlight]

I used to donate to UNICEF, but stopped a while ago when having a doubt that my donations might not go the the needed. Is there a list a charity organizations that we can trust? Are Covenant House, Peta, ASPCA reliable?

All charities have to register at Companies House. I am sure we pay over enough to the government to pay for everything, even wars. The fact that they allocate so much to the MOD and can always fund wars, themselves and their cronies (I am sure we have all noticed this), let alone bail out the failed banks is the reason why I will not contribute to charities. Charities should be able to go to the government for funds, or better still, the government should be able to set up an organisation to distribute to the causes directly.

They really should get into balancing the books.

[Maia Gabrial]

My feelings exactly, EU. I don't give to organizations anymore....If people want to help, find someone and do it directly. Too bad charities are ruining their own reputations like this....

[Snookie]

I have heard that the Salvation Army only uses 3% of the donations for administration, which I feel is very reasonable.

[Marsila]

so many more people are now realizing those 'world famous' "charity" organisations keeps like 70% at least to themselves to "manage" the rest of the money.

But like Etheric underground said we don't need them really to use what we have and give it to someone who needs it. At university i remember quite a few people who looked for orphanages around the area and would then organize football games with them, and using their own funding and those who'd want to help they'd buy these boys and girls what they want (they didn't have parents to buy them toys and the orphanage provided them with food, so made sense to give money for such a thing.)

again the story got repeated a year later, when i was staying somewhere and there were kids all over this hotel, when i asked what that was about, i was told the managers and the staff had decided to use all the revenue gathered from the only restaurant there for a month and invite all the families in need they knew of, and orphanages to free dinners and lunches for a month. So again it just showed individual or little group efforts work sometimes.

also we can find those homeless people on our own by word of mouth or looking around, not everyone who needs help is easy to find.

HOWEVER with all that, i did find a few locally based charities in different countries, who really spend almost everything on whatever cause they ask people to donate money, food, and clothes for.

so just do your homework, and yes watch out which charities you donate to, as some of them use the poster of a child in need to fill up there own pockets.

[daledo]

Someone told me a long time ago that legally, charity organizations only have to give 2.5 or 3%. You have to wonder about the ones that give the bare minimum. There are some good ones but they are far and few between. The heads of the major ones receive hundreds of thousands a year. It is very easy to launder the money through these types of organizations. There will always be poor hungry people around the world because if there weren't there would be no need for the charities that rake in billions of dollars a year. With all of the money collected to help the starving people in Africa, they should have clean water and plenty of food. It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out all the BS going on.

You never give a homeless person money when they have a sign that says they are hungry. Some are just honest though.

http://sp5.fotolog.com/photo/53/50/115/jv9/1203612985_f.jpg

[Carmen]

Yes, I pick my charities and I have left money at op shops for other people. I will not donate to cancer charities. To my mind cancer is a money making business.

[Teakai]

We would be better going down to our local homeless person and buying them
a blanket and a loaf of bread.

And that's illegal in some US states.

It's a mad world.

[Teakai]

There was a program I saw on TV a while back - and I can't recall the details cleary, but a certain percent of donations went to marketing campaigns so that corporations could figure how best to tempt your 2 year old (or anybody) into wanting stuff (toys in Macca's etc) and I think there was a % donated to animal testing.
Like I said, I'm really iffy about the details, but that's what remained in my head, so people might want to completely investigate where their money goes.

Does donating dollars to save a child from society induced cancers mean more funding to have another batch of animals tortured? It's heartbreak all round isn't it?