Stopping donating to charities...advice please

GiveItBack

Primrose wrote: »

I suspect the larger the charity, the higher the proportion of your donation which is spent on admin, rather than doing good in the field.

Not really the case. It actually tends to be a curve, with tiny charities having no admin costs – as it’s all covered by volunteers, then very small ones having quite large costs (eg a £10k salary on a £50k charity), then middle ones are a bit lower, bigger ones lower still, and the biggies are about the same as the middly ones. But that’s a HUGE generalization as different charities and different sectors have different figures.

Also different charities account differently. Eg A newsletter with a donation form on the back; is it PR, is it raising awareness (so charitable objective for some charities), or is it fundraising, or is it a bit of both. Two charities will look at this and account it differently.

Finally admin costs can also include things like haing a phoneline at a hospice, or paying the salaries of the nurses, so some kinds of charities will have totally different running and admin costs. They really aren’t a good way to measure a charity’s performance. (more of this later)

LilMissEmmylou wrote: »

i donate £1.50 a week to a small charity called engagehivaids.com it was set up by some friends of mine in a Christian worship band. I know exactly what my money goes to as i get 3 texts a week for my donation to tell me things that the money is being spent on. No junk mail, no junk emails etc etc so although i cant donate anymore than i do to them at the moment, its great to know exactly what my money goes on

You pay £1.50 a week and get 3 texts?!? How do you pay the weekly £1.50, and how much do the texts cost the charity?

Face to facers, the guys asking for direct debits. They do get paid, they tend to work for a company that charges a set fee for a set number of sign ups, regardless of how long it takes to get them. So far they tend to bring in value for the charities, raising significantly more (longterm) than initial costs. So far. Look at it as: well they spent money to raise money, without spending £100, they wouldn’t have this nice shiny £1000.

For the OP, I’m with Voyager2002, ask the NSPCC why their policy is what it is. Ask your charities how much is spent where, ask them not to mail you (they should stop)

LOVE MarkyMarkD’s example– it does illustrate why admin costs (and most figures, don’t show the picture we’re looking for – but there’s even more to it than that).

Was Ryansace being sarcastic??

It’s much better for people to just give for nothing in return. By the time I pay a company to organize a skydive, then promote it, then do the admin for the participants, then get in the money, the actual income is a lot less than if they’d just donated that much. In my own view Live Aid, Live Aid II and Live 8 were failures, Live Aid was the best of the bunch (but this is another story). But many people want to get something in exchange for giving, so charities do events, and produce Christmas cards and so on and so on.

You might not notice £10 or whatever a month (I don’t miss the amount I give monthly), but done properly that £10 a month is worth not £1200 over 10 years, but £1536. And £1536 can make a big difference.

I know people worry about the costs of sending out letters and things, but honestly most of them (not all) barely cost pennies.

Big thanks to Churchmouse for volunteering to collect with a can – it’s tough work but all makes a difference.


Finally, can I suggest that you judge charities on their outcomes not their income and expenditures?


There might be a charity earning £100k, and spending nothing on admin, but what is it actually achieving with the money? Worry about what the charity does, and how well it does it, not so much how much they spent on admin. Which brings us back to the OP. if you don't like something the charity you support does, then consider changing. There are probably others in the same field that may not have the same policies. I know the NSPCC, and I think if you wrote to them or emailed them about your worry, they'd explain their thinking. Then you'd know if you wanted to support them or not. If not, let them know why not.

helloecho

I encounter many chuggers walking around London at work. The worst thing is when they swarm a particular stretch of street and you don't have to say no once, but three, four, five times! I find that if I have my iPod on an stare at an object in the distance they tend not to bother me, but when I do get stopped I usually just politely say 'I'm really sorry but I'm running late' and hurry off before they get the chance to protest.

The few times I have relented and let them 'pitch' me, it has just wound me up. I asked one guy if he had a leaflet I could read to take away think about it, but no that wasn't possible. So I asked if they had a website, and he told me they did but you couldn't donate through the website! Unbelievable! :rolleyes:

vixarooni

Think of the free pens oxfam chuck out regularly! it is really required?

my family organise quite a few parties and from the donations raised by the people who turns up it gets taken to our local hospice. i would rather do that myself than be tied to paying out so much each month.

Crazy_Hamster

I will never give money to the NSPCC for the simple fact that a few months ago they would not stop calling me begging for money. If I had it I would give, and I do but I am sick to death of being called up to 4 times in a day. Once they called me twice within half an hour when I was ill, when I asked to talk to a manager I was cut off. Oh and there are all the things they would send me in the post. It's stopped since I sent them back in their own envelopes with 'stop harassing me' written on them!

Ok, rant over. *Takes deep breath*

sandieb

I had a similar thing with the Red Cross after donating to a "world disaster" type fund. I was inundated with requests, brochures, guilt inducing greeting cards (binned) and a diary (binned). I feel sure my donation of £20 ended up paying for all this rubbish.

I don't avoid the chuggers but just look them in the eye and smile and say "I don't wish to donate".

But I will always donate to my favourite charity (RNLI).

GiveItBack

Crazy_Hamster wrote: »

I will never give money to the NSPCC for the simple fact that a few months ago they would not stop calling me begging for money. If I had it I would give, and I do but I am sick to death of being called up to 4 times in a day. Once they called me twice within half an hour when I was ill, when I asked to talk to a manager I was cut off. Oh and there are all the things they would send me in the post. It's stopped since I sent them back in their own envelopes with 'stop harassing me' written on them!

Ok, rant over. *Takes deep breath*

No worries, rant away, NSPCC are knwon among charities as being really good at KEEPING their donors so I'm surprised to hear that they did this. I can't help but wonder if it was a mistake on their systems that led to you being called several times.

A shame, but charities need to get it right.

vikki_louise

hello, why not buy some items to donate (ask first what they need) for things like women shelter's, homless shelters, or gift or card for a sick kid at www.postpals.co.uk you know what the money was used for and exactly where its goings

pixiedust_2

It is inefficient for charities to have things bought on their behalf by donors, and more efficient for the donors to give the cash under gift aid and for the charity to pay its way properly.

I'd second that - I'm a scout leader, and, although all members pay a membership fee, we pretty much survive off the money claimed back in gift aid (26p for every £1 donated by tax payers ). The membership fees are swiftly eaten up paying bills for insurance, rent, and other exciting stuff, the amount we can claim back supports the activities we run and equipment we buy.

If you make a donation, and there is a form with a box asking your permission to claim gift aid, please tick it - but only if you are a tax payer!

Pixie x

GiveItBack

pixiedust wrote: »

I'd second that - I'm a scout leader, and, although all members pay a membership fee, we pretty much survive off the money claimed back in gift aid (26p for every £1 donated by tax payers ). The membership fees are swiftly eaten up paying bills for insurance, rent, and other exciting stuff, the amount we can claim back supports the activities we run and equipment we buy.

If you make a donation, and there is a form with a box asking your permission to claim gift aid, please tick it - but only if you are a tax payer!

Pixie x

Yes yes yes yes yes, please do this. If you pay tax, then charities can claim back 28p for every pound you donate. If you pay higher rate tax, then you can claim back the remaining 22p too.

Next year once the tax rates change charities will only be able to claim back 25p, so it's important for as many people as possible to Gift Aid donations.

if you make donations to charity and you haven't gift aided your donations, please contact the charity and tell them you want to gift aid them. It can be backdated for 6 years, so all your donations for the past six years count. If you've given a tenner a year, that works out at almost £20 they'll get if you gift aid it.

You can simply write to them, saying something like:

I would like all donations I have made for the six years prior to this year, (but no earlier than 6/4/2000) and all donations I make from the date of this declaration until I notify you otherwise, as Gift Aid donations.

freebie_junkie

alant1000 wrote: »

They get paid?? ? ???!?!? ??!? !? ? I am shocked, that really annoys me, ok maybe i am naive, but it just makes me realise that out of say £5, if all these people are getting paid, marketing, operations, building rent etc more must be going to them than the people in need. I'm not one for giving money to tramps (not the !!!!!! ones anyway ), but maybe a tramp in the only direct way i know 100% of my money ends up in the hands of those in need - even if it is for cider!

I am actually a bit gutted they get paid, i am sure some have told me they do it for free.

hence why theyre called 'chuggers' (charity muggers)! they really bother me. i once got physically stopped by a shelter bloke (put his hand out in front of me and i walked into it!) he went into some self-richeous rant about how he spent one night in a hostel and he bet i didnt know what that was like? at the time i was homeless and living in a young persons hostel and i really chewed his ear off about it!