Checking out not for profit Organisation before donation

pencekeeper3

Hi there
I'm looking to leave some money in my will to 10 or so dog rescue charities/not for profit organisations.
In the latter case of a not for profit organisation, how do I check them out beforehand?  Is there any oversight of them?
I assume they could theoretically simply salary themselves to the tune of most of the donations/income received?
I'd like the make sure the money would go to those most in need, and not to people with large salaries.
Many thanks

Savvy_Sue

With non-registered charities / NFP organisations there's no necessarily straightforward way of checking things: as you'll know if a charity is registered then it needs to publish its annual accounts via the Charity Commission, if nowhere else. 

And I do remember reading, a long time ago, an explanation from one of the animal rescue organisations about why they were NOT a registered charity, because there was a mingling of resources between their not for profit work and their 'regular' work which would have been impossible if they had been registered - and the 'charitable' side of the work needed the support of the 'paid for' work. So it's not always sinister if it's not registered as a charity. 

There is no oversight other than for registered charities. So what can you do? You can certainly ask if they publish accounts anywhere. You can become involved as a supporter / donor and see if you get a good 'vibe' from how things are done. You can ask what their 'governance' model is: ie is this a what-I-say-goes setup; is there a group involved in decision making; is there a formal constitution for a committee giving oversight? You can ask if there are paid staff, how many and so on. 

If an organisation I wished to support wasn't willing to make that kind of information available, I'd walk away. 

One thing to be aware of - which a solicitor would help you with, and I'd recommend using one anyway, but particularly in this situation - is that if you leave £100 eg to the Mongrel Rescue Society of Mongolia, what happens to your money if the MRS of M has changed its name to the All Dogs Matter Council of Asia? Or simply stopped operating? Or merged with the Dogs of the World Charity? When one registered charity merges with another there's usually a clear trail from one to the other: it can be less clear with non-charities. 

General_Grant

Savvy_Sue said:

. . .
And I do remember reading, a long time ago, an explanation from one of the animal rescue organisations about why they were NOT a registered charity, because there was a mingling of resources between their not for profit work and their 'regular' work which would have been impossible if they had been registered - and the 'charitable' side of the work needed the support of the 'paid for' work. So it's not always sinister if it's not registered as a charity. 

. . .

I've just come across this thread while looking for something else (when the MSE search facility fails) and realise it is almost a year old.

The explanation you have been given seems a nonsense.  I would have suspected that the paid for services were trading off the goodwill generated by the charitable side of things but they were not willing to disclose what percentage of their gross profits were going in staff costs and how little to charitable expenditure.  Most charities raise funds in part from selling things at an excess of receipts over costs and is accounted for in the normal course.

bris

Not for profit  is a misleading statement, it suggest they don't make a profit which of course is "true". It's true they don't make a profit, but the profits go on salaries and the odd couple of quid to the dogs, but in the end directors salaries and fancy company cars need paying for.

You just need to look in the news recently about a super models charity that turned over millions with nothing more than token  actually going to the charity side, the rest spend on salaries and extravagant events promoting nothing but themselves in the "look at me, look how great I am" It's free money and free shindigs all in the name of charity.