Can I Trust Charities?

[xarr]

Anyway, the point is, just how much of your donation goes to the good cause...

All registered charities must prepare a Trustees’ Annual Report (TAR) and accounts and make copies available to the public. Charities only need to register with the Charity Commission when their annual income exceeds £5,000. All charities that have a income over £25,000 have to submit audited accounts and an annual report to the Charity Commission. They then publish the results online, here is Cancer Research UK's for example

http://www.charity-commission.gov.u...teredCharityNumber=1089464&SubsidiaryNumber=0

With them 69% of their expenditure goes on charitable activities and they have (in 2009) 152 employees earning over £60,000 (see page 35 in their annual report, also on the site).

You have to look at governance costs vs total income, a charity I volunteer for paid a professional fundraiser the better part of £200,000 over 3 years but it has paid off to the tune of £1,500,000 and the money is still coming in from her work.

I would be surprised if its a run of the mill job that earns £190,000 but to get the best people you have to pay up, even if 3rd sector pay is lower than public or private sector work.

 

[Abraham]

I wouldn't donate to any charity that doesn't publish all it's finances.

They have to as part of being a registered charity, dont they?

 

[lucky13]

Is this one of those nice Nigerian charities I get emails from all the time asking if I could donate my time for £200k a year with a nice part time job and all I have to do is give him my bank details so he can start paying me 2 weeks before I start.

 

[ntg]

It's made me wonder just how much charity donations make it to the unhappy campers it's meant for.

Am I being a grumpy git?

Well dear sir, for £5 a month I can give you a list of charities where you can make donations to. It's only 15p per day. Think about it!

 

[toshj]

my girlfriend works for a local homless charity in their fundraising department. she doesn't get paid too much (£20,000 per annum), and no one in their 5 person team would earn more than £35,000.

apparently 95p of every pound goes to charitable causes. she said that although they take 5p for admin, a lot of charities take a fair amount more.

if a team of 5 people on less that £130,000 in combined salaries is raising half a million pounds, then that i have no issue with chairity workers getting paid... but £190,000 for one job does sound a tad high

 

[Guest2]

"I want your monies...monies, monies"

 

[Guest2]

if a team of 5 people on less that £130,000 in combined salaries is raising half a million pounds, then that i have no issue with chairity workers getting paid... but £190,000 for one job does sound a tad high

My maths isnt great and i'm not thinking straight at the moment but that doesnt sound correct.

Company raises £1,000,000 - (1000000 * 5 / 100) = £50,000

So they would have to raise 3 million pounds to get 150k. Half a million raised would only just pay your GFs salary

 

[antijoke]

Sad thing is it's probably true, the people at the top of charities like the one you have talked about often pull out big salaries for themselves.

 

[Cosimo]

I wouldn't donate to any charity that doesn't publish all it's finances.

Have you ever donated to a charity?

 

[toshj]

i think almost all registered charities would have a board that decides on remuneration, so its not a case of the guy at the top paying himself whatever he wants.

 

[Beasty]

The regional manager when I volunteered at a charity shop must have been on at least 40k from what I could tell, although I couldn't tell much!

 

[Biohazard]

You can trust me!!

 

[Amp34]

Sad thing is it's probably true, the people at the top of charities like the one you have talked about often pull out big salaries for themselves.

And again I think someone running (or very near the top) of a company like Cancer Research UK, which makes £500m a year, should be paid a fair sum, otherwise CRUK aren't going to attract anyone of any use.

 

[Guest2]

And again I think someone running (or very near the top) of a company like Cancer Research UK, which makes £500m a year, should be paid a fair sum, otherwise CRUK aren't going to attract anyone of any use.

So if a company does get £500m a year in donations and they take 5p out of every pound then

500,000,000 * 5 / 100 = 25,000,000

So they would be making £25 million profit from £500 million in donations?

It all depends on how many people Cancer research employ and what else they spend the money on. If I was CEO of cancer research managing £500 million then I would want a juicy pay packet

 

[toshj]

i think a fair amount of the larger charities are run as investment companies, so they don't just spread their donations around. they tend to invest in various investment vehicles (hedge funds, fund of funds, traditional asset managers) which is why a nubmer of them got hit quite hard over the last couple of years. i seem to remember (but could be totally wrong) that the tate london had lost a bundle investing in structured products last year, and one of the cat charities for about £11m due to the icelandic crisis.

 

[Abraham]

So if a company does get £500m a year in donations and they take 5p out of every pound then

500,000,000 * 5 / 100 = 25,000,000

So they would be making £25 million profit from £500 million in donations?

It all depends on how many people Cancer research employ and what else they spend the money on. If I was CEO of cancer research managing £500 million then I would want a juicy pay packet

CRUK are probably a pretty poor example, as they directly fund research, so some of their staff are paid to do the work the money should be going on, so does that come out of the x% for admin or the remaining % for charitable spending.

 

[Abraham]

i think a fair amount of the larger charities are run as investment companies, so they don't just spread their donations around. they tend to invest in various investment vehicles (hedge funds, fund of funds, traditional asset managers) which is why a nubmer of them got hit quite hard over the last couple of years. i seem to remember (but could be totally wrong) that the tate london had lost a bundle investing in structured products last year, and one of the cat charities for about £11m due to the icelandic crisis.

I know the Christie cancer hospital in Manchester lost quite a lot in the icelandic fiasco

 

[mame]

Only the other week I was reading about the case of some immigrant who had come here but had been refused some benefit or other and Shelter were funding their court case to get them benefits/housing etc.


shelter

Trying to find a link to the article but Shelter is too much of a generic word that fits in with the subject

 

[Rroff]

I did some work for a charity a few years back (contracted for database development) and their director was on well over £100K a year - the thinking was a good director worth paying that much for would save them a lot more in better management of the charity and its funds, etc. rather than an average person being paid 30K and wasting 100s of thousands from poor/average management.

From my experience there especially and elsewhere tho I wouldn't donate a penny to most charities.

 

[I get around]

I always ask people collecting if they're getting paid for it.

I never give to anyone but volunteers.
When I had spare time I used to do stuff to raise money for amnesty international.