Are some charities a scam?

conorbyrneirl

Jake1 wrote: »

fair point. heres another list. this one is on facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=7624294394&topic=14185

Those salaries aren't that high. Some of these are huge organisations with huge missions. Do you think if you paid the CEO 30k they would be better? Sorry but that makes no sense whatsoever

Oranage2

I don't know why people have to justify not given money to charity- simple fact is, if you want to donate do , if you don't just say that you're a miserable sod that doesn't want to help others, cause these excuses that "all the money is spent on admin" is just that, its an excuse and even if 100% of the money went to the poor people, you still wouldnt donate!!!

walshb

Oranage2 wrote: »

I don't know why people have to justify not given money to charity- simple fact is, if you want to donate do , if you don't just say that you're a miserable sod that doesn't want to help others, cause these excuses that "all the money is spent on admin" is just that, its an excuse and even if 100% of the money went to the poor people, you still wouldnt donate!!!

Well, maybe it's the arrogance that you are showing that would discourage people from donating, Being labeled a miserable sod because these charities do not convince you, and hence you do not contribute. Well, I will trust my judgment, and if that means being labeled a miserable
sod by some arrogant folks, so be it!

bottomlineidea

As ever, the question of charity is an emotive one which is only how it should be, given the purpose of the majority of charities. Add this to the fact that financial pressures on all of us make it tougher for people and charities alike to make ends meet and it's easy to see why there have been so many emotive posts here today.

I can only speak from personal and professional experience but the latter does involve working with literally hundreds of businesses, public sector bodies and charities. All of which simply means I've seen a fair bit around how organisations work.

And here's my thoughts. ALL organisations are run by people.

That means there are bent ones and there a good ones. There are geniuses, idiots, super-committed and unbelievably lazy people out there. That's a society.

I don't undersatnd how some of the posters here expect charities to be able to recruit employees from some other pool of talent when there isn't one. In society, we get the odd incompetent person, the criminal and the rude ones, so it stands to reason that ALL employers will have at least some of these people working for them.

We do hear occassional stories of street fundraisers going too far or one Executive at UNICEF having an expensive car but these are very much the microscopic minority. There are around 200,000 charities registered in the UK and Ireland and if you surveyed a decent sample, you'd find most staff doing their absolute best to do a good job.

Very, very few would even be earning a comparable wage to their commercial peers let alone a decent one.

And all are facing financial pressures which mean charity overheads are considerbaly lower than in public sector bodies or the vast majority of businesses. If you feel inclined to disagree, please check out any set of published accounts for these types of organisations and you'll see the facts.

I think the arguing here might boil down to some rumour and speculation (and this is fun, after all) as well as some personal experience of bad individuals in charities. But you know, I've been burgled before but that doesn't mean I resent all people wearing dark clothes...

Society is generally full of good people trying to do good things so let's not let the odd fool colour our impression of the vast majority.

Oranage2

walshb wrote: »

Well, maybe it's the arrogance that you are showing that would discourage people from donating, Being labeled a miserable sod because these charities do not convince you, and hence you do not contribute. Well, I will trust my judgment, and if that means being labeled a miserable
sod by some arrogant folks, so be it!

my arrogance, lol. fact is that Irish charities give around 90 percent to the poor. their ceos make less than 100k to run charities that make over 100million and when you consider that some Irish lecturers/public sector workers make a lot more for doing a lot less. also unfortunately charity workers spend a lot of their time involved in the charity do need to survive whether a doctor in Africa or a fundraiser so that's why they're paid. finally the other 10percent is then spent on the adds so is that they can make the other 90percent90

briscotti

Yes.

conorbyrneirl

bottomlineidea wrote: »

As ever, the question of charity is an emotive one which is only how it should be, given the purpose of the majority of charities. Add this to the fact that financial pressures on all of us make it tougher for people and charities alike to make ends meet and it's easy to see why there have been so many emotive posts here today.

I can only speak from personal and professional experience but the latter does involve working with literally hundreds of businesses, public sector bodies and charities. All of which simply means I've seen a fair bit around how organisations work.

And here's my thoughts. ALL organisations are run by people.

That means there are bent ones and there a good ones. There are geniuses, idiots, super-committed and unbelievably lazy people out there. That's a society.

I don't undersatnd how some of the posters here expect charities to be able to recruit employees from some other pool of talent when there isn't one. In society, we get the odd incompetent person, the criminal and the rude ones, so it stands to reason that ALL employers will have at least some of these people working for them.

We do hear occassional stories of street fundraisers going too far or one Executive at UNICEF having an expensive car but these are very much the microscopic minority. There are around 200,000 charities registered in the UK and Ireland and if you surveyed a decent sample, you'd find most staff doing their absolute best to do a good job.

Very, very few would even be earning a comparable wage to their commercial peers let alone a decent one.

And all are facing financial pressures which mean charity overheads are considerbaly lower than in public sector bodies or the vast majority of businesses. If you feel inclined to disagree, please check out any set of published accounts for these types of organisations and you'll see the facts.

I think the arguing here might boil down to some rumour and speculation (and this is fun, after all) as well as some personal experience of bad individuals in charities. But you know, I've been burgled before but that doesn't mean I resent all people wearing dark clothes...

Society is generally full of good people trying to do good things so let's not let the odd fool colour our impression of the vast majority.

I agree

Ivan2148

Hi all i got phone call off this person on thursday 10th sounded really genuine about advertising my business in some charity booklet said it was going to be distributed in the cork area i said i would be interested and requested more info before i committed to buy he said some account office would be on to me. I began to think this was a scam as it was a private number the next day I received another call this time from an english number i was asked again was i interested in advertising i said yes but wanted proof then i was told conversation was being recorded i was told the price and a load of rubbish telling me they couldn't guarantee such amount of copies would be made and that an invoice would be sent to me then the call was cut off i tried ringing the number back got onto some switch bord operator he said there are many charity's in the building and which one did i want i didn't know as i was never told which one ive checked adscamsuk and apparently this is happening alot in uk they record you saying yes to a random question then send out the invoice and when payment isn't sent to them debt collectors get involved and court proceeding are threatened with so just wondering has this happened anybody else and will i be forced to pay for this nonsense

marty1985

Ivan2148 wrote: »

Hi all i got phone call off this person on thursday 10th sounded really genuine about advertising my business in some charity booklet said it was going to be distributed in the cork area i said i would be interested and requested more info before i committed to buy he said some account office would be on to me. I began to think this was a scam as it was a private number the next day I received another call this time from an english number i was asked again was i interested in advertising i said yes but wanted proof then i was told conversation was being recorded i was told the price and a load of rubbish telling me they couldn't guarantee such amount of copies would be made and that an invoice would be sent to me then the call was cut off i tried ringing the number back got onto some switch bord operator he said there are many charity's in the building and which one did i want i didn't know as i was never told which one ive checked adscamsuk and apparently this is happening alot in uk they record you saying yes to a random question then send out the invoice and when payment isn't sent to them debt collectors get involved and court proceeding are threatened with so just wondering has this happened anybody else and will i be forced to pay for this nonsense

Sounds like a scam, but it's difficult to tell, as it's impossible to read it without some punctuation.

marty1985

Also, I'm sure this has been discussed on Liveline before. It's a scam.

Cranky Mc Funhouse

Ivan2148 wrote: »

i said i would be interested

Rookie mistake. Never EVER be interested. In anything.

mancfrank

i worked for a charity for 2 years but was getting paid cash in hand. it was a charity that ran a residential house for men with addictions. 95% of donations came by way of the residents and staff doing bag packing 3 days per week in the likes of dunnes or tesco, or street collections. Sometimes individuals or churches would then donate as well. Each person who stayed there handed over their social welfare as well. while i was there the director got rid of strong characters on the board of trustees that wanted to know how money was being spent, and got them replaced by people he could manipulate and who didnt care-his words. he also sacked 2 employees just because he had to pay tax for them and myself and a few others were paid cash in hand. I actually tried to see if there was a charities ombudsman because the money that went through the place was unreal and he just spent it how ever he wanted. for example on 1 collection over 3 days in blanchardstown raised 18000 euro, most of it was spent on his new house as was a credit card in charities name.

Even the so called charities that come round the door or stand outside shops asking for help to fight drugs, them lads are sent out and told not to come back to the centre until they have reached a target of 250 or 350 depending what time of week it is, when they earn more than that it goes in their own pocket. yet back at the centre they dont even get fed properly, they live mostly on food donated by supermarkets that are close to or past sell by date. all the while the director and his family living in big fancy house and driving brand new cars and jeeps. last i heard they under investigation by CAB, about time....

ngraeire

karma_ wrote: »

Fúck you are some begrudger what!

I know tradesmen who go to Africa to build houses, they pay their own flights and sleep rough. They do help train locals when they get the chance but it's more or less non-stop work when they are there and there is no drinking, partying or sight-seeing.

If you don;t want to give to charity then that's fine but stop spending your time trying to convince others it's all a big scam and just fúck off.

You don't realise how wrong you are. I have a sister in law who is South African and told me all about the townships, the supposed poverty in South Africa and Niall Mellon's gig. The South African economy is booming! The people living in the shanty towns have refused to live in the houses that have been built. The live in shanty towns by choice! And they are by no means the delapidated or run down conditions that the media will lead you to believe. (instigated by the South African government) They have running water, plentiful food and clothing and they go to school. They have been given the opportunity to live in these houses but instead either destroyed them or rented them out to other people and kept the money! Their culture is the shanty town life. It is no different to those in the traveller culture in Ireland who were given council houses yet still decide to live in caravans on halting sites as it is their culture. There is alot of money being made out of charities, maybe do a bit of research before shouting your mouth off and the fact that you labelled walshB a racist shows how ignorant you are.