UK Charities

Earlier today I was looking at UK overseas aid charities, due to Kenya getting worried about US Foreign Aid being reduced and the impact it will have on the poaching and rangers in the national parks.

I found a link with lists on which in turn takes us to more information about each charity and the financial info for the latest 2016.

For children overseas charities I looked at Christian Aid , total income £106,976,000 total expenditure £100,444,000.

Apart from salaries of which I find £127,000 for CEO is grossly over the top for a charity but they seem to indicate it's an acceptable amount as the average amount for other charities CEO is £167,00 (N.B.' average'). for the top 100 charities.

Have the charities become rip offs now ? Charities, Trust Funds, Overseas Aid, Children In Need, plus many more all with their high earning paid staff .

What effect does this money have ? Nothing seems to improve , that we are informed about , they just come back for more.

Maybe I'm beginning to get too cynical but when seeing how many charities there are , it does make one wonder.

http://www.charitychoice.co.uk/charities/overseas-aid

and this from 2015 is eye watering, if you read it all.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...last-year.html

Re: UK Charities

I've always maintained that if you want to earn vast amounts of money, set up your own charity or charitable foundation aimed ostensibly at aiding particular causes close to the public's heart. Children and animal charities seem to be the favourites. Kid's Company founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh is a prime example - her lavish lifestyle was funded by the £42M screwed from the British taxpayer as was the £40,000 p.a. wage for her personal chauffeur and £28,000 for his son's annual private school fees. It is now closed due to `financial irregularities` but not before they managed to con another £3M government grant.

Oxfam don't fare much better, out of an average £400M p.a. only £298M is spent on charitable work, the rest is used to pay for the `administration costs` and wages. As for the RSPCA, don't get me started on their inflated wage packets and underhand practices.

Re: UK Charities

I like dogs, and I don't like to think of them suffering from cruelty or neglect, so I subscribed to The Dogs Trust
Then I found out how much their CEO is paid so I cancelled. I think it was £160,000 pa, but I'm willing to be corrected

It would be an interesting exercise for an investigative journalist to work out how much African, and other, countries have received in aid since their independence.

That would include all sources - foreign aid from the governments; both their specific colonial power and any others charities; disaster funds; organisations like the EU & UN; and any others I've forgotten

And yes, I posted this sort of comment at the time. there was something I couldn't explain exactly, but as far as I was concerned, Kids Company had a definite aura or whiff of dubiousness and sleaziiness

Re: UK Charities

I am fed up of getting loads of junk mail from charities I have donated too.
I am sure all this waste of paper has far diminished my original donation.

Re: UK Charities

Having seen first hand how some of these charities misuse donations and donatated goods, I won't donate to any of them.

Re: UK Charities

Don't think you are cynical at all. Charities are not like they used to be 50 years ago. Now they are highly proffessional and spend lots of money looking at the psychological aspects of separating the punters from their cash

When we moved into this house (3 years ago) it was clear the previous occupant had somehow got herself on just about every charity mailing list you could think of

What annoyed me was that she obviously could not afford to pay for proper electrical work to be done and was living with some dangerous appliances, sockets, lighting etc. I'm really amazed she didn't kill herself and apart from the ongoing problems she passed on when selling the house (Which I have now sorted) she was endangering herself in order to subscribe to heaven knows how many charities. Crazy.

Re: UK Charities

Setting up a Charity is a 'License to print money'
especially for the Directors and top staff and their very expensive prestigious Offices.

Apart from the small local Charities, they are run as big business Companies and have millions of surplus Capitol in the bank, deal in stocks and shares and the property market.
When they go abroad they stay in the most expensive Hotels ls as well .

How ironic that Foreign Aid costs UK £billions much of this is siphoned off by administers and bad management.
Yet,we are constantly urged daily through begging letters and appeals on TV and in the Media to give more for Children drinking dirty water, Loss of sight. RSPC, Ill treated Donkeys and assorted other charities too

Shouldn't these be covered by the £billions of Foreign Aid?

Re: UK Charities

I'm sure that we receive as much charity junk mail as anyone else.

Fortunately, our local council have been generous enough to provide us with a blue bin, assigned specially for that purpose!

Re: UK Charities

It was noticeable only a few weeks ago, shortly after the Syrian crisis had settled a bit, next up Yemen. Appeals for Yemen and TV footage showing these heart breaking images of children dying from cholera.

That has quietened down and next comes the big chief of Sierra Leone being interviewed on TV. the other day. I've never heard of or set eyes on him before, but it always seems to be first stop UK.

Sad and as devastating as these disasters are, I just feel that we are being taken for mugs sometimes, particularly when UK is putting foreign aid into the World Bank trusts and over 5 years we, the tax payers have paid £241 million in administration fees.
The World Bank and United Nations hold a lot of the money and it sits there for years.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk...ign-aid-target

The more we look into this, the worse it seems to get.

Re: UK Charities

I just hope that all of these fortunate countries we are subsidising will remember our largess and then, when we are poor, will return the favour.

Of course, I'm being silly aren't I?