What do you do for charity?

Keawyeds said:
Totally different beast.

It's not about "making a business money". It's a not for profit organisation. It's about funding things which need to be funded otherwise they won't exist.

You seem to misunderstand the way charities work. Easily done if you've not worked in the sector, but assuming that just because people get paid, it's not "charitable" is incorrect.
Charities can't run on volunteers alone. We have a lot of volunteers who give up their time to support us, but it can't function with them alone.
You could argue that the volunteers aren't doing something "charitable" because they're getting something out of it.


Shop them to the charities commission and Fundraising Regulator. That's what they're there for.
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Again I’m not in any way knocking you but it’s no different from raising money for any business when you’re getting paid. You have every right to get paid and I completely understand that it would fail if it doesn’t have paid staff but the staff are essentially salesmen.
 


Keawyeds said:
On behalf of the charity sector and those who work in it, that's a pretty bold statement unless you can back it up.

FWIW, I've never worked for a charity with an in/out of more than £10M, although I have worked for national and regional charities.


I cut my teeth on fundraising at University. Barely a weekend would go by when I wasn't in some city or other, probably in a charity t-shirt or something daft with a bucket in my hand.
Bucket collections have dropped off the map compared to what they used to be. Cash is (almost) dead.
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Yes, we used to do a lot of bucket collections for a certain animal rescue in various towns and cities.
They don't seem to be a thing anymore - as you say , not many people carry cash nowadays.
 
OOOSH YEAH said:
I personally do absolutely nothing. I never donate to charity or give them any of my time. I always wear headphones when out too so people think I haven’t heard them.
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Same here. I even got on telly once gatecrashing Children in Need by pretending we had a cheque to present when we actually had nowt. Doc Cox was doing his bit to camera so I started a surge down the seating behind him.
Students eh?
 
OOOSH YEAH said:
Again I’m not in any way knocking you but it’s no different from raising money for any business when you’re getting paid. You have every right to get paid and I completely understand that it would fail if it doesn’t have paid staff but the staff are essentially salesmen.
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We really, really aren’t “essentially salesman”. There’s nothing sales about doing a funding application or organising a dinner or working with a bereaved family to honour the person they’ve lost.

And we don’t work on commission either- if we did, that would be against the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s Code of Practice.
Keawyeds said:
On behalf of the charity sector and those who work in it, that's a pretty bold statement unless you can back it up.
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In 20 years, I’ve never met anyone who’s made a fortune from working in a charity, so I’d like it backed up too. Not especially keen on my colleagues and I being accused of “legal corruption”.
 
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I used to DD 3 or 4 charities but it seemed that details were getting shared as I was absolutely inundated with mail, phone calls, etc. asking me to sign up with other charities. The ones I had signed up with also started wanting more, sometimes quite aggressively (one bloke on the phone was ranting about 'how would I feel if I didn't get a pay rise?' - not a difficult question to answer being a public servant during 'austerity') so I stopped them all in favour of targeting things I felt were worthwhile and the benefit were a bit more transparent.

Unfortunately, charity is always going to be needed but it's totally up to individuals whether or not they do anything. Can't agree with those actively going against it though.
 
Look after children taken into care whilst assessments can be done to see if the children can return to family.
When they’re not we prepare children and adults for adoption.
 
OOOSH YEAH said:
I personally do absolutely nothing. I never donate to charity or give them any of my time. I always wear headphones when out too so people think I haven’t heard them.
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I hoy shrapnel in boxes. I also nudge up my online screwfix purchases to the nearest pound for some charity. I have no idea what it is.
 
I do quite a bit of fundraising for local causes. Organised a few race nights/quizzes for the kids football team, raised a bit of cash for a hospice, I've done charity runs a few times. Nothing that will get me an MBE like.

Probably sounds selfish and cheap, but I'd rather donate my time to a local cause than my cash to a major one. A couple of hours putting together something that will raise a few hundred that will make a difference to a small cause, is much more rewarding than just sending a standing order to a national charity.
 

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