Are Charities still charitable or are they Big Businesses

[slim]

Charities.
Give a few pounds and you feel good that you have helped someone less fortunate than yourself.
But have you?
Charities these days are becoming more of businesses with the top people being paid extremely well.
So how much does a charity have to collect before any of the money starts to work for the supposed recipients?
I can't answer that but a site that may help is:

http://www.intelligentgiving.com/

Do you know that the top Neddy of our own Royal British legion is paid in excess of £150K?

So how many poppies must be sold so that he can enjoy a lifestyle which in most cases exceeds that of those giving?

Finally
Would it be better instead of putting £10 in the box for a poppy to put £1 in and then give £9 to help for heroes or Holidays for heroes where you know ALL of the money will be spent on those it has been collected for?

 

[NotmeChief]

I will never give a penny to an outside charity as long as my arse looks downward. They are the biggest rip off ever thought up. While all these bastards sit around doing fcuk all and wait for the outside world to give them things they can get stuffed. I have even insulted collectors who have thrust a tin under my nose for some obscure African so called charity. When they get off their fat arses and start to do something for themselves then I might (only might) think about it.

If anyone comes up with some moral reason why I should give anything to bolster the fat bastards that run these scams, you can shove that up your arse as well. There are far too many deserving charities home here.

Oh, that feels better.

 

[pinkprincess]

Re: Are Charities still charitable or are they Big Businesse

Smaller charitable groups (turnover <£10,000) never draw any kind of wages.

Community Interest Companies (a relatively new kind of 'not-for-profit' organisation), Social Enterprises (such as the Co-op) and Charities are all permitted to pay wages to their staff from the money that they receive. WIth CICs, this is highly regulated and must be relative to salaries in line with private organisations with a similar turnover.

Sadly, the days of these organisations being run completely by volunteers are long gone.

During my career break a few years ago, I delivered free business development type services to small charitable groups and worked 60 hour weeks doing so but after six months, I had to go back to full-time work and that break meant that getting back into my chosen field was almost impossible. It took me almost two years to get there.

People with the right skill set to run large organisations cannot afford to do so on a voluntary basis and big charities must pay them a wage similar to those in the private sector in order to keep them. To be fair, the MD of a private company of a similar size would earn at least double.

Having said that, I would much rather give my money to Help for Heroes/Holidays for Heroes knowing that more of my money went to the benefactor.

 

[NotmeChief]

Why 'must' they pay them the same as private companies? If they don't like the pay then sod off somewhere else.

Sadly, the days of these organisations being run completely by volunteers are long gone.

Except for all those in the shops etc; that do the 'real' work day after day for sod all. They take advantage of pensioners especially who turn up day after day week after week year upon year for nothing and sometimes at their own expense as they can't use their bus pass before 0900.

 

[chieftiff]

Re: Are Charities still charitable or are they Big Businesse

This seems to be a re-run of the annual RBL thread!

As someone who works for a charity I can tell you that RBL are doing a bloody good job by maintaining their governance costs at under 1.3%, many charites (especially the smaller ones) run into 5% or more.

Some people seem to have this delusional belief that in the name of charity you can expect all the expertise you need on the cheap, it is charity after all! Unfortunately even the most charitable of us have children to feed, mortgages to pay, pensions to fund, cars to run and we'd all like a holiday occasionally - in short we expect to earn what we are worth whoever we work for and just like anyone else we have financial expectations. Working for RBL is no different and a CEO responsible for the good use of their huge budget (investments, capital, personnel and future plans etc) ain't going do that sort of work for pennies and neither are the Directors.

There are of course also thousands of us who will happily be out and about over the next couple of weeks selling poppy's for no reimbursement because we feel moved to do so. I volunteer for RBL and do that for free, but I work for another charity and there I expect to get paid well for my hard work.

 

[slim]

Re: Are Charities still charitable or are they Big Businesse

If we wish to compare percentage costs (especially of CEOs) then this site provides some excellent info

http://society.guardian.co.uk/salarysurvey/table/0,,1043285,00.html

Suffice to say that RBL at £1.62 per Thousand pounds raised does not campare well with :

Cancer research £0.46
British red cross £0.77
and many others

He does compare most favourably with another service charity however
Royal Star & Garter Home CEO is paid £85,00 which is £7.14 for every £1000 raised.

 

[chieftiff]

Re: Are Charities still charitable or are they Big Businesse

I hate to tell you this Slim but the Guardian link is a load of bollox. You'd need to go to the Charities Commission site to realise just how bollox their figures are. One quick example, the guardian state RBL's income as £58.5m, in fact their income for last year was £104,081,000. The Guardian seem to have only included voluntary contributions as income, in fact RBL makes a good income from investments and fund raising events - CEO's ROI of around £45M ain't bad for the influences and decisions he and his directors make.

There seems to be another difference too, you reckon in your first post that he earns £150k and yet the Guardian only have him down as £95K?

 

[slim]

Re: Are Charities still charitable or are they Big Businesse

Guardians information dated 2003
Intelligent giving is I believe 2007
So if the figures are correct that is one hell of a pay rise.

If ROI is the chief execs pay (including perks) then I agree RBL are getting exceptional value for money. If he receives £150K than the value for money isnot so good.

 

[Maxi_77]

Re: Are Charities still charitable or are they Big Businesse

Guardians information dated 2003
Intelligent giving is I believe 2007
So if the figures are correct that is one hell of a pay rise.

If ROI is the chief execs pay (including perks) then I agree RBL are getting exceptional value for money. If he receives £150K than the value for money isnot so good.

I think as you are begimmig to see Slim you have a number of problems with using some of these 'compare the meerkat' like services. Many do not use consistent measurements so you end up with confusing data .

At the end of the day if you want some one to do what RBL does or any of the other big charities you end up with a big organisation. If you then add on the additional work they have to do to show they are proper charities the fact that many keep their admin costs as low as they do is very remarkable.

Most of the big charities do a pretty fair job with our money even if they pay big bucks by our standards, for some of their senior people. Mind you would you be happy with the RBL being run by some one who was not worth that kind of cash.

Any way I think you will find that in the bigger charities the rates of pay are lower than you will find in an eqivalent commercial organisation.

 

[slim]

Re: Are Charities still charitable or are they Big Businesse

Thr RBL is a large organisation that mainly runs itself. The clubs are run by commitees, the social services in the main run by volunteers.
Now what I need to know is what the CEO actually does workwise to actually deserve the huge salary he is given.
Let's face it he has no shareholders to justify his decisions to, if he makes a cock up it isn't going to be yelled about over the main broadcast.
The position of CEO in a charity and that of a CEO in industry is not comparable.
As has been stated,in th early years the RBL was run by volunteers who wished to give something to the community.
The RBL was at those times a much larger organisation than it is today with far more members and clubs.

 

[BreathingOutOnTheWayUp]

Slim.

Issues with the RBL? Join a Branch (St James Central Branch) and take up your concerns direct with your rep/committe up on become a subscribing member.

IMO RR is certainly no place to either rubbish one Service charity nor tout for any others 'in lieu'.

Readers of RR probably consider that their charitable donations and activities are, like religious beliefs, private matters.

Just as we learn to become impervious to incessant bombardments of mass advertising so we become 'Charideed-out' with the increasing number of worthy causes pulling & chugging at us for our hard-earned and well-taxed residial income.

As stated elsewhere, the benefits of Gift Aid can increase a donation to a charity by 25%, it is a little sad that not all worthy charities take advantage of that facility.

Bob

 

[slim]

Slim.

Issues with the RBL? Join a Branch (St James Central Branch) and take up your concerns direct with your rep/committe up on become a subscribing member.

IMO RR is certainly no place to either rubbish one Service charity nor tout for any others 'in lieu'.

Readers of RR probably consider that their charitable donations and activities are, like religious beliefs, private matters.

Just as we learn to become impervious to incessant bombardments of mass advertising so we become 'Charideed-out' with the increasing number of worthy causes pulling & chugging at us for our hard-earned and well-taxed residial income.

As stated elsewhere, the benefits of Gift Aid can increase a donation to a charity by 25%, it is a little sad that not all worthy charities take advantage of that facility.

Bob

I have not rubbished the work that the RBL do but questioned as to why the CEO should be paid so much.
As for touting for other charitees I merely asked if it would be better to give to a service charity where you know 100% is being given to those that the charity is meant to help or give to a large charity where only a percentage reaches the parts that the cash is meant for.