Why my seven year old will not be taking £1 to school for Comic Relief tomorrow.

[henry d]

A question I would pose is why should we have charities (the RNLI is a good example, donkey sanctuaries not so sure)? Should the government not be doing these things, and would you be happy to leave it to them? Would people's mindset then become impoverished due to reliance on them doing everything for us.

[The Heron]

I have never understood why the air ambulance is funded by public donations surely it is part of the health system. 

[Jaymo]

On 19/03/2021 at 00:58, Lloyd90 said:

 

I bet if anyone on this forum was taken into the boss’ office on Monday and said a new position had come up and the pay was £150-200k they wouldn’t turn it down. 

 

 

Not sure I could accept that much of a pay cut 

[udderlyoffroad]

1 hour ago, henry d said:

Should the government not be doing these things, and would you be happy to leave it to them?

It is a good question, but that begs the question, how much do you believe the state should be involved in every facet of daily life?

The sure-fire way to make something inefficient and poor value is to remove the profit motive.  If there are services where a seeking a profit for a rendered service is considered a bad idea (the classic example being a fire brigade), then it's either a non-profit (charity) or a public sector service.

I know which one I'd pick.  And don't forget, government hands out contracts to charities to perform services all the time.

RNLI is something of a unique case as they are proudly independent and have in the past rejected offers of government money I believe.

As for air ambulance:  Do you really want NHS middle managers responsible for maintaining aircraft that fly over and land in built-up areas?  As it happens, private contractors maintain helicopters for most air ambulance charities.

And all you lot complaining about boards of directors taking 200k salaries when they should give up their time for free: dream on.  In any case, it's the small army of middle managers on 50k doing...what exactly...that should be the focus of your ire.   See: Diversity training for lifeboat volunteers.

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, never watch this now after I see Terry Wogan got paid for this and everyone else volunteered their  time for free, 

[ehb102]

On 18/03/2021 at 17:36, bottletopbill said:

We need to help our own first stop giving money for water . Single girls forced to marry older men. Think of crippled solder's and let's look after our own of the streets and no asylum money.

What do you do to look after your own? Is there a charity that you donate to or work for we should look at instead? We need to share ideas on how to keep our humanity and help others without businesses involvement. 

 

[12gauge82]

5 hours ago, henry d said:

A question I would pose is why should we have charities (the RNLI is a good example, donkey sanctuaries not so sure)? Should the government not be doing these things, and would you be happy to leave it to them? Would people's mindset then become impoverished due to reliance on them doing everything for us.

Good questions. 

[Lloyd90]

55 minutes ago, ehb102 said:

What do you do to look after your own? Is there a charity that you donate to or work for we should look at instead? We need to share ideas on how to keep our humanity and help others without businesses involvement. 

 

He probably just posts about what we should be doing on the Internet. 
 

Like most people who like to bash charities. 

[shaun4860]

I now work for a charity after being a volunteer for a number of years

Citizens Advice but I am funded by Macmillan.

Down side is we are on a 12 month rolling contract, we find out in July if we have a job after December every year, last year was an exception as we found out in April due to Covid.

Upside is that because we are benefits caseworkers (4 of us cover the whole of Northumberland, 2 full time posts split between 4 people) we raise far and I mean FAR in excess of what it costs to pay us, 

At CA are paid at least the living wage upwards, Neither Macmillan of CA get any of the money we raise, it all goes to the people we help.

We rely on the management teams to raise the funds to pay us.

Not every charity is in it for their own purposes.

[henry d]

4 hours ago, udderlyoffroad said:

It is a good question, but that begs the question, how much do you believe the state should be involved in every facet of daily life?

That's why I put in the donkey sanctuary, we walk a line between the things that should be done by the government, and those that should not and there are a lot (IMHO) that should be taken on a would save the government money. The RNLI would be a good thing for the government to have funded from the start but it would never have done that back then and now the RNLI have too much social capital invested in the heroes who did so much that they, and we, would lose out overall.

15 minutes ago, shaun4860 said:

I now work for a charity after being a volunteer for a number of years

Citizens Advice but I am funded by Macmillan.

Down side is we are on a 12 month rolling contract, we find out in July if we have a job after December every year, last year was an exception as we found out in April due to Covid.

Upside is that because we are benefits caseworkers (4 of us cover the whole of Northumberland, 2 full time posts split between 4 people) we raise far and I mean FAR in excess of what it costs to pay us, 

At CA are paid at least the living wage upwards, Neither Macmillan of CA get any of the money we raise, it all goes to the people we help.

We rely on the management teams to raise the funds to pay us.

Not every charity is in it for their own purposes.

Top post, and a great resource

[ehb102]

2 hours ago, Lloyd90 said:

He probably just posts about what we should be doing on the Internet. 
 

Like most people who like to bash charities. 

There's a great article about this: https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/we-need-to-look-after-our-own-first-say-people-who-would-never-help-anyone-20150907101741

[Lloyd90]

15 minutes ago, ehb102 said:

There's a great article about this: https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/we-need-to-look-after-our-own-first-say-people-who-would-never-help-anyone-20150907101741

Although written in jest that is a sad reflection of the truth! 
 

 

[12gauge82]

2 hours ago, Lloyd90 said:

He probably just posts about what we should be doing on the Internet. 
 

Like most people who like to bash charities. 

I see both arguments. In the one hand efficient, we'll run charities that are genuinely trying to make a difference to the end user in their chosen cause should be commended. But I also think there are too bigger holes in the legislation governing charities that allow rouges and businesses maskerading as charities to thrive. Maybe part of the solution is better regulation. 

[Lloyd90]

Just now, 12gauge82 said:

I see both arguments. In the one hand efficient, we'll run charities that are genuinely trying to make a difference to the end user in their chosen cause should be commended. But I also think there are too bigger holes in the legislation governing charities that allow rouges and businesses maskerading as charities to thrive. Maybe part of the solution is better regulation. 

Agree with you completely. 
 

Mind you at the end of the day it’s up to people whether they want to give their money to some mad woman looking after stray cats or not! 

[12gauge82]

1 minute ago, Lloyd90 said:

Agree with you completely. 
 

Mind you at the end of the day it’s up to people whether they want to give their money to some mad woman looking after stray cats or not! 

Yep absolutely 👍

[figgy]

I've never gave to comic relief. I only donate to charities that benefit the people of the UK. 

[Scully]

7 hours ago, figgy said:

I've never gave to comic relief. I only donate to charities that benefit the people of the UK. 

After reading this thread I have decided to follow the example of every tightwad on here, and intend never to give another penny again, good cause or not. Like they say, it begins at home, and from now on that’ll be where it ends also. 🙂