Unbelievable exposure has taken so long.

[KateLMead]

Some will remember my grouse regarding the pay, expenses and conditions those at the top receive from charitable donations.. Look at the premises they own and rent.
Many will also know that I have refused to GIVE donations to these charitable organisations, and am furious at the millions given in AID knowing that the money is stolen before it gets to those in need by the Despots, military, arms, police and those in high places.
As I discovered when I received a shipment following an article I wrote in the Telegraph 40 odd years ago, I was expected to pay an outrageous impossible amount to customs when it arrived..all shipments were put into Go Downs and sold to shopkeepers and on the open market to the highest bidders. To see the starvation breaks my heart.. The water wells are shown that have been dug for. As for food what these people receive is a tear drop.

[Workingman]

There are reports in the all of the media that charity bosses are receiving commercial manager rates of pay. This is thought to be hurting donations, which are falling as austerity bites.

"Thought to be!" Of course it is!

People recognise that charities have running costs, but they expect them to be kept to a minimum as much as possible. They do not expect those at the top to be getting bankers' salaries and bonuses especially when a lot of those at the bottom work for free.

[KateLMead]

Yes Frank, and some devoted volunteers who I know are up in arms due to those from head office, arriving and telling them how to run their shops (that they have in many cases been running for years.
One charities that I do subscribe too are St Michaels, The Macmillan nurses.
Air Ambulance. overseas Aid and the likes NO. Oh I forgot I do give to the Salvation Army from time to time having been in their care as a child.

[Workingman]

Kate, I have a few I donate to for personal reasons.... the rest have to survive without me.

A local (National) charity shop was visited by an area manager. She started to rule the roost, changing this, swapping that..... so the staff all walked out and left her to it! She had to go to the cafe where they were all having tea and buns and beg and plead with them to come back. She was never seen again.

[pederito1]

I support Air Ambulance, Macmillan, Cancer Research, Help the Aged, local Hospice and British Heart who in the appeal I have just received have announced the appointment of a new CEO. I have sent it back and asked to be informed of his pay package. I wonder if they will reply.

[KateLMead]

I doubt it pederito, and as Frank says these managers are not particularly popular with those volunteers.
All charity shops around here, (we have five in the small main street) have increased their prices beyond a joke.

[TheOstrich]

The salary report didn't surprise me but I was saddened to see the "Christian" aid charities - TearFund, Cafod etc. - up there with the top payers. A notable exception from the list was the charity Islamic Relief ......

Charitable giving today is very complex, and you do have to be careful just where your money goes. Purely as an example, one local on-going "spat" here revolves around Diocesan Giving to Malawi. Our local Church, to the fury of the Diocese, refuses to join in the joint effort in which the money collected across the Diocese is given to that Diocese to transmit to the Malawian Diocese to distribute. Our local Church insists on giving specifically and directly to a particular Malawian school / orphanage they've adopted. Their argument is that part of the money given to the local Diocese is used to send local Diocesan officials and clergy on freebie trips to Malawi, and thus is not all spent directly on aid ...... The Diocese would argue that sending representatives to Malawi ensures that they can check that the aid money is being distributed wisely.

Which argument is correct? Not easy, is it ....
So do big charities, especially those with trading arms, need to employ senior, experienced people to oversight their activities? Again not easy ....

I think the best response I've seen to the current revelations was one blog commentator who said that if a charity can afford to (a) employ chuggers and (b) advertise on television, then they don't need his money. Let's not forget that one of the biggest "victims" in the 2008 Icelandic Bank scandal was Cats Protection, who had £11.2 million invested .....

That, as Mrs O remarked, is a helluva lot of Whiskas ......

Personally, I only give now to small local charities.

[KateLMead]

I agree Ost. We are one of the most generous of nations..
But I think everyone is getting sick of the begging
when in our own country is hitting rock bottom, the severely disabled the sick and handicapped are being punished by losing benefits, extra room in their houses yet we read of the terrible frauds and abuse being perpetuated by our own and foreigners legal and illegal who have, and are here milking the system.

[cruiser2]

Three years ago I sent a large plastic box filled with several different items including tools screws nuts and bolts I no longer needed, as well as clothes, towels, toothpaste and brushes. There was a long list of items you could include. The box included a tap and water purifying chemicals. It was sealed before it was collected and could be sent to any country which need that type of equipment. This was done through a Rotary club and meant that no money was involved for funding Presidents of overseas countries.
May do it again next year.

[KateLMead]

When we learn of the billionaire and millionaire status of the prime ministers of these underdeveloped countries who receive millions in aid It is expected that we should be rightly up in arms. I give nothing to these organisations. I remember the fellow who started Oxfam and his first little shop in St Giles Oxford another who became a. Multi multi millionaire with his own private plane