Graham Jones MP: 49 per cent of people think that society is too cynical about those who give says ?Why We Give? report
Why we give... quite a few quid has gone into this research..could have saved them the money..
It's because someone is rattling their tin in the foyer of the supermarket and you chuck your loose change in...did it myself at Tesco this morning...have absolutely no idea what the charity was.
But thinking about it, just where does a charity stop being a charity and become a business with relaxed governance?
Case in point..many years ago as a 14yr old I had a job doing the cancer and polio round. Subscribers had a card with 4 numbers relating to football teams, if the number of goals scored by these teams was the highest, they got a share of the payout, the lowest got a booby prize too. It was 1s 6d per week to play..of this I got 3d, there was a bloke that collected off me, and a bloke that collected off him to pay too...if you subtract the prize money there was probably 6d going to the charity..thats the equivalent of 2 or 3p actually going to the charity.
Move on to today, we have charities setting up shop on our high streets, staffed by volunteers and a paid manager. Volunteers are, in general, blue stocking middle class women with time on their hands, unemployed strivers looking to add to their cv or people with learning disabilities/mental health issues given menial 'jobs' to massage the county council figures so they can say 'look how good we are at re-enabling'
We have charities that can 'undercut' bids from the private sector, that can pay better wages, offer more training, can attend more useless meetings and tick the appropriate boxes....simply because idiots like me chuck a few quid into a bucket after I've bought my weeks supply of liffey water. Thing is, charities cant make profit, so friend of mine who works (paid) for a charity, got a bonus at Xmas that the bankers would be proud of..just to balance the books!
Meanwhile, the taxes I pay that are supposed to better society are spent on MP's expenses, bankers bonuses, twitter Google Page Ranking, facebook Google Page Ranking and bloody stupid research like this one???
All the time there are cuts to those in real need..just proves to me that Tory idealogy and the thoughts of chairman Graham are entwined and would make lttle difference at the polling booth!