[WillowTheWhisp]

My answer to this is similar to my answer to the councils thread. Charities receive donations. Donations by their very nature come in on a far more irregular basis than anything else.

Charities have projects. Christies may have several on-going projects which it pays money out to on a regular basis.

Between the coming in and the going out (some of which may not be require for example for stage two of a project until stage one is complete) the money has to be somewhere. It can either be in a jam jar in a filing cabinet in an office, in a bank account paying no interest, or in a bank account paying high interest which will result in more funds for the charity. Anything which helps the charity to gain more funds will naturally have been seen as the more logical option and would have been had it not been for the present financial crisis.

Think of it on a personal basis if you were trying to raise/save money to build something. If you had enough to lay the foundations and built the walls you couldn't build the walls until the foundations had been laid so you would pay for the concrete or whatever first and even though you hadn't yet paid for the bricks because you didn't need them yet you would still know that you would eventually need more money for the slates for the roof.

Please do not blame or penalise the charities for something which they have had no control over. They are already losing millions and to have people on top of that now saying they will never contribute again is kicking them when they are down.