I came across a blog post this morning* that really opened my eyes about charity giving. The post is titled “5 things charities secretly spend your money on“.
I’m naturally quite a cynical person, (“oh really”, shout my friends…!), and always felt things aren’t quite as they appear when it comes to charity walks and specifically all of the “easy” ways of giving. But the level of fees paid to event management companies and other subcontracted firms is shocking. To my mind when I hand over my contribution, I like to think the greater percentage has gone to the cause, not to some other hanger on.
I’m fully accepting of the idea that there must be some administrative costs, but some of the methods that the articles mentions, could leave the charity in a “negative donation” situation, which means that although you as an individual continue to pay your direct debit, all you are really doing is paying for people that stopped contributing earlier…
So, what I’m saying is please continue giving to charity, but just make sure that you contribute in a way that helps the worthy cause with the greatest percentage of your gift.
Like anything in life, be informed before you start.
*this is a repost from an old blogpost, but felt it needed restating, especially in light of the sad death of Clare Squires during the London Marathon. Amazingly since her death more than a million pounds has been raised for the Samaritans, but the telltale story associated to this is that JustGiving have agreed to waive their fees. What does this tell you? That the world is very charitable, but also that most of these intermediary companies charge to administer the money....