Poppy Seller 92

[LesterRam]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-32748923

 

what a disgrace, if you stopped directors of these charities earning below £150k per annum you would eliminate these leeches, the WWF director earns in excess of £1m per annum, we have all noticed SKY advertising the WWF on masse and earning £50 a pop to sign up, is this just a way to earn millions of pounds for themselves and give very little to charity ?

[Ovis aries]

It is wrong , I have complained to some , The Red Cross for one.

Don't get me wrong I have three direct debits to different charities , but that is my choice , I do resent unsolicited phone calls and emails and post from them .

[LesterRam]

surely these companies should be regulated ?

the Government have just pulled up comparison sites for accepting £30-£50 bungs for leads and yet charities are pretty much unregulated, they know who to target ?

that poor woman probably felt she could no longer keep up with her direct debits with her pension, they should be named and shamed.

[Wolfie]

I only set up a direct debit to charity once. It was advertised to be £3 a month & after the second month I noticed they were taking £3 a week. They didn't even try to claim it was a mistake. I was also bombarded by calls from other charities. I scrapped it (after a very long phone call and many ignored calls on my mobile).

Don't a lot of charities now outsource their recruitment to cold-calling companies?. No wonder this kind of thing happens.

A couple of years ago I started sponsoring a Gambian boy to go to school and it's great to hear from him and learn of his progress. There's a high chance I'll never meet him but I much prefer actually seeing for myself where the money goes.

[eddie]

I would never consider setting up a direct debit for charity donations, the same as why 'chuggers' get short shrift from me in the street.

If I feel strongly enough about something, Paypal is my friend - nice and anonymous.

[LesterRam]

my little one set up a WWF direct debit for £3 per month because of her love for pandas, after the first payment had been sent we received a phone call from some wide boy from the WWF saying "thanks for the payment and we appreciate your help, he gave some waffle about what happens to the donation and can we increase the payment to £9 per month" I cancelled the direct debit that same day and told them that this payment was sent from my daughters own pocket money !!!

never again

[McRamFan]

15-20 years ago this all started as more regulation was removed by government, which basically allowed a lot more direct marketing as councils could sell your information from the electrorial roll and at that time you had no choice as the opt out tick box was not there.

Now mail houses and call centres offer to do it for charities for a percentage, they promise ethical practices, however they are run to targets.

[LesterRam]

Arghh that's why we are in this position, they are aware of the demographics in the people in which they target, the vulnerable seam fare game.

15-20 years ago this all started as more regulation was removed by government, which basically allowed a lot more direct marketing as councils could sell your information from the electrorial roll and at that time you had no choice as the opt out tick box was not there.

Now mail houses and call centres offer to do it for charities for a percentage, they promise ethical practices, however they are run to targets.

​

[uttoxram75]

Support small local charities only and don't buy or commit to anything over the phone, ever.

 

If you want to help 3rd world people then become politically active and change the world.

[TigerTedd]

Support small local charities only and don't buy or commit to anything over the phone, ever.

 

If you want to help 3rd world people then become politically active and change the world.

I second this, but will add, if you want to help the third world, get off your butt and volunteer. Get over there, experience these countries. See these people. Instead of giving your tourist pound to British bar owners on the Costa del Sol, spend a couple of weeks working with kids in Uganda or something. You'd never regret it. 

Big charities are big business with big overheads. They have to pay a certain amount of overheads every month, so the pressure is on to get a certain amount of income each month, just to cover those overheads. So as much energy is spent on fundraising as on helping people. Getting an old lady on a monthly subscription is easy money.

I looked into starting a social enterprise. Don't get me wrong, it had a genuine social mission, but I was always reluctant to go down the social enterprise / charity route, as the idea could have been a reasonable commercial proposition, and I didn't want to sacrifice all that potential profit. I thought if I made a social enterprise, I'd have to be the kind of person that cares not a jot about my own income, and I'm not that kind of Saint. But I enquired down the social enterprise route, because I wanted to take advantage of a grant scheme, and was told that, as the director, I could basically pay myself whatever I wanted, as well as claiming expenses and stuff. Running a charity or social enterprise seems like it should be the exclusive domain of truly altruistic philanthropists, but it's not, it's a licence to print money. 

I didn't get the grant in the end, so it was a non starter, by the way.

[Leon the ram 2009]

Any money I give to charity goes direct from pocket to box, and the charity must have a link to the British armed forces

[LesterRam]

Any money I give to charity goes direct from pocket to box, and the charity must have a link to the British armed forces

​oh I have paid an absolute fortune in donations to the forces, its probably the only charity I actively pay towards, I used to contribute £10 per policy issued from the sale of insurance but them who know best gave me a slap down giving a gift in turn for insurance, there must be a change in policy with the FCA because we now get confused.com issuing a robot and the meer kat crap.