Charities That Bribe

Today my Mum received an envelope from a charity. Inside the the envelope, personally to her, so sold on by another charity she probably does donate to, there was the usual gumph, and a One Decade Rosary and instructions on how to use it. The words were all varying on the theme of “it's your fault if you let these children down” - you know the usual rubbish they attempt to emotionally blackmail people with?


My mother isn't a catholic. In fact, like me, she follows her own path and doesn't need to be dictated to and controlled, or ask forgiveness of her sins!


What makes me really annoyed with these charities who use campaigns like this is THEY are the ones failing. They are so wound up in red tape, trying to invade countries and tell them how to run their services and/or government, dictating their own religion, and paying their staff HUGE salaries to do this. They spend most of their donations on other services. Each year a charity has to make public it's accounts on the internet through the Charities Commission website or on their own website. Have you ever asked for a copy to see where the money is going from the charity you support? Remember Charities are spending Public donated money and are legally obliged to let the public know where their money has gone!


I am a trustee for a charity and we are all volunteers. EVERY penny we receive into our bank provides the medicines required to save Mother's and Baby's lives, no-one takes a salary, we do not interfere with the countries government, we just show the hospitals how to save lives, where to get medicines from and fund them for a short while until they are on their feet. We are first aid and save lives without paying a single trustee!


So, what did my Mum do? She put a note in asking to be removed from their mailing list, packed everything into their own pre-paid envelope and posted it back to them. Unlike me, I would have put it all in a large A4 envelope and sent it back without a stamp, they would have to pay at least £1.50 on it's arrival, which may make them think twice about how they campaign people.


If charities did what they “say on the tin”, then maybe we wouldn't be so offended by their “emotionally blackmailing stealth tactic” fund-raising campaigns.


People will give if they want to, which was proved by the Haiti appeal, Comic Relief, Children in Need and Sport Relief. I believe the British are the biggest and best fundraisers and we will continue to do whatever we can to help those less fortunate in a positive and fun way. In the UK we love nothing more than a bloody good “Rally Round”.


My charity is:  http://www.hopeforgracekodindo.org