Give me the ******* money!

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This is Dementia Awareness Week (17-23 May)

Click HERE for more information

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Charity bags: "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

It is an urban myth that Bob Geldof used the title phrase in the 1985 Live Aid campaign to raise money for starving children. He did use the 'f' word in an interview but not as generally quoted. View here.

Concerts were held around the world following a BBC news report on the famine which had afflicted the people of Ethiopia. But potential contributors had a choice. Those who were not in the audience could make a payment or enjoy free entertainment while children starved. Persuasion and conscience were key ingredients.

Charity is big business. Arm twisting is a professional activity. Charities pay arm-twisters a percentage of the money they raise. But what of the target? Legendary poppy seller Olive Cook is presumed to have taken her own life after being sent 260 letters from charities every month asking for money and stress caused by cold callers.  

Jenny Phelps, a former carer, 'slammed charities' saying they were 'preying on goodwill' after receiving 1,000 begging letters over five years.

Charities need to get their act together. Stewardship teams like to remind churchgoers that "God loves a cheerful giver", a message not lost on charities but cheerful giving often results in harassment. Once on their books charities will target donors regardless of whether they have already given to their latest appeal and their regular givers with pleas for more cash, often with harrowing pictures to drive their message home.

A practice I find particularly objectionable involves charity consultants ringing donors to encourage them to increase their giving, often from meagre resources, so that they can claim commission.

Another irritation is the intimidating supermarket collection where in-your-face charity collectors glare at customers with a 'don't you pass-by-on-the-other-side look'. Thankfully the pressure has eased since most supermarkets have banned the collection of direct debit details to avoid customers feeling pressurised.

The worst abusers are the scam bag collectors who trade on people's ignorance, sympathy and generosity. It's so easy. Pick a charity, print their details on a bag with the Charity number to make it look authentic then promise to pay the charity between £50, £85 or £100 while making a fortune for themselves - see the charity bag scam here.

According to the British Heart Foundation the trade had led to an estimated loss of donations direct to BHF shops worth £4.6million over two years. In some cases they said "charities are getting £50 to £100 per tonne of goods collected when, in fact, the goods can sell abroad for anything up to £1,800."

Charities need the money but if there is any doubt that a charity bag is genuine, far better to go direct to the charity shop, some will happily collect, or make a donation directly to such as the Alzheimer's Society displayed in the header.

And be aware of the FRSB ü  logo. I have an animal welfare bag in front of me which prominently displays the tick of approval but reading the small print shows that they will donate a minimum of £50 per tonne of goods collected, presumably leaving the collector in excess of £1500 while claiming that every penny of every pound donated goes to directly to animal welfare. That's just £50 in pennies then!

Charity Bags

 

Photo: BBC

 

 

Almost daily we have a 'charity' bag or leaflet pushed through the letter box. Most boast of their giving to a registered charity which benefits by around £50 per tonne of clothes collected. What is not said is that a tonne of clothing is sold for £1,000. There is also a thriving 'business' in lifting bags left out for others as illustrated above.

If you have clothes or other items for disposal, please take them to a charity shop. Some will collect if too much to carry. Below are some interesting facts from http://www.charitybags.org.uk/
 Next time you receive a plastic bag to fill, check the small print first or go to the above web site.

 

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 How to stop a bogus house-to-house collection... 

. . . You need to act quickly - see the hands-on guide below

Charity shops raise 50 times more than house-to-house collections . . .

Taking your unwanted clothes etc to a charity shop raises around  50 times more  money for charity compared with giving your clothes to a typical house-to-house 'charity' collector !

• House-to-house collectors:  Most of these are commercial companies - who give the partner charity only £50 or so for each tonne of clothes collected.
  That's only  5 pence  per kilogram (35 ounces) - that's the weight of a jacket or winter dress.
  [There's a thousand kilograms in a tonne.]
  Usually the company exports your clothes (especially to Eastern Europe - eg Lithuania) and they're sold for private profit.  The company sells the clothes for over £1,000 per tonne.
• Charity shops:  By contrast, if you take the same item of clothing to a charity shop they'll sell it for around £10, of which over  £2.50  is profit (=net proceeds) for the charity.  Also, you can increase this by 25% by using "Gift Aid"  

Do you want your item of clothing to raise only  5 pence  for charity - or over  £2.50  . . . ?
Worse still, around 50% of house-to-house collections are misleading/bogus/illegal.
... And fewer than 1 in 10,000 (=0.01%) illegal collections is prosecuted.
... And over 10% of filled bags are stolen before the house-to-house collector arrives.
With CDs and DVDs, around 200 times more money is raised for charity by charity shops compared with typical house-to-house collections (10 cased CDs weigh 1 kilogram) :
A house-to-house collector gives only  a half-penny (0.5p)  per CD to the charity !
A charity shop makes almost  £1  profit (=net proceeds) per donated CD or DVD
With jewellery, over 1,000 times more money is raised for charity by charity shops compared with typical (royalty-per-tonne) house-to-house collections.
There are over 9,000 charity shops in the UK - including :

• Age UK, Barnardo's, British Red Cross, Cancer Research UK, Children's Society, Extra Care, FARA, Marie Curie, Oxfam, RSPCA, Salvation Army, Scope, Shelter, Sue Ryder, YMCA; local cancer hospices.

However, if you're unable to take your donated goods to a charity shop, some shops are happy to collect them from your house - eg British Heart Foundation (BHF)  
For more information on how charity shops raise 50 times more than collections, see the following :
the Charity shops versus house-to-house collections page
the Statistics page