Barbelith Underground > Conversation

Could someone who knows fill us in?

I think it is total arse. In the UK at least charities are extremely regulated - charity accounts have to be very explicit as to how money is used including extensive narratives on how they decided that using the money in that way was appropriate.

In addition the funding of most of the larger charities doesn't come from the public but from government and private trusts. Both of these tend to have stringent monitoring requirements - the London Development Agency for example requires a paper trail for every pound spent and will carry out its own audit to check. This means that most large charities have strong and transparent means of monitoring their cash whatever its source.

The phrase 'most charities' is also ludicrous - most charities have an income of less than £10,000 a year, so its pretty hard to be corrupt with no actual money.

Where there is corruption is in fake fundraising which is a big problem, especially around Christmas - always check that anyone who approaches you in a pub etc has a license from the local authority (or in London, the police) plus legit looking identify badge with the charity's name and registered number on it. But basically that is less corruption than theft.

Most accusations of corruption I've seen are in fact around mismanagement of funds some of which is true (voluntary organisations tend to have low levels of skills in things like financial management) and some of which is due to disagreement over what is the best way to spend the charity's money. Suitcase Rider mentions how much of the money reaches its 'intended recipients' but actually vewry few charities give money away - most of it is spent on services and staff/volunteer costs. To some people this is the most effective way of helping those recipients to others (generally of the more libertarian position) its a self-serving approach by charities to keep themselves in a job. I think that both have valid points but its not corruption.

Suitcase Rider's comments seem to focus on international organisations and there are obviously a lot less controls going on here. This has been discussed before on Barbelith I seem to remember including excellent arguments that you are more likely to see how your money is spent if you give it to local charities and even more so if you give your time instead.

More on topic most of my volunteering in the past three years has been as a trustee for a charity looking at elder care at the moment and before that a mediation charity. Before that I spent a lot of time in a befriending scheme for autistic people. As to why I think its a mix of reasons mostly based around my enjoyment of the work - a mix of the sense of helping people, the chance to do something new or different to my day job and to get a different perspective on life.

Charities