Needy or greedy charities?

whelpy

So this is the time of year when we see alot of charities asking for donations or change on the footpath. Who are the genuine ones?

Well most likely not Oxfam it seems...

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/13/oxfambetraying-its-roots-and-sabotaging-its-own-mission/

Killer Pigeon

Ah sure there's loads of pointless greedy charities out there. That collection for "sick and retired priests of the parish" always got me laughing, if I can remember correctly it was an all year round one too.

Save the poor Bengal Tigers was another one that got me laughing.

Joey the lips

Forgive my ignorence but having read the article and knowing already that the greehouse effect will cause most harm to developing countries i cannot see why you target oxfam?

FearDark

I'll be honest, I skimmed through the article and it bored me to death.

I know this though, I'm pretty fúcking sick of charities outside every shop for the last 2 weeks or so. Fúck off.

Potential-Monke

SVP can suck my balls, i'll never give them a cent. Providing prisoners with cigarettes... Fook that.

Zebra3

Killer Pigeon wrote: »

Ah sure there's loads of pointless greedy charities out there. That collection for "sick and retired priests of the parish" always got me laughing, if I can remember correctly it was an all year round one too.

In fairness though there's a lot of sick priests.

Robdude

If all the people who stand outside collecting money, asking for money, singing songs for money, etc, etc....

Would spend those same hours working and donate it to charity themselves

1.) Charities would get more money
2.) Nobody would have to listen to them

/Just saying
//Tired of being asked for money every 20 feet
///With the tax rate as high as it is - I feel like I've already donated to charity.

gigino

Potential-Monke wrote: »

Providing prisoners with cigarettes... Fook that.

wait till the prisoners sue them in years to come for lung cancer etc.

( well, the army soldiers who fired 20 shots sucessfully sued for deafness... )

Killer Pigeon

Zebra3 wrote: »

In fairness though there's a lot of sick priests.

I know, sure wouldn't you be sick too if you picked up syphilis from a rent-boy.

/trollface - my work here is done.

Zebra3

Robdude wrote: »

///With the tax rate as high as it is - I feel like I've already donated to charity.

If you pay tax, you give to charity.

Zorbas

Dont you think there are some serious issues to address about the charity / NGO situation in Ireland and how they work or dont overseas ?
The government has promised legislation to bring better control, transparency and accountability into the sector - promised for mid-2012.
Would be good to get down to some serious comment unless of course its just a slagging match or a means to overcome the guilt of not giving to deserving charities.
The f***s etc surely dont impress 'cept for the infantile!

FinnLizzy

I always thought of the Chugger's commission as being a worthy cause.

k.p.h

SVP is by far the best charity in the country in my opinion, they do their best to help anyone who comes to them, they also do it in a confidential manner.

If you go to a SVP member and ask for help, they report the situation without mentioning anyone's names and see if they can help. A decision is then made by committee and if approved the approved aid is provided by them member in question.

Also all funds are raised by members and retained in the local SVP group. So money raised within a community stays in it, also no members profit from it as it is completely voluntary.

They are currently unable to keep up with the amount of people coming to them looking for help. Its a sad sign of the times, worthy charity IMO.

goat2

Potential-Monke wrote: »

SVP can suck my balls, i'll never give them a cent. Providing prisoners with cigarettes... Fook that.

i have always given to svdp, and gave two days ago to them, is this true, that prisoners are being supplied with cigarettes,
when i gave, it was meant for those in need, not for crims

ShadowHearth

I love charities who ask your bank details and 3eu per month direct debit.

telekon

I remember a few of my friends collecting for Childline. One made $100 one day for himself.

Just plain wrong. :mad:

strobe

Potential-Monke wrote: »

SVP can suck my balls, i'll never give them a cent. Providing prisoners with cigarettes... Fook that.

I've heard this a few times now. Does anyone have any more information on it? I know in Cork Prison and Mountjoy it's forbidden for visitors to bring prisoners cigarettes. They have to purchase them through the prison shop. I presumed this was a state wide thing. What prisons do SVP bring cigarettes to? Do they do it currently or was it something they did in the past?

Anyone any links?

goat2

i would also like to know for certain if cigarettes are being supplied in prisons from the money we hand over to help the needy, please someone clear this one up for me,

k.p.h

No obviously not, ciggs are not allowed to be supplied to prisoners for obvious reasons. People can pay for cigarettes and then the prisoners can receive them through the shop.

SVP do a lot of work in prisons. You would imagine with their mission statement and general intentions they are not just lamping out fags to whoever wants them for the fun of it.

Even if they were, prisoners are sent to prison as a punishment, not to be punished.

Usual ****e anyway, best intentions and good deeds of a group of people convoluted into something bad. Real Irish..

Doc Ruby

Zebra3 wrote: »

If you pay tax, you give to charity.

Berties massive pension is not a charitable cause, imho.

Jarren

http://www.jobs.ie/ApplyForJob.aspx?Id=1143673

Charity my arse:rolleyes:

themadchef

People find it easier to throw money at charities rather than get involved. So to the people woh say things like...... shower of wasters.... money never goes to the people who need it........ Well, to you people i say, "man up, get off yer holes, and help out the people on the front lines".

It's not all about the cash. It's about the cup of tea the the poor auld wan that has no one to call in on her. The homeless guy that hasint a pot to píss. That jacket you never wear? He might.

We can all try a little harder. It doesnt take money, we dont have to move mountains, or often look outside our own town or village. Charity is not always throwing a faceless fiver into a very deep bucket.

fortwilliam

You can make your own mind up on the following, but these are just my observations from currently living in an underdeveloped south pacific country.

Oxfam, Save the children & various other international charitys are all here on the island.
The staff drive the newest biggest nissan patrol's in the country.
Their offices are the freshest and most comfortable buildings you will see.
I regularly meet the staff (All ex-pats on ex-pat salaries) in the hotel bars/restaurants.

I don't see the money going to the needy.

That is all.

goat2

does oxfam have shops

Benny_Cake

goat2 wrote: »

does oxfam have shops

In Dublin they have a great secondhand bookshop on Parliament St,and a giftshop on South King St. Not sure about the rest of the country.

Benny_Cake

goat2 wrote: »

i would also like to know for certain if cigarettes are being supplied in prisons from the money we hand over to help the needy, please someone clear this one up for me,

SVP do incredible work up and down the country,because they are everywhere they have a good idea of where needs are the greatest. They are definitely one of the better charities.

I'm not aware of them handing out cigarettes to prisoners (it seems unlikely), and even if they did, it wouldn't bother me all that much. SVP volunteers do visit prisoners, and in association with the Quakers, they run "Prison Visitors Centres" in a number of prisons which are aimed at those who are visiting family members. All worthy imo.

Sizzler

jarecki1976 wrote: »

http://www.jobs.ie/ApplyForJob.aspx?Id=1143673

Charity my arse:rolleyes:

€16 p/h?

Pffft !

The CEO of Concern is on c.140k a year FFS

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/top-charities-defend-fat-cat-ceo-salaries-1062042.html

Sadly they are now being run more like big businesses than charities, a well meaning idea that simply got WAY out of control, a bit like facebook lol

scholar007

I know a senior guy (on big bucks) in a charity who looked down and laughed at the volunteers who helped out for nothing. I also know another guy who used his "charitable" connection to further his career. They make me sick! :mad:

What I really find surprising lately is all this sponsor a child in (name the developing country) or sponsor the animal (name the big cat). For fcuks sake, I can hardly even feed my own kids without paying for some other guys offspring or some mangy tiger who will probably end up in a zoo.

A lot of these "charities" both local and international are big business. You hear these people constantly trying to get money by running everything from a grab a granny athon to gawd knows what or going abroad to climb a hill or run a race. They get people to sponsor (pay) for their bloody holiday.

We will soon need to be out in every country in the world trying to raise money to feed the paddies the way things are going.

Wetai

scholar007 wrote: »

What I really find surprising lately is all this sponsor a child in (name the developing country) or sponsor the animal (name the big cat). For fcuks sake, I can hardly even feed my own kids without paying for some other guys offspring or some mangy tiger who will probably end up in a zoo.

I saw an ad where they were saying "Sponsor/buy a word" for a year or something for charity - made me laugh.
Charities where they donate a physical thing (e.g. an animal, like bothar) seem like the best idea to me. Whether they actually get one is another thing..

goat2

i do give to st vincent de paul, i know it benefit my area, as someone else on here said, that the proceeds collected in the community goes to the community, just about a week ago they were filling bags for customers in one of the supermarkets in lue of whatever a person wished to give, i have also collected for charities, the heart foundation, aware, daffodil day and cystic fybrosis, but i always gave my time for freem after all it is a charity and i saw this as my bit for charity, i did not know there were people paid for charity work until lately

gigino

I know someone who works for a charity + she earns more than I would say 95% of the population. Its a racket.

all our taxes pay for charity anyway

G.muny

A friend of mines Dad answered the door to a well know charity who were going door to door yesterday. Before the recession he had a very successful construction buisness but has lost nearly all of what he has now.

They do how ever live in an amazingly impresive house which he built himself but aside from that they have very little money and he struggles to find work. He told the guy at the door politely that he was not intrested to which he got the reply. "Look at your big house, you are telling me you can't give anything".

He closed the door on the guys face after that but I thought it was so cheeky when I was told about it. I wouldn't mind before his company went under he was getting some of the people working for him to do bits and pieces around his house that he hadn't really planned on getting donw and paying them out of his own pocket because there was no work and he was holding off having to let anyone go as long as he possibly could. Its not like he is some kind of scronge.

micki1983

k.p.h wrote: »

No obviously not, ciggs are not allowed to be supplied to prisoners for obvious reasons. People can pay for cigarettes and then the prisoners can receive them through the shop.

SVP do a lot of work in prisons. You would imagine with their mission statement and general intentions they are not just lamping out fags to whoever wants them for the fun of it.

Even if they were, prisoners are sent to prison as a punishment, not to be punished.

Usual ****e anyway, best intentions and good deeds of a group of people convoluted into something bad. Real Irish..

what? yes the SVP brought cigarettes into a certain jail christmas 2010 and TRIED last christmas and even tried to name drop to pretend they were given permission to do so. And even though they didn't get cigarettes in they had loads of sweets, McDonalds, Breakfast rolls. I saw this personally - not rumour. Sickening to see when we are being cut to the bone with taxes and can barely afford diesel to get to work.

ste551

just get rid of the people asking for your bank details in town,

Im not your friend so dont address me like "hey buddy" "give me a high five",

I want to go home after a day at work, not be harassed by cretins looking for my bank details

redhotdevil

The SVP are always in the jails and I've witnessed first hand the order they give into the tuck shop for prisoners and it ALWAYS includes smokes,tobacco and sweets.
I've told everyone I know not to donate to SVP because of this.It's bad enough that we are losing wages yearly but to see this going on is a disgrace.
They also provide "loans" when asked for prisoners familys who can't manage on the outside because the breadwinner of the family is in jail.

hooradiation

Joey the lips wrote: »

Forgive my ignorence but having read the article and knowing already that the greehouse effect will cause most harm to developing countries i cannot see why you target oxfam?

Because being angry at things that they can't understand is a perennial hobby of every second shithead with a blog.

Doubly so on a blog who's sole purpose is to champion every contrarian view possible with regards to anthropogenic global warming

Temptamperu

I do know a family that gets single mothers payment while the husband is still around and St Vinnies know them on a first name bases from all th hand outs they get.

Gullible fools who dont deserve charity.

Rainbow_brite

My opinion of SVP completely changed when I witnessed a family receive one of the Christmas Hampers, same people go away on weekend breaks and holidays and have a new car sitting in the driveway. I know they are definitely not short of a quid or two there are more people in the area who are more in need of food etc. Obviously they mustn't research properly who are to receive the hampers.

GetWithIt

SVP can suck my balls. Always scoring goals but never when I have him as captain.

Nothingbetter2d

bth is africa any better off than it was 20 years ago? not really... most of the money charities collect goes to paying the top director's salaries.

i stopped giving to those along time ago.

also dont give those roma gyspies money either... they ALL get welfare inc RA and are not homeless.

there is a family of them living in a house across the road from me.

Gophur

SVdP, locally to me, ordered 1,000 litres of oil for a family which missed out claiming a welfare payment because they were on holidays in Spain.

While they may be generous, they don't do themselves any favours with some of their support.

Temptamperu

Gophur wrote: »

SVdP, locally to me, ordered 1,000 litres of oil for a family which missed out claiming a welfare payment because they were on holidays in Spain.

While they may be generous, they don't do themselves any favours with some of their support.

**** sake im working and I cant afford to go to spain or pay the heating I should start just ripping SVdP off. :mad:

Tiddlypeeps

Used to live on Dorset St. and worked on Peirce St. so I had to walk the length of O' Connel St. at least twice a day. I used to be so shocked looking at how rude people could be to charity workers or homeless people, until I had to put up with it on that scale. I'd literally be stopped about 5 times during the journey, I very quickly changed my opinion on rudeness. This was a few years ago now, but still today the habit of acting like these people don't exist while walking by them has stayed with me.

I have friends who applied for work with these charities and the rate of pay they were quoted was shockingly high, like €15 p/h plus commission on how many sign ups they grab plus travel expenses.

I read an article recently on Bono's "charity". I can't remember the actual statistics but the percentage of the donations they took in that actually ended up being spent on aid was incredibly low. The vast majority was spent on administration and advertising etc.

I agree with the person before that mentioned Bothar, a very worthwhile charity if it actually works they way they claim it does IMO. You can pick exactly what your paying for (A sheep, cow, bee hive) and they ship it out there for you and teach the family it goes to how to look after it.

mikemac1

Give me money so I can trek the Andes
Give me more money so I can climb Mount Kilmanjaro

Give me even more money so I can run the New York marathon. While I admire the training that was done there are races all over Ireland. So realy I'm paying for your shopping trip in New York

Pay me to go to Africa to build houses for Niall Mellon
Well now :

• You are a lady weighing about eight stone so you are going to be useless on the site
• If you didn't go then local African workers can be employed, create some jobs
• Niall Mellon is in NAMA and why are developers trying to help Africa with their profits after ripping off Irish housebuyers for years with huge prices and cheap and nasty estates. Any chance of some housing for Ireland's homeless?

This is what charities encourage and I'm plagued in work with people asking for money for holidays of a lifetime and claiming it's charity

I'm saying greedy, not needy charities
They have administrators to sort peoples flights, accomadation and guides when they go walk the Inca trail.
How about just spending my donation where it's needed and not on holidays of a lifetime?

Snowie

i can't stand chuggers they say nothing to me any more, I look at them and they know you know when they know ?

that they could be burned at the steak....

scrimshanker

Lot of negativity... how about mentioning some of the good ones a bit more? I feel desperately sorry for the decent charities out there. A lot of them are really trying hard to do good. It's just my opinion, but I reckon the good charities are suffering as a result of the chugging, I think the ones who are chugging are building up a real body of public charity-resentment because people just get harrassed so frequently by chuggers. I've no problem with someone standing holding a bucket, but please don't harrass me. Life's tough enough as it is without some snotty brat trying to lay on the guilt cos you're 'loike, so not thinking of the poor african babies lioke'.

Thing is, people ARE starving. Both here and abroad. Charity does remain very important, regardless of how pissed off the chuggers make people. I just think charity needs to be more targeted, rather than just blindly giving out food and medicine, I think politicians need to take a much, much harder line approach with certain developing contries. Just look at the population stats for Ethiopia for instance. Post live-aid, the population doubled... Now twice as many people are starving... Yet it continues to have a HUGE military.... Focus on fixing the underlying problem, rather than treating the symptoms indefinitely.

Charities I think are Great:

ones that work at home:
The Simon Community: http://www.simon.ie/
RNLI : http://www.rnli.org.uk/rnli_near_you/ireland
ISPCC: http://www.ispcc.ie/
ISPCA: http://www.ispca.ie/
DSPCA: http://www.dspca.ie/
Barretstown: http://www.barretstown.org/
Jack and Jill foundation: http://www.jackandjill.ie/
Make a Wish foundation: http://www.makeawish.ie/iopen24
Ronald McDonald Houses: http://www.rmhc.ie/

abroad:
Bothar: http://www.bothar.ie/
WWF: http://www.wwf.org/ (planet doesn't just belong to humans)
National Geographic: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/about/

I'd like to be able to put some sort of lobby group in here that tries to pressurize negligent third world governments into fixing their own problems, but, alas, I don't know of any (no, please, not amnesty international).


Now for a rant about the lousy ones
I wouldn't go near the SVDP. Relative was starving - literally no food or money left in the house, 2 small kids to feed. Asked SVDP for food and they turned her away because she owned her own house and so clearly didn't need their help.

Friends were emigrating and wanted to donate a barely used (really was less than a year old and barely used, it sat in their good room and nobody tended to sit in there) suite of living room furniture. Beautiful and expensive set of furniture. Rang up SVDP asked where they could donate it, hired a van, loaded it up, brought it to them. SVDP said "Oh no sorry, it's used? No we only accept NEW furniture donations". Sorry, exactly how needy are the people they help? Because if they're that fussy about the living room furniture they sure as hell aren't needy! Whatever about matresses, which I could understand wanting them new, a suite of living room furniture is fine. I'm sure people who are actually needy could have used it, or stick it in a drop in centre somewhere.

Another one I don't get are the asthma society. I mean, excuse me? What exactly do they do??? I have asthma (albeit mildly), some of my friends have severe asthma that's left them hospitalized several times. None of us have ever had any contact/support, even when they were barely breathing in hospital. Having a laugh if they think they actually do anything.

Anyone chugging really annoys me, some of them are even a bit underhand about saying exactly what the charity does - some that chug are actually a christian missionary service who go to third world countries try to convert people in return for aid, yet none of this is mentioned when their chuggers stop people - it gets sold as simply providing food and clean water.

cassid

You can work in a paid job, raise children and still be a bit of voluntary work that can help a lot of people. I do voluntary work for a voluntary charity, no salaries etc, the whole charity is run solely by volunteers. There are a few new charities that are run the exact same way. For me they represent the essence of what a charity is , to try make a difference and help other people.

They don't aggressively fundraise, as their overheads are so much smaller.
Charities don't necessarily need all the paid staff they employ, and with some of them, it's very unclear what percentage directly goes to the cause.

I think we need a lot more transparency in relation to charities in Ireland. Charities with CEO earning over a €100,000 is just wrong in my opinion. At least if there was more transparency, you can make more of an informed choice about which charity to support, because they are some wonderful ones working in this country.

killabban182

GetWithIt wrote: »

SVP can suck my balls. Always scoring goals but never when I have him as captain.

HA HA, very funny, laughed my arse off.:D:D:D

wilkie2006

What are people's views on "charity muggers"; those guys who stop you on the street, striking up an inane conversation before asking you to set up a direct debit with Oxfam or whoever?

I'm in two minds about them. On the one hand, I think that in these recession years it's pretty invasive and insensitive to put someone under pressure to sign up to something when they might not have a job. When I was on the dole I was caught by one of these guys who ignored my excuses (all intimating that I didn't have a job) until I had to come out with, "I don't have a job and I don't have any money. That's why I'm out, walking around at 2pm". I thought it was f*cking demeaning and made me feel really pathetic, not being able to afford 3E a month or whatever it was.

On the other hand (and I'm not just being philosophical because I now have a job - I thought this the same day), although I didn't have a job, I was a lot better off than the people the money would go to. I'd been lucky to have been born in Ireland and lived through the last 10 years (well, pre-recession, I mean). So what if I was made feel uncomfortable for 10 minutes; there are other people in the world who are going to feel a lot more uncomfortable for a lot longer. Even without a job, I wasn't going to be raped, go hungry for days, die of a curable disease or be murdered in a robbery.

What are other people's views on these characters?

Tiddlypeeps

wilkie2006 wrote: »

What are people's views on "charity muggers"; those guys who stop you on the street, striking up an inane conversation before asking you to set up a direct debit with Oxfam or whoever?

I'm in two minds about them. On the one hand, I think that in these recession years it's pretty invasive and insensitive to put someone under pressure to sign up to something when they might not have a job. When I was on the dole I was caught by one of these guys who ignored my excuses (all intimating that I didn't have a job) until I had to come out with, "I don't have a job and I don't have any money. That's why I'm out, walking around at 2pm". I thought it was really f*cking demeaning and made me feel like a real loser not being able to afford 3E a month or whatever it was.

On the other hand (and I'm not just being philosophical because I now have a job - I thought this the same day), although I didn't have a job, I was a lot better off than the people the money would go to. I'd been lucky to have been born in Ireland and lived through the last 10 years (well, pre-recession, I mean). So what if I was made feel uncomfortable for 10 minutes; there are other people in the world who are going to feel a lot more uncomfortable for a lot longer. Even without a job, I wasn't going to be raped, go hungry for days, die of a curable disease or be murdered in a robbery.

What are other people's views on these characters?

The idea in your first point really gets to me. When I was unemployed I had to go into the post office to pick up my social welfare and without fail, every single time there would be some ****er with a bucket from the hanely center sitting outside the door hasseling everyone that came out. 90% of the people that use the actual post office building are picking up some form of social welfare payment. Kinda sickens me.

I do feel bad that there are people out there who are much worse off than me. I don't feel bad saying no to those people that hassle you in the street. It was pointed out already these people are paid a crazy amount of money to do that job, and are paid commission too. The CEO's of most of the the large charities earn huge salaries, just a quick search turned this up http://society.guardian.co.uk/salarysurvey/table/0,12406,1042677,00.html it's from 2003 and only of British charities, too lazy to look for a better list I think this one get's the point across just fine. I doubt many of them have since grown a conscience. At the end of the day only a small portion of donated money ends up being used for the actually cause.

Edit: Just found this link on Irish charity CEO's http://www.herald.ie/news/charity-chiefs-earn-up-to-euro150k-three-times-average-pay-packet-2887476.html

wilkie2006

Tiddlypeeps wrote: »

When I was unemployed I had to go into the post office to pick up my social welfare and without fail, every single time there would be some ****er with a bucket from the hanely center sitting outside the door hasseling everyone that came out. 90% of the people that use the actual post office building are picking up some form of social welfare payment. Kinda sickens me....

...I don't feel bad saying no to those people that hassle you in the street. It was pointed out already these people are paid a crazy amount of money to do that job, and are paid commission too.

Yes, I remember reading an article (it was years ago so can't provide a link - sorry) that those people who hassle you in the street are on about 10E an hour and, like a sales job, they have huge targets to meet. I have no sympathy for them - they're mercenaries and most don't give a s@it who they take money from. In fact, a friend of mine got a job in a charity call centre, making cold calls to homes during the daytime (when obviously only pensioners or the unemployed are in) but she left after 2 days because she thought they were such f$ckers. Apparently, her boss's argument was that if people didn't want to give money they wouldn't. She argued back that those telephoned were put under so much pressure/bullied to set up direct debits (it was a policy to offer a call back later if someone was unsure or disinclined) that most did it just to get off the phone, even if they didn't have the cash to spare.

Having said this, I'm not convinced that "charity mugging" should be done away with altogether. I mean, there are so many people who can afford and willing to give but just never get around to it. An aggressive, Bob Geldof-esque "Give us your ****ing money" is sometimes appropriate. However, I think that charities need to be more sensitive where they put their donation boxes/collectors. Outside a post office when people are clearly getting their benefits is outrageous and really manipulative. I wouldn't have a problem with them coming into a pub though (but not if they're hectoring people).

Tiddlypeeps wrote: »

The CEO's of most of the the large charities earn huge salaries

Again, I'm not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, I resent donating my money to pay for someone's inflated salary. On the the hand, I recognise that most CEOs of charities aren't there because they're altruistic; they're there because charities need people with business acumen to generate funds. I can understand the logic that without an expert marketeer/businessperson at the helm of a charity it might take in, say, 1000E a day but with them - after their salary - it might be 1300E. At the end of it all, the people who the charity is campaigning for get more help.