Charities and Waste

Last night I attended a fundraising event for a small charity aimed at helping destitute women and poverty stricken children in Nepal.

I will start out saying that normally I prefer to support charities focusing on problems in my own country(s) i.e. the US or the UK but my daughter asked me to attend and so I did.

As I mentioned this was a small charity and it was somewhat amateur in its' organisation, and yet therefore much more focused on those for whom the charity is intended as opposed to the image of the charity.

For, as it turned out, I was sitting next to a woman who although not directly involved with the organisation of this event is generally engaged in the "business" of charity and as such broadsided me with some rather disturbing comments on the sector.

She was adamant that the big UK Charities that line the High Street are very well if not over funded in terms of cash as well as in terms of physical donations. Nothing wrong with that, except that over funded "name" charities create a "crowding out" effect for the lesser known names who have much less headline recognition and limited marketing expertise and/or exposure despite the fact that many of the smaller organisations are much more "direct" in their undertakings.

My Tischdame went on to explain that the big names actually empty their stores weekly into the rubbish bin so as to maintain the image that they have a massive turnover which in turn encourages donations which will then have be thrown away and so the circle turns.

This was so disturbing to her that she chased up the management ladder to get an explanation. First and foremost everyone she spoke to first hauled out the old chestnut of "Health and Safety". When pressured, as she was certainly not to be fobbed off by so churlish an excuse, it came out that "in order to keep up their image they were forced to keep product moving in their shop windows, and yes it was distressing but what should they do?".

Now I was always concerned that the wastage in charities was in the costs associated with the bureaucracies they had developed which consumed sizable chunks out of the "charity dollars/pounds/euros donations they received. I had always donated clothes, toys and bric-a-brac in general with the thought that this way the physical objects were actually being of some use to persons in need.

If the description of what is going on is indeed true-and I have no reason to doubt it isn't-perhaps my cynicism is more a reflection of reality than I had previously thought.