Charities & Causes

Am I being unfair?

Charities & Causes

Posted by: Goulah

15th May 2009 11:47pm

With most charity collectors getting paid a hefty "wage", where is the money really going? Which charities actually give all the money to the people they are collecting for?

Joan
  • 28th Jul 2010 08:12am

Thanks for your positive comments about Lions. It's amazing how many people will give us a few dollars or buy our raffle tickets or whatever purely because we're Lions and they know we do good things, without knowing the specifics. There are too many projects to mention here - check out their website.

Further to the issue of accountability of charities, in NSW the Office of Liquor Gaming & Racing and the Office of Fair Tradiing administer the rules governing charities. We have to report annually to Fair Trading supplying figures for how much money we raised from the public and how much of that was donated back to the community (has to be at least 40%, or your status as a charity is at risk). The OLGR has a publication "Best Practice Guidelines for Charitable Organisations" which covers all aspects of charity fundraising, including using paid collectors. It's very comprehensive. I'm sure other states will have similar resources.

Some of the less "sexy" charities feel compelled to use paid collectors as they don't have a broad volunteer base, and getting 20c (or even 5c) in the dollar is better than nothing at all. In NSW paid collectors have to wear ID badges which state clearly who they're collecting for, and that the collector is being paid (but not how much).

Sorry, I've rabbitted on again. It's been very interesting to read people's opinions. There are so many great charities out there - keep on giving!


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