The Prostate Cancer Research Foundation, Prostate Action and Prostate Cancer UK merged, with the result that money spent on charitable causes and scientific grants doubled from £8.2 million to £16.5 million, largely due to significant savings in management costs.
There is a trend these days for more exotic fund raising activities than a cake sale or car boot sale. However, there can be hidden costs. Some sponsorship activities can leave you injured - resulting in needing help from rescue services and/or the health service. Charity sky-jumps in 2015: for every £1 raised, it costs the NHS £13 to treat injuries.
Asking people on the street to set up a direct debit of £5 or £10 monthly is known as 'chugging'. Chugging agencies pay chuggers between £7.50 and £9.50 an hour. Since charities usually pay the agency between £80 and £120 for each person who signs up, most of your first year's donations, and possibly nearly two year's donations, go to the agency and the chugger. It's only after this that the charity gets any money.
David Craig in his 2014 book The Charity Scandal proposes that the Charity Commision should:
- Force similar charities to merge.
- Create different classes of charity.
- Care charities would have to show that no more than 15% of revenue is spent on administration and fundraising and no more than 10% on campaigning, and a minimum of 70% on genuine relief.
- Campaigning charities could be allowed to spend more on campaigning.
- Organisations with charitable status (OCS) could have the benefits of being a charity without seeking to raise money from the public; e.g.educational or political charities.
- When a charity asks for money or appears in the media, it must let us know what kind of charity it is.
- The Commission currently has no oversight over how charities spend our money. Each year, under the Gift Aid scheme, HMRC passes on £1bn to them. Just one per cent of this money would allow the Commission to hire 200 auditors.
- In the Third World, a single agency should have prime responsibility for organising all charity work in ach country to avoid waste and duplication.
