Still feel like giving to charity...?

[2011G6E]

Shocking news story out today...
http://www.news.com.au/money/the-tri...-1226288397035

CHARITIES are pressuring vulnerable, elderly and dying Australians with highly emotive tactics, psychological profiling and death-bed visits from lawyers to bequeath their estates.
"Greedy" families must be frozen out of wills, Australia's major charitable organisations were told last week at a confidential convention.
Hundreds of representatives from almost every prominent Australian charity - including Amnesty International, World Vision, Mission Australia, the Heart Foundation, Guide Dogs, Ronald McDonald House and ChildFund - spent up to $3000 per delegate to attend.
The convention included "masterclasses" on extracting money from frail, ill and wealthy benefactors.
Read the conference programme here

A journalist from The Sunday Telegraph registered as a delegate at the four-day event on Queensland's Gold Coast - hosted by the Fundraising Institute of Australia (FIA) - which focused on "death-activated" bequests and legacy giving.
Last month, the paper revealed that offensive training practices were being taught by one charity fundraising company. And today's investigation reveals:
Charities are transporting the elderly to see lawyers and paying fees for drafting wills;
At least one hospital passed confidential patient records to fundraisers;
Charities contact donors on birthdays and at Christmas to make them feel "special";
Volunteers assisting charities are being targeted to leave a bequest in their will;
Australian billionaires are on a hit-list drawn up for charities who want a chunk of their estates;
Charities build relationships with lawyers - known as "influencers" - who encourage charity bequests;
Conference delegates roared with laughter when it was jokingly suggested "pre-death parties" could be held to sell people into leaving a bequest and a "one-on-one (meeting) with a gun" might be useful;

...cont'd...

The shocking part is the list of large, world wide, and supposedly reputable and trustworthy charities that attended, and presumably had a good old chuckle.

Charity begins at home...and for a lot of people it will now stay at home. To hell with passing money over to parasites and vultures who treat the vulnerable like this...
At the very minimum, i'd be asking any charity asking for dough if their reps attended this conference...

The part that sickens me the most was the "expert" they brought in from England to give advice on how to efficiently squeeze the elderly and dying and what he said...

The Sunday Telegraph sat in on the conference's "bequest masterclass", which cost an extra $595 on top of the $2430 registration fee, taught by renowned UK bequest expert Richard Radcliffe.
Mr Radcliffe's six-hour seminar was littered with tongue-in-cheek lines about how charities could benefit from death.
After the forum Mr Radcliffe said he had tried to inject some "light-hearted humour" and "would not have made any of the remarks I did - or hold the class - if I had known a journalist was in the room".

Heaven forbid the gullible public should find out how you blood suckers behave behind closed doors when discussing how to increase your profits...

and this:

He said there was a need "to take the misery out of asking for money".
Mr Radcliffe said in Australia "there is one death every three minutes and 42 seconds, that's what we're about really".
Mr Radcliffe prompted laughter by saying the falling death rate, the lowest in 80 years, was "really depressing" for charities.

Hear that Radcliffe...? That's the sound of hundreds of thousands of people snapping their purses and wallets shut...

[Geez Louise]

That is disgusting!!! They are paying money to go and learn how to rip off the elderly etc? and think it is funny?

I feel sorry for all the good charities out there who are doing great work! Everytime a story like this comes out, they lose out.

World has gone mad....

[pottery beige]

only charity i donate to.. is me....

[Bucknaked]

My mother always donates to the Salvo as they helped keep the family together when she was a young girl. Salvo's rang my mum one year to ask for her donation. At the time mum didn't have much spare cash, so she said she couldn't donate at the moment. They asked her for her credit card number and said they will just debit her credit card. When she said no, she said they were very rude and said they will call back next week to remind her to donate when she gets paid next.

[SSD-85]

Weird, its not like theyre lining their own coffers.

Doesnt make a whole lot of sense to employ tactics like this when the money isnt going to yourself.

[Bucknaked]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

only charity i donate to.. is me....

I donate every fortnight religiously in the form of the flood levy.

[chrisfpv]

I've never given to charity ( that I can remember) and the only time I ever will is if I'm in some 3rd world country and giving someone money or clothes myself directly.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

only charity i donate to.. is me....

The GT fund right?

The only people I donate to are homeless people if they harass me on the street when I'm in Melbourne.

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by Bucknaked

I donate every fortnight religiously in the form of the flood levy.

i flood my kidneys daily.. with beer....

sorry but charitys have become a profit driven business...

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

The GT fund right?

The only people I donate to are homeless people if they harass me on the street when I'm in Melbourne.

sorry bro.. but i see homeless dudes and meh...

clean yourself up and go get a job ya bum.....

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

sorry bro.. but i see homeless dudes and meh...

clean yourself up and go get a job ya bum.....

Yeah, but if it gets them another carton of ciggies or a slab of VB it'll keep them happy for a while

[pottery beige]

the ones.. that smoke, drink, choof bongs, gamble, kids are wearing rags, cant pay my bills .. please help me.. my heart is bleeding for you...


go get a job you bum...

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Yeah, but if it gets them another carton of ciggies or a slab of VB it'll keep them happy for a while

shut em up for a day.......

[Rambunctious]

I was approached recently in a major shopping centre by some people who were collecting for the Life Savers and they were actually stepping in front of people to stop them which I thought was bloody ignorant.
Stupid part was they did not want donations there and then, they wanted me to sign up for monthly donations by direct debit.
No need to tell you what I said.

[Bearman]

What the OP reported is absolutely disgraceful and something I had suspected for quite some time.

I despise the emotional blackmail that is used. I have experienced this with a high profile charity for a worthy cause and the tactics that were used to extract money and time out of me left a very bad taste in my mouth.

The door knockers get very little out of me. The can shakers at intersections get nothing. Beggars get nothing. I'll give to the Salvos but that's about it. My donations to charity have declined somewhat over time.

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by Rambunctious

I was approached recently in a major shopping centre by some people who were collecting for the Life Savers and they were actually stepping in front of people to stop them which I thought was bloody ignorant.
Stupid part was they did not want donations there and then, they wanted me to sign up for monthly donations by direct debit.
No need to tell you what I said.

commision city........

[brydie76]

Yeah, don't donate to life savers. Gave some cash to a friend for a raffle and now I can't stop getting their charity drive calls.

Funny one for people my age is they tend to ask more for your time (ie join them in harassing the masses) than money. I only ever donate to stuff like Movember and such through my work, that way it's being dollar matched and it's less likely to promote the calls, harassment at shopping centres, etc.

[Geez Louise]

I sitll donate to charities, however I am now more careful. The Smith family Charity (helps Aussie kids) and the AFF Toy Cruise get my support every year

[pottery beige]

atleast do a friggin sausage sizzle...........

no probs coughin up a goldy for a sanga bread n sauce......

[Ford_The_Win]

There are more psychologists employed in advertising than in healthcare. What does that tell you? It's nothing new, been going on for years. Charity begins at home I say.

[TATT2]

Careflight is all i give to...

[2011G6E]

Originally Posted by Scotty85

Weird, its not like theyre lining their own coffers.

Doesnt make a whole lot of sense to employ tactics like this when the money isnt going to yourself.

Oh come now...there's administration costs, there's boards of directors to pay, there's rallies and fundraising events to put on, and it's all a tax write-off for someone somewhere...they're lucky if a quarter of the money ends up with "the needy" with some charities...

[BPXR6T]

Originally Posted by brydie76

Yeah, don't donate to life savers. Gave some cash to a friend for a raffle and now I can't stop getting their charity drive calls.

I had the same problem with the salvos. Gave a donation then got hammered with calls wanting more from numerous charities. The harassment didn't stop until I moved house.

[Jim Goose]

I once bought a ticket in a Mater childrens hospital raffle.....

I missed the fine print where they troll ALL THE TICKETS SOLD AND GET YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS AND THEN RING YOU EVERY MONTH ASKING FOR DONATIONS! after 6 phone calls i told them where to go...

Never again....

[gtfpv]

yep i started giving to charities many years ago , instantly all of them started ringing and harrassing us for money .
a friend told me that the people that ring you have nothing to do with the charity , they are paid agents sitting at home or in a room somewhere , changing hats every phone call , once you pay to a charity , you go onto a register saying your a payer , and then are open slather for all of them .
IE: MR Doodle rings me , hi sir this is MR Doodle ringing on >BEHALF< of the heart foundation , give me some money . ME : ERRR NO . ok we'll ring agian later .
MR DOODLE , rings up the next person , HI SIR this is MR Doodle ringing on >BEHALF < of the blind society .

[aussiblue]

charitable organisations were told last week at a confidential convention

Confidential??? I don't think so; this conference was extremely well publicised and promoted by many including Pro Bono Australia see http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/category/1975 where you can also see more details of what was actually presented as the conference. To my kowledge there was no restriction on who could attend provided you paid the conference fees.

So I have to wonder how much else was sensational journalism or quoted out of context. I wasn't there so can't say. I suspect that the speaker that seems to be have been most quoted in the article, Richard Radcliffe, tried to inject some humour into his presentation and he either got it very wrong or the journalist has used his comments out of context.

I am on the Board of a charity (this one: http://www.fisherswithdisabilities.org.au/) though and would make the following observations:

a) re the comment

sorry but charitys have become a profit driven business...

that is simply not possible as in law you have to be a not for profit organisation to remain a registered charity and any tax free status they may enjoy. Certainly some professional fund raisers are about profit as the earn their living from fund raising commissions. Yes; charities have to secure a surplus of income over expenses otherwise they would become insolvent and their directors could go to jail.

b) Charities accounts are usually published on their website or otherwise made publicly available so it easy to determine where they get their money and how they use it.

c) since the Global Financial Crisis many charity have found it much more difficult to raise funds;

d) all the board member in the charity I am involved in are volunteers and most of the work is done by volunteers. We don't get or expect to get any dollars or other benefits (other than a warm feeling inside) out of the time we give to our charity - most of us don't even have disabled family members that benefit from the disabled fishing events we run;

e) in an environment of declining donations and availability of Government grants it is understandable why many charities are turning to professional fund raisers or sending staff and volunteers to fund raising training. We didn't send anyone to the FIA conference but it was considfered;

f) the largest and most professional charities usually have their own full time professional fund raisers; and

g) in spite of all the foregoing, most charities are operated and managed by very ethical people with high moral standards who never get involved in the type of nsensitive, unfeeling and mercenary practices reported in that article. The very reason most people get involved in operating charities is usually because they are caring and very socially and ethically motivated people.

[aussiblue]

And sadly I suspect the days of charities raising funds by rattling tins in the street and having cakes stores has passed. Unfortunately the general public is seemingly not as community minded or generous as it once was and the grim reality for many charities its that successful fund raising and survival now requires a more strategic and purposeful approach.

[Pedro]

" f) the largest and most professional charities usually have their own full time professional fund raisers."

And therein lies the problem aussiblue.

Professional fund raisers don't do it to fill in the time of day.
Recently, one of the papers published a list of what percentage of donations actually gets to the end user. And of the money donated, to Lifesavers and some other well known organisations, over 60% is swallowed up by administration.

[Thornie]

I donate to the ones that helped my daughter and our family when she was sick, redkite, brisbane royal childrens hospital, cancer council and the leukemia foundation.

[flooded one]

the cancer ones i give to know days. would like too see more reasearch done into pancreatic cancer after me dad died from that 3 months ago. I've known a few people that have died from cancer now. something i wouldnt wish upon my worse enemy