very good post
I can empathise with a lot of points made there, will certainly look out for the book you mentioned.
One point though.. "underfunded charities" - that's not necessarily so. The charities in my experience are exceptionally well funded (maybe not in specifically mental health, but certainly in other areas), but they are stupendously bad at managing themselves or their employees. I mean catastrophically bad. I'd love to whistle blow about one particular charity which is wasting huge sums of money in the name of "charidy" ... but I won't just yet!
(
wideeye slightly pickled, Sun 6 Mar 2011, 15:55,
Reply)
Ha, no doubt you're right
Had a friend who did the whole cold calling thing for charities. He'd get a years subscription from these people, problem is it would take that years subscription to pay the company he worked for. Criminal I think, if I was donating to a charity in that way I'd want every penny to actually go to the charity.
(
Jorvic, Sun 6 Mar 2011, 16:03,
Reply)
And I'd like to correct that as well!
In my experience, the large charities may have the enviable position of being able to waste money, but almost all of the ones I have worked with have been painfully underfunded and often the people working in them do so for free or just enough to cover their costs..........
(
Si o doom Fund me! No catering cost involved! bit.ly/1bFtzN2, Sun 6 Mar 2011, 16:14,
Reply)
I know of one
major charity that is close to criminal in its property dealings and there are more than a few whose execs earn more than MPs.
(
TheSundaeLunch I'm a fucking shrub, alright?, Sun 6 Mar 2011, 16:24,
Reply)
I don't doubt it, I have seen some bloody stupid usage of funds in my time
But I tend to work with smaller charities and someone once told me off for it! Saying that its crazy that they should all get paid when I don't and I was being stupid, they all get paid crazy amounts, when i mentioned that my mum was the chair of the charity and it she takes no money at all from it he shut up.
I realise that the statement above was meant for the large charities, often the ones that can afford street canvassers, but there is a large percentage of charities out there that struggle to fund anything, they often have a budet that allows them to survive this year and then without fresh funding and help every year, simply don;t exist!
(
Si o doom Fund me! No catering cost involved! bit.ly/1bFtzN2, Sun 6 Mar 2011, 16:30,
Reply)
I actually run a charity!
So i know what you are saying. I do get paid; but I work 7 days a week and some evenings too. Even some nights if the alarms go off! For that I get just under 17k to live on. I live alone and have a mortgage. I wouldn't do another job for twice the money, don't get me wrong, but it makes my blood boil to see the execs of big charaties taking 100k a year home.
(
TheSundaeLunch I'm a fucking shrub, alright?, Sun 6 Mar 2011, 16:41,
Reply)