To Give Or Not To Give

[jennyjoan]

[Edited By The Ed To Remove Charity Names]

My lovely nephew and his wife ran a ball a few months ago for a charity. They managed to raise £17,000 between running marathons and the ball. However, £3,000 is missing and he can account for every single penny.

He has tortured the workers of the charity to find out where the £3,000 has gone. They loathe to see him now as he is determined to find out. They are quibbling with "Oh some of the money went to complementary tickets" - this and that. The blatant answer is they pocketed the money.

Now he has said he will never ever do anything more for the above charity.

The whole thing has made me very sceptical as to the charities I fund. How do you find this? I am also sad too.

[berniecuddles]

and that's why my money stays in my pocket JJ x

[bookbinder]

I am also sceptical about some charities, particularly those who employ well/highly-paid organisers or publicity people. I give a bob or two to the Salvation Army, mainly because they don't appear to have any political axe to grind, but as for the rest, well, I steer clear of most of them.

[Mamyalynne]

I realise you are upset by this, but a word of caution - you have named the charity and attributed your supposed reason for the money not showing.


Speaking generally, did they say there would be any deductions for admin etc?

He needs to get a full statement of the accounts relating to the fundraising activities.

Well done to them for their hard work too.

[jennyjoan]

Mamy I appreciate your comment but my nephew has sussed the lot out and this what has come out of it. The workers are extremely uncomfortable when he makes an appearance so he has now stopped. I did name the charity but I don't regret it.

[EcclesCake]

I'm not sure I'm following you.

You nephew undertook some fund raising and donated the money and is dissatisfied with how it has been administered?

Charities have costs to bear and yes that seem somewhat disproportionate but to accuse them of pocketing it seems a bit extreme.

I'm quite sure you can view the annual reports and accounts of charities, why not look into this charity?

[jennyjoan]

I just give to my charities and will continue to do so. I would not be interested in accounts etc as I have enough on my plate.

[Mamyalynne]

Then he needs to go to the Charity Commission, who take complaints about Charities and investigate them.

[Mamyalynne]

He should do it JJCon.

[in a mo]

The situation is how almost how all charity fund raisers end up the difference is that normally some people do not delve so deep as your nephew has I for one would not let it go keep on ,if you think that something is missing and cannot be counted for call The Police this is a disgusting thing to happen after all the effort that you put in .There should NEVER be complimentary tickets to a charity function ALL PAY then everything is accounted for ,do not let this go ,it might seem like hard work going after it but nowhere near the hard work it takes to run a Marathon you go girl.
In A Mo

[jennyjoan]

Eccles - my nephew is extremely clever with letters after his name etc so I know he didn't go into this with a nitty gritty attitude. He would not have accused so readily but he had went down all the avenues of the missing money and there is nowhere else it could have gone. That is really I have to say on the matter.

[jennyjoan]

^^^ all

[anneasquith]

conn, nice to see you posting again, I wonder if he is entitled to see the audit of the proceeds ? although he and anyone who helped did raise a great amount of money, well done.

[EcclesCake]

I'll shut up then.

[jennyjoan]

Eccles nobody said for you to shut up - you are entitled to your opinion.

[Barmaid]

Your nephew's best line of complaint as a first off is to the charity trustees. They have an obligation to ensure that a charity receives its full entitlement from any donation/bequest/grant. Any shortfall and they can be personally liable.

Then if he is dissatisfied with the answer he should contact the Charity Commission.

I do think you should be very careful about making allegations of workers pocketing the money AND naming the charity. You do not know this has happened, it is merely an assumption at this point.

[Mamyalynne]

You say 'That is all you have to say' fair enough, don't reply - but I don't think he has been down all the avenues.

If he is convinced of wrongdoing, next step - Charity Commission.



Hope he gets a resolution.
Should be easy for a bright clever young man to find.

[Mamyalynne]

Crossed posts with a more learned friend, sorry. :-)

[boxtops]

Conne, there will inevitably be some expenses - and with any charity event, all of us find that there are complimentary tickets given, to local dignitaries or big names in the charity - the free tickets are given with the aim of promoting the profile of the charity. You can also expect some legitimate expenses in the admin of an event like this - although there are volunteers, a great many other people who work for charities are paid on the payroll. One of these has been me in the past, I was a paid employee of a registered UK charity.

What I don't understand is what you mean. Your nephew raised £17K for the charity with the various events, and gave it to the charity. Did he specify what they should do with it, are you saying they can only tell him what they did with £14K? if so the other £3K will very likely have gone into overheads. How does he know that someone/several people have stolen the money?

It need investigating with a letter to the Chief Exec of the charity, for a start. I'm not sure if the Charity Commissioners cover where you live, but there will be something similar. If he's sure of his facts he could tell the newspapers, but he'd need to be very sure. I'm very concerned that you have named the charity, when there seems to be no proof that the money has been trousered by the charity workers.

[Barmaid]

No need Mamy. You've already covered most of the bases. I was just adding in the first step.

[boxtops]

barmaid, you weren't there when I replied, either :-)