What Charity??

[Jennykenny]

Reading about charity bosses earning £150,000, which charities spend the least on admin and the most on people they are trying to help?

Some that might be considered: Mary's Meals? Chicks? Michael Morpugo's camps for city children? FARE in Glasgow?
Any thoughts, comments??

[Buenchico]

Care needs to be taken when examining how much charities spend on administration. For example, a charity might spend only a tiny percentage of its income on admin but then decide to open 50 charity shops across the country. Due to the cost of rents, salaries for full-time managers and travel expenses paid to volunteers, their admin costs might rise from perhaps 1% to around 40% but, as long as they actually end up with more money for the cause that they're seeking to support, does the percentage figure really matter?

Research shows that charities which have the best record of raising money (in terms of the actual amounts raised) are often those with the highest administration costs (as percentages of their income) but, again, as long as the actual amounts raised are high, should those percentages be seen negatively?
http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2013/may/02/good-charities-admin-costs-research

[Jennykenny]

You have definitely given me something to think about. Thanks.

[Jennykenny]

But, I remember meeting a chap a few years ago whose brother was a senior member of Oxfam, and who was said to always fly first class on charity business.
Is this what I am contributing to??

[woofgang]

It depends where they are going and what they will do when they get there. My late DH's firm who were total pennypinchers always flew their managers first class because they were expected to get off the plan and go straight to work jetlag notwithstanding. The firm knew that to do this, the employee had to be able to sleep on the plane......NOBA, I never trust hearsay.....

[JeniPeni]

I work for a charity which supports projects in poor countries and educates in Scotland for every £1 we spend we raise over £6.

[heathfield]

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what-we-do/about-us/~/link.aspx?_id=938CD43327384DCEBB80BD5F0946E570&_z=z (Click on the faces).
As Chris says, it can be difficult to work out "admin costs", since they can result in the money spent being returned many times more in donations. I remember when Oxfam was set up. The founder was dissatisfied with many charities that were spending most of the money they received on "admin". (It was reported in the 1970s that the Scottish branch of the Salvation Army were spending 100% of donations on administration!!) He vowed that Oxfam's admin costs would be held to no more than 10%.

[Zeuhl]

I recall working with Save the Children in the mid 80s when the Ethiopian crisis was at its peak.

Saint Bob Geldof criticised the organised charities for beibg admin heavy and wasteful and tried to spend all the millions he raised with a small team of volunteers.

It collapsed within weeks and he handed it all over to the likes of Save the Children who became one of the country's biggest truck operators over night.



You can compare Charity income and expenditure here:

http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/find-charities/