Fellow humans, welcome to my weekly blog.
A provocative title indeed, but let me tell you a story.
There once was CEO on a six figure salary who had an army of PA's all on £40k+, he had modern multi million pound offices, he commissioned art, he worked a 24 hour week, he had expense accounts, he had celebrity endorsements (all expenses paid), he had street teams raising capital on £14 per hour + commission.
Are we talking a finely tuned financial institution? No we are talking charities!
I will not rant on this subject as I am about to digress, but did you know that the majority of charities only actually donate £0.32 in the £1.00 raised? Or 68% operating costs.
There are operating costs, but this does seem maybe ...... Excessive?
The scandal for which I speak, is actually the misuse of funds raised. The example which is to be used are the purchasing of special needs toys.
We buy our Son all of his toys, as I am in a position to do so, however there are families and special needs nurseries / schools who do not have the funds available and need help.
Now, you would think that these would be made available with a small mark up but with VAT removed (as its a charity) the prices would be reasonable? wrong.
A great example was a simple red crab toy, it helps aid crawling, you wind it up and it stimulates the observer to chase it. Well this breakthrough in special needs toys was available for £40.00. If it had the desired effect then price is no object, right?
However, there was something about this toy that did not make sense, and it was not until I saw the same toy, and I mean the same in Tesco's priced at £5.00 then the scandal was obvious.
This is how it works, a special needs toy supplier sells it's wares to charities at the high price, this is auditable. The charity then supplies councils and school's, but mostly schools or playgroups. The charity then as a middle man would receive a rebate from the supplier. This of course will be marked down as a donation.
Thus the cycle starts again, the supplier could go direct but how much more business would they get if they partnered with a charity?
Then there is the council, who via a large grant from a charity will give a family, use of a wheelchair or walking frame? They purchase from a supplier, then place a large mark up for a charity to part buy. In the majority of cases the family has had to fund raise to buy the other half with donations matched?
Does the child get a wheelchair, well yes, but is this ethical? when half of the funds raised would of more than matched the actual cost of the wheelchair if the family had access to the supplier.
A very modern scandal indeed as our donations are wasted, our council tax is squandered, our special needs nurseries and play groups ripped off, parents forced to wait as they struggle to raise funds that would more than pay for the item if they knew the supplier.
So the next time you donate to charity, find out how many pence to the pound is actually being used to help people. You may get a shock!
Or just take used (and cleaned) toys along to playgroups and schools, they could sure use the help.
We had lots of used frames, baths, walking aids but would they take them back to help other families? Hmmm ..... Eventually but we had to ask them, maybe more than once.
No charities were named for legal reasons, but would more than happily tell you who they are in an unrecorded private conversation.
You could spend ten's of thousands of pounds for my son to have sensory toys, but a 99p foil hand held windmill from the seaside would bring equal joy.
I hope the special needs toy suppliers do not read this, as seaside foil windmills will increase in price 20 fold, so shushhhhhh...............
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