Wasteful Red Cross Charity ...

[Ann]

While I agree that the Red Cross do an admirable job and should be well supported I refuse to send any money to charities who waste money in advertising to this extent -

Today I received an appeal in the post for £10 donation but with the letter came all these free gifts
1. A little (metal) badge showing a rose
2. 2 coasters
3. a bookmark
4. a whole page of personalised address stickers
5. 4 notelets/giftcards with good quality envelopes.

What an appalling waste of money. Several years ago I rang a company who was marketing in this way and asked to speak directly to the Marketing director. He listened to my rants and promised he would have a re-think (not sure if he ever did!)
What do you think? Would you donate - knowing most of your money is going on these kind of free gifts, which most people would throw away?

[ladybirder]

It must work or they wouldn't do it. And what evidence do you have Ann that "most of your money is going on these kinds of free gifts"? And how do you know that most people throw them away? I bet some people are grateful for them. I know I liked the little sticky address labels. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the gifts are donated free to the Red Cross by way of support from the manufacturers.
That aside the Red Cross doesn't have to send me gifts to get my money. I would support their marvellous work anyway.

[boxtops]

"most of your money is going on these kind of free gifts, which most people would throw away"

These freebies cost a very very small percentage of the overheads of any charity - there was a feature about this in the paper the other day, and the cost, in the volume they can buy in at charity rates, is minimal. They send the things out on the principle that many people feel that they'd find the things useful, but are struck with guilt that they need to pay for them - so they make a donation. Personally, I don't - if I didn't ask for the things, I keep them, use them, and carry on donating only to the charities of my choice. They're unsolicited goods, after all - no different from the Christmas cards painted with the mouth that we used to get in past years.

Your marketing director (or head of fundraising, or whatever) probably did think about it, and found that there is sufficient response to these campaigns to carry on doing it.

The business about suggesting how much you give is along the same lines - a hint suggests to people they should tick a box - of course you don't have to, you can donate 50p (if you wanted to give anything).

Having worked for a charity, I know how much competition there is for the charitable pound, and any publicity is good publicity - after all, we're talking about the Red Cross, which is their intention.

[Dee Sa]

sorry to rain on your parade but my late husband at one time was the director of Luanda port and he was up in arms over the number of parties and jolly ups that the Red Cross were hosting over there. Also I worked with lady from Africa who had settled here and she said her sister's ambition was to work for the Red Cross in their homeland for exactly the same reason. My hubby said the most sincere charity where he worked was Medicine Sans Frontier he said they lived with the people they worked with and never wasted one penny.

[Maydup]

I don't respond to this type of marketing, but it must work for the charities to do it. The most successful charities raise millions and use professionals to do that. The person at the head of the RNLI for example it paid £135,000

Look at this report and you'll see they have 42 members of staff paid over £60,000 pa. Its a proper outfit and through their efforts they save lives and raise millions to do it.

http://rnli.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/2011%20Annual%20Report%20and%20Accounts%202011%20LR.pdf

[boxtops]

The RNLI bit rankles with me, although I do recognise that they need professional people at the helm of the organisation (no pun intended). I see the lifeboat go out here in that appalling weather last week, and all the crew are unpaid volunteers. That just doesn't feel right, to risk your life in heaving seas on a voluntary basis.

[Maydup]

One or two people mention the Cats Protection League. The person at the head of which is paid over £100,000 and 6 are paid more than £60,ooo. I'm just using these example as they have been refered to.

http://www.cats.org.uk/uploads/documents/Annual-Report-Accounts-2012.pdf


See page 35.

[black_cat51]

if it didn't work they wouldn't do it