Stunts for charity

[floo]

I won't go into too many details, but suffice to say a few months ago a man was asking for donations for a charity, as a close relative was going to do a stunt. I said I would happily donate directly to the charity concerned when the stunt, which involved a plane, had been completed. That didn't go down too well at all as he wanted the money to go them, which made me suspicious. The stunt was completed and I donated as promised to the charity concerned. I knew the stunt would cost getting on for £500, having looked it up on-line. I then discovered that it had been paid for out of the donations, taking almost a third of the cash donated. This certainly hadn't been mentioned when the donations had been asked for.

The point I am making is that when people are doing stunts for charity and asking for donations, it is sensible to ask if any of the money donated is going to fund the stunt in question.

[Rhiannon]

Slightly different but a former work colleague of my mother's used to go trekking through Nepal or somewhere every year 'for charity', but used to take his travel expenses out of the donations and just donate the surplus. The thing is that he would have done that for his holiday anyway, but he'd worked out a way to do so for free, although charity did benefit.

[floo]

Slightly different but a former work colleague of my mother's used to go trekking through Nepal or somewhere every year 'for charity', but used to take his travel expenses out of the donations and just donate the surplus. The thing is that he would have done that for his holiday anyway, but he'd worked out a way to do so for free, although charity did benefit.

The thing is ALL the money should have gone to the charity, in both instances, because that is what the donations were for.

[SusanDoris]

Well said, Floo. I agree with you.

[Harrowby Hall]

I too agree with you, Floo.

There is an element of obtaining money/benefit under false pretences - which is theft.

However, is the theft from the people who gave the money or from the supposed beneficiary? Or both?

[Rhiannon]

The incident I referred to happened years ago, long before it became a common fund raising practice. Eventually a colleague said out loud that he wouldn't find his holiday any more but would donate direct instead and everyone else stopped 'donating'. I think there's a huge element of emotional blackmail involved.