This may be a controversial subject but … I’m getting on in years and have no dependants, If I am fortunate to leave anything then I wish it to go to charities, mainly animal, first preference dogs, second donkeys but not really bothered. So. My main concern is…. Cr**p . well I pushed the button to display this before I expressed my thoughts….maybe this was wise but I will post my thoughts ,though the links may be “unlinked “
My post was prompted by a worthy post promoting a worthy cause My distrust about the workings behind charities is deeply ingrained, charities themselves I support day to day. My reasoning Sadly I have grave mistrust in the way charities are run. They waste money beyond belief. This mistrust is not in the terrific efforts of the “ front line “ voluntary force , who are brilliant . My mistrust is with what is is often massive admin behind the scenes at incredible cost. I could go on and on about this . I have many cases of it… As a background the public may not be aware but charities pay for lawyers and others to monitor the details of wills granted probate . to see if they ( the charities ) have been given any legacies. They then chase the executors quite aggressively to produce accounts, even interim accounts , to ascertain what they may receive. This process of interim accounts merely increases legal costs and reduces the value of the estate to be distributed As an illustration of the waste of money by charities, I have many, many , many, … this one sticks ! In the late 90’s I was acting as a solicitor for a family , The lady who had died had written a hand written will.( Dot, the deceased, I recall was an old school head mistress! ) Basically All of her assets went to RSPCA The will was well written but lacked one or the two formalities to qualify as a valid will. The will gave all of Dots money to charities mainly RSPCA. As a solicitor I informed the family about the potential problems with the will being admitted to probate due to legal irregularities , but the family acknowledged that was what their family member wished so I proceeded . The will was put in to to the probate process , but , as envisaged it failed to be admitted to probate. I received a letter from City lawyers acting a for RSPCA. They were aware of the death and wished to be kept informed, I advised them of the problems with the Probate and that it was unlikely that the will would “ Stand up “ but the family wanted to honour the wishes of their family member. Despite my giving an assurance that even if the will was not admitted to probate that the family wished to honour the wishes of the deceased….. The London Lawyers continued to press the claims, they even produced a written legal opinion by a top queens counsel that they had instructed on behalf of RSPCA……despite knowing that the family were happy to abide by the terms of the “will” They then put in a “caveat “ to prevent any further progress . I seem to recall that had the RSPCA relied on the families wishes that the legacy would have been approx £ 90,000 . After their legal and administrative fees I recall it was less than £20,000 …Dot would not be,, and is not happy ! .
I rather feel that you are using a rather large brush with too much tar on it. You seem to imply that charities in general are badly and extravagantly run yet you only mention one by name. True there are some charities that are badly run but the vast majority are set up and administered by hard working volunteers dedicated to the cause.
I prefer to focus on supporting small local charities that you can have more confidence in that the money will be used for it's intended purpose - not being spent on administrative overheads. With the example above with the RSPCA. The records will show a £20k donation, not the £90k potential donation - and if the records were that transparent, maybe we would have a different view of some charities.
We share your distrust of large charities whose CEOs often have million dollar salaries. So we try to give any charity money we have spare to local charities that you can "see" where the money is going - for example we support :- Carla Lane - Animals in Need ( based in Melling, Merseyside) where Mrs Cunny does some voluntary work Garston Animal Rescue, Liverpool - where we adopted our dog from Queenscourt Hospice in Southport - where several of my friends were cared for Derian House Children's Hospice in Chorley where some our MG friends did voluntary work
Obviously there are many that are run properly. I mentioned one but if you wish I can also state other cases but these did not involve such obvious mismanagement. PDSA now called The Dogs Trust, RNIB. RSPB .Generally it was the larger ones presumably as the smaller ones did not have such large funds to mismanage in the first instance. A friends wife was a fund raiser for a well known Hospice, she was on a large salary but ended up leaving as the waste she saw within the charity made her feel that her efforts in raising funds were negated by wasteful administration. Granted over a 25 year career I probably came across “ only” about 10 major cases of waste. But given the small size of my practice this is a large number.
I know what you’re saying, however I’m very proud to be a volunteer trustee of one charity and in employment of another. if I saw financial misuse I’d leave as charity money is obtained through trust and peoples good will.
Technically, I work for a charity as the V&A is considered a charity. Is the money used well with minimal waste - probably. Are the Executives overpaid, maybe.
Mi mum was a willing Oxfam volunteer since the late `90s but packed it all in last year when she`d had enough of running ye locale shoppe as a business , having targets , team meetings to boost sales etc etc ... Came to a head when the (well paid) North Leeds district `supervisor` explained to her how to index shelve the books therefore `standardising the oxfam book shelf procedure `, like she`d been doing it wrong for the last 25 years . Needless to say they lost a dedicated helper who`d in the past visited Oxfam projects in the Far East at her own expense to lend a hand in setting up schools along with female empowerment schemes and being a teacher in rural Borneo / Malaysia / Myamar / Laos she had a reasonable idea of what was needed - their loss sadly .
Good on you and I do see what you mean with charities. A large sum to you and me can be swallowed up into a big charity and whilst it generally benefits the cause can be a drop in the ocean and appear to make very little difference at all. We had a family member who was quite advanced in age and a little potty. Guy from the local cat charity became very friendly and unbeknown to the family convinced her to leave her estate to his charity. It was all done correctly and the family lost out. Shame really as only a generation later the grandchildren could all of had a slightly easier passage to becoming financially independent. No offence intended but when the legal profession become involved then any sum will become diminished and possibly significantly. Is it not better to donate to a smaller charity with less overheads and that doesn’t employ professional corporate types but those who volunteer their services. Or indeed a single cause. Who knows. All charities seem to begin with good intentions but there are plenty of leaches out there ready to tag onto the cause for their own personal benefit!
Right on, solicitor wanted £40k to deal with my father's estate. It's not complicated - money for old rope. My little bro is doing it as we all trust each other.
They are like estate agents and work on a percentage, so if "all" you had to your name was a £5M house, just that one asset would net you a horrendous bill. It doesn't appear to equate to the work they do. That £40k was taking the pee and off the scale of what is apparently the normal range for this work.
