Charlie Elphicke MP: Charity bosses have to find their vocation again.

Think charity and you think of the volunteer rattling a tin, front line work relieving poverty and vocation lined with compassion. You don’t think of mega salaries, inflation busting pay rises and bank style bonuses. Yet in too many cases, this has become the culture of the charitable sector.
And it’s wrong. This culture of greed needs to change because it brings all charities into disrepute. People won’t donate if they think charity bosses are only in it for themselves.

There needs to be less grasping for pay rises. Less hob nobbing at conferences where they talk about governance and give each other awards. There needs to a renewal of the sense of vocation, more appreciation of volunteers who do much of the work for nothing and greater focus on the needy people they are meant to be helping.

Overseas aid charities have been a real cause for concern. Take the aid charity Save the Children. Their donation page says £3 could pay for life-saving treatment for eight children with diarrhoea.

What it doesn’t tell you is that it would take 54,000 such donations to pay the £162,000 of bonuses handed out to the charity’s bosses last year. Nor does it say that the chief executive’s pay has risen a jaw dropping 22 per cent since 2010.

Save the Children is a worrying case of corporate excess, yet is far from alone. Some 30 overseas aid charity chiefs are now paid more than £100,000 a year. That’s up from 19 three years ago. These include the head of Oxfam whose pay rose 19 per cent and the chief executive of Christian Aid whose pay rose 15 per cent. Yet it’s not just overseas aid charities. The Telegraph’s investigations indicate the problem is even more widespread.
So what needs to happen? First the Charity Commission should tell trustees to get a grip and put an end to the obscene pay rises. Second many charities need to renew their sense of mission, spending less time at conferences and more time valuing their volunteers.

They should concentrate resources on helping people rather than campaigns, lobbying and administration. Third – and most of all - charity bosses need to remind themselves that charity is a vocation, not an opportunity for personal enrichment. More people will volunteer and donate when they know charitable funds are targeted at the front line rather than the board room.

When these guys hear that 'charity begins at home', they really take it literally, don't they! 
And take my word for it, it's not JUST the fat cats. When RSPCA stole my mare and I got 160 hours community service (the same as one of the women at Spindles Farm) I was sent to work in a charity shop sorting out pissy pants and the like. I live in an affluent area and believe me, some really decent and pricey stuff was handed in for selling in the shop. There were a couple of brand new dresses (with the original price tags in the region of £300 each) and take my word for it, they did not go on the rails. My guess is that the manager/ess flogged them on eBay. When I asked her how much they would be priced at to sell in the shop she changed the subject. Also any decent kids' clothes were put to one side for her sister's children. They took their pick of everything that was handed in. For some reason they did not see it as theft, just like people who go out at night and go thro' the bags of donations that are left outside charity shops.

Trilby Bee wrote:When these guys hear that 'charity begins at home', they really take it literally, don't they! 
And take my word for it, it's not JUST the fat cats. When RSPCA stole my mare and I got 160 hours community service (the same as one of the women at Spindles Farm) I was sent to work in a charity shop sorting out pissy pants and the like. I live in an affluent area and believe me, some really decent and pricey stuff was handed in for selling in the shop. There were a couple of brand new dresses (with the original price tags in the region of £300 each) and take my word for it, they did not go on the rails. My guess is that the manager/ess flogged them on eBay. When I asked her how much they would be priced at to sell in the shop she changed the subject. Also any decent kids' clothes were put to one side for her sister's children. They took their pick of everything that was handed in. For some reason they did not see it as theft, just like people who go out at night and go thro' the bags of donations that are left outside charity shops.

I think i would have been dropping anonymous hints to their HQ if it had been me. Just to stir the Hornets nest a little.