where's the charity

Anybody who has ever done a charitable deed will be incensed by some charity news today.

And I am not just talking about celebrities and sports stars who do give up a lot of time – usually during precious weekends – to increase the profile and help raise funds for their favourite charities.

I am also referring – even more importantly – to all those charity workers, all those volunteers, who toil behind the scenes organising fund-raising dinners and sausage sizzles and chook raffles.

In the most ideal world, when you consider how much tax we pay, now boosted by GST, you shouldn’t have to do it. But you do. Especially to try to improve the quality of life for disabled kids and kids with cancer.

And that is why you should be livid about the shenanigans of  a cancer group called the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia. And their professional fund-raisers.

Max Markson, the Sydney hard-mover, celebrity manager and fund-raiser extraordinaire, was behind an Australian and New Zealand speaking tour by Cherie Blair, the wife of the British Prime Minister.

To get the wealthy punters in to buy tables “for charity” Markson got the imprimatur of various charities. In Victoria it was the Children’s Cancer  Australia. A worthy cause you would say.

For the Blair dinner – with ticket sales and a charity auction – they raised $190,000.  And how much of that did CCIA get?  Less than $16,000.

Of course the money raised here had to help towards the  quarter of a million dollars ( plus expenses) that Cherie Blair got for her tour in which she mainly plugged her book. And, of course, Markson took his $50,000 fee off the top.

Then there was the cost of the sumptuous dinner and  the alcohol stream.

And so, out of a gross $190,000  the charity gets 16,000 bucks. This is something that has been going on with professional fund-raisers for years. And it is finally encouraging that Consumer Affairs has laid down the law to this charity. And ordered them to inform the authorities of any fund-raising activities in the next five years.

They must also provide full audited accounts for every event for the next five years.

They also must reveal how much of their gross intake is actually distributed. Ironically, CCIA agreed to pay a minimum of 60% of incoming money to beneficiaries when it registered as a charity. That still leaves a whopping forty per cent for admin and expenses.

At the Variety Club, the children’s charity which I support, our charter says that only ten per cent of funds can go on administration. But there are others where the figure is 40%.

Volunteers must hold their heads in their hands and think: “why bother”.

Wednesday, March 8, 2006

©Copyright Derryn Hinch 2006