Talk about looking a gift horse ….

[Shane Drew]

Good on you Janine.

Some organisations just don’t have a charitable spirit unfortunately.

Good idea to move on to a more deserving organisation

[Graham Martin]

[quote="Janine Chrispin"]in the mouth!!

My mum went to our local hospital recently and unfortunately was diagnosed as having Parkingson’s. Anyway, when she was there she visited the local coffee shop that was run by the WRVS. She noticed that all their mugs were mismatched, so when she came back to the shop, she suggested that we should offer them a box of printed mugs and to put their logo on, plus a small reference to my business, so that it would get the company name out there.

As we are having a quiet moment, I decided that I would follow this up by ringing the WRVS and ask for a copy of their logo so that I could donate some mugs to our local hospital. Their reply was quite shocking. They said that they would have to discuss it with their marketing department as they were in the middle of having new mugs done. I said to them that this was a free donation and they said they would ring me back and let me know if they wanted it!

By 2pm, they hadn’t rang, so I telephoned our local Children’s hospital and made the offer to them and they snapped it up. They are going to sell them to raise some funds. The mugs will have their Wallace and Gromit note on and a small reference to my two websites.
———————————————————————————-

It’s all gone mad, It’s sad to say all they are looking for is cash all the time, so to put the money in to a pot, so then to pay someone to print new mugs. Sometimes it’s best ,say to print 6 and send them to the WRVS HQ and let them see your work, sometimes that way you may get an order to print a large order. Kind Regards Graham

[Marcella Ross]

That is a shocking response! But nice to see charitable spirit Janine, good for you.

[Jayne Marsh]

Its a shame when you get this sort of response, glad you donated them to a more worthy cause who were grateful and could make good use of them

[Graham Martin]

It’s all red tape, sorry to say, The WRVs are Old school and all things must be checked by HQ. The WRVs members do good work. But it must not be seen to be picking one person forward. Lets say you wished to print on the back your logo/ company name. someone may see this, that the WRVs have picked you forward, and sadly the big boys that fund, big time will stop funding them.

I am not saying you wish to put your logo on the same mugs, at all, but still HQ always need to see all gifts before hand. Rules

Kind Regards Graham

[Kevin.Beck]

funny things charities.

i always thought they were run on a shoestring buget.

last week i saw an job vacancy in the local rag.

“FUND RAISER” £18K per year….

[Marcella Ross]

Becky – Charities…. they’re all about lining their own pockets first. Like you I assumed that they were run on a small budget. But locally there was a charity called The Scottish Foundation for Kidney Research, run by a model in her 20’s. 78p from every pound given went to admin costs, the can collectors were on commission!!! 😮 😮
Anyway, the admin costs ran her Porsche and also funded her televised wedding on Loch Lomond! Needless to say the charity is no more after all that hit the press.
It’s now that time of year again where ‘charities’ try and work on your consience. I no longer feel guilty about walking past a can collector or simply saying ‘no’ on the phone when they call. We have a centre next to us, a Petto institute for kids with cerebral palsy among other things, that we ‘donate’ to instead. My hubby has a company which rents out bouncy castles and we set them up in there FOC for the kids. This is what I now call a donation as I find putting cash into cans doesn’t always benefit those who it should be intended for.

Rant over 😳

[Shane Drew]

So true Marcella.

I am the same.

I kept getting accosted by a can rattler for the blind society when I was in the city a while back. I kept saying no, and every 15 minutes he kept coming back – not taking no for an answer.

I was getting pretty angry, and finished up asking him if he was being paid or volunteering his services. No he said, he got 33% of all he collected. Then, administration fees were taken out by the blind society HQ from the remaining 66%.

When I donate, I expect more than 66% to go to the cause.

Now I only donate actual services or goods. That way the charity keeps their actual cash for other things, and my donation is money they don’t have to spend.

A charity that would rather the money, and not the goods that they will have to buy anyway, can ask someone else. I’m not interested.

[David-Foster-]

quote Janine Chrispin:

I decided that I would follow this up by ringing the WRVS and ask for a copy of their logo so that I could donate some mugs to our local hospital.

Although it was bad of the WRVS not to ring you back, these days Charities have to be careful about handing their logo’s out. Although you may feel hard done by, Charities are governed by strict regulations regarding publicity. For example, your free mugs, having your business details along side the WRVS logo would imply somehow that they recommend or approve of you.

Items with official charity logo’s on have been used in criminal activities in the past. T-Shirts displaying logos of ‘high street’ named Charities have been stolen and used as an ‘ID badge’ by criminals to gain credibility and access to houses of the elderly, hence a lot of Charities license their logo’s to protect them from fraudulent use.

The Childrens Hospital could readily accept your gift as they are not a registered Charity (I think).

A lot of the ‘main’ Charities are now carrying out services that used to be the responsibility of the Local Authority. These don’t come cheap and they need staff who are paid the ‘going rate’ to do these. The money given can’t always go on ‘material’ things.

I know there are a few bad apples that taint Charity giving, but that’s the same with everything in life. Give generously :lol1:

[Janine Chrispin]

quote David-Foster-:

The Childrens Hospital could readily accept your gift as they are not a registered Charity (I think).

The childrens hospital is a local charity – not sure if you would have heard of it, when they were building the hospital it was known as Wallace and Gromit’s Grand appeal and they are famous for having their wrong trousers day (Nick park is also patron of the charity).

The difference with the childrens hospital is that I have done running vests for them in the past at a very low price, as that is part of my business.

I wasn’t going to put my logo on it big (if at all), all I wanted to do was just put a small note saying ‘kindly donated by …..’ small and discreet.

With regards to people nicking logos, unfortunately that doesn’t happen to just charities. Earlier this year I did some polo shirts for a company called fompave as they were participating in a dragon boat race. I made a sample up, but the design was agreed without having to send the sample out so I put it on display in my shop. A couple of weeks after the race, some irish men came in and one distracted my mum, while the other stole this one shirt. It turned out that they had been ripping off people in Swindon posing as ‘formpave’ and they wanted that polo shirt. The only problem with the shirt was that on the back it had written ‘name’ instead of a name. It was only when I rang the company to tell then that it had been stolen that I found out about the irish gypsies posing as this company.

Janine

[Graham Martin]

Janine

Sometimes Janine, it’s just best to do 6 or 12 mugs, and just pop them in and say, are these any good to you. Free Gift, and walk away. even if the staff use them, your info is always to hand.

Janine I don’t know if it’s just me and Jean, most days we a getting free pens, Ad your Company/ loge, and it getting more and more, because of Christmas, So we are ask our friends no pens this year please. I bet if John reads this, he will pop in with a pen at Christmas,

[Hugh Potter]

i must be honest, i tend to steer away from most of the big charities these days, the british legion poppy appeal will always get my biggest donation, without a doubt.

i usually give to the other large ‘high st’ charities by way of goods no longer required by me, i’m not poking money in any tin rattled in my face, nor will i sign a monthly payment, charity must be that, given n a charitable fashion, not forced from you with some big guilt trip,

and is it just me (while i’m off on one), but are those nspcc adverts just too much ? i know it happens, i’m shocked and appaled by it, i have given money to these agencies in the past, but these adverts to me, cost millions to produce, millions that could be spent on kids, not tv companies share dividends ! grrr !!

[Graham Martin]

Yes I am with you on that one, The day I fount out one charity was taking 99p out of each pound I gave, I stopped giving to oxf**, So So many good charity’s out today, all are doing good work. But then on the other hand look at Shell, and BT look at the profits each month, what about the lotto it’s making a packet also, and we still have people living in box’s in the street.

[Jayne Marsh]

I support local charities, usually hospices etc, my kids also get involved through school by putting on concerts and shows. We have a very active bunch of charities round here that work hand in hand with the music departments in our local schools and it helps to build a great community spirit as well.