Charity Collections Theatres & Elsewhere - Who Carries Cash?

Maybe it's an age thing but I panic if I don't have a bit of cash/change in my pocket. I use cards for most things but always need cash for small items like a packet of wine gums (my preferred choice of sweet at the theatre) or for a public loo (as they all charge in London).

I did read recently that a Big Issue seller in Bristol had invested in a card reader so people can pay for the magazine with contactless.

Yes, you do. 

And it's a skilled job. Incidentally I've done it for pay and not for pay (as a board member/chair). The reality is to keep a charity going these days you need a combination of grants, donations and supporters schemes and yes, also corporate sponsorship (if you're lucky). You could not run a charity of even the tiny sized one I'm chair of, on 'donation tin' or legacy alone. 

Writing a funding application is skilled, time consuming work. You need to pay staff to do that. So for, let's say 30k a year, a skilled development person in the big organisations will bring in millions in grants. That's standard investment in order to get 'profit' in this case, the profit, so let's say 2 millions minus that 30k gets put back into the organisation. 

Honestly, and again genuine question: Do you think Cancer Research UK, to pick a huge organisation, could do its job with nobody paid to run its funding campaigns? do you think Comic Relief would have the reach/impact it has without full time staff doing the job. 

There are facets of the charity sector that are incredibly corrupt. But there's also masses of legislation cracking down on that. But the reality is, we need big charities as much as we do small ones. And rattling a bucket at Christmas won't bring in the money. 

EVEN your monthly donations need someone to administer them. They need someone with financial and legal expertise at the very minimum. They also need strategic management to see that the money does indeed go to the right people, where needed and when. 

I'm sorry but it's a ridiculous notion that people shouldn't be paid for charity fundraising as a job, without it, and indeed without the whole system of third sector employment our charities big and small would cease to exist. 

Again out of interest, what charities have you found that have zero paid staff, zero overheads that require the money going to things that aren't directly to 'the people' (ie. a landlord getting rent). Because I struggle to think of one that could fulfil that. 

I'm with Kathryn as well: it's the ends and morally corrupt means aside, I just want the work to be done. I'm keeping coming back to cancer research because it's one I know inside and out and is fairly black and white in terms of morality: we want to treat cancer, and help people with cancer. 

It costs money to research cancer treatment. It takes experts. Those experts can only do that effectively if its their full time job. If it's their full time job they need to be paid. In order to be paid, people need to fundraise. The sheer size of fundraising needed for a cancer charity to do anything, requires full time jobs to do that effectively. 

We pay both sets of people, more research, more support for people with cancer. Seems fairly self explanatory. 

The world has changed, and just because we did something one way in the past doesn't mean we should continue to do so. 

Similarly theatres, the NT has a substantial members scheme that is essentially a fundraising department. Should the people who look after that, from admin to Box Office to the strategists not be paid? 

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Yes, let's do that and let's see how many charities fold in super quick time. Then let's work out how we tell all of those people who benefit from those charities that they're up sh*t creek because various governments have mercilessly stripped not just services but dignity from people for years and they certainly won't help them. Services and dignity (and without being dramatic, life) that charities provide. And quite frankly, if that means paying someone more than the Prime Minister then it's money well spent.

Do you honestly believe that Macmillan for example could run on 7% of its total donations? How many nurses would they have to stop funding if that were the case?

What's going on?? Why is this happening? How queer!

Firstly, slow clap for organisations that didn't admit women in their own right until 1980. Every penny? are you sure? what about the landlords for each and every building that hosts a meeting. Or what about venues that hold their events? or even the servers for those fancy websites? 

Also Rotary International take match funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, which pays it's staff. So that's one off your list. 

Also it's about reach. It's all very well a bunch of nice middle class people giving a bit of money to help the poor (deserving) poor. But to actually make a difference, charities need to be larger. 

I rarely have cash and my partner and I had to run past the bucket at Wipers Times, shamed up. I don't think we will ever be cashless, theatres still haven't found a cost effective way of using card machines for Ushers for example and there are a generation like my mum who haven't embraced contactless due to trust issues (She thought a shop could just take money from her account via sensors in the shop)

I should clarify, lest anyone come baying for my blood, that of course I support and love local shoestring charities and i'm not advocating for everyone to become giant corporate beomouths. Just that they aren't inherently evil.

My choir for example, which i help run, prefers to support local small charities, because we get a sense of a) keeping the money in the community b) can say 'we did that' in terms of say buying supplies for someone, or funding an event etc etc.

Similarly the charity I'm chair of (UNPAID don't get your knickers in a knot anyone) operates on, well frankly thin air and yes VOLUNTEERS at times too. But also, well needs money to do its work.

It' about a balance of both. A huge charity couldn't do what the one I'm chair of does- it needs that small scale touch. Equally we know realistically we don't have the reach of a larger organsation.

Blimey - the 1990s called and they want their website back! That is truly dreadful. I hope the Information Commissioner never sees it because, even as a non-expert, I can spot at least two ways in which they are breaking the new GDPR legislation. That's another thing employing professionals does - keeps you legal and stops you being fined up to 20 million euros.

My job now and previously involves 'looking after' (I prefer that to managing) volunteers, and as a former teacher as well I feel equipped to answer that (instead of getting mansplained about dinosaurs of charities elsewhere).

I have no problem either as a donor, or as a charity employee (Again string me up and burn me at the stake for taking my income that way) in giving volunteers coffee/tea and/or lunch and/or free parking/travel vouchers etc. Because the way most charities (and indeed the charities commission) sees it is that volunteers shouldn't be monetarily out of pocket by the act of volunteering. Because some people might be volunteering time because they are unable to give money. Either way anyway, it's a nice thing to do, to say 'have a biscuit' or 'have a cuppa' on the charity, because you've given time. 

The point being, that realistically nobody can give literally every penny thrown in a box to the 'deserving people' that box is intended for- frankly the box itself even costs money. The 'petty cash' fund that fuels tea and biscuits isn't really taking from the main earnings, and it's a way to make volunteering a nice experience that people want to repeat. 

BUT I feel like the opposing view is that charity is a Biblical (I'm guessing literally) obligation that somehow should engage suffering. When actually supporting charity can even should be enjoyable as well. 

On the parking issue, I mean council parking enforcers are first class dicks at the best of times. As it happens, my current work has an arrangment with the private car park across the way for 4 free spaces a day for staff and volunteers. Which in itself is a nice way of a profit making organisation giving 'in kind' support. 

I also see the money I give to charity as a means of supporting those doing the work if that makes sense. 

ETA: What I think I mean in all the above is the 'man hours' volunteers give are worth more to the charity, than a few quid a week to keep them in cups of tea, so it's a fair deal, because actually those getting the help get more out of it if a team of volunteers are happy to give their time and kept happy with a few biscuits. 

I mostly try to carry cash, as I never quite know when I'm going to need to get a (non-London) bus. But some days I very purposefully don't carry cash because I know I should be walking. I find it a little aggravating on holiday, actually, I budget how much I want to spend and I convert it into the appropriate currency, then I get to the holiday and discover half the places have decided they only want to take cards now. It really complicates the whole "here is a concrete pile of how much money I am willing to spend, cards need not apply" issue, and although I came in well under budget for my last holiday, I definitely went way over on the two before.

Yes, I'd really have liked to see the shop selling fresh fruit and more sandwiches (a small, pre-packed range, some alas made with white bread and/or containing dressing in the filling) and displaying both more prominently than the unhealthy stock.

Although a minor, local example, to me this is part of the wider question about charities accepting donations/raising funds in a morally dubious way. Arts organisations, galleries and museums now face adverse publicity and even boycotts due to the source of some of their funding, so how can it be right for a hospital charity (above all!) to benefit from unhealthy eating habits when these not only affect their own patients and staff but cost the NHS a fortune?

As for the persistent smoking outside, again by staff as well as visitors, despite the ban, I despair.

I'm the same, though for a different reason. 3 shows that I see regularly do very frequent charity collections & if the people rattling the buckets know me by sight then I kind of feel obliged to put something in!

I’m sure we’re not far away from the ice cream sellers having a mobile card terminal. Do away with all that scooping around a plastic tray for 5p coins.