deldaisy said:
BUT its heart breaking to know how much money it COSTS to raise charity money. And the means that they use to GET that money (alot of pulling at heart strings....) I love the foundation. I love the research and many thousands around the world owe their life to them... but I don't know if I would ever have the heart to work for a charity organisation again. You don't raise millions upon milllions without expert management and marketing and the hundreds of professionals to do it.
It doesn't need to cost that much. I don't know about Australia, but there are many charities here in the U.S. that bring in oodles of money without spending huge amounts on marketing and development. They do it by cultivating wealthy donors to be on their boards, and having these donors bring in their friends and business associates as donors. Other fundraising is done primarily online, saving huge amounts on marketing costs. Of course, the charity has to be in a sector that people want to give to.
The huge administrative costs of many charities are also driven by overpayment of senior management. Again, here in the U.S. it's not unusual to find presidents of charities and some private foundations making upwards of $300,000-$400,000 per year, which is completely outrageous and explains why many charities spend upwards of 40% or more on administration. That, and the money the waste on telemarketing fundraisers who keep as much as 75% of the money they swindle callers out of.
There's a huge amount of waste and corruption in the NFP sector, as well as many charites that run lean, mean, highly effective organizations. Fortunately, at least here in the U.S., a number of web sites, like CharityNavigator, provide ratings on a charity's cost effiency, transparency and effectiveness.
You can do it a lot cheaper than that.
