Charity, Sweet Charity.

Tony Bliar asked: "Uncle Mort. I own a boat I have been approached to give a charitable donation to the Canal and Rivers Trust. In view of the fact that boat ownership costs me a lot of money in licence fees and moorings fees. I am having second thoughts about giving a charitable donation. I welcome your advice."

There is an old saying that charity begins at home. If only charity giving was all done at home. However, charity is now a very big business. Much of the charitable donations that people give, are spent trying to get even more money out of your pocket. There are an ever increasing number of UK charities. Some charities have been around for a long time and many of them are household names. However, because of the down turn, all the charities new or old are jostling with each other to get the money from wherever its available.

The latest charitable scam is chugging or charitable mugging conducted by strangers who confront people in the street. It's rarely the actual charity employees or workers who are doing the chugging. It's big business who employ the actual chuggers and they then charge fat a fee for each donor who signs up. I simply feel embarrassed at being confronted in the street and then having to ask them to go away. I am not happy at being accosted by a stranger in the street. There is no way in this world that I am going to give my bank details to a stranger. We are constantly warned by banks to keep our details secure.

I have a simple litmus test for supporting the charities. It's based on doing a simple estimate on the number of people and the type of people who will benefit. For me Cancer charities based on research which will benefit millions of people are at the top of the list. (Cancer Research) I also admire those charities based on of end of life support for cancer victims. (MacMillan Trust) I also rate highly charities such as the Gavi Alliance - which organises major international disease immunisation programmes for children.

Frederick Carl Frieseke

At the other end of the spectrum are the new charities such as The Canal and Rivers Trust. Which has been formed from the old British Waterways Board. BW, was a statutory corporation wholly owned by the government. It served as the navigation authority for the majority of canals and a number of rivers and docks. CART was created by the needs of the coalition government to make savings. Done at a time when many Quangos were thrown onto the bonfire in a cost cutting exercise.

The Canal and Rivers Trust, pay their senior executives a lot of money for looking after the canals. This salary and bonus is much more than is paid to the Prime Minister who looks after the country. My advice is to make your charitable donation, where it will benefit the most people.

Regards

Uncle Mort