And it’s going to get dirtier as both Labour and Tories want to make use of the so-called Third Sector for employment and social reasons. The Charities Commission needs a hard prune or a mauling, I’m not bothered which.

Thank you LFAT.

Both the local and the national charity do charitable works; the national does valuable work campaigning for awareness and so on, participating in Social Services/Care/NHS reviews and blah blah while also bankrolling research where no drug company would. The locals do the grunt work on the ground. Both deserve funding and have allied objectives so are, basically, one charity.

I’m musing, really, rather than making a point (beyond providing real-world anecdotal data) but it seems to me that in the casual darwinism of a capitalist system, if this (and presumably other charities with similar federated structures) charity is to survive the downturn, it will have to raise its game which in the long-run, ought to be a good thing!

It is unbelieveable that charities are being bailed out. They might do a public service that the Government and private companies haven’t allowed for but once Government give money then not only does it compromise the independence of the charity but also suggests that government rely on these services and couldn’t provide them adequately.

To make things extra complicated a lot of charities are listed as two entities. For example ‘Friends of the Earth’ get the benefits of being an independent business and being a charity by having a limited company and a charitable trust. I believe this is quite a common technique for charities who also participate in large scale demonstrations to avoid certain legalities.

Charities that are losing money should seriously consider the option of merging especially as there are many charities seemingly competing for the same resources for the same people/animals/environment.

Yes it’s a mess. Private Schools are often charities (for the purpose of education), Thinktanks are too and these often look remarkably like lobbying firms with sketchy ‘charitable’ aims and then there are the ‘fake’ charities set up seemingly to parrot Government propaganda with the appearance of independence. I would suggest that the schools, thinktanks et al should be lumped into a new non-profit vehicle which is neither a company nor a charity, just to make categorising things easier.

State independence should be a pre-requisite for charities with charitable aims but as all parties move to get the ‘third sector’ more involved with delivery of social goods on behalf of the state, its hard to see who that would be kept honest.

That said, I don’t think the public have any idea what’s going on with charities. How many of them know about who funds charities? How many of them know about the dubious origins of many charitable organisations? The definition of a charity certainly needs clearing up because independence from government should surely be an essential criterium.