Supermarket till charity

[JohnC6]

This morning I went to the supermarket (Morrisons)and, whilst waiting in the queue at one of the tills, I noticed that the cashier ,after putting through the customers's items and just before they paid said.."Would you like to give a pound to this ...pointing to a charity sticker on the perspex sheet they've kept since covid. It was a something to do with children. Three customers said "yes. I was rather annoyed about it and asked the customner behind me what she thought. The same as I did. You could call it emotional blackmail.The cashier asked me the same question and I said "no, not when it's done like this". She was very nice about it. I'm sure she wasn't comfortable doing it although she did it with a smile. Too many people are struggling these days to pay their shopping bills, they shouldn't then be made to feel guilty by refusing to donate .. so, they, most likely, don't and pay up.

I don't like it when someone stands right by the doors with a charity box,either. I don't like it when kids stand at the till to bag up your shopping. I once saw one lad put bananas, then tomatoes in the customer's bag followed by a couple of tins...lol.T he supermarkets have 'charity bins'; so shoppers can donate something from their shopping on the way out having paid full price. The supermarkets get their produce from suppliers at cost, they've been criticised for putting unreasonable pressure on suppliers to lower costs, eg when running a discount for a few days, especially re dairy products..milk is a favourite for that and fruit and veg. Then they make the supplier wait for ages for payment. So much so a law was brought in to address it.

In its 2024 financial year, Sainsbury's expects underlying profits to grow by another 5%-10% to £1.01bn-£1.06bn .Market capitalisation £6.84 billion

For the 2024/25 financial year, Tesco expects retail adjusted operating profit to be ,at least £2.8bn. Market capitalisation is £25billion.

Morrisons. Up 6.5% to £970m, with fourth-quarter profits up 8.5% to £306m. Mkt Cap. £6.3 billion

I did a bit of digging online and it seems a lot of people don't like having it done to them,people ,like me, who do give to charities. I have three direct debits to charities and they are in my will, too and,depending what the charity is, I will put a donation in a box. Eg British Legion for Remeberance Day .The thing is that the companies that do this can get a tax break . I'm sure they must save the donations and submit them to the charity ,maybe once a month and, in the meantime, lodge the sum in so-called short term accounts paying interest. I recall reading about one person who represented a charity thanking Tesco for a large donation. Tesco ??. So, Tesco gets the kudos. He should have said thank you to Tesco's customers. It's just not supermarkets. Wickes do it petrol stations and The Entertainer retailer (kids toys) do it. It's quite common in the US and has come here. Companies use the money through their CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility- programme, to let their shareholders feel good about themselves and,as I say, get tax write-offs for charitable work.

Here it is. https://www.gov.uk/tax-limited-company-gives-to-charity.

From this link: Donating Money.'Your limited company can pay less Corporation Tax when it gives money to a charity or community amateur sports club (CASC)'
You need to watch out for this,too.When you use a card machine it may has a charity request step before you can pay. How many people, who are in a hurry, get caught out ?
Another practve is to ask if you want to "round up". Cost. £2.75. Round up to £3.

All that aside there's this,too.https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/average-ceo-pay-at-large-charities-rises-to-175-000-survey-shows.html

Anyway. To lighten this up a bit.. this is so funny.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KT9IUd_Cnc

 

[woof woof]

"Would you like to donate?" is just so common these days.

 

[F1.2]

Charity begins at home for me, I do the lottery sometimes and that is suposed to help in some way.

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

When people go to some effort to encourage donations, I'm more likely to contribute...

 

[Marc]

You can just say no, you know.

 

[swanseamale47]

Having done work for a few charities there was only two I supported, the PDSA and the RNLI. I no longer give to the RNLI after their India donations and the channel nonsence.
The way I look at it is if the charity really cared the CEO would give his £150+K to the needy, if he doesnt why should I?

 

[lindsay]

I do monthly DD's to RNLI, RSPB, and a couple of animal charities. Having been a Chair if Trustees of a charity in the past for a number of years, where I refused to use professional fundraisers, I too dislike this approach to fundraising. However I reluctantly accept that it is to a large degree necessary for the large charities to do the work they do, mainly because most of them are doing what the Government should be - Tony Blair's "third sector".

I also find it rather distasteful that the supermarkets are making such huge profits at the expense of both producers and consumers. I try to buy as little as possible from them now, instead using small local shops as much as I can.

However, I do disagree that charity CEO's shouldn't earn a good salary etc. Not many people would choose to be CEO of a very large charity with the oversight it has to maintain (CC, Trustees, media interest) for a modest salary of say £50k. If they were semi-retired or already wealthy, maybe, but it's a lot of hassle to do all the management necessary with all those people on your shoulders watching. Not to mention staff who want what all staff want, a good wage in return for their efforts and job security. So to expect a CEO to donate a large chunk of £150k, when he/she will least be giving about £60k at least of that to HMRC, albeit to a degree tax deductible, is unlikely.

 

[mj4456]

Charity begins at home for me, I do the lottery sometimes and that is supposed to help in some way.

The reason GB did so well in the Olympics? Apparently ours was the best funded squad, or so I was told, didn’t watch after the rugby 7s finished.

 

[the black fox]

My oldest daughter was c.e.o of a fairly large charity , but it is owned and run by a family concern they decided that they wanted a few more fingers in pie a year or so back and my daughter didn’t think it was right and after words were exchanged took voluntary redundancy and a large golden handshake … so rest assured it may be called a charity but someone somewhere is making money ( substantial amounts ) from it ..
And all these charity shops in every high street run by volunteers and with free donations ,there not actually owned by the name above the shop that you think your donating to there all privately owned little businesses .. as Del Boy would say a nice little earner ,cushty

 

[LCPete]

My oldest daughter was c.e.o of a fairly large charity , but it is owned and run by a family concern they decided that they wanted a few more fingers in pie a year or so back and my daughter didn’t think it was right and after words were exchanged took voluntary redundancy and a large golden handshake … so rest assured it may be called a charity but someone somewhere is making money ( substantial amounts ) from it ..
And all these charity shops in every high street run by volunteers and with free donations ,there not actually owned by the name above the shop that you think your donating to there all privately owned little businesses .. as Del Boy would say a nice little earner ,cushty

Didn’t know that that’s not good I assumed that for example the helped the aged shop the aim was to raise money for the charity, it sounds like it’s more complicated than that
When we have a clear out we give to a local shop that’s run by a local animal rescue not a national organisation

 

[lindsay]

The charity I was Chair of Trustees of was initially pretty much a family and close friends operation; unfortunately for them, when I and another businessman became trustees we decided to run it in a more businesslike but philanthropic way, and ultimately the family didn't like that so first they joined a union and took the trustees to an industrial tribunal, which (after lots of my free time was used up) they lost, then as a consequence govt funding that we were receiving was cut off due to the disruption of services, and ultimately I had to close the charity down.
The moral of this is that if you think a charity is being inappropriately managed or overseen, that's what the Charities Commission is there to investigate and sort out. That big children's charity in London run by that Batmangeleh woman - I know her heart was in the right place and she did good work - but the Trustees have fiduciary responsibility for a charity and the great and good that got their kudos from being trustees of that one should have been hauled over the coals for neglecting that role. Likewise if a senior manager or CEO of a charity thinks something is wrong, they need to take it to the trustees and if they fail to resolve it, the CC.
Unfortunately there are far too many "charities" that are only that in name, they exist to provide a job for interested parties using donations and govt funding. They may be doing a good and necessary job, but the Trustees really need to make sure that it is genuinely charitable work and is being done in the right way, not just to benefit the founders and patrons.

 

[Garry Edwards]

I have a viewpoint on this, and some experience.
I'm Chair of Trustees of a very small animal charity, have been since we formed it in 1990. We rescue and re-home horses and ponies, we are not (in theory) a sanctuary, all of the horses are available for re-homing, but because we do the job properly, we will always take back any horses that we have re-homed, and inevitably there are some that find new homes but come back years later for various reasons, not always genuine, and the older they are, the harder they are to re-home and the more they cost in vet fees.

Every horse needs to have its feet trimmed every 6 weeks and of course they also need to be wormed, fed, handled, and trained, and need to be rugged-up during the winter months, all of which is expensive in terms of both cash and labour. Horses can also become injured or sick. When this happens, the choice is between unlocking the gun cabinet and calling out a vet, and you can guess which we do . . . The nearest specialist horse vet is nearly 30 miles away and emergency call-outs aren't cheap. The vets used to be privately-owned but has now been taken over (as so many veterinary practices have been) by a foreign-owned financial institution, and prices have gone through the roof. The worst one we had cost £8000 . . .

Typically, "our" horses need a lot of time and care before they can be found new homes, 18 months is about the normal minimum, and this costs a lot of money. Large animal charities tend to promise never to put a healthy animal down, but if an animal has behavioural problems (normally caused by neglect or cruel treatment), it is deemed to be unhealthy and is shot. If it's going to have to be kept for more than 6 months it becomes uneconomic and is therefore unhealthy. One large animal charity simply sells horses immediately, to anyone and everyone, which just perpetuates the problem but makes them rich. That charity advertises on the TV constantly, and gets most of its legacies and donations from dotty old ladies who believe that they actually do what they claim to do. They're very good at marketing, less good at the charitable side.

We struggle in every way. We get occasional volunteers but nowhere near enough, and we have to pay what are now high wages, and we can't even get enough staff because most people aren't prepared to do hard manual outdoor work, especially in the winter, when there's far more work that needs to be done.

We have a small charity shop, which is doing well, and most of our income comes from there, and the shop also raises public awareness. Actual financial donations to the charity are very rare. Some of the charity shop workers are volunteers, a couple are paid, but even the paid ones do far more than they are paid for.

When Coronavirus came along we didn't qualify for any government aid, large charities did, because they are run as businesses. There were discretionary grants available from the local authority, but every application was refused. But there's a local "charity" that is politically connected with the local authority, these people get every grant going and only actually carry out (very limited) charitable activities for grant-aided projects. It's run by one woman, who has been made a dame for her "charitable work" All of their activities are carried out in premises owned by her husband and rented out to the "charity". Complaining about such charities to the Charity Commission is a waste of time, they are only interested in whether or not the paperwork is correct. Complaining about the council is also a waste of time, they have been notorious for years, and fairly recently they were abolished and the town is now theoretically run by the county council - but by the same staff

We don't employ professional fund-raisers, we couldn't afford to even if we wanted to, but because of this we constantly struggle to make ends meet. We don't get help from supermarkets or anyone else, all of the help goes to the large charities.

As for the management, 3 of our trustees are family members, not because we want to retain control, and not because we want to make money, it's because it's very hard to get anyone to serve as a trustee, and especially hard to get any who are able and willing to contribute a lot of unpaid work. None of our trustees are paid a penny, and we don't even claim expenses. That's pretty typical of small, genuine charities.

 

[munch]

Many times when I pay by credit/debit card I get asked about charity donations by a yes/no on the paying in screen. Screwfix ask if I want to round my order up to the nearest pound. My building society, rounds down any interest to the nearest pound. All of this is voluntary, If I don't want to do it, I don't have to. Really not that difficult.

 

[JohnC6]

You can just say no, you know.

I did.

 

[JohnC6]

My oldest daughter was c.e.o of a fairly large charity , but it is owned and run by a family concern they decided that they wanted a few more fingers in pie a year or so back and my daughter didn’t think it was right and after words were exchanged took voluntary redundancy and a large golden handshake … so rest assured it may be called a charity but someone somewhere is making money ( substantial amounts ) from it ..
And all these charity shops in every high street run by volunteers and with free donations ,there not actually owned by the name above the shop that you think your donating to there all privately owned little businesses .. as Del Boy would say a nice little earner ,cushty

A local charity shop collects for "Sue Ryder"..a hospice 6 miles away so, because we're aware of it and know where the money goes we always take stuff there we don't want rather than bin it. It's really well-stocked.

 

[JohnC6]

I recall a programme on Radio 4 one day about all this and the person being interviewed said the best thing to do was to give to small local endeavours like animal shelters run by, usually, a few women. There's a good wildlife rescue place 10 miles away which does a great job.

 

[JohnC6]

Many times when I pay by credit/debit card I get asked about charity donations by a yes/no on the paying in screen. Screwfix ask if I want to round my order up to the nearest pound. My building society, rounds down any interest to the nearest pound. All of this is voluntary, If I don't want to do it, I don't have to. Really not that difficult.

It is for a lot of people because they feel guilty if they don't and that's what those retailers play on. That was my point.

 

[munch]

It is for a lot of people because they feel guilty if they don't and that's what those retailers play on. That was my point.

But it has been like this for years, just done in a different ways. Is the really any difference in the "modern way" of doing it, from when almost every Saturday shopping trip was accompanied by one charity or another rattling a tin?

 

[Marc]

I did.

But you didn't just say no, you decided to rant about it on a forum.

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

But it has been like this for years, just done in a different ways. Is the really any difference in the "modern way" of doing it, from when almost every Saturday shopping trip was accompanied by one charity or another rattling a tin?

"Rattling the tin" is an ancient and often well respected custom.

The Jews had their "schnorrers" (who went by various names in different places and at different times) and it was a "mitzvah" (a commandment) to answer their requests for donations. The Moslems had those who called for "Baksheesh" and it was expected of the wealthy that they responded to such a cry. Buddhists were similarly expected to respond to the daily request for alms by the monks of the local monastry. As for the Christians, they were warned that the poor were always there and needed the help of the rich.

Even most of us secularists know that you should give others a hand up, instead of stepping on their heads, one reason for the popularity of charity shops...

 

[munch]

"Rattling the tin" is an ancient and often well respected custom.

The Jews had their "schnorrers" (who went by various names in different places and at different times) and it was a "mitzvah" (a commandment) to answer their requests for donations. The Moslems had those who called for "Baksheesh" and it was expected of the wealthy that they responded to such a cry. Buddhists were similarly expected to respond to the daily request for alms by the monks of the local monastry. As for the Christians, they were warned that the poor were always there and needed the help of the rich.

Even most of us secularists know that you should give others a hand up, instead of stepping on their heads, one reason for the popularity of charity shops...

View attachment 433947

Never said there was anything wrong with a bit of "Tin rattling" done it many a time myself.

 

[woof woof]

That big children's charity in London run by that Batmangeleh woman - I know her heart was in the right place and she did good work -

What? What? What?

Oh what's the point in going into this any further than... You must be off your rocker.

 

[lindsay]

You missed my point Alan - the Trustees should have prevented the silliness that she got up to.

 

[JohnC6]

But you didn't just say no, you decided to rant about it on a forum.

It wasn't a rant. If you want to see me rant then keep an eye out for anything to do with religion or trans-activists.

Anyway, I thought you meant that I just had to say no at the till. Also, it's the first time I've experiencd it. I didn't realise it was becoming quite common. As ever, I drill down to give as much information as possible..unlike most of your posts..I'm not being critical...I'm just pointing out the difference between us.

It's generated a lot of interesting and informative responses,too. Isn't that what the forum's all about ?

 

[JohnC6]

But it has been like this for years, just done in a different ways. Is the really any difference in the "modern way" of doing it, from when almost every Saturday shopping trip was accompanied by one charity or another rattling a tin?

Agree.Tins were, and still are, still rattled but it's the first time I've been asked at the till to donate. I've read a lot of online complaints about it since I posted.

I don't know if you watched the clip I attached re the chap in the shop in the US but it's summed up well at the end.

 

[munch]

Agree.Tins were, and still are, still rattled but it's the first time I've been asked at the till to donate. I've read a lot of online complaints about it since I posted.

I don't know if you watched the clip I attached re the chap in the shop in the US but it's summed up well at the end.

John to me "lots of online complaints" mean absolutely nothing. We are getting to the stage where people will complain about anything. If I am honest this thread sort falls into that category.

You or anybody else are not forced into donating, the same with the " Tin Rattlers " or the "homeless" guy on the street corner.

Not really anybody else's issue if you end up feeling guilty because you didn't donate.

And no I didn't watch the clip you posted as I have a limited connection at the moment. (My fault for having a holiday in the wilds of Wales. (Maybe I should complain on Facebook or X or on here))

 

[tarric]

I stop donating to large charities years ago with the exception of the Scottish Air Ambulance but that's for personnel reasons. I now support a few local charities with both time and money as I feel that more of the money goes where it's needed rather than on running costs.

 

[munch]

I stop donating to large charities years ago with the exception of the Scottish Air Ambulance but that's for personnel reasons. I now support a few local charities with both time and money as I feel that more of the money goes where it's needed rather than on running costs.

It is almost inevitable that the larger charities get the more that has to go on running costs.