[2009]

On the Adam Smith Institute blog, Tim Worstall has highlighted fakecharities.org and invited everyone to join in with the submission of charities.

I think we all know about one type of fake charity? The ones where almost every penny raised goes on either paying for those who run the charity or into more fundraising to, err, pay those who run the charity? Allow me to introduce you to a new form of fake charity, one that has risen rather large in our political discourse in recent years.

My own eye opener came when I was pointed to the accounts of Friends of the Earth Europe. Some 50% of their money comes from the European Union. That in itself isn’t too appalling, but FoE Europe’s work is to lobby the European Union.  You can imagine how this might go then…the taxpayer gets gouged so that a lobby group can be seen to be urging a course of action upon those who have gouged the taxpayer in order to be lobbied. Lobbied to do something that they already wanted to do but need some public lobbying to provide the fig leaf perhaps.

This is not though an isolated incident. Via the excellent and very new fakecharities.org we find that many of those "charities" which appear in our national media are in fact little better than such State funded lobbying organisations. Taxes are taken from us so that the government can pay for the government to be lobbied, providing that fig leaf of a vocal campaign telling them (and us, more importantly) that what they’ve already decided to do is obviously a jolly good idea indeed.

Of course, if you would like to help out, do submit charities and include as much detail as possible.

If you are feeling even more generous with your time and would like to help the Fake Charities team verify and input the submissions, please do drop a line to the Devil at dk[AT]devilskitchen[DOT]net…

[2009]

The Filthy Smoker and The Devil have replied to the Charity Finance article that appeared a few days ago. You can find the rebuttal on The Devil’s Kitchen, and we think that it’s spot-on (of course). Here’s a sample…

It’s bad enough that we have to pay the fat salaries of the avaricious shower of shitehawks who make up the House of Commons without having to support whining pressure groups as well. At least the politicos have to stand for election every four or five years.

Far from being, as the Internet Watch Foundation put it, "accountable" these fake charities are unelected, untouchable and, by and large, unspeakable.

So the third sector parasites can bitch and moan about being called fake charities. We can’t come to an agreement on this because we fundamentally disagree on what charity means. They think they have a divine right to snatch our money and squander it on themselves and their own obsessions. We think that real charities rely on money that is freely given and use it to help those less fortunate.

Do wander over and read the rest…

[2009]

Charity Finance has published an article about fakecharities.org, and a rebuttal from several of the listed participants.

A new website, fakecharities.org, has been created to highlight those charities which receive state funding and which the site’s creator alleges support the government.

Charities listed include Age Concern, which is described as "applauding government initiatives with £2m of public money", 4Children, "a glorified quango", and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), "the original fake charity, formed by the government in 1971".

Other charities listed include RSPB, Christian Aid and Stonewall.

The site is from the writer of the Devil’s Kitchen Blog (pictured), who in explaining their motives, says: "These fake fucking charities are springing up left, right and centre: see a pro-state charity quoted in the MSM and the odds are that the ‘charity’ is, in fact, little more than a quango."

"This fake charity will derive a large part of their funds – our money – from the government whose measures it is supporting."

Charities hit back

A spokesman for Age Concern denied that accepting money from government inhibits its ability to speak out for older people.

"This has been clearly demonstrated in our recent advocacy work criticising the Government’s failure to address increasing fuel poverty and the scandalous state of the social care system."

A spokeswoman for the Internet Watch Foundation, which the website argues is using EU funds to encourage state regulation of the internet, said its EU funding is spent on a hotline for the public to report illegal online content.

"Over 75 per cent of our funding comes from the internet industry, as you would expect from a self-regulatory body."

"We don’t fundraise so we’re not a charity in that sense; the decision to apply for charitable status was more about making sure we are accountable."

A spokeswoman for Alcohol Concern said none of its government grant is used on its lobbying activities.

"There’s no consideration in terms of being critical of government when thinking about funding."

"We are primarily a lobbying charity, we don’t really do public awareness, and if the fact that we get a grant mattered to the work we do we wouldn’t be able to do it."

fakecharities.org would like to make clear that no statement was obtained from the organisers of this site, and nor were we asked to comment.

We shall, of course, publish our own rebuttal, since none of those from the charities interviewed actually addresses our concerns.