fakecharities appears in Charity Finance |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Feb 26 2009 |
Charity Finance has published an article about fakecharities.org, and a rebuttal from several of the listed participants.
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.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."
Last changed: Feb 26 2009 at 11:24 PM
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