Should we need to pay charity?

[Sussex Nomad]

Many congratulations

.
.
.

As someone who runs a charity, fund-raising ends up taking most of my time, even though I started it primarily to provide my expertise for rainforest conservation in Borneo. It would be very nice to have the government fund everything I want, but of course that's not realistic, not least because there is no real limit to what we could do if the money was there, so how do you put a cap on it. Therefore our job is to convince others that we are worth funding, and indeed that's a very competitive world. Most of our funding is grants, some from government (the US government is particularly supportive), some from corporate, some from other charities, some from zoos and some from campaigns to the public. Legacies are the big funder for many charities, but these take a while to nurture.

Domestic fund-raising is hard, because the UK is completely saturated with animal charities. There are five dedicated orangutan charities alone, not including mine, not to mention the big guys like WWF, the global animal welfare charities like WAP (WSPA) and IFAW, and then there are the pet sanctuaries. The latter are frustrating for the likes of me, as there are such HUGE amounts of money given to cats homes, dogs homes, and dare I say it, donkey sanctuaries, that a massive surplus of funds has developed which means many of them don't really need to raise any more money for decades, and yet they continue to receive millions annually, much of it in legacies. There is one cat charity with around £100m in surplus funds, and a donkey sanctuary with upwards of £50m. Charity laws make it very hard for them to dispose of it in any other way, so it continues to accrue interest. Nothing against these charities and the work they do, but it would be nice if it was shared around.

I am very proud of you my friend, and well done. I have been sticking charity in coffers for many, many years, including getting football matches together. My last proper charity throw was for the Worthing Utd boys in the Air Show crash. We raised about a grand, it was a good day. I get lads, legends (in their own world) from around the county. But I don't feel, although it does take my life up doing it, I don't feel I should be doing it. I think the state has a responsibility. But they are happy to let us take pennies off those that really cannot afford it. I just think in a cash rich country this should not happen.