So after following the bushfires since November in some areas such as the SE coastline, I started to wonder - where exactly are all these “celebrity donations” and all the other fundraising going?
My father lives in Bemboka. Most wildlife in the north region was wiped out and Bemboka / Bega haven’t received s***
Turns out almost all small rural towns have not received SFA from the state or federal government. Where are all these “celeb” donations and all the gov funding going?
Ok
This comment turned out as I expected.
Up to 90% of the money goes to the people that work for the charity.
If you criticise this your selfish, unaustralian, that’s why the scam works so well.
If you have a charity with cancer/children/war which nobody would ever speak against because suffering is so horrible, you can make money hand over fist. Best place to set up a collection for this is a small shopping centre in a poor area, people are well meaning and easily influenced.
Easily influenced yes, well meaning no, both proven by how many conservatives there are.
As opposed to inner city types voting for the greens?
https://www.redcross.org.au/news-and-media/news/australian-b…
Don't believe all the bulls**t you read on social media. Charities aren't stealing the money and spending it on hookers and cocaine. It's not as easy as just going to where Chthonic's father lives and throwing some money around to compensate for some dead wildlife. There's some pretty serious logistical considerations to be made. The RFS had to consult legal advice because they literally didn't know how they could spend all the donations they received. And you can't just spend it all straight away, there are long term considerations to be made as well - people to support, vital community infrastructure to rebuild.
So unless you have solid proof that there's been corruption and theft of donated funds by charities, don't add to the misinformation.
As for the government, who tf knows what the useless pricks are doing. Probably scheming up yet another $100M sports rort program.
I can explain it very simply. The donations were a bad idea because the RFS is a government funded organisation. People giving money to it will simply, if there isn’t enough pressure, cut its funding from the state government next year as they will already be funded.
The charities have put it away for a rainy day to fund stuff in the future and currently provide a cup of tea and a chat and to blow a shittone of it on their staffing costs.
Charities are a terrible way to distribute aid, especially the religious ones. In my personal experience, when seeking energy assistance and food vouchers from Vinnies when I was in the shit and unemployed, they were very stingy despite the allowable grant of EAPA
Vouchers in NSW being $300 twice a year off your bill, and they’d give you like $20 worth of food vouchers for a family despite receiving money from the government to help communities. Thankfully there are a few other organisations like neighbourhood centres and government programs that can give you what are you entitled to. Fast forward to the bushfires scenario and they are doing the same shit to people who have literally lost everything, I’ve heard people are even struggling to get fuel vouchers off the Salvos to run generators! What a disgrace.
I’m not sure what the best way to distribute the money is but maybe it should have just fallen on a body like Service NSW to handle it, Centrelink is understaffed and wouldn’t be able to handle it, people are worried about fraud but there’s always a possibility of that happening
I’m not sure what the best way to distribute the money…
Why work on the assumption money has to be distributed?
There is an option outside the box - insurance and personal contingencies.
Well, it’s like, if you lost your house and don’t have insurance can you get another house? Unlikely. Is money going to infrastructure? Who knows.
When I was forever home shopping, I had the oppurtunity to buy an amazing estate in the Dandenong Ranges. Absolutely stunning and quite cheap.
When I inquired about insurance, I was told about the bushfire ratings and all the implications.
I opted out because I cannot afford the risk both financially and emotionally.
The point is, there is no such thing as being forced to live an uninsured life.
There is an option outside the box - insurance and personal contingencies.
To be fair, the people that often get their houses burnt down due to bushfires are in fire prone areas where it can be very difficult for someone to give you insurance against bushfires (or the premiums are so large they could barely afford it) without significant capital expenditure to get the house/property up to their standards.
But that is the trade off of living such a wonderful existence in the bush. I don't think anyone expects the government or charities to build people new houses that have been burnt down, sure it'd be nice, but I don't think people honestly expect it.
I don't think people honestly expect it.
I'm not too sure. Just because they aren't directly saying it…
The problem with charities is the majority can spend it however they wish.
Admin costs. "Fundraider" parties/dinners. Professional "speakers".
You're better of giving help directly to those in need.
Admin costs. "Fundraider" parties/dinners. Professional "speakers".
That comes out of the 10% admin fee, so 90% of the funds still get released to where it needs to go. 10% is considered the uppermost limit for all charities.
There is a fair bit of effort and logistics that go into distributing aid. Also what is the best way to spend the money? People critical when money isn't handed out fast enough, but then there is also a backlash when people are just "handed money" and there are no controls around it. Running a big charity isn't easy.
If I am going to donate to a charity I usually try to find one where the mandate is very narrow and aligned with where I want the money to go. One that has good visibility and communication back to its donors too.
You haven't been following current events have you?
? I can't read your mind so link me what you want me to see…
I vote for a party that's always trying to lower taxes and cut services and do nothing about human induced global warming - please help!
Take direct action - start a revolution.
Thats what I keep saying, its time for a revolution. I want to do it, enough is enough
This is a good point.
Theres a couple of issues, the RFS (NSW) received tens of millions in donations but its not legally able to spend a cent of it on anything but buying and maintaining fire equipment because of the way the entity is set up. The only way to change that is by the state government passing a bill in parliament. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/14/legal…
Added to that is the fact the Red Cross has admitted it is stockpiling the donations for future disasters. Like all charities the Red Cross has huge overheads and this is the reality, only 47% of the donations are allocated to Australian programs anyway https://www.redcross.org.au/annual-reports/annual-report-201…
Its not 10% of donations that get spent on administration. The Red Cross is generally thought as being reputable and well run but this is where they spend all our cash.
1.2% property maintenance
1.6% on marketing
3.1% on employment services
5.1% on fund raising
7.3% on emergency donation appeals
9.7% on charity shop costs
15.1% on other administration
then 9.7% goes to their international head office
We just got to be more aware of these things for the next time and really think about how we want to help. I reckon we need to help at a more grass roots level and donate with our time to things like this https://blazeaid.com.au/
Someone I work with got in touch with a centre in Batemans Bay immediately after the fires and got a list of what people wanted, it was everything from bed sheets to a screw driver. They got a group of mates together and drove in a convoy of cars and utes from Sydney and delivered everything they could. We all gotta get up off our arses and do stuff like that.
Maybe you can tell us what the people of Bega need and we can do something. Im deadly serious, what can we do to help?
Diji1 on 07/02/2020 - 22:46 Comment score below threshold.