It takes money to raise money

This is my 52nd column for the daily newspaper. (For those keeping track, not all have met the high journalistic standards of the Herald, nor made it past the legal department.) Inspiration for column topics is sometimes scarce, but serendipity often helps as it did this week.

I volunteer at the Summerland Thrift Store. The shop received a number of unopened packages of coasters sent out as a fundraiser by the Red Cross.

Our family received three sets and they come in handy to cover wine and beer glasses during fruit fly season.

The point is, for most people, it shows the coasters are not used and not likely to turn into donation dollars for the Red Cross.

It takes money to raise money. There are only so many personalized address labels a person can use. Most of us would prefer our charities of choice not send us “trinkets and trash.”

The public television fundraisers often entice us to donate at a higher level by offering a paperback book if you donate $120 or a 1960’s CD collection of forgotten rock bands. That makes sense as the donor is receiving something he or she can enjoy and the broadcaster gets a bit more money.

Which brings me to the WE Charity.

Before Justin Trudeau put his foot in it, I had never heard of WE. I had to “Google” to find out it is an international development charity and has a youth empowerment component as well.

The latter is what attracted the federal government to hand WE a sole- source contract to handle the now defunct Canada Student Service Grant. WE would have pocketed $54.53 million to hand out $900 million to students who did “mandatory volunteering.”

Apparently federal civil servants do not have enough experience to give away our money.

Much like wasting money on coasters and labels, WE paid our prime minister’s mother Margaret $250,000 and brother Alexandre $32,000 for speaking engagements. I question the scholarly credentials of either, although Ms. Trudeau could probably share some interesting life experiences.

Ex-Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s family accepted paid trips to see the humanitarian work WE undertakes in developing countries to the tune of about $100,000. Videos are not good enough for Mr. Morneau. He eventually reimbursed the charity, but it led to his resignation. Could it be that WE decided trips would loosen the purse strings and the Morneau family would donate more? It takes money to make money.

These revelations will hurt the WE charity’s ability to obtain contributions as donors expect our charity dollars to do good work rather than be ill-spent.

Coasters do not seem so bad in comparison, do they?

John Dorn is a retired tech entrepreneur who lives in Summerland.