The truth about a charity ploy that will really get your goat
Paid for a farm animal to help a poor family over Christmas? Here’s...
PEOPLE seeking presents that help a good cause this Christmas are being urged to think twice before buying a ‘live gift’ for a struggling community in a far-flung country. Such gifts are often no more than clever marketing tricks to encourage you to donate money.
Charities such as Oxfam are selling cards with lovable-looking animals pictured on them emblazoned with messages such as: ‘I got you a very special goat.’ The gift costs £25. For £13 you can buy a friend or relative a ‘life-changing chicken’ while £46 purchases a ‘pair of poverty-busting pigs’.
In reality, the cash pours into a big Oxfam charity pot ‘to help people living in poverty’. Although the gift money aims to meet Oxfam’s mission to ‘beat poverty for good’, some of it may end up being absorbed by the £126 milliona-year wage bill the charity pays for employing more than 5,000 staff. Eleven employees are taking home £100,000 or more a year.
Hilary Blume is founder of the Charities Advisory Trust that helps good causes raise funds effectively. She says: ‘The use of such gifts may be no more than a cynical way of getting money out of people. Only in the small print do the cards make it clear that the money is going where it is needed. One has to ask if it could end up going towards the chief executive’s six-figure salary.’
Oxfam is one of the worst offenders but others touting virtual ‘charity gifts’ include the World Wide Fund for Nature. It wants you to adopt an animal such as a polar bear or orang-utan. In return, you get a cuddly toy, stickers and regular updates.
Another is the Catholic Agency For Overseas Development that sells ‘chirpy chickens’ and ‘fantastic fish’ for £20 each. The reality is that any cash generated from sales just goes into a large fund.
Blume adds: ‘There is an erosion in ethical standards among fundraisers with some exploiting people’s goodwill – selling a goat that is not a goat. Integrity and honesty can sometimes go out of the window when charities are looking at new ways to raise money.’
In response, Oxfam said on Friday: ‘Our website explains where money goes from all gifts made so people know how they are helping to fight poverty. Gifts like the one for a goat make it possible for us to help poor families build a better life.’
World Wide Fund for Nature said: ‘We always make it clear to gift buyers that donations directly support the species that has been adopted – as well as helping our wider work to protect nature.’
For those concerned about the destination of their donation, Blume says people can get certainty about where their gift money ends up.
For example, the Good Gifts project, organised by the Charities Advisory Trust, enables someone to make a £27 donation, knowing it will purchase 18 pairs of flip-flops to help prevent African children from being infected by hookworm – an intestinal parasite which can be picked up from walking barefoot. Also, £145 donated towards the installation of a deep pump designed to access clean water will be spent on just that. Oxfam generated income of £427million in the year ending March 2018, of which nearly half came from the Government and public organisations. Around £99million was received from donations and legacies, which includes ‘animal’ charity gifts. A further £94million came from trading sales.
According to independent research by the charity directory Charity Choice, for every £1 spent by Oxfam in the year to March 2017, 64p went on ‘charitable activities’ while for World Wide Fund for Nature it was 82p.
Lydia Marshall, of the Advertising Standards Authority, said: ‘In looking at advertising material, context and content are key.’