Comments on: Good causes, but no charity

By: Theft from Heroes, or party political witch hunt? » Philtheone.com

Theft from Heroes, or party political witch hunt? » Philtheone.com — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:10:55 +0000

[...] MIGHT recall in March this year a company known as Wounded Warriors UK was hounded by Trading Standards because it had been alleged that [...]

By: Frustrated

Frustrated — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:33:35 +0000

Since most of the comments aren’t negative though he doesn’t exactly have anything to fear from this discussion. If he’s done something wrong it will probably come out – if not then he’s fine. In principle he’s not doing a lot different to large charities that already have paid staff and that’s the predominant theme here.

By: Eli

Eli — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:12:19 +0000

To all of you that have bad comments.. Have you ever heard of a game called Chinese whispers? The 1st person starts with the sentence and generally by the time it’s reached the 3rd person it’s a total different story. My point being, naive comments are cruel & as they spread they can damage unfairly! Do NOT use this man’s name in a negative way, unless you have evidence that he is doing wrong!! Shame on you! Do you honestly think that the write up’s in the tabloids are always a perfect reflection of the real story???? If you answer yes, your very very wrong!!!

By: Johnboy

Johnboy — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:02:24 +0000

Isnt it strange his premises are broken into just before his staff xmas party and they manage to grab £16,000 of the charity takings.
When his staff are asked about the charity they know nothing about H4H or the American Charity Wounded Wariors of which he is using there logo and name.

By: Philtheone

Philtheone — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:29:00 +0000

I agree, I’d have binned it after reading “donation”

By: Frustrated

Frustrated — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:26:33 +0000

All the big charities take cuts out of donations for salaries anyway. The real question is clarity so that people know what they are doing. The shame is that most people don’t know because they don’t read what these things say. We sometimes get collection bags for a breast cancer charity based in Lithuania that only goes to benefit women in Lithuania. It says so on the packet in small print – but a lot of people don’t read that far.

By: Philtheone

Philtheone — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:23:01 +0000

The thing is, I agree with your last point, but this witchhunt surrounding William Knight is utterly sensationalist. If you look at the facts, he is doing nothing wrong unless he is seeking to deceive people into believing that he is a charity, whatever difference that makes.

Just as you’ve assumed that 90% of comic relief money goes to good causes, you’ve assumed that 10% of Mr Knight’s collection money does. Both of these figures are made up, by you.

Granted, you could be correct. But there’s an equal chance that you aren’t!

By: Fred Bloggs

Fred Bloggs — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:29:31 +0000

IF the public were told up front that only 10% or 20% of their money would actually get to injured soldiers very few would buy raffle tickets.

I have not checked but would expect about 90% of comic relief money gets to the good cause with less than 10% on admin.

If you want to help soldiers give to The British Legion not shitty conmen like William Knight.

By: Harold

Harold — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:21:06 +0000

I agree Phil, transparency is the key, so its an informed choice to decide whether or not to give in the first place.

By: Philtheone

Philtheone — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:17:16 +0000

Post under one name please Steven; I don’t care which it is.

If he registered as a charity, would it all be alright? How would that change anything?

He’d still be taking a cut and he’d still be presumably giving money he collects to good causes.

The only difference I can see is that his business would be transparent and we’d be able to see what he was taking and what he was giving.

There’re no rules that suggest you have to be a charity in order to collect money on the streets, via raffle tickets or whatever else he’s doing, although I guess you have to make it fairly clear to the donors that you’re not a charity rather than playing on the assumption that you are.

What’s the difference between this and something like Comic Relief? Comic Relief is just a wrapper charity that takes money and funnels it to other charities. Comic Relief has administration costs – including staff – just like Wounded Warriors UK does.