Charity Shocker in Canada - or are these figures real?

by Dogpatch 30 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  talesin

  DISCLAIMER: I am not 'down' on churches that help the community.

  For example, I know from personal experience that the Lutheran Church, which has a tiny church here, donates each month, in rotation, to the local government-funded shelter for homeless men, the shelter for battered women, and to tell the truth, I don't remember what the third one is. They collect money AND materials, such as toothbrushes, shampoo, razors, etc. on a REGULAR BASIS. They also have a program where their youth spends a night visiting the homeless shelter to see what it's REALLY like, and then the youth sleep on the floor in sleeping bags at the church (of course, for legal and safety purposes, they cannot sleep at the shelter), to give them at least some 'essence' of what it may be like to not have a bed of their own. They knit 'prayer shawls', and will send them to anyone, anywhere, that anyone in the community recommends, with an note telling that person that someone cares about them.

  I also know that the St. Vincent de Paul Society, a charitable organization within the Catholic Church, will come by with food vouchers for ANYONE WHO CALLS THEM AND IS IN NEED, within 24 hours of your call, at least 4 times a year. If you need more, they will do it. And they raise their own money, by having bake sales, bingo nights, etc.

  That is to say, I am not picking on the SA because it is a religious organization, but because I truly believe it is a money-grabbing cult.

  It's one of my pet peeves, so, forgive the angry face, but it just ticks me off.

  tal
• 

  Phizzy

  Smiddy, I know you were saying this, but I like to underline the duplicity of the WT.

  They do sweet F A for anyone, whilst milking their charitable status for all its worth !
• 

  Dogpatch

  VERY INTERESTING, thanks, especially to Lee Marsh!

  Being that we are working DIRECTLY right now with the Red Cross on AJWRB.ORG, this is good to know.

  Keep the comments coming if you have facts.

  Randy
• 

  Dogpatch

  Also thanks to Talesin! (and all of you).

  Randy
• 

  talesin

  This may shock some people, but doesn't surprise me. :(

  One-third spent on salaries, and 2/3 on donations. This is not a good ROR for a charity.

  The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation paid its 156 full-time workers and 30 part-timers nearly $13 million last year, Canada Revenue Agency records show.

  All of the foundation's top earners made more than $120,000 last year -- and three of them made between $200,000 and $249,999.

  The foundation also spent about $23 million last year on charitable works, including research grants and scholarships.

  Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110710/charities-pay-wages-canada-110710/#ixzz1qItqsAuf t
• 

  talesin

  The UNICEF figure in the email is grossly exaggerated. This, from the UNICEF website, in direct reply to spurious reports.

  I have excerpted the pertinent information, but the complete statement can be found at this url:

  http://www.unicef.ca/en/discover/unicef-canada-addresses-misleading-emails

  UNICEF Canada addresses misleading emails

  The salary of the Executive Director of UNICEF, who works on behalf of UNICEF in virtually every country as a United Nations Under-Secretary-General, is also public record. The salary levels for all UN officials, including Under-Secretary-Generals, is US$201,351 gross which means, after tax equivalency deductions, they receive between US$129 thousand and $140 thousand net (depending on whether they have dependents).

  Please do not let these false statements about UNICEF continue to circulate. Thank you for your continued support

  ---

  Not $1,200,000, but $201,351. The email conveniently adds $1 million to the actual salary.

  t
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  I am just going to comment on one or two:

  The American Red Cross, despite any waste at the top (or other levels) is such a great organization that does so much wonderful stuff in disasters and for people in need. It's hard to justify the big salary. Still, I gotta wonder if the waste is anywhere near as bad as your report.

  Secondly, I don't care if the CEO makes nothing at all. If he/she is running a great charity, that's wonderful. But if they were running Watchtower Society, I know better. Salvation Army does some great stuff too, but it is a cult like Watchtower is a cult. I don't think they really really push their beliefs on the people they help, but watch out. Catholic Charities doesn't push their religion on people at all.
• 

  Lady Lee

  I would not say that the Salvation Army forces its beliefs on others.

  I know it is said that they make the homeless and hungry sit and listen to a sermon before they can get food or a room but I worked at a homeless shelter run by the SA and no one was ever forced to attend any sermon. They did have a church attached to the shelter and they did have sermons going on at the same time as breakfast. People could go in and sit and listen but there was absolutely no obligation for anyone, staff included, to attend the sermon. No one was ever posted at the door to remind people to go. No prayer was held before people sat to eat. That would have been highly impractical because if you said the prayer when the first of the line came in the last 300 people in the door would never have heard it.

  I worked there for over a year and know next to nothing about their beliefs. At no time was I preached to and I was never left with flyers of any information about their beliefs although if someone did go to one of the services I suppose they would have had access to that. There was no type of recruitment procedure that I ever saw.

  There are several lists that have a very specific way of classifying what a cult is. As far as I could see the SA would not follow that criteria. One of my firends was raised in the SA and while their beliefs were a little peculiar to me she still beieved but never preached to me. She rarely wnet to sermons but there was never any pressure put on her to return to the fold or be tossed out. Her parents were still in the SA and knew she didn't go but while they encouraged her to go back to the services they in no way pressured her or shunned her. There just wasn't the same amount of control that you would see in a cult as defined by the several different lists that are widely accepted to define cults.

  oops sorry to get off on a tangent
• 

  Lady Lee

  talesin posted this:

  FACT: If you go to the SA Shelter in my hometown, and have NO MONEY, you will be turned away. The nightly cost is about $15.00.

  I was in charge of booking women in to the shelter. Here is the procedure: Ask if they have money. If so the charge was minimal but $15 sounds reasonable. If they had no money we would check our files to see if they had been there before and whether they had been refused services not die to money but due to misuse of the system or unacceptable behavior (drugs, weapons, or threats or violence whithin th eshelter or if there was a restraining order on them regarding another person at the shelter.) If there was no reason to immediately refuse them then we would ask if they were on social assistance. if they were getting money from the government to pay for an apartment the government was not going to pay for them to stay in a shelter as well as their apartment of room somewhere else. That would be fraud. So we would have to call social services to see if they would allow them to stay in the shelter despite having a government paid room or apartment. If they did have a place then they had to have a very good reason to be accepted in the shelter - like your place burned down or you were evicted. Social services did pay the SA for people to stay in the shelter if they had no money. The SA wasn't giving out rooms for free to people who were already recieving assitance.

  We often had people arrive at the shelter who had no money and were just passing through Winnipeg. If you were driving across Canada it was pretty hard to miss Winnipeg unless you were traveling back roads. So if you were passing through and your car broke down or ran out of money you would probably wind up at the shelter. No one was tur ed away. We would put them up for the ight and register them for social assistance. If they came in the middle of the night welfare could sort it out in the morning. And they would have to go to the welfare office in the morning before they could stay the second night. Many people were working their way across the country and they would find work, start paying for their room and then move on as soon as they had enough money.

  FACT: For each person who stays in the SA long-term addiction recovery program, the SA receives a per diem of about $80/day from the PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT.

  We did have a drug treatment program in the building and this is correct. The government did pay for the stay in the program.

  FACT: If you lose everything in a house fire, and have no insurance, the SA will provide you with appliances and clothing, FOR A FEE.

  True to a point. If you had no money and were on social assistance you would get chits from welfare to go to a SA store and get what you needed. Of course if you did have money you were expected to pay but often it was scaled to your income if you had any. If you had a low income job you could get the full amount of chits as someone on assistance

  The SA is a religion but it is also a business. And the two are quite separate entities. The business part provides assistance to people. The religious part does the religious stuff and as far as I could see they are quite separate.

  When I moved to Ottawa I stayed in a shelter for 9 months. I had no money (had used it all) and went on assistance. Social assistance paid for my room and meals while I was at the shelter. From what I saw the system was almost identical top the way it was run in Winnipeg - a different province.
• 

  Room 215

  The worthiness -- or otherwise-- of charities can be checked on sites such as charitynavigators.com