Help the homeless this Christmas

[Organ Morgan.]

Charities are a massive industry. According to official government figures there's, wait for it, 167,000 registered charities.

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ity-commission

[Forest Green Bluebird]

Charities are a massive industry. According to official government figures there's, wait for it, 167,000 registered charities.

https://www.gov.uk/government/public...ity-commission

And how many of them are genuine?

Beware of the scammers in shopping centres ... some make tidy sums by buying buckets and sticking pictures of badly treated dogs / animals etc on them.

Worse still are those who try to get you to sign up for a charity. Unsuspecting people may give their account details in good faith.

My old mum, God rest her soul, donated regularly to the RSPCA, initially via a Daily Mirror advert. Did a few checks on the junk mail she received from elsewhere and could not find any credible references. The amount of junk mail she received from other 'charities' who bought her details was alarming.

Some time last year I was stopped in Cheltenham high street by a bloke who wanted me to sign up for a particular charity ... £2 a month type of thing. I questioned him what % of my donation would get through to those that really needed it and he could not give an answer.

There are so many bona-fide charity shops around these days (Barnado's, Air Ambulance, Salvation Army) that would probably be the best place to go and be virtually certain that your donation is not going into a black hole.