Cancer trust gives less than five percent of donations

A registered cancer charity has donated less than 5 per cent of the $1.1 million it has collected from New Zealanders over four years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10872348

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Gary:
If you want to make easy money, get a few mates together to form a charity that collects money for cute kids who are ill/poor and charge exorbitant administration fees while paying yourself and your fellow Trustees outrageous fees!

I have thought about this for some years now while observing the proliferation of numerous fund raising charities with their extravagant and emotionally charged advertising campaigns.

The problem with trusts like the one outed in this Herald article is that they make families, like ours extremely reluctant to donate to causes, especially those that employ door-knockers and telemarketers.

What about the Research Progammes that get the 5% of funds, Gary?

Well, I do wonder often whether they are any better: Sure we need more research into the causes of cancer, Parkinsons, etc but how much is really going into useful research and how much is being soaked up by excessive administration and exorbitant professional fees? (More about professional fees shortly in another article).

When it comes to most cancers, such as breast, bowel and prostate cancer, there is a huge amount that we already know that may reduce the toll of cancer by as much as 70%.  But this information remains muted at best.

I, for one, would donate more to cancer and other research programmes, if more resource was put into primary prevention, using what we already know.  At present too much of precious financial resources goes into research for new patent medicines and only a fraction into telling the public what they can do to help themselves.

But I will not hold my breath over this one, because the primary motivation of research into diseases like cancer, is to find the next patentable drug.  We know that elements, like iodine, can have a profound effect on many cancers and diseases like those affecting the thyroid; but iodine will never be promoted because you can't patent an element unless it is packaged in such a way that it can be patented.  And iodine consumption has dramatically reduced over the last 30 years due to the "No Salt!" message by the Heart Foundation.

Moral of the story: Donate with care!

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