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News and snippets (and articles...)
Headings on this page :
- Introduction
- 1. Short entries (news and snippets)
- 2. Longer articles (there are links to these from the drop-down menus) :
Introduction
On this page there's (1) an informal miscellany of short items (news and snippets), and (2) some longer articles :
- Some of the items are information that we've only just come across. So far they haven't been incorporated into the website, but we feel people may find them useful in the meantime - even if the item below is just a link to their website.
Where items have a date (eg 'news' items), generally they're in reverse-date order (ie the latest items are at the top). - In due course, we move some of the items to an appropriate page on the website and expand them.
- Some smaller items may stay on this page permanently.
On this page (especially with the short entries), many of the external links don't have a red double-arrow 
next to the web address.
Beware - some of the items on this page are in draft form and haven't been fully proofread.
(See also the What's new page - this gives news of changes to the CharityBags website.)
1. Short entries (news and snippets)
Councils' diaries of collection licences
This article has been moved to the "Longer articles" section further down this page.
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Should house-to-house clothing collections be banned?
Far too many clothing collections are misleading, bogus and/or unlicensed. And then there's the issue of theft of filled bags. Several people (including two licensing officers) have suggested to us that one solution would be to ban these collections. We've heard three ideas :
- banning collections altogether
- banning commercial collections
- banning charitable collections
These are radical proposals - and there are many pros and cons. Either way, it's unlikely that any government would support such ideas at present.
Should ALL house-to-house clothing collections be licensed?
Note: See also the section above (on banning collections).
At present, only 'charitable' collections need licences (see the House to House Collections Act 1939). However, it's been suggested that some of the problems of collections would be solved if the law were changed so that ALL collections required licences - in other words, commercial ones as well as charitable ones.
Certainly this would help solve the problem of grey-area collections - ie hybrid collections which give a confusing impression of being charitable when they're really commercial.
It would add to the workload of licensing departments. However, it would only be a small increase - as most collections nowadays purport to be charitable, benevolent or philanthropic (and so they need a licence).
What about charities which don't have charity shops?
Many commentators (including us) strongly advise people donating clothes (etc) to take them to charity shops if possible - rather than giving them to house-to-house collectors.
xStatistics:By taking your goods to a charity shop, it eliminates the problems of misleading or bogus collections, unlicensed collections and theft of filled bags. Also it raises much more money for charities (typically over 30 times as much).
However, this raises the issue of what to do about those charities (large or small) which don't have charity shops. Should we have no sympathy with them - and say it's up to them to start their own charity shops?
We'll expand on this in due course.
Fraud Watchers website
An international, virtual organisation, run by volunteers. Has forums in several languages.
Concentrates on online fraud - eg phishing, scammers. Aims to educate the public.
Philanthropy UK website
Hosted by the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF)
(The ACF is a registered charity)
Extract from the home page :"Philanthropy UK is the leading resource for free and impartial advice to aspiring philanthropists who want to give effectively.
We develop and share current information and best practice on giving; provide accessible links to specialists; and aim to inspire more people to become philanthropic and so enjoy the extraordinary rewards this brings."
Charity Facts website
3xStatistics:Extract from the 'Charity Facts' [.org] website (2010):
"On average, of every £1 generated by a UK charity, 80p is spent directly on achieving the objectives of the charity, and 20p is spent on operating and administration costs (and on future fundraising activity)."
Theft of bags left outside charity shops - High Court ruling
Article dated 18 May 2010
Parliament
www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2009-10-28c.271.2
On oral answers to questions in Parliament on 28 October 2009 about bogus clothing collections - eg Jeff Ennis and Angela Smith.
See our new page on this: Charity clothing collections: Parliament and politicians.
National Association of Licensing and Enforcement Officers (NALEO)
A UK professional body (not-for-profit)
Consumer Focus
A government consumer-protection body, launched 1 October 2008
Wandsworth Oasis Trading Company Ltd
News at 28 September 2008 :
The Company runs a chain of four shops in the Wandsworth area of SW London. A notice above at least one of the shops states "Raising funds for people affected by HIV / AIDS".
In August and early September 2008, articles appeared in two newspapers which raised 'concerns' about the Company and their shops - including the following issues :
- whether the shops were 'charity shops' or not
- whether the Company was charitable
- 2xStatistics:how many pence-in-the-pound went to good causes - ie the net proceeds raised (% percentage).
We understand the matter was referred to the Borough's trading standards department (TSD) and the Charity Commission - for investigation.
On 25 September 2008, the Commission registered the Company as a charity (register number 1126061) - see the Commission's website.
The two newspaper articles seemed to present a compelling case for suggesting inefficiency (or worse). Yet, weeks later, the Charity Commission allowed the organisation to register as a charity. We couldn't get to the bottom of it.
Note: Thankfully, it's very unusual for charity shops to be embroiled in controversy about whether they're genuine and/or well-run.
See Google for further information on this peculiar story.
GuideStar UK
'GuideStar UK' is a registered charity.
"Comprehensive information about every charity".
A sophisticated online database on every charity.
xStatistics:Includes figures on the finances of each charity
- eg annual £ income and £ expenditure.
It's part of 'GuideStar International'.
Also they have branches in Israel and India.
See also the Charity Commission's online database >>
"Charity Finance" - magazine
A magazine, 10 issues per year. Launched around 1990.
Aimed at charity sector professionals.
xStatistics:"Charity Finance" magazine carries out six annual surveys, including one on charity shops.
2. Longer articles
Councils' diaries of collection licences
See also these related web pages :
- Charitable house-to-house collections: Registers of licences
- Registers of collection licences : Exeter City Council (Devon)
Introduction - registers (dead entries, live entries) - and diaries
In practice, virtually every council keeps a 'register' (list) of charitable collection licences. These days, they're almost always in electronic format (eg a spreadsheet or Word file). Most councils keep them for many years - eg 10 years or more. For more on this, see our "Registers of licences" page (link above).
Most entries in these registers are "dead" - in other words, the collection period has finished.
However, at any one time, roughly 5-10% of the entries are "live" licences. With these, either :
- the collection hasn't started yet, or
- the collection period has started - but it hasn't yet finished.
Most councils keep a diary of these "live" licences - so they know which collections haven't started yet, or are in progress. Also, councils are required to get 'returns' from each collector - soon after a collection is finished. 'Returns' are financial reports - they give the income, expenditure and net proceeds. Having a diary helps the officers to ensure they get the returns.
A few councils (too few) have realised that it's helpful to everyone if they make the diary (or a summary of it) public - for example by putting it on their website. Below, we've compiled an annotated list of some of these councils (we'll add more later).
We praise the councils listed below for taking the trouble to add diaries of licences to their websites. Any criticisms we make are meant to be helpful and constructive.
Unfortunately, most councils don't put their diaries of collection licences on their website.
We'd like to see it made compulsory. It would be very cost-effective.
Our rough estimate is that for every £1 spent on it by local councils, around £100 extra would be raised by genuine charities - as it would greatly increase the scrutiny of collections, reducing fraud.
Some comments on the diaries of licences below
Formats: (a) HTML web page, (b) Acrobat PDF file, (c) MS Word file, (d) Excel spreadsheet.
Some give all the collections in one file. Others have several files (eg one per month).
Structure: text, table (a table is preferable).
Period: This varies from 3 months to one year.
Period into the future: This varies below from 4 weeks to one year.
Alas, some councils below are using a calendar year. This means you get up to 12 months of future collections listed at the beginning of the year - but by December you can only see one month ahead. They need to switch to a 'rolling forward' diary system - eg the current calendar year AND the following year. We know of one council (not listed below) which has diary entries (bookings) for collections going three years into the future.
Coverage:
- Some have only house-to-house collection diaries on their website (our main interest).
- Some have only street collection diaries.
- Some have both house-to-house and street collection diaries.
Data: Virtually all give "when, who, where" (in other words: dates, charity, location/area).
Most also give the type of collection (street vs house-to-house).
A commendable few break down the house-to-house category - eg money, direct debit, goods/clothing.
Some helpfully give the names of both the charity and the collector.
Alas, only one (Runnymede) gives 'returns' information (the sum raised and expenses deducted).
Quality of data: Some have been carefully compiled and proof-read.
Others could be fine-tuned - for instance inconsistences such as charity-then-collector for some entries, but collector-then-charity for other entries.
Finally, there are one or two which are far from perfect - giving the council a poor image.
However, half a loaf is better than none ...
List of the councils' diaries of collections which we've compiled below (A-Z)
- Bedford Borough Council
- Blackpool Council (Lancashire)
- Brentwood Borough Council (Essex)
- Broadland District Council (Norfolk)
- Doncaster Council (South Yorkshire)
- Mid Devon District Council
- Runnymede Borough Council (Surrey)
- Southampton City Council (Hampshire)
- Tandridge District Council (Surrey)
- Three Rivers District Council (Hertfordshire)
- Warwick District Council
- West Lancashire Borough Council
- Wigan Council (Lancashire)
Bedford Borough Council (Bedfordshire) - unitary
Bedford Borough Council: House Collections Register
This web page has a very useful table - with eight columns - as follows :
| Col | Column heading | Example (month: June 2011) |
| 1 | Name of Individual Holding the Licence | Pauline Ann Mason |
| 2 | Name of Charity or Fund Benefitting | East Anglian Air Ambulance |
| 3 | Permit No: | 6 |
| 4 | Period in which Collection is to take/took place | 18-30/07/2011 |
| 5 | Area of Collection | Whole Borough |
| 6 | Collection for Money/Goods/Other | Clothing |
| 7 | Total Value Collected | £1794.00 |
| 8 | Total Value of Deductions | £1363.44 |
The register has some excellent (unusual) features :
- It lists the type of collection (column 6: money/goods/other) - Hallelujah.
- It lists the finances (columns 7 and 8: value collected and value of deductions).
- It tells you which collections have a national Exemption Order.
At 22 Dec 2011, there are 37 collections listed. They are all for the period Jan to Aug 2011. We're puzzled why there are no entries after Aug. So we assume they're not intending it to be a diary of current/future collections, alas.
It would help if the register gave the name of the collection company as well as the charity.
They do give the name of the individual, but this is of little use to people. For example there's a collection listed by PACE [charity] - with the name of the individual (Mr William Souvatzoglu). We know he's the boss of GT Recycling Initiatives Ltd (who collect for PACE). But why not spell this out? After all, when you get a bag from PACE, the text printed on it refers to the company (GT Recycling) - it doesn't name the individuals running the company.
In one case, they've listed a collector ('Gold Fish Textile Recycle Ltd') but they don't say which charity it's for. Also, we don't understand why it says £0.00 in the "total value of deductions" column.
Another entry just says "Care2Give" - but this a commercial collector - there's no mention of which charity is involved. The sum raised (£22,000) is larger than all the other collections put together. The "value of deductions" figure is given as £0 - surely this is incorrect?
In summary, we suggest the Council do the following :
- add a column for name of collection company
- add a column for net proceeds (column 7 minus column 8)
- extend the table to include collection licences up to the present and into the future
- tidy up/standardise the indications of national Exemption Orders
(some just say n/a , some say HOE, some say Exempt) - improve the quality of data entry
Blackpool Council (Lancashire)
House to house collections permit > Publications web page
At 13 Dec 2011, there's a 6-page PDF file on this page called :
It lists collections up to 2015 inclusive*.
It's a table with four columns: Month, Charity, Dates, HOE* [ie Home Office Exemption].
The entries in the charity column take the form of: charity (collection co and individual)*.
Example: Tree of Hope Childrens Charity (SOS Clothes Ltd – Gorodnicenko Mantas)
Direct debits are indicated*. However, there's no other indication of type of collection (ie cash vs goods).
*We've asterisked the items above which are useful/above-average.
Blackpool's website also has a list of street collection permits (a PDF table).
Brentwood Borough Council (Essex) - lower tier
Alas, there's no house-to-house diary.
However, there is a "Street collection diary" It's a web page - with date, charity and location.
At 4th Dec 2011, it listed collections for Aug-Dec 2011. Typical entries (re Oct 2011) :
"SAT 1ST - GUIDE DOGS - SHENFIELD, SHENFIELD STATION
SAT 8TH - MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY CAMPAIGN - BRENTWOOD HIGH STREET"
Broadland District Council (Norfolk) - lower tier
At Dec 2011, there were three 1-page PDF files (landscape format) - one per month (the current Quarter). Extract from their Oct 2011 file :
Date Charity Collection Type Locations 31 Salvation Army (exempt) H-H NR10, 3, 4, NR11 7, 8 [etc] 24-30 Cure Leukaemia H-H All Broadland
Doncaster Council (South Yorkshire) - Metropolitan Borough (unitary)
See their Licensing >> House to House Collection Permit page.
At 6 Dec 2011, this page had a link to a "House to House Collections Register".
Copy of this Register at 6 Dec 2011 (our thanks to the Council)
This is an Excel spreadsheet file. There are 28 entries (rows). The five column headings are :
Expiry Date, Society Name, Registered Address, Collection Area, Permit Number
The expiry dates are from 31 Oct 2011 to 31 Oct 2012 - a good range, well into the future.
They've chosen to use the word "Society" (rather than "Charity").
They call it " Register" - but don't forget it's only part of the Register (the live (diary) entries).
It's above average quality. However, it would be helpful if they did the following :
1. Identify which collections are for clothes etc (rather than money).
2. Add the name of the commercial collector to all entries (it's missing on a few of them).
3. Make it clear whether the address relates to the collector or the charity.
4. Identify which charities have national Exemption Orders (NEOs).
5. Add the start dates (they list only expiry dates at present).
Mid Devon District Council (Devon) - lower tier
At 4th Dec 2011, the Licensing > Charities page has a link to a one-page Word file called "Charity Collection list".
It's headed: "Charitable Collections in Mid Devon:
Street and House to House Collections
Week commencing Monday 21 November 2011"
Each entry (line) has four parts: Type of collection, charity/collector, area, date. Example :
"House to House – Clothes Aid, Make a Wish – Whole District – until 1/1/12"
There's no indication of the type of collection (money vs clothing).
Runnymede Borough Council (Surrey) - lower tier
"Public Charitable Collection Diary and Returns 2011"
At Dec 2011, it's a table. It includes two very useful columns headed :
- Total sum raised
- Expenses deducted from proceeds
After this table, there are two excellent lists, headed as follows :
"Please note that the following commercial clothing collections have been or are operating in the borough but have not been licensed or authorised to collect : "
"The Following Commercial Clothing Collection companies have been refused a licence to collect in this borough : "
This is one of the best collection diaries we've come across so far. It oozes quality.
See also Tandridge District Council (also Surrey) for a similar diary - entry below.
Southampton City Council (Hampshire)
At Dec 2011, their website has a sophisticated database of all types of licence. It uses software from CAPS Solutions Ltd. CAPS was founded in 1989. It was acquired by Idox plc in 2007.
There's a search form. This has a field called "Application Category". We were pleased to find that this field's values include "house-to-house collection licences" and "street collection permits".
Selecting "house-to-house collection licences" gives 23 applications. They're in reverse date order (date received) - from now, back to Aug 2008 (a period of 3.5 years). However, it appears that the collection periods are all current/in the future (so it's just a diary of live licences - rather than a full register). There's a table of seven columns:
| Application Ref. | Date Received | Business Name | Address | Licence Details | Status | Click to view |
Alas, it seems there's no direct indication of the type of collection (money or clothes).
One entry is for "Little Treasures Children's Trust" (of Romford, Essex) - which must mean it's a clothing collection.
Clicking on "Click to view" gives seven tabs with further details - eg their address. The "Agent details" tab has the name East London Textiles Ltd (and ELT's address).
Almost all the other 22 entries appear to be for cash.
Many/most are charities with national Exemption Orders. The "Additional details" tab confirms this (with a line stating "Home Office Exempt: YES"). So, these aren't licences - they're just notifications by the charities of their intention to collect. Some relate to collections as far ahead as 2015 (ie 4 years' time).
We praise the council for adding house-to-house (and street) collections to their licensing database.
Tandridge District Council (Surrey) - lower tier
www.tandridge.gov.uk/environment/licences/
At Jan 2012, there are five web pages under the heading "Charity collections" :
- Bogus charity clothing collections
- House to house collections
- House to House Collection Returns
- Street collections
- Street Collection Returns
2. The House to house collections page :
This has a very useful section headed "Unauthorised collections". Its introduction states :
"The following "Clothing Collections" are being made by organisations that do not have a current Permit or a Home Office Exemption to collect, or they are HOE but have not agreed their collection dates with the Council"
Below this is a bulleted [name-and-shame] list of 17 collectors/charities - including Intersecond Ltd, Hand of Help UK, Drops of Help Ltd, ANYA Ltd.
There are three surprising entries - namely British Heart Foundation, Clothes Aid/NSPCC and Cystic Fybrosis Trust. These charities have Exemption Orders (HOEs/NEOs) - but they haven't notified the Council of their collections. The Council has told us that this is a frequent problem. (Note: It would help if the charities in this category where identified in the list - eg by adding "(HOE)" after each one.)
Lower on their page is a table headed "Applications received". This has four columns.
We give the headings below, with one example :
| Date | Organisation | Area | Exempt |
| 10-15 October 2011 | SOS Clothes | Whole district |
At Jan 2012, there are 27 entries in this table, covering the period Jan to Dec 2011.
Fourteen of the collections have an "HOE" in the "Exempt" column (=52%).
Below this is a table for 2012 (with three entries so far).
3. The House to House Collection Returns page has a table with six columns.
We give the headings below, with one example :
| Date | Charity | Collecting organisation |
Home Office Exemption |
Total sum raised |
Expenses deducted from proceeds |
| 10-15 October 2011 | Tree of Hope | SOS Clothes | £46.20 | £18.47 |
At Jan 2012, the table has 26 entries, covering the period Jan to Dec 2011.
Fourteen of the collections have a "Y" in the "Home Office Exemption" column (=54%).
Three of the collections are for direct debits.
The type of collection (cash or clothes) is not stated.
There are four clothing collections by SOS Clothes (for the Tree of Hope charity).
All (?) the other collections appear to be for cash.
We understand Tandridge pioneered the idea of adding this type of table to their website (summarising the accounts). It's lovely idea.
The two tables above ("Applications received" and "Collection returns") are excellent. However, it might be better if they were combined into one table (as some other councils have done). This would add only one column ("Area") to make seven columns (as three columns are the same). Combining them into one table would make it easier to maintain/update, eliminate inconsistences and make it easier for users.
One minor point - it would help if they replaced the term "Home Office Exemption" (HOE) with (say) "National Exemption Order" (NEO) to reflect the change in 2006 to the Cabinet Office (and/or added a brief note of explanation about this).
See Surrey Police arrest three over clothing collections BBC News item dated 19 Aug 2011. The police took action following a request from Tandridge Council.
See also Runnymede Council's collection diary (above) which is based on Tandridge's design (and is also high-quality).
Three Rivers District Council (Hertfordshire) - lower tier
www.threerivers.gov.uk/Default.aspx/Web/Licensing1
There's a "Diary of licensed collections" - it's a 5-page Word file.
At 4th Dec 2011, it covers the calendar year 2011 (12 months).
There's no diary for 2012 there yet - so it looks only 4 weeks into the future.
It's a table - with four (unlabelled) columns: month, days, area, charity.
- The first two pages are street collections.
- The last three pages are house-to-house collections (including clothing).
There's no indication of type of collection (money vs clothing).
Warwick District Council (Warwickshire)
Collections are located as follows :
Home>Your Council>Charities and voluntary groups>Charities>House to house collections
www.warwickdc.gov.uk/.../Charities/House+to+house+collections.htm
At 23 Dec 2011, this page has links to two PDF files :
House to House collections in Warwick District for 2010 (PDF)
House to House collections in Warwick District for 2011 (PDF)
- both these files open in a new browser window
Each PDF file has 12 pages - one per month. There are two columns: date and charity.
Entries take the form of: charity c/o collector.
Example: Woodlands Cancer Care c/o Audosta
Most of the entries are presented well. However, there are some problems :
- a few give only the collector's name - eg Ragtex UK Ltd, Care2Give Ltd, Textiles Solution
Collections with national Exemption Orders are marked as "(exempt)".
Alas, there's no indication of type of collection (cash vs goods).
The text on the web page states that exemptions are obtained from the Home Office. However, the Cabinet Office took over responsibility for exemptions in 2006.
Warwick's page on street collections has three PDF files listing collection licences for 2011, 2012 and 2013.
West Lancashire Borough Council (Lancashire) - lower tier
"House to house collections: Collections diary"
At Dec 2011, it's a PDF file, with 12 pages (landscape) - one per month.
It's literally a diary - with columns labelled: Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat/Sun - and a row per week.
Each entry gives up to five components: Type of collection, collector, charity, licence ref no, area. Example :
"House to House Collection - Little Treasures Childrens Trust - HTH0055 (All Borough)"
Wigan Council (Lancashire) - Metropolitan Borough (largely unitary)
"List of Approved Collections / Fundraising within the Wigan Borough"
At Dec 2011, the List is a web page table.
Unusually, it gives the type of collection - which is very useful.
They do it using a column headed "Type of collection".
It's a good (above-average) diary.
Fake collection leaflets/bags and impersonation
Headings in this article :
- Introduction - including a definition
- Interception - of collectors
- Examples - Intersecond Ltd/Azzara/Do Not Delay, Breakthrough Breast Cancer
- Related scams - eg unlicensed collections, theft of filled bags
- See also related pages - on this website
Introduction
Leaflet purporting to be from
Azzara/Do Not Delay: cancer prevention
NB No criticism of this collector
or "good cause" is intended
Notes :
- This article criticises fake collection organisations. However, no criticism is intended of the genuine organisations who they're impersonating.
- The article deals with leaflets and bags. However (for convenience) we just refer to them as "leaflets" below.
Definition. When we say "fake leaflets" we mean "counterfeit" - in other words, the people producing and distributing the leaflets (and collecting the filled bags later) have no connection with the organisations mentioned on their leaflets. So, the collectors are falsely claiming (pretending) to represent these organisations.
Often, this problem only comes to light when people report misleading collections to a regulator (eg council licensing). In good faith, the regulator contacts the organisation(s) mentioned on the leaflet (say "Bloggs Textiles" or "Ambridge Hospice") - who then deny any connection with the collection.
In many cases, these denials are truthful. However, there have been many cases where it's thought that the organisation was responsible for the collection - but they denied involvement in the hope that they could avoid prosecution. Often this ploy is used after the collection has taken place - as it's impractical then to disprove their denial.
Semantics. This "fake" issue makes it complicated when you come across a misleading or unlicensed collection. Strictly speaking, you can't say for sure that the organisation mentioned on the leaflet (say "Bloggs Textiles") has been collecting without a licence. Instead, you can only say that collectors purporting to be from Bloggs Textiles were collecting without a licence.
Interception
Often, the only way of resolving this dilemma is to get the police to intercept the people delivering the leaflets (or collecting the filled bags) - and then check out their identity - and any links that they have with the organisation mentioned on the leaflet.
This is made more difficult by the widespread practice of using informal freelance/self-employed people and sub-contractors as leaflet deliverers and collectors - often without formal written contracts (see the black economy ). Interviewing can be difficult - because many of the personnel speak little or no English. Arranging for interpreters takes time and money.
Examples
In 2007, this "fake" problem affected Intersecond Ltd / Azzara / Do Not Delay. It was so widespread that the alleged "good cause" (named "Azzara / Do Not Delay" cancer prevention - based in Lithuania) suspended all official clothing collections in the UK for around a year or so. They announced that ANY collection made in their name would be bogus.
Charity logo
In mid-2010, the highly-respected "Breakthrough Breast Cancer" charity was affected by fake leaflets. Thousands of them were distributed by bogus collectors (mainly from Eastern Europe) with the names "Clothman Ltd" and "Breakthrough Breast Cancer" printed on them. However, (1) Clothman Ltd was a dissolved company (no longer trading) - and (2) the Breakthrough charity had no connection with the collectors (and never received any money from them). On at least one occasion, the collectors were intercepted by the police. However, (bizarrely) the police let them go - because the details printed on the leaflet appeared to match a genuine charity! The BBC filmed the collectors.
Fake leaflets are cheap to produce - the collector just needs to give a copy of someone else's leaflet to a back-street printer - and ask him to print (say) 100,000 copies of it.
'I have a cunning plan ...'
Hover over image to ENLARGE it
Fake leaflets help the collector to avoid being found out - they cause delay and confusion - and can result in the blame being placed on the organisation mentioned on the leaflet. To quote Baldrick "I have a cunning plan...".
Going the extra mile . . . In the past, if you were suspicious of a collection leaflet, we'd suggest (1) studying the leaflet with forensic detail, (2) checking out the organisations in Google and (3) contacting council licensing. However, now we feel you have to go one stage further - and consider also whether the leaflet is fake. If it is fake, then any amount of analysis of its wording etc is pointless. As well as contacting council licensing, one solution is to contact the
Parallels. There are parallels in other fields - where people are too trusting, taking things at face value. For instance, there are frequent reports of people being conned by bogus personal callers - such as meter readers.Similarly, if you get a phone call and the caller says who they're from (eg British Gas), they may not be genuine. Unless you pay extra to have "caller display", you can't find out what number they're ringing from until after the call (by dialling 1471).
It's natural to be more trusting if the caller says they're from a supplier you have a contract with - eg BT or NatWest. But, even then it may be fraudulent. Fraudsters know that (say) 1 in 5 people bank with NatWest - so they keep ringing people until they find a NatWest customer. Phishing emails use similar tricks.
You get a collection leaflet or bag - maybe it's a fake. A couple of days later you put out your bag of clothes. While you're out, somebody takes the filled bags - maybe he's the collector (or maybe he's a thief). The system is fraught with risks - no wonder people recommend that you take your unwanted goods to a charity shop.
1xStatistics:Our rough estimate is that 5 to 10% of clothing collections use fake leaflets.
In one case we encountered :
- A thief (person A) stole bags of clothes which had been put out in the street for a collector (B) who turned out to be using fake leaflets.
He (B) had been purporting to be another collector (C) - who was also unlicensed and bogus (a dissolved limited company). - So, in short, a thief was stealing from a fake collector who (in turn) was stealing from a bogus collector!
- The victims in this saga were the genuine charities which would have got the proceeds from the clothes otherwise.
Related scams
Don't confuse fake leaflets with the following related scams and irregularities :
- misleading or bogus collections generally - eg where they give the impression of being charitable but aren't
- charitable collections that aren't licensed (under the 1939 Act) - irrespective of whether they're genuine or bogus
- theft of filled clothing collection bags
See also related pages
- Charities and honesty
- Scams, cons etc
- Law on house-to-house collections
- Does it need a collection licence?
- How to tell if a clothing collection leaflet or bag is genuine
- including the section at the end called "Genuine or not?" - on fakes/counterfeits - Charitable collections - licensing, monitoring and enforcement
- List of prosecutions of charitable house-to-house collectors
- Thefts of filled clothing collection bags
Note: This article on fake collection leaflets is new and evolving - please forgive any typo errors etc. `
Alan Stanton - on flickr
There are hundreds of high-quality images on Alan's photostream on Flickr. There are around 35 galleries.
Our interest focuses on his set of photos called:
This is an excellent gallery of clothing collection leaflets and bags (over 20 images). There's detailed explanatory text accompanying them - including research on the collectors done by Alan. Also there are comments (postings) by third parties.
Alan is a local councillor in the London Borough of Haringey.
Below: Screen grab of thumbnails of leaflet images on Alan's site at August 2011 (our thanks to Alan) :
KnowHow NonProfit (KHNP)
Website: www.KnowHowNonProfit.org
"Everything you need to run a nonprofit". Extracts from "About us" page (Nov 2010) :
"Welcome to KnowHow NonProfit - the place for nonprofit people to learn and share what they have learnt with others.Whether you work in a large charity, are setting up your own social enterprise or are helping out your local community group, this site is for you. Whatever your organisation or role within it, if you want information, to update your skills or to talk to others in similar situations, you've come to the right place. . . .
What is nonprofit?
Nonprofit includes registered charities, community groups, social enterprises, co-ops, mutual societies, faith groups, churches, political parties and campaigning organisations - basically any organisation or activity which does not exist to raise a profit!
You can sign up for a free newsletter (sent by email) - just by supplying your email address.
You can become a full member by registering (for free) on the website.
The benefits include use of its forums.
They were independent, but they became part of NCVO in 2011.
Campaigning advice and resources:
www.knowhownonprofit.org/campaigns/campaigning
Cancer Relief UK
1. The charity
Website: www.cancerreliefuk.org
Address: 27 Oadby Drive, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S41 0YF
Reg charity number: 1122929
This is a small charity, registered on 22 February 2008. It is also a company, limited by guarantee.
1xStatistics:See their "Unaudited financial statements 8 July 2009" - this is a 14-page Adobe PDF document. This link is on the "Cancer Relief UK" page of the Charity Commission's website. This document includes details of the % percentage of revenue which has been donated to deserving causes so far.
1xStatistics:Percentage % proceeds: It appears they raised £80,000. However, 60% of this (£50,000) was spent on costs - prize-draw prizes, marketing, administration, travel, telesales etc. If you exclude the prize money from the costs, the net figure is around 50%.
So (on the face of it) this means that - for every £1 they received - less than 50 pence was spent directly on achieving the objectives of the charity. If this is true, this would be a very poor figure. We'd recommend people steer clear of this organisation - and give their donations to a more "efficient" cancer charity.
1xStatistics:In the UK, typically the administration costs for a charity are around 20%. With the best charities the figure is around only 10% - in other words, a net 90% of your donation is spent on "good works".
Name: Despite the similar name, "Cancer Relief UK" have no connection with the UK's two main (highly-respected) national cancer charities, namely :
- Cancer Research UK
- Macmillan Cancer Support (known as "Macmillan Cancer Relief" until recently)
We feel that the name "Cancer Relief UK" is too similar to the name "Cancer Research UK". Inevitably some people will be mislead into assuming they are Cancer Research UK.
2. Clothing collections - in aid of Cancer Relief UK
As at August 2010, clothing collections are being carried out on their behalf by Textiles Solution Ltd (TS for short).
TS are based in Newcastle Under Lyme, Staffordshire. Website: www.textilessolution.co.uk
2xStatistics:The company's website states that:
- They give £50 per tonne of clothing to their five partner charities.
- They operate 32 collection teams.
- "Textiles Solution LTD is a fully licensed fundraiser complying with all UK Charity Commission regulations concerning the collection and sale of used clothing. We collect unwanted clothing and textiles on behalf of our charity partners across the UK."
The collections by TS (that we know of) have been conducted without a licence under the 1939 Act - so they've been illegal. They comprised an A5 purple leaflet wrapped around a plain white bag.
Below: Leaflet from Cancer Relief UK (2010)
To enlarge the image, hover your mouse over it :
Statistics
This Statistics article has become a new page. There's a link to it below :
Plain English (=plain language)
This topic is only on the fringe of the issues we deal with on the website. However, it's a subject which we feel passionately about. It affects all aspects of communication - printed material, websites and broadcast information. OK, so it's not specifically about clothing collections. But if all the people involved with stopping misleading and bogus collections tried their very best to communicate effectively - with Plain English and systematic, well laid-out information - it would go some way towards solving the problems.
We try hard on the website (and in our emails) to practise what we preach - but no doubt at times we fail abysmally. If do you spot any failings in our English - contact us and tell us how we could improve things. We'll give you our thanks (and a cringing apology). We'll even donate £5 to charity for every greengrocer's apostrophe you discover.
Plain English [definition] :"The writing and setting out of essential information in a way that gives a co-operative, motivated person a good chance of understanding it at first reading, and in the same sense that the writer meant it to be understood."
Source: Martin Cutts, "Oxford Guide to Plain English", second edition, 2004
Resources
Wikipedia: page on Plain English
Local Government Improvement and Development (formerly IDeA): Knowledge article on Plain English
www.llrx.com/features/plainlanguage.htm
- 'Plain language in law' - with lots of references
'LLRX' stands for 'Law Library Resource Xchange'
"The complete plain words" - groundbreaking book by Sir Ernest Gowers
"The Complete plain words": full text of the 1954 edition
"Sir Ernest (Arthur) Gowers (1880-1966)
British civil servant, and author of an influential work on English usage. He studied at Cambridge, and was called to the bar in 1906. After a distinguished career in the civil service, he wrote Plain Words (1948), ABC of Plain Words (1951) and The Complete Plain Words (1954) in an attempt to maintain standards of clear English, especially in official prose."
"Eats, shoots and leaves: the zero tolerance approach to punctuation"
Dedicated organisations and websites
Plain English Campaign (PEC)
- founded in 1979 by Chrissie Maher OBE
Wikipedia: page on Plain English Campaign (PEC)
Plain Language Commission - Director: Martin Cutts
Plain Language Association International (PLAIN)
"At the heart of clear writing across disciplines and around the world"
Membership association. The secretariat is in Canada
www.plainlanguage.gov
- a US government site
'Improving communication from the Federal government to the public'
Logo of US government website
Related page on our site
- Statistics - including a section on the presentation of information
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