Red Cross Blogs

Should charities be ranked?

By Alix Miller
October 8, 2010 at 9:58 am

Do you think the Red Cross is a worthwhile cause? Should charities like the Red Cross be ranked according to their benefit to society? This was the controversial question posed by a leading advisor to some of Britain’s philanthropists recently who believes there should be a charity ‘league table’.

How this would be decided and by whom is up for debate. It’s difficult to imagine how this could possibly work in practice. After all how do you measure worthiness and isn’t it a subjective thing anyway?

Many people who give to charity are motivated by feeling an emotional affinity with the charities they support, or choose to support particular ones because they have directly benefited from them, so would they want or use this kind of information anyway?

If you or someone in your family suffered from cancer, you’d probably support cancer charities. Or – as is often the case at the Red Cross – you might have an instinctive response to a disaster like the recent Pakistan floods and be prompted to donate.

Equally, if your friend or a relative is taking on a fundraising event such as the London Marathon, you’ll happily fork out and trust that they are doing whatever it is for a worthwhile cause.

Eighty four per cent of our regular givers are happy for the Red Cross to decide where to spend their gift, which indicates a high level of trust. And maybe it’s more about building trust so that whichever charity people or organisations donate to, they feel certain their money will be used wisely. Sadly some – Bono’s One to name a recent case – come under fire for misusing or wasting funds.

That’s why we all need to strive for clarity, accountability and transparency. Read more about how the Red Cross uses its funds on our website. You can also see a summary of the income and expenditure of every registered charity in England and Wales, on the Charity Commission’s website.

But whether you decide to support us, cancer charities or donkey sanctuaries, surely that shouldn’t be determined by a definitive, moral chart but by personal preference.

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Tags: Emergencies, fundraising, Pakistan, Pakistan floods

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 8th, 2010 at 9:58 am and is filed under UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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