Comic Relief money invested in arms and tobacco shares

I don't give to charities any more, we never see what actually gets done with the money, it just appears on TV every year but you don't see any happy stories about a new water well being dug in Africa for a small village etc, it's just like Christian Bale once said as Bruce wayne ''if you need help, let me throw you a fundraiser'' - corporate bull s***!
 
It's hardly surprising that charities invest in profitable businesses, as they want to make sure that they achieve the greatest ROI for the investment...personally I really don't see the big issue
 
MWHCVT said:
It's hardly surprising that charities invest in profitable businesses, as they want to make sure that they achieve the greatest ROI for the investment...personally I really don't see the big issue
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indeed.

a little pot and kettle investing in companies that cause issues that they are raising money for. but like you say they usually offer the best returns on investment.
 
I suppose there will people that just don't agree with the ethics of it but as I haven't donated, then it's not really going to hurt me :D

Personally I think the elderly deserve more donations, people just don't give a flying fraggle anymore!
 
Flightphoto said:
I suppose there will people that just don't agree with the ethics of it but as I haven't donated, then it's not really going to hurt me :D

Personally I think the elderly deserve more donations, people just don't give a flying fraggle anymore!
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Agreed. The Government pumps millions every year into Africa and such like in so called 'aid'. What happens to that?? Do you think that goes on wells, condoms and fishing nets or rockets and guns? I won't ever donate to charity unless it's a pretty much home grown one for the benefit of British causes. RSPB (longstanding member), Help for Heroes, and I'll chuck a few bob into the Sally Army tins at Xmas time too etc etc.
 
This is a non story / aka another puff for Panodrama.

If you looked hard at the accounts of any business with a turnover of 1 billion then you'd find that at some point they put money in arms/tobacco/alcohol. In fact if you've ever bought a tracker investment then so have you and if you haven't it's 99.9% certain that any managed investment you've bought has been invested in this way at some point. Arms, tobacco and alcohol produce great returns on the stock market so if you don't tell your fund manager not to put money there then he's going to.

None of my money is in any of these but that's because I've actively avoided them. And yeah, the returns are often lousy. If Comic Relief had done the same then Panodrama could have run a programme on how they had squandered returns they could have made by shying away from top performing funds. In fact seeing it's about 1% of the money they have invested for a period of 2 years then the Beeb could actually run both allegations at once.

It used to be a good programme but after their woefully stupid attack on Amazon* the other week I wouldn't expect any better from them.

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*There are lots of reasons for having a moan at Amazon, but not rehiring people who don't turn up for work seems one of the silliest.
 
Surely charities aren't given money to invest, they're given money to do good deeds with here and now.
I don't want them to be sitting on vast piles of money, it's not a business. They seem more obsessed with the task of raising ever increasing funds than doing the charitable work they were founded for.
 
Bill Roberts said:
Surely charities aren't given money to invest, they're given money to do good deeds with here and now.
I don't want them to be sitting on vast piles of money, it's not a business. They seem more obsessed with the task of raising ever increasing funds than doing the charitable work they were founded for.
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In a perfect world you would think this is how it happens, not so... big money attracts money peddlers and middlemen keen to skim off what they can in the name of the free market economy.
I've never given a bean to charity and feel no guilt at all....but have worked for a major charity tasked with helping older folk with their diy problems...if your 85 changing a light bulb in winter is a massive task.
 
Oh I've no illusions about a perfect world Bill. It's a shame though.
 
JonathanRyan said:
This is a non story / aka another puff for Panodrama.
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Definitely, they headline the "arms companies" which turns out to be BAE Systems, the company that produces most of the UK's defence equipment. They produce the Typhoon and Tornado, the Type 45 destroyers, the new aircraft carriers and submarines.

Hardly an evil Hollywood style arms dealer.
 
BRASH said:
Agreed. The Government pumps millions every year into Africa and such like in so called 'aid'. What happens to that?? Do you think that goes on wells, condoms and fishing nets or rockets and guns? I won't ever donate to charity unless it's a pretty much home grown one for the benefit of British causes. RSPB (longstanding member), Help for Heroes, and I'll chuck a few bob into the Sally Army tins at Xmas time too etc etc.
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Agree. Aside from Poppy appeal I don't give to any charity... basically as the government think its right to use my tax to give foreign aid to countries like India with their space program. Too many charities too imo, every week I seem to get asked to donate to Movember/marathon run/Comic Relief etc...
 
Bill Roberts said:
Oh I've no illusions about a perfect world Bill. It's a shame though.
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Agree entirely, giving money to charity is now big business, giving your own time is more difficult but more rewarding and gets a direct result. I once went to see an old boy (ex serviceman) who's toilet flush was knackerd giving him a lot of grief flushing with a heavy bucket of water that he spilled often, we had it sorted in an hour..made a big difference to him we also got SSAFA to help with some of his money problems. Less than 90 mins effort in total
 
Bill Roberts said:
Surely charities aren't given money to invest, they're given money to do good deeds with here and now.
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Yes and no. As I understand it (and I've never been a fan of Comic Relief) they have a jamboree every other year and raise massive amounts of money. This presumably trickles in over 3 months or so. They of course support work throughout that 2 year period since it's a very bad idea to concentrate aid into a small part of the year and then abandon the projects until they have some more money.

That leaves them with 3 months of income for 24 months of expenditure.

If they just stuffed it under the bed then Panodrama would be right to investigate.
 
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Saved me typing similar! Sat in a bank for the interim effectively costs money while interest rates are below inflation so any investment that gives a return better than inflation is a better bet. As has been said, the higher paying funds tend to have stakes in possibly less ethical sectors and as a result give those better returns.
 
BRASH said:
Agreed. The Government pumps millions every year into Africa and such like in so called 'aid'. What happens to that?? Do you think that goes on wells, condoms and fishing nets or rockets and guns? I won't ever donate to charity unless it's a pretty much home grown one for the benefit of British causes. RSPB (longstanding member), Help for Heroes, and I'll chuck a few bob into the Sally Army tins at Xmas time too etc etc.
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Well uk charities have highly paid staff
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...over-100k-a-year-at-best-known-charities.html
 
Dave1 said:
Definitely, they headline the "arms companies" which turns out to be BAE Systems, the company that produces most of the UK's defence equipment. They produce the Typhoon and Tornado, the Type 45 destroyers, the new aircraft carriers and submarines.

Hardly an evil Hollywood style arms dealer.
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This is BAe who were/are being investigated by the serious fraud squad for arms deals to Chile, Czech Republic, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tanzania and Qatar. Playing devils advocate, some might say as the worlds third largest arms dealer they've attracted a lot of dissenters over some of their customers and the uses their products are put to.

Just goes to show when you try to mix morals with money how difficult it can be. But it does sell newspapers and makes tv programmes
 
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