Vasgrav’s Weblog


What’s new in Charities?
March 9, 2008, 4:52 am
Filed under: N.P.D | Tags: , , , , , , ,

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I was in the Centre of Bath when a guy for the ActionAid stopped me… I was sure that he wanted money for his organization… In the moment I though to move, to bother him, but after I said “Ok” lets listened him… I was correct…”we are from the actioaid…..blabla…do you want to give money… Finally I said “No” and I felt guilty that I didnt…. But wait… All the time we associate a problem in Africa with these organizations (Oxfam, UNICEF, ActionAid…) and of course to donate money… As a result people bored these kinds of movements and they need something new…

All the charities say to you “Give or Volunteer”…. But they dont have problem with the money…. They earn billions each year… So the problem is not the money…. The problem is that we have associated the “charities” with donate money…. As a result ,young people, students who cant afford or maybe sometimes are suspicious for the charities they dont care about them… But all the young people spend hours and hours in social networking places and sometimes they discuss about the causes and problems that they have…

So maybe the next generation of the charities will be “The Facebook in the road”…!!!

This charity will not have logo… Its message is “NOT MONEY – ONLY TIME”… Its members will be young people who are implement their skills to find a solution in a problem….And this problem will be a local problem… Because a worldwide problem is divided in small local problems… So this charity will show to the members and to the publicity “What is the problem? And what is the solution?” And the most important…We can solve it with NO MONEY….Only WITH our TIME



Charities in UK {Territory}
March 9, 2008, 2:20 am
Filed under: N.P.D, N.P.D - Territory | Tags: , , , , , , ,

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When you begin to understand a new territory you have to approach it from different areas. Definition, History, Present, Statistics, Financials Reports, Trends and finally the Results are the steps that you have to follow and to illustrate this area…My territory is “Charities in UK”…

1. Definition: Charity is an non-profit organization which is founded to promote the public good and to undertake activities that contribute to society.

2. History: Charities were founded in UK in 16th centuries and the first charitable activities were

  • a). The relief of poverty – b). The advancement of education – c). The advancement of religion

3. Present: Today in UK there are 190.000 charities which are separated in 3 categories:

  • charities with annual income more than 10.000 pounds and are required to register to charity commission
  • small charities which called (excepted charities)
  • large charities which are registered by other agencies (exempt charities)

In these research there are some statistics about the number of charities in each region of UK. Above there is a table.

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4. Causes

In this area there is not any official report which mention the “official” causes that charities are looking to tackle. Usually the most common are: mediacal research, health, animals, overseas, religious, disabled, climate change, education, environment, elderly, young people.etc… But some of them can be involved in the same category… So I try to categorized them in 6 categories…

  1. Health
  2. Human Services
  3. Animals
  4. Environment
  5. Cultural – Arts – Sports
  6. Religious

The charities are brands. They have logo, products, strategy, visions, missions, campaigns, audience and some of them shops. There is a big market. In the same time they use the media (TV, Radio, Magazines and Internet to promote their campaigns). What is quite interesting in this point is that the consumers dont have a clear view about the products. We can see that charities “sell” two kinds of products:

1st degree product – causes – activities and services which undertake to tackle the problem

2st degree productclothes, cd’s, books and generally “second hand” stuff

5. Statistics – Financials Reports

The National Trust (352 millions pounds) and the Oxfam (290 millions pounds) are the charities which have the highest total income in UK. (source “Top Charities Financials 2005”

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Also some more statistics about “Giving in UK 2006/07 ”

  • 9,5 bn pounds giving for charities
  • 54% of the public gave to the charities
  • 53% women – 48% men
  • 59% a group of people aged (45 – 65) like to donate to charities
  • 17% prefer to donate to “medical research” – 13% young people
  • People prefer to give “cash” source:

“UK Giving 2006/07”

6. Trends

  • Ribbon Culture

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The people prefer to wear a symbol (like a ribbon), because it gives to them awareness. They feel that they are a part of a social group. In the same time this symbol is a way to avoid somebody who try to inform them in the road for maybe a different cause.

Something similar to the ribbon culture is the anti-poverty movement “MakePovertyHistory”, which use the white band as a symbol against the poverty.

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  • Fairtrade

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The products with the fairtrade mark symbolized the fair trade on the south.

  • Charities – Life Style

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Some of the charities try to create a life style. They provide services (p.x Oxjam Festival) as a way to raise money and to approach a different audience (young people).

People dont trust the charities. They dont want to give money for something that they dont know really well and in the same time they dont trust them. What is the problem?? What is the gap??