Volunteers - have charities lost the plot?

Not quite the same, but I was once horrified at the amount a large charity had been spending on a previous mystery shopping programme.

That is a very difficult question. It's been mentioned many times here that charity managers earn large salaries. But at the end of the day, we must not lose touch with the ultimate aim of a charity, to raise as much as possible for the cause. Paying a good manager, with excellent qualification and experience, can make a HUGE difference to the amount raised, and really improve the prospects for the recipients of the charity. So it is difficult to say it is wrong, really. I know some youngsters who did they Masters at the same time as my daughter who now work for large charities to achieve this. They do earn a good salary, but for their education ane experience, a much much lower salary than their friends who went into the Professions or other businesses- and do a brilliant job of raising much larger sums than otherwise would be the case.

I can understand your frustration kitty, but if they have made a real study of changes required to maximise profit (and it is what it is all about- more help can be given with larger sums)- then maybe it is worth being open to new business minded ideas.

Reminds me of the first 'Bring and Buy' coffee morning I went to when we lived in Staffs. I brought a jar of Nescafé Gold- can't remember the price, but say it was £3.50- so the host said, OK, put a sticker for £2.00. I was taken aback- I said 'but it is for charity so it should be more, not less'... She looked at me as if I had gone mad. A friend had spent, again can't remember figures, but say £5.00 on lovely wool, and spent weeks knitting the most beautiful, intricate, lacy, baby matinee jacket- and the host stuck a £3.00 sticker on it. AGain, when I said it did not make sense- it would be better to give the money direct, and save all the hassle, the reply was 'ah but this is not in the spirit of the thing, is it'. It has stuck in my mind- as for me, raising as much moeny as poss was more important (it was OXFAM)...

I work in a charity shop, and am amazed at some of the prices for the old 'junk' but people aren't prepared to pay even for the cost of the materials for beautifully made new stuff

A lot of fundraising is contracted out to private enterprise as some charities are 'big business' and can no longer rely on donations or volunteers for all their fundraising, although the volunteers continue to do a sterling job and are the backbone of the charities.

Unfortunately this has led to all these 'mailshots' we receive which make many of us cross as we can't support them all and they go into the recycling bin. What a waste of money.
It has also led to a certain impersonal attitude. For instance, trying to remove the name of a deceased off their mailing lists, leading to distress for the bereaved as the demands continue to arrive.

It must be disheartening as a volunteer to have to stick to a (possibly politically correct) agenda causing some rigidity which may not always be beneficial when trying to help people.

DH volunteers for a big organisation, but I prefer to help a smaller project as well as donations to others.

I think you have made a very valid point phoenix and it exemplifies the sort of thing I am talking about!

Granjura - from personal experience, the amount paid to CEOs and other directors does not necessarily reflect their ability to do the job. Middle 'managers' and office staff are paid appallingly and given huge amounts of responsibility with very little supervision, are subject to covert bullying which, in my case, was passed onto the volunteers! Luckily, I could walk - most of the staff can't. Nor did the upper tier of managers want to know about the things that were going on lower down the ladder - it might reflect badly on them - in fact it does!!

I can't comment on Bring and Buy sales - they have not been my scene for quite a while.

My sister has worked for a charity for a long time but recently they really have been taking the mickey, she started off doing one day a week but as they lost some of their volunteers the manager started asking my sister to do more and more days saying she wouldn't be able to open the shop if she, my sister, couldn't do more days.. she has spoken up to say she really can't do more but the woman keeps ringing and pleading on the phone for my sister to just come in to cover for lunches etc... my sister is now contemplating giving up as she feels she is being used somewhat.

Kitty, I suspect that the inflexibility stems from managers not accounting for volunteers having the necessary skills and thus they are supplying scripts rather than ensuring their training and recruitment programmes are robust. As a volunteer I find it quite insulting that prior experience is often overlooked due to such inflexible attitudes

GA, the managers should expect a volunteer of 14 years experience, who has been on every training course available, to know what they are doing! Although there were other issues, for example - the manager holding tarot card readings in the office, during office hours.

kitty that beggars belief.

I'm extremely cynical I'm afraid. I've had an experience where someone established a charity, submitted a bid for a large sum of money from an overseas humanitarian society, got the bid.

Immediately appointed a friend Chief Executive at a salary that took up a third of the money (she did nothing significant), then allocated most of the rest of the money for other management salaries, and then found and got some poor suckers to "volunteer" to do the rest of the work for free e.g. build and run a website which was part of the deliverables. The whole thing has now run out of steam after 3 years, and did not achieve much so have not been funded for another stretch. But in the meanwhile, nice money if you can get it.

Kitty

I say well done to you and any other GN if you volunteer.

I am a charity shop Queen and I know in my local are which shop has a nice manager and happy staff and the ones where everybody looks a little sullen. The latter are usually the ones who have higher prices and not very gracious when you hand 'stuff' in. There are two shops in particular I find the staff to be very snooty.

Believe me or not but I do usually say thank you when I leave a charity shop as I do appreciate the staff are probably volunteers, giving up their time to keep it going. I do get very cross when I hear somebody spoken to badly and I say something, most annoying, I wonder if some people appreciate you are volunteers the way they behave.

Slightly off agenda but my pet hate, which I have spoken of before on GN, is the Head Office instruction to shops to keep the blasted front door open and the heating on full. GRRRR. It's all about making money not squandering it surely. At least the shops I have mentioned this to have all said it was a Head Office instruction.

I am sorry to say this but I do find some shops are being run as a business and to be frank I feel it has taken the enjoyment out of looking for a bargain. I like the odd back street, independent shop that just bungs it all on display, much more fun to browse around.

Mary Portas has a lot to answer for on the subject of charity shops.

My local Bethany Shop used to have a lovely manager who always said hello, thanked you for your donations, even if they were admittedly just a few bits and pieces that you wanted rid of, and had two windows stuffed with all kinds of interesting objects, which made you feel you wanted to go in and see what was inside.

She retired, and I have never seen her successor. One window contains a mannequin in a smart dress with an expensive-looking scarf around her neck, a pair of high boots standing in one corner and a hat and a pair of gloves in the other. The other has an elegant table with two or three pieces of china on it. No toys, no books, no small kitchen appliances, no ornaments. Tres chic, tres barren.

I have never been tempted in, and have never seen anyone else enter or leave. I handed in some things to a bored-looking young man at the counter, who looked as though he wasn't sure what to do with them. The shop was empty.

I lugged two boxes of books to our local Oxfam shop (no parking nearby) to be told 'oh, he doesn't want paperbacks unless they are the very latest published in the last 6 months'. I took them to another shop who were very grateful.
Personally, I would look round charity shops to find out-of-print paperbacks in a series I was reading.

Just to point out that there are loads more volunteering opportunities than charity shops.

I hit on a position which I had not known existed until my exDiL used them and told me about them. I thoroughly enjoyed it, made a big contribution to the lives of some vulnerable people and I was bl***y good at it. The management lost sight of the people they were supposed to be there for as well as the volunteers on whom the organisation relied!

Sorry, I'm grinding my own axe here!!

Kitty an acquaintance of mine worked for the Alzheimers Society for years.
I'm not sure exactly what her role was (it wasn't a shop)and I'm not sure if she was paid or the work was voluntary.
But she felt she was making a valuable contribution, both for the sufferers and their carers. It was a very locally based thing, but then it was decided from on high to 'streamline' and make 'efficiency changes' and the local branch was lost and my friend's services no longer required.
Disillusioned wasn't the word.

When it comes to paying relatively large salaries to senior staff working for charities, it should be remembered that a huge part of the income to large charities is from corporate sponsors. For example, Great Ormond Street's Wishing Well appeal had almost reached its target before it was even opened to the general public.

All the staff in my Hospice retail shop, aka charity shop, are leaving this Saturday. That's the two managers and all the volunteers. We were a successful shop with beautiful windows that encouraged people in. We got a lot of really great donations which we sorted steamed and priced ourselves. We had very high standards and kept a attractive shop.
Then it all changed to central sorting which has resulted in rubbish coming back. We have a huge picture in the window that totally draws the eye from the one model that we are allowed.
As there is nothing attractive in the window and the stock is not as good as it used to be sales have gone down.
The paid staff have been told to accept new contracts or leave. They are leaving. All autonomy has been leached away from them and their knowledge of local shoppers needs disregarded. I feel sorry for the charity it seems desperate to increase takings but everything they do reduces it. If I had run my business the way they do everyone would be out of work.

Unfortunately there are a lot of retired people who are unfullfilled especially having no one to boss around anymore. These are ruining the charity shops. I wanted once to work in Oxfam and when I walked in I could hear the supervisor( probably has a title these days) anyway she was telling the others what to do in such a dictatorial fashion, I slunk out of the shop and didn't apply after all.
Nowadays I find the things overpriced and the staff busy with their own matters and usually having a conversation which you have to interrupt to make a purchase.
As many have already mentioned, the windows are not appealing. Charity shops appeal to someone hunting for a bargain and that is what is missing these days.

I suspect you'll find Margaret that the managers are paid and subject to pressure from above!

Are there any charities that help the folk who have to do the ATOS ''tests'' ?

All these stories of shops closing and volunteers leaving are quite tragic. I tried to explain why it is important to pay a decent salary to attract experienced and well qualified people to put together strategies to actually make more money for said charities- but not if this is the result.
It must be very frustrating when you've put so much time and effort in doing an excellent job before. Kitty, I feel your frustration, and hope you find a way to put over your views and disappointment to the managers, and make them listen. Bonne chance.

leokath, it depends what you mean by 'help'. I think you would find the CAB both helpful and sympathetic to people who have to undergo these tests.

I was laughing one day in Oxfam. An African mum was trying to negotiate the price for some children's clothes. The assistant, in her 80s I'd guess, with a rather posh voice, said to her "No you can't have a reduction. We're not a bazaar!" What a charmer. Definitely one for a back room role I'd say.

I volunteered for ten years for a charity (no names!) and as kitty says it became more and more like a business with all the usual management speak - targets, evaluations, customer focus etc. AS the number of directors grew, the number of HR people grew. The volunteers were expected to go on courses such as "customer service". After dealing with phone calls and visitors, often very vulnerable, for many years the older volunteers felt quite insulted. I don't volunteer there any more.

The autonomy of the charity shop managers, who knew their locals has been steadily eroded by central managers who, frankly, haven't a clue.
Each area has a type of person who donates and a range of people who buy. They seem to fit together into a great team raising money. This local focus has gone so you end up with the wrong products and approach in the wrong shop. We had been told that each customer had to generate £30. What a ridiculous figure mostly it's less than £10. We have all left.