Nature Alert: Charities and YOUR money

Saturday 22 November 2008

Charities and YOUR money

UK Charities.

If you are curious to know more about the finances of a UK charity this link will take you to a web site. The rest is easy.
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/Registe
When looking at such finances on this web site or anywhere else, it might be an idea to not attach any importance to percentages spent on administration etc. Why? Because there is no golden rule on how these figures are arrived at, thus leaving room for possible creative accounting by some charities.

Looking at how much money they have in their bank account at year-end might be interesting. More than anything, does the charity in question REALLY do what it claims to? If you are giving it your hard earnt money you might want to make it your business to find out.

For US charities please click here. http://www.charitynavigator.org/

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.