Another shakedown from DOGSTRUST

Hi,

Arriving home again at my cottage this weekend I discovered a further two appeal letters from DOGSTRUST. I am in receipt of these quite copiously throughout the year.
I work away from my home during the week at an accountancy practice in Suffolk so I cannot own a dog, but would love to – and indeed I am very fond of dogs. I have always donated well to DOGSTRUST in the past in the belief that they are always on their uppers and constantly in need of financial support.

Recently I have undertaken some financial work for a local charity and part of this involved filing their accounts with the Charity Commission. The Commission has a website where this is possible and where the general public can view the annual returns of any UK charity.

So; I checked the current state of affairs with DOGSTRUST only to find that contrary to being in dire financial straights these people have EIGHTY MILLION POUNDS on deposit in reserve PLUS a further TWENTY FOUR MILLION POUNDS set aside in reserve for “building”. I also noted the fact that they spent at least a third of their income last year in generating further income – and I ask – is this actually legal?

You can check the financial status yourself if you wish by using the following link;

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk

You then enter the name of the charity “DOGS TRUST” (charity number 227523).

It was my understanding – admittedly from my meagre knowledge of the rules and regulations – that charities were not allowed to manage their affairs in such a way and have to spend their incomes on their respective charitable missions.

Is it not time that these people used the enormous amount of money they have in their coffers to support the less-favoured and smaller rescue centres – those which are REALLY crying out for funds? Or, perhaps it is time that we ALL said NO!

I would urge you to copy this text and email it to anyone you may know who pays these people on a regular basis.

Dogs cost lots of money to feed/groom/insure fund vet bills ect considering the number of dogs they have in their care and keep up high standereds its not hard to see that the money probably runs out fairly quickly. If they started giving it away to other charatires their funds would soon drain their own dogs would end up trouble.

I think such a charity spends money well for what it has but I think its the RSPCA which probably has a lot more donated money should donate cash to the poorer kennels.

Sounds like a normal charity..
My wife was shocked that people got paid to work in oxfam shops and the chuggers worked on commission ..

Actually the Charities Commission information doesn't always paint the whole picture. If you are a member & write to them The Dog's Trust will send you their balance sheet & the amount specifically generated by advertising gives a good percentage.You are concerned they spent a third of their expenses on fundraising but it generated three times what they spent so it was money spent wisely Also there are two homes being rebuilt at the moment & others requiring updating so building funds have to be in place. What does surprise me is that such a large organisation only has 572 employees.

Right - but I think you missed my point. I think that an outfit with ONE HUNDRED MILLION POUNDS in the "kitty" should not be writing to us to say that they are desperate for money. Moreover, if they have that kind of money - and evidently they do - then they should be sharing with with some of the REALLY desperate rescue centres. What will happen the next time YOU get an appeal letter from them??

The Charities Commission DOES paint the whole picture. These are figures (books/returns) which are presented under legislation and must adhere to factuality - usually signed off by an Accountancy/Auditor.

There is no getting away from it, these are the facts. Go and take a look on the Charity Commission web site.

Actually, I don't care how much money they have in reserve........they do a wonderful job at a time when dogs are being abandoned in record numbers.

If they didn't keep asking for help, those reserves would very quickly dwindle.

Sorry, but I think that you are being unfair.

Interesting first post. Just out of curiosity, did you join Dogsey to chat to dog lovers about dogs or simply to comment on Dog Trust's finances?

Actualy I think you've missed the point, as you say you work in accountancy I would have thought that knowing the difference between 'capital' and 'income' would be obvious.

For a charity (or almost any organisation for that matter) the preservation of capital is paramount, it is from their capital that their long term income is derived and it's obvious that their income (just like mine and everyones) has taken a dive due to half per cent base rate.

Of course they would, and their income has taken a dive in the last year anyway due to interest rates being practically zero. What would you have them do, gamble it away on the stock market hord it by buying gold (Which earns no income) or give it to other charities which would reduce their ability to do the work they do even more since their income would be even less.

If the latter I could recommend several forums where he could go

I have been giving some thought to my will recently and while it definately will not be in the millions I want most of it to go to a good dogs charity and I want the wording of the will to ensure that no matter how much capital they have they only spend the income from such and never ever eat into the principal which would appear to be exactly what Dogs Trust are doing.

I think there's a hidden agenda behind the OP.

What hidden agenda? I'd say the agenda of register with dog sites (I'm willing to bet that the OP's registered on more than this one) purely to bash Dogs Trust is pretty blatantly open!