Chugging again.

Now that the old British Waterways is no more and the Canal and Rivers Trust has taken charge. I like many other people have some doubts about how well the route to funding via charitable donation will perform. Chugging the first time around did not perform very well, so CaRT are having another go. This time recruiting their own chuggers. Well it will give volunteers something to do if they run out of litter to pick.

The Charities Aid Foundation has published research showing that more recent generations are failing to match the generosity of people born in the inter-war years. The research showed there was a generation gap in charitable activity and giving, with young people less involved in charities than older generations when they were a similar age.

One in ten charities fear they'll have to close their doors this year, partly because of government cuts to their budgets. The warning comes as a widely-predicted black hole in funding for charities begins to take affect, with organisations experiencing a long period of uncertainty. This is the rump end of Cameron's 'Big Society' initiative that failed to get off the ground. 

It says a lot that David Cameron has not used the words "Big Society" in a speech for nearly two years, in fact it's hard to remember the last time any of the ministers actually working on the project used the phrase. One of its biggest proponents, David Cameron's director of strategy Steve Hilton, left government for a sabbatical, amid reports of cross-words with senior civil servants and ministers.

There are those who feel charity fund raising should only be for "good causes" and as such CART should not be chugging the high street  Raising funding at the expense of charities that provide for the homeless, the disabled and for research into disease.

There are more than 160,000 charitable organisation in the UK. Between them they have a turnover of 37 billion pounds per year. Many of these organisations are household names such as:- Cancer Research UK, Help the Homeless, MacMillan, Save the Children, Salvation Army, Oxfam, The British Red Cross Society, NSPCC, RNLI, The British Heart Foundation and Barnardos to name just a few.

So it would be very difficult to list all the charities. If we break down charities by groupings we might stand a much better chance of getting a meaningful selections of alternatives. So the litmus test could be a blend of charitable groupings.

Disease Research. (Cancer Research, AIDS Research, etc)

Child Charities. (NSPCC, Barnardos etc)

International Aid. (Oxfam, Red Cross etc)

Animal Welfare. (RSPCA, RSPB etc)

Human Rights. (Amnesty International, etc)

Preservation. (Canal and Rivers Trust, National Trust etc )

The scenario is simple - Joe in the street has a single donation of £3 per month to give to a charitable organisation.  So here is the question. "Which grouping would Joe choose." Disease Research. (Cancer Research, AIDS Research, etc) Child Charities. (NSPCC, Barnardos etc) International Aid. (Oxfam, Red Cross etc) Animal Welfare. (RSPCA, RSPB etc) Human Rights. (Amnesty International, etc) Preservation. (Canal and Rivers Trust, National Trust etc)

Yes, its obvious.... it is not going to be CaRT. Unless you have an overriding reason, such as owning a boat. Guess who it is that seems to be at odds with many boaters.

Later...