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Make sure you are giving to
a charity
LIVERPOOL people are being asked to
make sure money they give in street collections is going to genuine charities.
The warning comes after there have recently been a number of collectors in the
city centre and outside football grounds who appear to be raising funds for
charity but who are actually selling magazines which have a free "gift"
item.
While people think they may be paying for these items to help legitimate
charities they are actually paying for a periodical with very little, if any,
money going to a charity.
When challenged the collectors say they are merely raising awareness of a cause
or condition and they claim the person giving a donation is buying a magazine.
Sales of newspapers and periodicals in the streets does not require a permit and
providing any person buying it is doing so in the full knowledge of the fact and
not under the misunderstanding that their purchase or donation is going towards
any particular charitable cause there is no issue.
If unsure people are being encouraged to ask the details of the charity that
their donation is going towards.
Genuine charities will have a permit, which their collectors will show on
request, and their collections boxes or tins will display the name of the
charity and its registration number.
Councillor Frank Hont, cabinet member, said:-
"If the name of the charity is not clearly displayed you should always ask for
it to be named and to see the permit. If the person collecting does not
have a permit or anything showing that the charity has been properly registered
then we strongly advise you not to give anything to them however worthy the
cause may appear to be. The reality is that any money given is almost certainly
going into somebody's back pocket rather than charity. Not only is this
exploiting people's generosity but it may make people far less inclined to give
to real charities so we would urge everybody to make sure they do not give any
money to bogus organisations."
Anybody who has concerns over a particular collector can report the matter to
Liverpool City Council on:- 0151 233 3015. |
