Blog Action Day: Shelter, a conversation

Morning, October 15th, Blog Action Day
An instant messenger conversation

[10:02:53] Stuart Fowkes says: did you read my blog action day post?

[10:03:26] CatherineBray says: I did, it is very good

[10:03:34] Stuart Fowkes says: (blush) thanks. better than that film i saw last night. worst. zombie film. ever.

[10:03:40] CatherineBray says: i haven’t done mine yet. i want to write about where the triathlon money that people helped me raise for shelter actually went, and  i can’t find on the shelter website the what-can-this-money-do type statistics. you know, the £15-for-a-new-eye-for-the-boy type thing

[10:04:13] Stuart Fowkes says: there may not be any on their site?

[10:04:18] CatherineBray says: booooooooooo

[10:04:45] Stuart Fowkes says: they probably don’t have discrete items that can be bought, as much of their work is funding projects, research, campaigning work etc. e.g. they can’t tell us specifically where audioscope funds go

[10:05:14] CatherineBray says:  the what-they-will-do-with-the-money aspect seems to be lacking then. that’s off-putting

[10:05:53] Stuart Fowkes says: off-putting in terms of your blog or more generally?

[10:06:04] CatherineBray says: more generally. i think one of the most effective things charities can do is tell you where your money is going, or better, show you

[10:06:26] Stuart Fowkes says: really? isn’t it about finding a charity you trust and trusting them to do the right thing with the money?

[10:06:40] CatherineBray says: maybe but what is that trust built on? Their good name? I’m not saying I want a receipt, more like examples of what it could be being used for

[10:07:24] Stuart Fowkes says: for most people i guess you would need some evidence of the kind of good thing donations has done for them in the past. and yes, what it could be used for is one thing, but for someone like shelter, it’s probably not an exchange mechanism as simple as ten quid = five buckets.  it’s the whole ‘unrestricted money’ thing for oxfam too. we want all money to go into our overall pot so it can go where it’s most needed. but most donors want it to go to people they can see in a community they can pinpoint to feel more like they’ve made a concrete difference.

[10:09:58] CatherineBray says: ah wait, I’ve just found their 12 point plan. it’s good, it says what they actually want to do

[10:10:02] Stuart Fowkes says: ooh, send me link

[10:10:20] CatherineBray says: http://media.shelter.org.uk/content/detail.asp?NewsAreaID=1&ReleaseID=323 it suggests changes in government strategy and guidelines for landlords, mortgage lenders etc

[10:10:02] Stuart Fowkes says: also, http://england.shelter.org.uk/about_us/how_we_make_a_difference

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So I’d like to thank the 32 people who helped me raise money for Shelter when I did the Brighton Novice Triathlon last month (if you’ve not seen the page, click the link, there’s a scary picture). We’ve raised almost £300 pounds so far, and the donation page will be open until December if you’d still like to donate. That £300 will be used in the long term to research where housing policy needs to change and to lobby MPs to make that happen, and we have to trust that this is how it is used – if we demand concrete evidence all the time, we aren’t helping the long-term work of charities, which is necessary to build real change. In the short term, on the other hand, that money is used to provide practical on-the-ground aid to people in Britain like Shelter case-study Michelle and her children, who in order to escape a violent relationship had to move into housing infested with cockroaches and mice. That particular money may not effect long-term change nationwide, but for the lives of this small group of people, it makes all the difference in the world.

For charities, spending money is a balancing act aimed at ensuring that fundraising is never a wasted effort.

For us, that means giving money to charity is win-win, helping create both long and short term changes in the world.

[Someone having more fun with poverty-blogging: Dan, who's done a top ten horror films featuring poverty]