Almost £6,000 raised for typhoon appeal
Rosalind Griffiths
Donations totalling nearly £6,000 poured in over the weekend for the Red Cross’s appeal for the Philippines, left devastated by typhoon Haiyan.
The charity had a table at the entrance of Tesco on Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday, and received many other financial donations too, including £958 through the shop.
Pupils at Brae High School raised £150, and presented a cheque to Shetland Red Cross representative Nicola Stove on Wednesday.
The Anderson High School’s social subjects department is also organising a collection, and church groups and workplaces are embracing the appeal by having bake sales and other activities. Red Cross money boxes have gone out to members of the public, workplaces and shops. Ms Stove said: “The public’s been fantastic. There’s been a phenomenal amount donated.”
Other donations have included two sheep, butchered at the abattoir, given to the Red Cross to be sold locally. Ms Stove said the fund-raising had been “a huge creative effort.”
However it got off to a shaky start last weekend, when it almost seemed as if there were too many fund-raisers at Tesco. A school group was bag-packing for their own funds, which had been arranged months in advance, in accordance with the store’s procedures, and on Friday evening Filipina women turned up to bag-pack too. Having bag-packed for around three hours they were eventually asked to stop by a member of staff, as it transpired they had no insurance. Ms Stove called it a “misunderstanding”.
She thanked everyone who gave up their time to collect last weekend, and added that the Filipina community would be collecting in Commercial Street tomorrow, coinciding with the start of Living Lerwick’s Winter Festival.
Other Red Cross events will be pub collections next Friday, a family quiz night at the Masonic Hall on 6th December and a pop-up sale, with a date to be confirmed. Ms Stove said that 100 per cent of donations to the Red Cross would go to the Philippine appeal.
In other donations, the Rotary Club raised £1,200 in a raffle at its cheese and wine party on Friday night, with proceeds going towards ShelterBoxes for the typhoon appeal (see separate story).
Meanwhile Robert Williamson, who was in the Philippines with his Filipina wife Edna when the typhoon struck, has set up an appeal to direct money to one specific area where the couple have connections. They have so far raised almost £300. Donate here.
Iain Adam
Most of what was raised will be swallowed up on admin costs – the so called “Red Cross” benefits the CEO and his cronies. Look into it ! Believe me.
Brian Smith
‘Admin Costs’ is a brilliant excuse for refraining from giving.
John N Hunter
The Red Cross’s 2012 accounts show donations of £200 million and admin costs of £11.1 million. Hardly swallowing it up!
Robert Duncan
According to Charity Navigator the Red Cross gets about 90% of its money to good causes (link: https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3277) which is reasonably good going for such a large, global organisation. Admin costs are 4% and fundraising costs 5%.
I remember an email chain a while back about an ex-CEOs large pay off, which Snopes suggest is partly based in truth, but they’re still very effective fundraisers.
Tom Jenkinson
I am a Volenteer with the British Red Cross. Unpaid volenteers like most of us are. All these Neggetive Comments do not help. The money collected goes to the Victims. Money that is raised covering public event first aid pays for training, equipment, Uniforms and transportation. There are a hand full of part time staff that get paid a salary.Hope this helps . Sad that folk feel this way towards an organisation that save lives and give up a good chunk of there time to help others.