Serious thought/question

Today, like many others, I stood in the freezing cold, wind,rain etc. rattling my bucket, collecting for the cause. Whilst doing this, as always, I was humbled by the generosity of the British Public, but it did make me think. Everyday, in every location, there are people collecting for numerous deserving charities .Stand there, with a bucket and the public will give.Whilst I'm sure the vast majority of collectors are genuine committed people, how easy it would be for an unscrupulous person to collect for theirselves under the banner of a charity that the public support or just skim some off the top.Am I becoming too cynical or does this happen?And before I get adverse comments , I stress this is not aimed at the Rally crews, who all do a tremendous job. Just my cynical mind working.

It happens.
You only have to look at the rouge charity clothes collection scams which are apparently very common and big business.

Im sure it must happen in all areas to some degree, from taking cash for the odd cup of tea, to a little 'skim' to cover expenses, to out and out plain theft.

Again, not aimed at any of us but its a big bad world out there

I'm sure it does happen to some degree or another. Unfortunately, a sad fact of life.
Would be nice to be able to do something about it.

Unfortunately the checks and balances that would be needed to ensure total and complete honesty for every collector for every charity and good cause would have to be so draconian that they would have a negative result on the total amount raised.

Sad but true I'm afraid.

A bogus Help for Heroes collector was discovered in Hyde, home of such luminaries as Harold Shipman and Ian Brady,   a couple of years ago. The crowd where not kind to him before the police were summoned to the scene.   At his trial it turned out that he had used this front to collected a considerable amount each time he went out over quite a long period of time, I do not know what happened to the money, but I suspect it went on booze, gambling, etc.
He got sent down for several years!

It's a sad fact of life that such misappropriations will happen; and we trust in all the rally crews. It is also one of the reasons that we ask the rally crews to plan ahead, to contact shops, malls etc and 'book early'; and supply identification to the store re their bona fides.
Sussex4Heroes were at Sainsbury's yesterday - all planned and booked. Quite ironically, the weekend before last, the store contacted me (because I was included in the S4H letter of authority) to ask if the 'lonely H4H collector' was 'one of ours' as he had turned up unannounced at the store. Of course he wasn't. I offered to liaise with H4H if the store could provide further details on who he was - but heard nothing back.

We find the support of our local co-ordinators invaluable. They 'confirm' who we are and support us in our collecting. We do count up together when we have been on joint 'ops', which helps. The audit trail is important, matching up the excel to bmycharity and also we now pay direct into Lloyds H4H account as this precludes any FSA concerns about money laundering. That was highlighted by HSBC when we used to pay into our account and then straight out into bmycharity online.
There are a few 'independent' collectors and when we see tins out we always check the name on the bottom and contact the co-ordinators. If the tin is not known they will go and remove it and leave contact details with the store. Needless to say no one comes forward to claim it!!

When I started collection for H4H I got a unique collection reference number and a letter confirming that I was registered with H4H from "The Tin Hut".
I laminated a copy and display it every where I collect, as this gives my reference number and the Tin Hut contact number for all to see and make enquirers if they want. I also include it in all the literature I send out, and as far as I know my right to collect for H4H has never been questioned.
I also attached a copy to my application for a street collection license so that they can check to see if I am kosher.