Crowd Funding

[romany]

there seems to be a trend that if anything happens someone starts a crowd funding page, what started me thinking about it was the news that a colleague of the three BA workers who so tragically died has started a page which has raised so far £50,000 it raised many questions for me as although it is being done with the best intentions, where do you draw the line on these things, especially as raising money for one of my family who had maybe died in tragic circumstances would be slightly insulting to me that people would think money could replace or help with the grief. Also in many cases (not this one ) it appears to be the new way of begging and seems very under controlled and open to all sorts of abuse.
So what do others on here think

 

[Theonlysue]

There does seem to be more and more of it.
At the end of the day, it's your choice if you want to contribute or not.
I did come across one where I was very suspicious of the information offered to the point of questioning it on open forum.
I got a barrage of abuse from the beneficiary by pm, which I reported.
It all disappeared. So I really dont think it that particular case, it was genuine.

 

[Langtoftlad]

As an individual it's very difficult to help in tragic circumstances such as these but as part of a crowd you can make a difference.

Much like Motorhome Fun where total strangers come to the aid of others, BA crew are a "family of strangers"... so this fund raising comes as no surprise to me.
Of course no money can replace or compensate for the loss of a loved one but it is a demonstration of how colleagues care.

I don't know what the stated aim of this particular crowdfund is - I will find out - but perhaps the money might be spent on a memorial, or a charitable donation to a cause in the name of the deceased, or even to aid the rehabilitation of the fourth car passenger.

EDITED:
The original aim & target was very modest, to send a nice floral arrangement to each of the families and to support the crewmember in hospital.
Obviously that has now been revised in the light of the flood of small individual donations, and no decisions will be made until agreement is made with the families in due course.
I think the response has taken everyone a bit off-guard - though I'm personally not that surprised.

 

[old-mo]

So what do others on here think

If you don`t agree............ Don`t give...... and move on..... No one is being forced to donate... Every one is different and sees things in a different light..

 

[carolyn]

Perhaps it’s the modern day equivalent of all the flowers that were deposited after the death of Lady Di, that was unprecedented in the UK and started a trend of more public mourning. If it helps people to grieve then that’s their business not mine.

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[Wh05apk]

Romany, like you, I am a bit uncomfortable with this sort of thing, normally, an employee of a large company would receive 3-4x their salary as death in service, and hopefully if they had a mortgage or family would also have life cover in place, so money for the family would normally be the least of their worries.
To me there are far more "needy" causes to donate to, but as others have said it is your choice who/what/if anything to give to.

 

[Podney]

Depends where the money ends up.
Don’t forget that insurance will often be involved,and some employees will have death benefits as part of pension arrangements so survivors are protected.

 

[Langtoftlad]

It's not about the money... like carolyn posted... it's an expression of condolence, sympathy, grief.

 

[Jaws]

To me there are far more "needy" causes to donate to, but as others have said it is your choice who/what/if anything to give to.

You may have hit on something there
The UK public are in general a caring generous bunch of people, and it is almost part of the national make up to be charitable
But every day we are bombarded with 'save the donkey' save the wide mouthed frog' save the teenager' etc etc and it has had an adverse effect.
But the brit public still want to give, to help, to try and sort out the little peoples problems rather than give to some charity that is run by fat cats with big cars and houses

So when the opportunity to donate to to something that might help an individual rather than a faceless corporation we jump at it

Whether such things are done to salve our souls or something else does not matter.. The fact is we DO still care about folk in this country, and it IS still nice to realise we are a caring bunch

 

[Rosemary1]

The ones that concern me most (and therefore I just ignore) are the ones which are set up in response to people’s own personal problems. E.g. my cat needs an operation but I haven’t got insurance, a credit card, can’t pay. I went on holiday without having travel insurance as I couldn’t afford it and now have had an accident and need funds to pay the bills.

Also with some I would have concern where the money ends up - what controls are they that it isn’t a con (obviously not in the BA case) or someone gets greedy when the funds start coming in?

I’m the opposite and would prefer to give my money to a smaller registered charity who hopefully have these controls

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[Wild Brambles]

I'm interested in crowd funding a project that has a benefit for the donors. I'm exploring the possibility of crowd funding a woodland trust, and tokenising the contributions so that they can be transferred in the future. I'm not sure that crowd funding is a suitable way to make what are essentially charitable donations.

 

[BreweryDave]

The one recently set up for the girl in the rape/non rape trial in Cyprus was set up by her Solicitor to help with legal costs........in other words, to line his own pocket?

 

[Ivory55]

I'm interested in crowd funding a project that has a benefit for the donors. I'm exploring the possibility of crowd funding a woodland trust, and tokenising the contributions so that they can be transferred in the future. I'm not sure that crowd funding is a suitable way to make what are essentially charitable donations.

Are we allowed to join if we have a chain saw to gather for the wood burner. Haha

 

[Onemanandhisdog]

The news article I saw last night said after the floral tributes to each family the money would be distributed to charities of their choice, I hope this is the case.

 

[Euphony]

I’d appreciate someone setting up a Just Giving or Crowdfunding page for me, I’m in terrible need.
I need to sell my mortgage free 5 bedroom 17th century house and buy a 7 bedroom posh gaff. It would need Italian crystal chandeliers (probably just 4 at £280,000 each), a 6 car garage, 4 public rooms and ideally a ballroom big enough for 120 folk to Partaaaay. Ideally a few acres around to isolate us from the riffraff so let’s say a target of £5 million shall we (big houses are relatively inexpensive in Scotland)?
Now if all of you threw in, maybe; 25 grand each, that would get us started nicely. So if someone would just jog on and get that sorted, I would, in my abject poverty; very much appreciate it?
Thanks in advance.

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[chaser]

The news article I saw last night said after the floral tributes to each family the money would be distributed to charities of their choice, I hope this is the case.

Yes but the whole system is wrong, why does anyone give money to one thing just for it to be given away to another, been better to give it to a charity of your own choice in the first place.

 

[Langtoftlad]

Yes but the whole system is wrong, why does anyone give money to one thing just for it to be given away to another, been better to give it to a charity of your own choice in the first place.

Missing the point... these thousands of donations are generally small... given as a mark of respect or condolence, not specifically as a charitable gift.
As the amount of giving has taken everybody by surprise, it was initially intended to buy floral tributes from their crew colleagues.

Now, the organiser has to figure out what to do with this money - and he's said it will be used in accordance with the familys' wishes - which may or may not be a charitable donation.

 

[rangi]

Working on the Wharf, if a joker got killed at work we would all give a days pay, this was generally enough to pay off the mortgage, pay for the Funeral, and set aside the rest to a trust fund for his kids if they wanted to go to Uni later on in life.

When ever the local Catholic run Orphanage needed stuff, someone would organize to follow the pay truck around armed with a bucket, when we received our wage packet, we would up end it so that all the loose change would fall out into the bucket.

 

[Onemanandhisdog]

Yes but the whole system is wrong, why does anyone give money to one thing just for it to be given away to another, been better to give it to a charity of your own choice in the first place.

Because it gives the families, mothers, fathers, brothers sisters a chance to feel like they are doing something special at a really sh11ty time, you need to stop thinking of everything in pounds and pence, as someone already said, it is completely voluntary, it might make someone happy to donate and it might make the families feel something good has come from their loss, it isn't about replacing a child with money!

 

[romany]

Thanks for all your input folks It does concern me that the general answer to concerns about this type of funding is just dont give or ignore it which is what I do, but as my son found out he did a 24 hour sponsored run with one of these just give sites recommended or possible used by organiser (not sure which) and was shocked to discover they took over £100 out of the sponsorship so glad I payed him direct. Then there was the one for sponsoring a mans children's Xmas, another who just wanted a holiday, now these may have seemed like a genuine need to the people asking but who is making sure the money is going to genuine causes because in my experience the most generous are the ones who have very little themselves and often don't look carefully at whether its genuine or a scam or just plain begging.
Myself I have two charities that I help out with my time and also fund raise for and thats my limit I know them and I know the money goes where it should

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[chaser]

Because it gives the families, mothers, fathers, brothers sisters a chance to feel like they are doing something special at a really sh11ty time, you need to stop thinking of everything in pounds and pence, as someone already said, it is completely voluntary, it might make someone happy to donate and it might make the families feel something good has come from their loss, it isn't about replacing a child with money!

Never said anything about the money involved, what I was pointing out with something like this the donation you give is not necessarily going to where you meant it to, whereas if you give direct to the charity you choose it would be better served.

 

[westhamman]

I am loathed to give to charity where people at the top are on wages higher than the prime minister, I always remember buying a raffle ticket at a caravan show at Earl's court, it was so young people could go on tall ship holidays, on the tube on way home with nothing else to read, read the back of the ticket, 95% ot the ticket price went in administration costs. I would never give for well to be dug in Africa, after seeing a advert on tv but was happy to give money to a colleague who was going to Rwanda and could spend the money directly in country.

 

[Wh05apk]

I am loathed to give to charity where people at the top are on wages higher than the prime minister, I always remember buying a raffle ticket at a caravan show at Earl's court, it was so young people could go on tall ship holidays, on the tube on way home with nothing else to read, read the back of the ticket, 95% ot the ticket price went in administration costs. I would never give for well to be dug in Africa, after seeing a advert on tv but was happy to give money to a colleague who was going to Rwanda and could spend the money directly in country.

Some of my clients work for charities and have to agree the money is very lucrative.

 

[Sabino]

I can understand peoples concern, but no one is forced to pay.
When my granddaughter died last year my daughter and granddaughter had their hair cut and donated to a charity. This was to help the charity pay to convert the hair into wigs for children.
I posted on this site (motorhomefun) to ask if anyone one would like to contribute.
No one was forced and I'm sure that the 6 or 7 people who donated did so knowing where the money was going.
I thought I made it clear where the money was going. Maybe I didn't.