Subscribe to the RSS FeedA to Z
| Alcohol |
| Addaction—well-paid lobby group, wants higher alcohol prices |
| Alcohol Concern—an anti-drinking lobby group that receives less than 1% of its income from public donations |
| Alcohol Focus Scotland—no strangers to a hand-out |
| Alliance House Foundation—a well established temperance group founded in 1853. It funds the Institute for Alcohol Studies. |
| Institute of Alcohol Studies—the research wing of the modern temperance movement. Funded by the Alliance House Foundation and the European Commission. |
| Censorship |
| Internet Watch Foundation—state regulation of the internet starts here, courtesy of the EU |
| Charities for charities |
| The Media Trust—'one stop shop' for voluntary organisations |
| The National Council for Voluntary Organisations—helping the charities to help themselves |
| V—created by the government, funded by the government |
| British NGOs for Development—members of Put People First coalition |
| Driving |
| Campaign for Better Transport Charitable Trust—strong opponents of road building. Funded by the Department of Transport |
| Living Streets—anti-motoring group. Campaigns for 20mph speed limit. |
| Drugs |
| Drugscope—a taxpayer-funded talking shop |
| Environment |
| British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV)—frugal with the truth when it comes to their own funding |
| Climate Outreach and Information Network (COIN)—milking the climate change cash cow |
| Forum for the Future—state-funded refuge for unelectable eco-mentalists |
| Global Action Plan UK—more windmill worshippers |
| London Sustainability Exchange—climate change, "environmental justice", "communities" etc. |
| Pesticide Action Network—a substantially EU funding charity which lobbies the EU for more pesticide controls. |
| The Climate Group—carbon taxing climate warriors |
| The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds—venerable twitchers reborn as multi-millionaire global warmists. |
| The Women's Environmental Network—generic wimmin's group with added green credentials |
| The Woodland Trust—heavily funded tree-huggers |
| Food |
| Blood Pressure Association—more scared of salt than a slug |
| Consensus Action on Salt and Health—cheerleaders for the Food Standards Agency. Funded by the Food Standards Agency. |
| School Food Trust—forcing children to eat Jamie Oliver's cooking |
| Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food & Farming—anti-meat and anti-dairy crusaders |
| The Plunkett Foundation—'social enterprise' in the countryside |
| Weight Concern—fighting the "obesity time bomb" with your money |
| Free Trade |
| War on Want—socialist throwbacks |
| Catholic Agency for Overseas Development—G20 protesters |
| ActionAid—members of Put People First coalition |
| Find your feet—another set of anti-capitalists |
| Plan UK—relieves the taxpayer of over £5 million a year |
| Voluntary Service Overseas—recipients of more than £30 million in state hand-outs |
| Skillshare International—another member of Put People First's anti-capitalist coalition |
| Progressio—Formerly known as the Catholic Institute for International Relations |
| International Service—Dependent on government for 69% of its income |
| Engineers Against Poverty—Little known anti-capitalist group |
| Action on Disability and Development—G20 protesters |
| Institute for Public Policy Research—Left-wing think tank |
| Health |
| Academy of Medical Royal Colleges—medical bureaucrats |
| The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health—Prince Charles' scheme to use taxpayers' money on quack medicine |
| Identity politics |
| Eaves Housing for Women—a heavily subsidised womens' charity that spends large amounts of time lobbying for tougher laws on prostitution. |
| Equality Challenge Unit—identity politics on campus |
| The Fawcett Society—campaigning for unequal opportunities |
| Immigration |
| British Refugee Council—campaigns with £13 million of your money |
| Religious & Ethnic |
| B:RAP—cheerleaders for the government's 'Equalities' Bill |
| Bexley Council for Racial Equality—97% of its funding comes from the state |
| Christian Aid—anti-free marketeers, campaigning for "justice on climate change and tax" on your pennies. |
| Migration Helpline—campaigns against deportation with £10 million of public money |
| Science |
| British Association for the Advancement of Science—overwhelmingly supported by government and EU grants |
| Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge—the Royal Society, as it is commonly known, was founded in the 17th century to advance scientific knowledge. |
| Sex |
| Stonewall Equality—campaigning for gay, lesbian and transgender sexual equality with your money. |
| Smoking |
| Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)—the original fake charity, formed by the government in 1971. It receives just 2% of its funding from public donations. |
| ASH Scotland—state-funded anti-smoking group staffed by neo-prohibitionists |
| ASH Wales—Welsh brand of the anti-smoking pressure group. Just 0.3% of its income comes from voluntary public donations. |
| No Smoking Day—government sponsored anti-smoking group and Smoke-Free Coalition member |
| QUIT—anti-smoking group and member of the Smoke-Free Coalition |
| The young and the old |
| 4children—glorified QUANGO |
| Age Concern—applauding government initiatives with £2 million of public money |
| Barnado's—aspiring horror film directors |
| Child Poverty Action Group—lobbies for an expanded welfare state under the pretext of 'child poverty' |
| Keeping Kids Company—newly enriched hoodie-huggers |
| The National Youth Agency—recipients of £5 million of taxpayers money |
| The Save the Children Fund—receives more than half of its income from governments worldwide |
| War |
| Peace Research and Education Trust—appear to be closely associated with other organisations such as the Peace Pledge Union and War Resisters International who encourage service personnel to desert. |
About
What is a fake charity?
The dictionary defines a charity as "a foundation or institution for assisting the poor, the sick, or the helpless".
We define a fake charity as being "a foundation or institution that receives funding from the government, does not pay tax to the government and seeks to change government policy".
This, we stress, is only our definition. In Britain, unlike the US, it is not illegal for registered charities to engage in political campaigning. Nor is there any legal obligation for charities to assist "the poor, the sick, or the helpless." Nevertheless, people tend to assume that charities are primarily funded by voluntary donations and are primarily staffed by volunteers. Because we assume them to be essentially altruistic, we give their views more weight than we would a politician or an industrialist.
So when you read about an 'independent charity' supporting government policy, asking for higher taxes or demanding "tougher action", we think you have the right to know whether that charity is funded by the government.
We ask two questions when deciding whether to add a charity to this database:
- Does the charity receive more than 10% of its income from the tax-payer AND/OR receive more than £1,000,000 a year from the tax-payer?
- Is the charity engaged in lobbying the government and/or influencing government policy?
If the answer to both of these questions is 'yes', then the charity goes on the database. If not, it doesn't. It's as simple as that.
A number of charities are funded by the government to carry out public services (eg. Victim Support, Keep Britain Tidy, Sustrans). These are effectively semi-privatised government departments and do not make it into the database because they do not lobby for changes to the law.
Conversely, a number of charities receive little or no money from the public and instead rely on foundations (eg. Joseph Rowntree) or businesses (eg. Pfizer). They are often engaged in political lobbying but unless they receive substantial funding from the state they do not make it onto the database. The primary aim of fakecharities.org is to show British taxpayers how their money is being spent.
Fakecharities.org relies on the input of readers. To submit a fake charity go here: please provide the charity number, the charity's website address and tell us where you heard about them. Remember, to be eligible, the charity must be substantially funded by the state and must be involved in some form of political activism.
We are always looking to expand our descriptions of the fake charities on this database. Some of them are currently little more than stubs. If you can provide further details please send them here.
So, who are you?
The editor is The Devil's Kitchen, ably and very comprehensively assisted by a few other bloggers who wish, at this time, to remain anonymous.
We are all doing this out of the goodness of our hearts—and because we are annoyed and alarmed at the number of "charities" which are being funded by the state. As we know, the state has no money but what it takes from the taxpayers of Britain: it is thus the ordinary workers who are funding these charities.
We believe that if the work that these charities do is so vital, they could persuade people voluntarily to fund their work. As it is, they rely on money stolen from working men and women who have no say in whether they wish to support these charities' efforts.
fakecharities.org aims to provide a directory of these organisations, so that people can find out the extent to which they are being forced to fund these charities. It is, of course, also intended as a resource for bloggers of all stripes...