How child friendly are charities?

Comic Relief has misled the public about where their donations are going according to a Panorama programme reported in the Daily Mail. Substantial amounts of money have been invested in tobacco, alcohol and arms in order to raise the £17 million running costs of the charity.

Hours after the revelations, thousands of Comic Relief viewers expressed their fury on Twitter, with many saying they wished they had never donated.

Despite initially defending the policy on the grounds that ethical investments would generate a smaller return, chief executive Kevin Cahill appeared to backtrack yesterday, pledging to ‘do the right thing’.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2521704/Comic-Relief-rethink-arms-tobacco-investments.html#ixzz2nF0ETI58

Another article in the Independent has this to say about Save the Children:

Save the Children, one of the UK’s oldest NGOs, which raised almost £300m last year, is alleged to have repeatedly quashed press releases criticising British Gas price rises to avoid damaging its corporate partnership with the company, which was worth £1.5m over 10 years. The charity is also accused of dropping a potential campaign on the effects of fuel poverty on children while it was under consideration for funding from EDF.

Internal emails obtained by The Independent show senior staff were worried about publicity that could “risk the EDF partnership”. The accusations are part of a wider investigation into the operations of major NGOs to be broadcast tonight by the BBC’s Panorama, which criticises the investment practices ...