Charity Editorials

Children in Need Programme

An article about the BBC Children in Need programme, looking at its effect on charities at home and abroad.

Child Labour controversy at charity

A personal view by Peter Law, marketing director of SOS Children. The "Our Africa" project is supposed to be about Africa's children filming their lives around them. When that is children labouring in a field how much should we investigate or judge?

Censorship at SOS Children?

An editorial by Andrew Cates, CEO of SOS Children UK. Child charities tread a difficult path between standing up for what is right and turning into a "cultural colonial", imposing Western values where they do not belong. We do not always get it right and are interested in feedback on the issue.

Measuring Charity Effectiveness and Success

This is an editorial on the challenges of deciding whether a charity is effective

Punkawallah with a tie?

In colonial times Punkawallahs used to sit outside colonial houses all day pulling a cord to operate a large manual ceiling fan. More than twenty years ago, management consultants (as I was) used to refer to a mindless repetitive management style as "punkawallah management". These days there are so many organisations for charities to join and so many meetings and conferences that a similar risk presents. This time the danger is more of a charity CEO becoming a "punkawallah with a tie", going to conferences and turning the handle rather than doing their real job.

Please help East African famine victims: online

SOS Children is one of the best-established charities in East Africa and is focussing on the needs of children who have lost their parents in the current famine crisis. SOS Children is appealing for donors to help them, but is reminding donors that online is the safest and cheapest way to give.

Why hate junk mail? Here's why!

Stirred up by BBC Panorama broadcasting "Why hate junk mail" at 2030 tonight, SOS Children CEO Andrew Cates again appeals for a long over-due rule change to make junk mail "opt in only". SOS Children abandoned charity junk mail seven years ago and has never looked back.

A Child to Sponsor (Radio 4)

At 11 am today there will be a Radio 4 programme broadcast called "a child to sponsor" looking at child sponsorship in Ghana. It will talk about some of the advantages and disadvantages of "community" and "individual" child sponsorship but sadly will not examine the SOS model.

"Chugging", good governance and "Riding the Waves of Culture"

A recent job advert by our European colleagues has raised all sorts of cultural and governance questions which are worth exploring.

Red nose and a warm heart?

Editorial "I hope that the appeal total from the Comic Relief (red nose day) appeal will break previous records but somehow looking at news from the world I am not sure I feel like fun"

Can't take it with you (BBC2) or "no pockets in your shroud"

An editorial by Andrew Cates, SOS UK CEO, discussing death, wills, children and what we achieve in life and death

Worldwide Orphan numbers: how many or how few?

An editorial discussing the difficulty in establishing accurate consistent stats for orphans worldwide and some reflection on whether the number is actually large or small