Re: RHU Emergency fund - monthly subscription

[echobeach2008]

could we not have a loto type thing where we pay D/D each month then there is one winner who gets a set amount and the rest into a pot for emergency kennels or something , i already donate to other rescues this way

This is a good suggestion, keeps people interested and raises money I'd be up for it

yes i think thats better bacause it has to go to transport and other cases etc

[Admin]

i think its a great idea, however setting up a bank account can sometimes be hard to have it in a groups name instead of a personal name is alot more complicated we r not a business, and therefore cannot afford to pay for a business account. a charity account requires you to be a registered charity which we arent and the only other is volunteer/group account which is possible however requires more than 1 signature to access money even for just a £1 which in itself wouldnt be ideal.

[mole]

RDR do the lotto thing.....don't know whether they're a registered charity or not...might be able to give you some pointers

[Jod]

Hmm this is a pickle...

So could we at least get the Paypal account going for monthly subscriptions just for the time being? (I can sort out the code for the subscription button if needed, it's quite simple to set up)

I know quite a few people would prefer to pay by Direct Debit. Would it be insensible for us to perhaps appoint a fundraising co-ordinator (or whatever) or admin/mods who could collect offline donations (cash or cheques/direct debit to their personal account) and then add the money to the Paypal account after it is cashed? Obviously that requires a lot of trust and we would have to keep proper records to be safe.

As far as I can see, if RHU is going to keep growing in to a major national volunteer resource, one day it will either need to be registered as a Charity/non-profit org or alternatively as a business (but obviously that would bring tax issues), so I'm just curious as to whether this is something that is likely to happen soon or is the feeling that it will be kept on a smaller scale for the forseeable future?

And in the case of the latter, the alternative for now might be for all the people wanting to donate to do a monthly subscription direct to one of the charities/organisations already set up for this sort of thing. But then who to send it to? There are so many doing great work and it would be very cool if there was some way to help them all in their times of need.

Sorry to keep pushing these ideas, I know with Kathryn being unavailable a lot it is difficult to come to any major decisions on RHU's growth or changes, understandably so.

If nothing can be done feel free to tell me to go away and shut up

[Guest]

All ideas are listened to Jo and I'm sure Kathryn will see your suggestion very soon

[Admin]

Paypal is possible and at present Julie has dealt with offline donations bless her.

the whole RHU website/forum is having to undergo a huge revamp reorganise and move in the foreseeble future and to organise bank accounts etc is definately a priority after the above is done.

lotto itself as far as im aware if we kept it to bonus balls we are ok. but doing like a syndicate i do believe u have to be registered and everyones full details and signatures would be needed which wouldnt be that ideal

[wendy1946]

I will make one,go for it

[Rainrescue]

I think that as the RHU is growing steadily in membership, recognition and respectability - its something that we can all use as a great medium to focus on fund raising as a brill tool.

I don't know if this would work out - but here's a few of my thoughts.

Paypal is easy - but a rip-off and u are loosing most of the donation as u aren't a charity.

I have a problem with people sending money to just anyone paypal account - and as such - any email address. I have noticed people wandering into rescue thinking that there is money to be made here - and if they do it in a certain way - i'm sure that they can manage to make money out of it - by either not taking dogs in themselves, or not actually paying for any bills but simply 'cherry picking' the nice easy rehomers - taking an adoption fee - and then asking for money. How easy is it to see the wood from the trees. I know I can't work it out.

We at Rain Rescue will often send money to other rescues that we know of to be good and genuine rescues. However, we never send money to open ended paypal accounts. I don't care if people are a registered charity or not, because some of them still manage to fraud the system - so we only pay for vet treatment. We decided some time ago - that every rescue group or person will always have a vet bill they can't afford. So, we tell the rescue to send us a copy of the bill, and we send a cheque to the vet conerned which knocks that amount off their bill.

So - at the end of this waffle - I think that what I am saying is this.
Couldn't RHU collect the money in - and then get rescues to approach them about bills they have outstanding that they can't pay. If we all make a regular donation into the RHU account - then that money can be given out monthly to the different vets concerned. We are all happy to know its going to a certain cause and that its managed properly.

For those wanting to raise money for fuel runs - then special appeals can be put on with the actual run - I know that we do pay using a form that transporters fill out - and then we BACS the money into their bank account which gives us a record of the money - and I can see where the dogs been taken from and to.

Finally - and I don't know if this would work or not so may need some mileage.
We are already a registered charity. I am sat in the middle of doing our accounts now. We are already registered for charity choice and for that - gift aid can be claimed which gives an extra 28p in every pound when people pay tax. There are no charges. I wonder if we spoke to charity choice, to see if we could set up a seperate 'sub' bank account with rain rescue. That would all be auditted by charity choice and statements produced. All donations and expenditure would be on the statement and if some kind person who we knew and trusted wanted to manage just that one account - maybe that would be a way of doing it in the short term - until RHU progressed to being a charity in its own right.

will switch off now cos rambled far too much
but what u all think?
jaq

[K9Karma]

Plenty of suggestions as to how to collect the money but who is going to decide who gets the money ?
There are a great number of rescues on here and for many different species and all need funds.
Who is going to decide and by what criteria which rescue is most worthy of receiving a handout from the contents of the pot ?
From a personal point of view I prefer to donate to something specific since I've seen in the past examples of where the proceeds of a general non specific fund raising appeal were divided out between the administrators friends. ( not referring to RHU).

[Admin]

Jacquie i would definately be interested in discussing it further.

[jaycee]

A very good point raised by K9Karma.........I was on a breed forum where funds started off being raised to help a breed rescue; then there was an arbitrary decision made (by the powers that be) to share the funds raised between several rescues. Sounds ok so far, but I dropped out because I didn't agree with the way things were being done without consultation. The result was that whatever money was raised seemed to disappear from view; and, to this day, has never been accounted for. Not to say that it didn't arrive at the designated rescues........but who knows??
Whatever scheme is chosen MUST be clear and plain for all the contributors, otherwise the goodwill won't be there to keep it going.

[Rainrescue]

Ok - more than happy to discuss as I think there is a possibility it may work.

Good point K9 - funds dissapearing is always a worry in any walk of life - I know that often people don't report back due to lack of time - actually 'doing' things - so we need a couple of recognised respected people to do the paperwork/online side of things - that aren't bogged down in rescue itself - so that they can do the reporting. I'm sure our secretary Sue would be one of them - she is our Trustee - and rules money distribution like a hawk.

Good points also Joycee - I used to belong to a mastiff forum - where I was very rarely included in any of the draws even though they could see the volumes I was taking in an helping - I just felt it was going to a collection of those well known to them. without funds coming in - you can't continue to help.

It is a tricky one where to decide where the money goes though. I originally thought we could do it on a selection - people nominate each month the rescue it can go to - but then - if there are lots of 'friends' or supporters for a particular rescue on the board - again the money would be biaised and not go to some groups who are consistent in their help - and yet - don't have supporters or helpers - (lonely souls like me) - and just don't have the time to push their cause on the internet - cos they are done in working with the animals.

However, if we all put our heads together - maybe send an email out to all members of the forum - rescue helpers and general pet friends united - and see what sort of ideas come back - if a fund were set up?

[Rainrescue]

Mole - just noticed that you are only 1 yr younger than me - u do look well for your age!!!!

[Jod]

Yes these are all very good points. It is a puzzler how to decide who gets money, when and how much...a voting system could work but as Jacquie said it could be biased. I wonder if some sort of lottery system would work, as in Rescues sign up to be included and each month or every few months there is a random draw and whichever Rescues name (or names) comes up, they get a proportion of the fund?

Of course the original suggestion was put forward in the hope that we could donate to organisations in times of urgent need, but it sounds like that might be too complicated, whereas if it were done at random then hopefully there wouldn't be any problems.

I definitely think transparency should be high priority, keeping everyone aware of how much money is in the pot, who it's being donated to etc etc.

[Admin]

i totally agree transparency is a must.

i do think that some kind of 'aplication' form could be beneficial whereby any rescue can apply answering things like say vet references/rescue references perhaps even policys. then they could be allocated a number and that number is picked randomly.

this would allow staff to check references and anyone who donates would know policys etc that the rescues have

[Rainrescue]

Should either this or the Comments please thread be merged - or alternatively one closed. I think they are both on about the same type of topics - if i'm following right.

[TheMother]

I thought this was asking if people wanted to donate monthly, then got on to how and where to spend it. It's not been collected yet.

[Rainrescue]

Very true TheMother - I think there are about 3 or 4 threads running with this fund raising/donating behind it all - and so its certainly something we are all keen to be involved in.

I think it wandered off into spending, because for people to donate - they need to know where they are donating to - and that needs to be crystal clear at least how the rescues will be selected - when the money is given.

We are a registered charity.
Rain Rescue takes donations in from the website via Charity Choice. This is cheaper than via paypal and its easier to collect the Gift Aid money automatically (once our accountant gets this set up for us).

Rain Rescue will pay for vet funds for other rescues. What we do is tell the rescue we will pay the fee - and tell the vet to send the bill - or the portion of the bill to us. We have done this to at least 10 vets around the country - for at least 10 rescues. Never once has the vet had a problem with it, and always the rescues are happy to get the 'free' money.

It may be - that we can work it some way so that money is donated using #Rain Rescue as the fundraising charity to do this. I would need to read through our constitution - maybe check with the charities commission and talk to our Trustees - to make sure it could be don e - but as we are already set up to do this - why set it up again, and orgnise and pay for another set of accounts to be done for another charity. Everything we do is open and above board. Each year - our accounts will be avaiable for people to see where the cheques go out to - and where the donations come in from.
Does this seem operable?

[bpbetty]

I am willing to donate monthly preferably D/D

[jude291]

I think Jacquies idea is very feasible,sounds very reasonable and above board. Accountability will always be an issue on all things.