# Bid to stop 'bogus' charities

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/12/10/bid-stop-039bogus039-charities/
- Published: 2007-12-10T16:44:34+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

A charity umbrella organisation in the Irish Republic has made a submission to plug
a gap in the proposed new charity legislation. The Wheel wants the legislation, 
which will regulate genuine charities, to address organisations that say they are
charities or charitable but are in fact private bodies.

According the the Wheel, Section 41 of the Bill would seem to have limited effect
in that it will only apply to bodies holding themselves out as registered charities
by using words such as charity or registered charity in describing themselves. Very
often, organizations use other words such as clothing appeal, or emergency appeal
that suggest charitable activities in circumstances where the organization itself
is a for-profit organization.

Such for-profit organisations would not be required to comply with the legislation
says the Wheel. They want to make it an offence to effectively dupe or con the public
into believing they are donating for charitable purposes, when in fact that is not
the case. The nature of the prohibition must be generic in it application, says 
the Wheel, because to single out one form of activity, such as clothing collections
or the abuse of Mass Card money, would simply drive these unscrupulous people to
other areas of activity.

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Support for the Wheel’s suggested amendment to the legislation has come from Deputies
Bobby Aylward and Pat Carey who specifically mentioned the practice of private companies
collecting clothes and selling mass cards.

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