Fakecharities.org
Chris Mounsey of the Libertarian Party is registered as the owner of the domain name Fakecharities.org.[1] It claims to monitor and expose charities as 'fake', which the website defines as 'any organisation registered as a charity with the Charity Commission that derives more than 10% of its income, or which receives more than £1 million, from the state.'[2] The site contains no details on who or what it is run or funded by.
The Fake Charities site went online in 2008 and is run by Chris Mounsey, a blogger at Devil's Kitchen alongside volunteers including fellow Devil's Kitchen blogger Filthy Smoker[3]. Filthy Smoker argues that:
- The original idea came from a post I made last year on the Devil's Kitchen blog about Action on Smoking and Health.
Adding:
- The Department of Health had opened a consultation on banning tobacco displays that invited responses only from organisations it had contracts with. We quickly realised that, wherever we looked when legislation was being proposed, the same thing was happening. So we decided to do something about it.[4]
Simon Clark of Tobacco industry front group FOREST, has offered readers of his blog the opportunity to submit charities for investigation via his website [5]
Writing for a blog for the Adam Smith Institute, Tom Worstall, also praised the website and encouraged people to contribute to its work. [6]
Criticism
Helen Barrett from Third Sector argues that the 10 per cent criterion is 'dubious' adding 'I can't think of a single international development NGO that gets less than half of its income from government - should they really be labelled 'fake' charities?'.[4]
Notes
- ↑ Domain tools fakecharities.org, accessed 5 May 2011
- ↑ Fake Charities About Us, accessed 5 May 2011
- ↑ Filthy Smoker, User Profile, Blogger, Accessed 28-May-2011
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Helen Barrett, Taking the lid off the controversial website Fakecharities.org, Third Sector, 2-June-2009
- ↑ Simon Clark, Return of the fake charities website Taking Liberties, Blog, 17th January 2011, accessed 16th November 2011
- ↑ Tom Worstall, Fake Charities Adam Smith Institute, 1st March 2009, accessed 16th November 2011
