Rob posted this earlier about how he runs his charity.
As a person that runs a charity,
www.sfcharity.co.uk and have also sponsored a P4C event, in my opinion only, I think the key issues are:
1. Company Stucturing
My charity is not owned by any trading company (such as G4Life) as 100% of all the administration expenses are paid for by my company, sf group, so 100% of all proceeds go to the "good causes". P4C does not have the benefit of a "subsidising company" so have set up G4Life to act as the management company, I have no problem with this as long as ZERO profit is made from the administration expenses and a full breakdown is available to the public.
2. Expense Estimates
Estimating expenses for an event are not good enough, the exact cost should be retrospectively charged with evidence and full back up. Personally, I do not like this set up, I prefer to donate to charities that do not pass 100% to the "cause", OR for a specific item.
3. Proceeds
If this was an event for Reece and the Hospital Ward, all proceeds should have been given to Reece and the Hospital within 7 days of the event. If it was a general P4C event, where P4C allocate the proceeds, this should have been made 100% clear and from these posts, it could have been made clearer.
4. Giving Money
Not donating the money because you have not been asked for it, or do not know where to send it, is not good enough.
5. Customers
In any organisation, commerical or charity, your "customers" must be treated better than this. In this case, the customers are the donators, and the donatees, and there is enough bad feeling here to make P4C review its systems and transparancy.
6. Resources
Running a charity is a serious job, not a part time job. You are asking for people's hard earned money, and their trust, being busy in your own commercial business is irrelevant.
7. Being 100% Accountable
One complaint from a donator or donatee is "1 to much", a charity must be 100% accountable. To continue raising money for good causes, you must maintain the highest possible level of credibility, P4C has not.
8. Specific Projects
I agree with G4L that donations should be spent on specific projects but what the proceeds from an event are going to needs to be made 100% clear to the people donating in that event.
In summary, I believe that P4C / Game 4 Life needs to improve its administration procedures, communciation and transparancy to its donators and donatees. I do not believe for a minute that anything "unethical" has gone on here, just poor systems and controls. I am sure that this thread will will prompt P4C to take a step back and review its operations. P4C and G4L should not take this personally, but listen to the comments. No rational person can argue that this particular charity project has been handled well.
Rob