I appreciate what you say, but to say that people associate who ever gets the money with any problems is not really true is it? By that, say if Colonel Tom had have fell over whilst walking in his garden, would people have blamed the NHS ? no of course not, its the people who provide the service/ do the deed, rightfully get the blame
I could talk about this all day and give you a million examples of where small, medium or catastrophic damage has been done to charities by the acts of third parties. On big levels Lance Armstrong/Livestrong Cancer charity?? A smaller child protection charity that collapsed because it's clothing collection bins kept getting stolen or broken in to. Was reported about the thefts in the press in what the charity hoped would stop them from happening and donations immediately dropped by 75% overnight as people didn't trust it would make it to the charity. The cancer charity in America where a donor created wristbands that unknowingly turned out to be made from toxic material that caused skin damage when worn.
All charities are governed by laws regarding accepting donations. They also have their own internal charter governing codes of conduct or rules specific to them. I.E. on a basic and very obvious level no cancer charity would accept donations or activities that are in any way linked directly or indirectly to the tobacco industry. In fact thinking about this as I type aren't the supporters trust a charity? I might be wrong but wouldn't you have a charter for the same reason and surely only accept donations under certain conditions?
Anyway all a bit off topic but just trying to demonstrate why what you said quoted above is simply not right.
Back to the face masks. If I worked for the NTFC community trust I'd have distanced myself publicly exactly like they have done and then privately offered some thanks but no thanks to you(ntfc supporters trust) privately. There are many reasons why. Without any background knowledge of this product and it's origin how can I be sure they are safe, well made and adhere to British standards. The fact you sell child versions means even more stringent rules. How do I know someone is not profiting from this charitable venture? Where are they made and are they made ethically? Is the material used safe? Is the supplier trust worthy? Will they not just run of with the money? Will we be seen to be profiting from a global pandemic? I'm sure you can tick most if not all of these boxes but you didn't give me a chance to cause you didn't ask.
I could go on with many more but these are all the sort of questions I would need to ask before approving. If you didn't even ask me beforehand I'd have probably done exactly what they did. To you as a layman you are thinking "FFS I was only trying to help by selling a few bits of cloth".
Or maybe they just don't like the supporters trust and don't want to deal with you. Could hardly blame them and pretty funny that any of you would be shocked about that. Are these donations purely to help in tough times, holding out an olive branch? I hope so as some of the complaints of a lack of thanks seem pretty petty and take away from the good gesture. Of course some people are trying to make a public point. Which is a shame at a time like this. Thought maybe times like these may have opened up a bigger picture for everyone no matter what happened in the past.
