As a board member of the trust, and one that absolutely backed this initiative...heres my take.
Firstly, MC Hammer. Really good posts. Came from an angle that I hadn't thought to be fair. I do though believe that politics came into it, rather than anything else. Thats my view, by the way and not the official Trusts view. But some really good posts and I appreciated reading them, and also learning that lots of considerations do have to be taken by a charity to accept money.
Thanks Drilling. You seem like someone on the board that is actually open to see both sides of a situation and I appreciate that. I get that past history is probably colouring peoples judgement but respectfully I think you are wrong on this occasion. Having read the latest update from NTFC Community Trust copying an email they sent to Andy Roberts it appears they tried to have a discussion about it. Pretty much everything they say in their email is exactly what I was saying. It's not me trying to show how clever I am it's simply two people talking about an area we both clearly know well.
I'm disappointed to read the latest news update from the Supporters Trust and veiled threats to review their other donations to the CT are frankly very petty and will do nobody any favours. The Supporters Trust should very much be holding up it's hands on this one and make clear they did not make any approach beforehand for approval and regrets not doing so. It's completely the supporters trusts responsibility as the donor to do this. Further dancing round the issue and comment not accepting responsibility is simply damaging the charity you all claim you were trying to support.
I know their initial statement will have put noses out of joint specifically those that seem hyper sensitive to anything that suits a specific agenda. But the Community Trust absolutely had to make a quick public statement in the way they did to protect themselves for all the reasons I have stated previously. As I said previously this is exactly the sort of thing I have done myself on a daily basis for 2 and half years.
Frankly everything that has happened could have been completely avoided if the Supporters Trust had simply made an approach in the first place. Please, please, please take heed and make sure whatever charity you now plan to support is approached in the right way so you don't cause the same issue for someone else if they can't accept the donation.
