Quakers alerted to ‘doubtful appeals’
Gretchen Castle, general secretary of Friends World Committee for Consultation shares some thoughts on requests for funding from unknown organisations.
Friends have been urged to be wary of ‘doubtful appeals’ from organisations purporting to be Quaker which may not be. The warnings come after many members and individuals have said that they had been contacted by someone on behalf of an institute called the Friends Orphanage School.
Gretchen Castle, general secretary of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), wrote in the Quakers in Yorkshire October 2020 newsletter: ‘We have been getting the same – and persistently! It is not an organisation or a person known to me. I would kindly say no, as we have done several times… As FWCC, we would not give to any single organisation without going through the Africa Section.’
She told the Friend: ‘Last week, as general secretary of FWCC, I received an email from a Friend, troubled that he had received a note of greeting from an African name he did not recognise. He treated it as suspicious. With a quick look we were able to see that they had both been in Pisac at the World Plenary Meeting. They had probably exchanged emails. However, I get other emails asking if I know a person or an organisation from another part of the world who is asking for funding – always for a worthy cause – sometimes containing “Friends” in the organisation name. In the world of the internet, there is endless information available to any enterprising person.
‘My advice to any person or Meeting who receives a funding request from an unknown person, even if it includes the word “Friend” in the organisation name, is to sort out whether the person or organisation is familiar to them, and if not, write to the World Office or, even better, to the Section from which the email comes. All Section information is on the World Office website. The Section would be most familiar with Quaker organisations and whether other Friends might want to consider giving.’
She added that they do not want to discourage giving, but want to ensure donations are made to organisations that do ‘credible work’ and ‘are recognised’ in the ‘world Quaker community’.
