Intelligent Giving - Media Coverage

Media Coverage

In November 2006, Intelligent Giving published an article about Children in Need, a big charity, which attracted wide attention – some of which Intelligent Giving regarded as misleading - across the British media. The article, titled "Four things wrong with Pudsey", described donations to Children in Need as a 'lazy and inefficient way of giving' and pointed out that, as a grant-giving charity, Children in Need would use donations to pay two sets of administration costs. It also described the quality of some of its public reporting as 'shambolic'.

In March 2007, Intelligent Giving claimed that English Premiership football clubs were not giving enough to charity. Chelsea FC was particularly criticized in this work, and an alleged member of the Club's media team threatened an Intelligent Giving employee with violence in response to media reports.

In June 2007, the organisation analysed the Jewish charities it had profiled and concluded, "They are pretty appalling in terms of transparency." Details from the report were published in The Jewish Chronicle.

In July 2007, Intelligent Giving won the New Statesman New Media Award for Information & Openness.

October 2007 saw Intelligent Giving name and shame in The Guardian the rugby union charity Wooden Spoon Society for providing a very low return on its fundraising activities. Intelligent Giving's argument was refuted by John Inverdale, a BBC broadcaster, in an opinion piece in The Daily Telegraph as "misguided reporting that fails to understand how fund-raising operates." It was also condemned by Wooden Spoon in its statement "Putting the Record Straight".