I'm happy to donate to charities but they can make it difficult.

1. I wanted to donate to the charity which digs wells for villages in Africa. I approached them and siad I was prepared to add them to the forum fundraiser to fund the digging of a well for a specific village which we could identify with. I wanted to do it this way so we could identify with the village and see what a difference we had made. They said it didn't work that way, they collected the funds centrally and allocated on the basis of greatest need.

2. If there's on charity which tugs on my heartstrings, it's the "Children with Clefts" charity. I contacted them and said (based on their statement that it was a quck and cheap fix) that I would pay for 10 clefts to be repaired if they would give me feeback on how the money had been used and if successful, I would add them to the fundraiser with the potential to repair hundreds of clefts each year. They never replied.

3. The other year I was shopping in Aldi and someone was seling raffle tickets for Yorkshire Air Ambulance. I think they do a fantastic job and receive no government funding (they're part of the fundraiser). I asked for £20 of tickets and he said I would have to complete a direct debit to buy a certain number of tickets every month. I refused.

Why do charities have such onerous terms and conditions which cost them donations?

Eddie