Letters / I stand corrected (or do I?)
I am grateful to Shetland News for correcting my assumption that money donated to the Shetland MRI Scanner Appeal is not being used to pay for a fundraising manager for the appeal.
I was relieved to understand that the fantastic hard work by MRI fundraisers is not being blown on the appointed manager’s wages and expenses.
The wages of this new manager is actually being paid by a Shetland charity called NHS Shetland Endowment Fund. All donations received from the public and appeals are held in trust within this endowment fund until used.
However, the NHS Shetland Endowment Fund is in fact the charity collecting the money for the MRI Scanner Appeal. So the manager appointed by the Endowment Fund is not being paid for by MRI donations specifically, but is being drawn from other charitable donations to the NHS Shetland Endowment Fund.
Confused?
I was, until I saw that the chairman (and ex SIC councillor) of the Shetland Health Board is actually trustee of the NHS Shetland Endowment Fund.
Yet the endowment fund is supposed to be a separate and independent entity from Shetland Health Board. Shades of the days of the SIC and Shetland Charitable Trust.
The fact remains that a Shetland charity is paying for a manager to beg for money when another Shetland charity has a nest egg of almost £300 million.
Allen Fraser
Hamnavoe
Burra
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