Popular reality shows and game shows on television give a raw deal to charities, while reaping all the goodwill and status generated by association with selfless causes: this is the unflattering conclusion of a survey of more than 50 of Britain's charities.
Research by The Community Channel unveiled this weekend at the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival reveals that when the jubilant winner of a celebrity quiz or a TV endurance contest announces to camera that they will be donating a cash prize to a favourite charity, not everything is as it seems.
In some cases, production companies hang on to the money for as long as six months, while many also legally restrict the use a charity can make of its brief opportunity for publicity.
Shows such as BBC2's The Weakest Link, BBC1's Children in Need, Channel 4's The Games, Channel 5's Back to Reality, ITV's Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire and I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! are among those censured for their occasionally patronising attitude to the charities they deal with. Sometimes even the free financial boost offered by an on-screen celebrity endorsement is not enough to persuade a charity to get involved with television again. Phrases such as 'dissatisfaction' and 'imbalance of power' recur throughout the survey's responses from charity directors who feel that a celebrity TV endorsement has unexpectedly backfired.
Nick Cater, a writer and consultant who was a panellist at the debate 'Is TV Cheating Charity?' at the festival yesterday, argues that charities offer 'a figleaf of respectability to cover the shame of TV profiteering, celebrity ambition and public voyeurism'.
He accused the broadcast industry of keeping millions of pounds wrapped up in big, prime-time TV shows in the hands of the production companies, advertisers, phone-line operators and contestants and well away from the charities. If the prize money was donated directly by the winning contestant it would be worth another 40 per cent in Gift Aid.
Jane Mote, controller of The Community Channel and another panellist, believed that TV producers should pay more attention to how they present charitable causes. 'For them it is not just about the money and television has to realise this,' she said. 'Television is missing a chance here, there are often stories to be told behind the celebrities' choices. Too often charities are being used and abused.'
While many charities responded to the survey anonymously, for fear of jeopardising their future chances of receiving a donation, a few spoke openly about the problems of involvement with a television show.
'It has taken from Easter until now to receive the money we were promised,' said Richard McKendrick, director of the Albert Kennedy Trust, a gay, lesbian and bisexual charity. 'This was actually stipulated in the contract we signed with the makers of The Games. Basically, the television company has all the power about the way they present your charity.' McKendrick said he would be more careful in the future, although he realised this 'wary' approach might put off production companies from dealing with him.
Most charity spokespeople were eager to differentiate between the experience they had working directly with a celebrity to raise public awareness, which tended to be good, and working with a celebrity on a one-off basis for a TV show, which tended to be quickly forgotten.
Mark Smith, development director of Children in Conflict, a beneficiary of the BBC's Children in Need, is one who is now wary of TV companies bearing gifts. He believes the 'superficial hype' surrounding high-profile shows is in danger of engulfing the serious issues involved. Smith also suspects that broadcasters are happy to exploit charitable connections to encourage viewers to phone in or vote on a show, but adds that television has enormous power to do good and that 30 seconds of airtime can be highly productive.
An official for one of the smaller charities involved with I'm a Celebrity... complained they had been asked to sign a complex, 50-page contract with London Weekend Television and were later asked not to mention their involvement with the show, fronted by Ant and Dec, in any promotional campaign. The charity said the producers told them they were concerned that viewers should vote for the celebrity, not the charity.
The celebrity support manager of a larger charity, which has been involved with I'm a Celebrity, The Weakest Link and Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire? was also worried about TV production companies' approach to donations.
He believes they expect a good cause to be grateful for anything they can get and that charity officers are too often expected to 'jump through hoops' to please the producers.