There was some comment on charities in another thread and the view was expressed that one would have to be 'anti' charities to criticise them or at least criticism was non productive, disloyal even.

It is not somehow disloyal or mean to challenge how a charity works and what practical effect it is having at the sharp end. The community should not have to take the promises of a charity on faith alone and donors should be able to see that they get value for money from their charity. Equally, if a charity is not managing ethically what hope is there that the 'clients' are not treeted similarly?

I have volunteered for years and occupied homorary positions and let me assure all that my first priority was always ensuring that the goals were firmly rooted in a tight scrutiny of needs - expressed by the clients - that the goals were measurable in numbers - and that the outcomes were published at least through the annual reports.

There was not one charity, or school or sproting body that I have been associated with, where the administrators didn't originally prefer their woolly, 'feel good' unmeasurable, 'act of faith' goals and all were worried that where frankness and real measurement was enforced, they would lose credibility with the public.  However almost all managers and all volunteers were thankful when they got used to better management practices and could easily prove their results.  Of course, having a big company behind me helped ;) but I always said that if I couldn't convince the CEO and he couldn't convince the board, the money and freebies would dry up.

Inefficiency, wastage and fraud are as common in charities as in other business and independent audit and continuous improvement are essential.  Rather than see criticism as something to be hosed down, it is a gift.

In the US, the ethical, achievement oriented charities, the public and recipients of charitable services, have benefitted from independent scutiny and a structure for reporting.  See here,

Charity Navigator

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

In the UK, the government saw the need to legislate to improve the accountability and transparency of charities,

UK Charity Commission

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/

Australians are notorious in my opinion for being non-assertive, for sitting back and hoping things turn out right.  Rather it is one's civic duty and displays one's civic pride to (respectfully) question leaders, public and private, and insist that they have proper reporting and measurement of results in place and that is confirmed by regular independent audits.

Charities are big business, but even the apparently small ones (and who is ever sure of their income?) have no dificulty in measuring results if they choose.