Charities: good or bad? The number of charities in the UK is enormous, with more than 600 registered cancer charities alone, and more than 200 charities for homeless people in London. Most of these charities depend on donations to raise money, and often on volunteers to do the work. While the passion of so many people who want to help is wonderful, this situation is not ideal. More and more charities are now doing similar work and competing with each other for money. As a consequence, they are forced to spend more on marketing, rather than actually helping people. This means some people are losing confidence in charities and giving them Less money. What should society do about this?