Donation Dilemmas

Two years ago, the Tasmanian chapter of the Cancer Council refused to accept any money raised at a $100-a-head fundraiser headlined by Roberta Williams, ex-wife of the recently murdered gangland figure Carl Williams.

At the time, the chief executive of the Cancer Council of Tasmania, Lawson Ride, told 3AW the organisation had to weigh up the "reputational risk" of being affiliated with the underworld and "whether the cost of accepting the donation could be greater than the donation" itself.

Now three charitable organisations in the UK are faced with a similar dilemma: whether to accept a share in the more than $1.6 million worth of legacy requests left by convicted child sex offender Reginald Forester-Smith. Spokespeople for Girlguiding Scotland, Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support have all said that they are unable to comment until they have finished liaising with the executors of the estate.

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