This is the BBC.

In this edition of the bottom line, we're going to be talking about charities, how they raise money and how they spend it.

Hello and welcome to the programme.

Now, we're heading off our usual business beat this week and we'll be discussing the charity sector.

But it's not much of a deviation

from business because charities are in the business of securing revenue and generating

outputs. They're sometimes accused of being too rapaciously business-like and forgetting the ethical

rationale that underpins their very existence. They're also sometimes accused of being too

un-business-like, of being inefficient or

flabby. Now, it might be too strong to say there's a crisis of trust in charities, but there is

evidence from the charity commission that the public are more sceptical of them than they were

just a few years back. Maybe it's the notorious problems at Kids Company that contributed,

or the sharp fundraising practices that were exposed in the aftermath of the well-publicized death of Olive Cook.

She was the elderly poppy seller who took her own life in 2015,

and the press noted that at the time she was being approached by many charities

who were passing her name around as a potential donor.

Well, do-gooders can sometimes do bad, but they also do good, and they need cash from us to do so.

So let's look at some of the tricky balances that have to be struck with my three guests,

and we'll take a few minutes to meet them.

First up, Jane Clark, Head of Marketing, Media and Research at the RNLI. Everyone knows it's the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

Key facts and stats, Jane. How big is it? How much do you get in? How much do you spend each year?

Key stats are we're almost 200 years old. Last year we raised 186 million pounds to run the service.

...