Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

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If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

Thank you for downloading Analysis, BBC Radio 4's programme about the ideas which influence policy. In this episode

Fran Abrams asks what is charity for? Back in 2006 former diplomat Rory

Stewart moved to Kabul to start a charity.

We began essentially with volunteers.

At any one time we would have between 25 and 30 people who were a young Swedish potter or a retired Canadian

ceramicist and his wife or a carpenter from London would come out and they would do periods from a few weeks to a few months.

The charity's aim was to regenerate and preserve the architecture of old carble.

They soon needed more cash than

sponsored skipping races or other small fundraisers could bring in and as they

grew they signed big contracts to deliver services.

We went from raising our money privately to eventually ending up receiving very large

contracts from government agencies.

Once that happens, you essentially become a bureaucracy because you're having to handle taxpayers money.

You have agreements and contracts which are very, very thick, you have huge amounts of data and paperwork, you have to undertake monitoring evaluation exercises.

And this stuff which if you say it quickly sounds quite straightforward in fact turns out to be

an entire specialist universe of people who do contracting or who do monitoring an evaluation.

...