93 Finance/Money/Hierarchy of Charities

Charities are rich. They have to be to pay all those amazingly persuasive street performers who cajole the public into ‘sparing a minute’ to look at a clipboard. Why are these workers so happy? Tackling such heavy issues as Amnesty, World Poverty or Aids and at the same time saying ‘Nice jumper mate, can I have a lick of your ice cream?’ The fickle fakers. Also bored upper class housewives run charities and just want to be paid expenses for their trouble. A champagne lunch at Bibendum doesn't come cheap.
So which is the wealthiest charity? Some say the Catholic Church, but that is a business not a charity. Some say it is an organisation that engenders the most sympathy: children, furry animals (only the cute ones though) or a horrific illness. Surprisingly it is none of these. A perverse human selection bias operates, namely the herd goes with the underdog. When presented with a list of worthwhile charities the average person will donate to the least well known, reasoning that the others are well supported and it is nice to give money to something worthwhile and unusual.
Unknown to Bill Gates (see 30 Animals/Humans/Bill Gates), Benedict Farse has a secret identity. He is also the charity Edna Stokes’ Scorpion Sanctuary. Through cunning marketing ploys Mr Farse has managed to make himself the wealthiest charity in the world. He is also the brain behind the fickle fakers, realising that people would intuitively mistrust these performers and be further persuaded to donate to the underdog. No one has ever heard of the Edna Stokes Scorpion Sanctuary but all have subconsciously donated to it. Benedict realised that he could not rely on Enya to bring in the dough and the Asian economy is too volatile and risky to win the bet. At the time of writing Mr Gates is 199.99% of Mr Farce’s income, and is looking forward to retirement. However, Benedict is pissing himself with anticipation of the moment when he can reveal the identity of Edna Stokes, and plunge Bill Gates into second place as the World’s richest man.