Ripping off Charities with awards?

A few weeks ago, inside a newsletter sent to charities, I found a leaflet promoting the HR Excellence Awards 2005. Superficially it might seem that giving an award for an organisation doing something well is a good thing. But think about it. There can only be one winner, and that winner will probably be a subjective decision by a group of judges with their own particular biases and interests. And then the winner will be able to trumpet all over their literature that they are the best, the winners. Thereby implying that the others in their field are not as good, or are even somehow inferior. I am far from convinced this is the best way of encouraging excellence in the charitable world. Particularly when you realise that in order to enter, you have to pay a fee of £295 plus VAT. And if you are in a shortlist, no doubt you will be expected to book a table at the Dorchester, at an additional cost, to be present at the awards ceremony. So caveat emptor when you see a charity has won this or that award, find out who they were competing with, and how much they spent on entering, and how much was spent on going to the awards ceremony. Do you really want to support a charity that not only spends hard earned money on patting itself on the back, but presumably spends a lot of time filling in forms, and going to awards ceremonies?