IT'S NOT EASY being a charity researcher. You might think that we sit here all day, mouthing off and writing charity profiles. But nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, we're often in fear for our sanity - if not our lives - as we feel the world of The Very Angry encroach upon us...

1. The man who said he’d punch us
In the wake of our recent article on donations from Premiership football clubs, an agitated gent claiming to be from "Chelsea Media" left the following hilarious message on Neill’s answering machine. I reckon this qualifies legally as assault. Listen (MP3 clip)

2. Terry Wogan – pride comes afore…
Tel’s response to our Children in Need story in November was clearly a callous cry for attention to his pitiful Sunday Telegraph column. We were deemed “an ‘independent watchdog’ that nobody had ever heard of” (guilty, then) whose actions were ”contemptible”, and a “callous cry for attention… a foul slur on an organisation that, as a trustee, I know to be scrupulous in all its dealings”. Funny coming from the only trustee to be paid (£9000 – by the BBC) for his one day compering CiN, and who seemed surprised when the Mail recently brought the fact to light.

3. Christina Noble’s friends
The name of a charity says a lot, and a small children’s charity called The Christina Noble Foundation says it all. Our review of its remarkably uninformative annual report told us a lot about… Christina Noble. And not a lot else. When we alerted the charity to our findings (which we always do), they weren’t too happy and subjected Adam to 20 minutes of violent language ending in a threat of legal action. Haven’t heard from them since.

4. Megan Pacey – our sparring partner
Megan is director of policy and campaigns at the Institute of Fundraising and we tend not to agree on much. In November ’06 she opined that we were “the latest addition to the plethora of website-based, self-appointed ‘charity watchdogs’ [can anyone tell us where the others are?] which use crude and rudimentary league-table-style mechanisms to rate charities.” Subsequent criticisms have followed the same line, although we’re hearing less of Megan these days. Was it something we said?

5. Carole Malone – shock, blah, zzzzzzz...
In her regular bid to reduce the readership of the Sunday Mirror, Malone employed her 800-word column last November to knock down Children in Need before hoisting it onto her shoulders. In a novel journalistic twist she lambasted the “whingers at the charity watchdog Intelligent Giving” and the “carpers” from disabled campaigners who don’t like Pudsey. Contrived and dull. Next!