Charitable Donations

[Pw92676]

Sorry if there’s a thread on this, I couldn’t find one.

Curious to see what others do in regards to charities and charitable donations.
1) do you donate heavily to one or spread it around to multiple?
2) which ones do you support?

My family currently spreads our annual giving fund around to several including Alzheimer’s Association, American Cancer Society, Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund, UNICEF and our local homeless shelter. We are considering changing it up a bit and instead of splitting the amount we donate amongst these, giving the lump sum to one charity and rotating each year. No real reason why, just thought about mixing it up.

[andromeda160]

Just depends on what it is for me, I like donating to a lot of local benefits, school organizations, direct funded projects for families in need around the area, I volunteer quite a bit of time at a local non profit that helps out people recently released from jail and paroled from prison, there aren’t too many homeless people in the area but when I do come across them I try and buy them food, or whatever else they need. Support my local AA group as much as Possible. I think my most sizable donations go to the Big Cat Rescue in Florida as I only make it there once a year and I love the sanctuary they provide for the animals and their policy and message. Overall I just do my best to be a decent human being. I’m far from rich so I don’t really have a whole lot of money to donate, but I give what I can when I can, Wish I could do more.

[goin camping]

I prefer to donate to local causes except for donations to City of Hope and St, Judes.

[wesdaniel]

I generally spread mine around. I always have friends who are raising money for one cause or another and will usually donate to their fundraisers.

You'll pardon me if I give a shameless plug here, but, most of my donations for the past two years have gone to the foundation that I started two years ago. Street Bundles

[betterwatchit]

Tend to be environment/ conversation related. I’m a scuba diver and keen outdoors person so I do anything to support their care against the relentless destruction by man.

[Burlington]

Mostly towards homeless charities or preferably direct giving in the form of food or cash.

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by Burlington

Mostly towards homeless charities or preferably direct giving in the form of food or cash.

i tend to give money directly to homeless people. It drives me nuts in London as we have charities standing on the street corner soliciting donations. Often times its a homeless charity and there is a homeless person sitting on the street within eye shot. The charity workers always ask for money, but i never see them approach the homeless guy to offer assistance or information on how to obtain it.

[rph08]

Scottish Rite Children's Hospital in Atlanta, GA, specifically, the Aflac blood disorders and cancer department. The doctors, nurses, and other staff do such a wonderful job taking care of our 5 y/o daughter.

[Burlington]

Originally Posted by tyler1980

i tend to give money directly to homeless people. It drives me nuts in London as we have charities standing on the street corner soliciting donations. Often times its a homeless charity and there is a homeless person sitting on the street within eye shot. The charity workers always ask for money, but i never see them approach the homeless guy to offer assistance or information on how to obtain it.

This is exactly my mindset too.

Too many big charities run as businesses. Not to say they don’t help, but at least with giving direct you know where it’s gone.

Of course there is the debate about whether giving money direct helps or doesn’t and where it may be spent. But ultimately if they choose to spend it on a shelter for the night or something else who am I to judge.

One time we asked a young woman on Oxford street what she wanted to eat and drink. Despite being almost freezing outside she asked for a milkshake from the McD opposite and seemed very pleased we had asked as was always getting hot drinks given to her. Very sad to see her in that situation, as she was just a few years younger than my wife and I. We ended up getting her some other food and things from boots and put some more money in the bag for her.

[Cryten]

The problem I have with charities is most of the money donated is used for "administrative purposes" i.e. you donate money to help build yerts in outer Mongolia, and most of that is used to pay staff, utilities, travel and swanky office space in London.

I only give if it's directly where it's being used (to the man on the street) or donate goods. We support our local SPCA, but we know those running it and know they donate their time rather than dip into what should be spent on the animals.

[Tha Baron]

Originally Posted by Cryten

The problem I have with charities is most of the money donated is used for "administrative purposes" i.e. you donate money to help build yerts in outer Mongolia, and most of that is used to pay staff, utilities, travel and swanky office space in London.

I only give if it's directly where it's being used (to the man on the street) or donate goods. We support our local SPCA, but we know those running it and know they donate their time rather than dip into what should be spent on the animals.

Oh man, this is true. You’ll see som charities that engage in fund raising where they spend 85 cents to raise an incremental dollar through telemarketing or advertising... its such a scam.

[BisonHead]

Originally Posted by wesdaniel

I generally spread mine around. I always have friends who are raising money for one cause or another and will usually donate to their fundraisers.

You'll pardon me if I give a shameless plug here, but, most of my donations for the past two years have gone to the foundation that I started two years ago. Street Bundles

Having a look at your website there and i take my hat off to you Sir. What an absolutely wonderful thing you have created.

Well done indeed.

[CRM114]

Originally Posted by Cryten

The problem I have with charities is most of the money donated is used for "administrative purposes" i.e. you donate money to help build yerts in outer Mongolia, and most of that is used to pay staff, utilities, travel and swanky office space in London.

I only give if it's directly where it's being used (to the man on the street) or donate goods. We support our local SPCA, but we know those running it and know they donate their time rather than dip into what should be spent on the animals.

Not all charities are created equal in this respect. It's unfair to lump the good in with the bad and reject them all out of hand when the spending/cost information for legit organizations is easily found through research done and published by numerous watchdog groups.

Originally Posted by Tha Baron

Oh man, this is true. You’ll see som charities that engage in fund raising where they spend 85 cents to raise an incremental dollar through telemarketing or advertising... its such a scam.

Some do. The good news is that with very little effort it's easy to avoid those.

[brandrea]

Family and Childen Services

[Fat_ninja]

We do salvation army monthly

[Pw92676]

Thanks all for chiming in. I’ve enjoyed reading this as a nice change of pace on here.

My father in law, in his “retired life” runs and manages a local homeless shelter in his state. My wife and I volunteer at a different shelter close to us every few months. That’s our ‘sweat equity’ and thus we don’t contribute monetarily but rather indirectly. Glad to see that on here give back routinely. Easy to get wrapped up in life and forget how blessed we are. Awesome folks here!!

[tritium8]

Originally Posted by Cryten

The problem I have with charities is most of the money donated is used for "administrative purposes" i.e. you donate money to help build yerts in outer Mongolia, and most of that is used to pay staff, utilities, travel and swanky office space in London.

I only give if it's directly where it's being used (to the man on the street) or donate goods. We support our local SPCA, but we know those running it and know they donate their time rather than dip into what should be spent on the animals.

I try to check out https://www.charitynavigator.org to see if a charity is giving most of what it brings in.

[AzPaul]

Personally, I donate to two local, church food banks. I've seen with my own eyes, the people they serve and I know the help is going to people who are truly in need, not just people looking to game the system. And sadly, there are more of the latter than a lot of us would like to believe. In particular, with the larger, municipal food banks. Plus, these smaller ones I give to are administered by volunteers, and it's nice knowing donations aren't being diverted for 'overhead'.

There's also an international hunger relief organization I give to on a monthly basis.

[RichM]

St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital for me and The American Cancer Society for my wife.

[swils8610]

I prefer to donate locally in my community. Big charities I often wonder how much actually goes to the the cause and how much goes to people running it, high paid CEO’s, expensive meals or hotels. We’ve actually purchased the items the charity is in need of and then given it to the charity.


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[swils8610]

St Jude’s is a great charity. Dealing with illness as an adult is difficult, but for the kids unimaginable.


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[wesdaniel]

Originally Posted by swils8610

I prefer to donate locally in my community. Big charities I often wonder how much actually goes to the the cause and how much goes to people running it, high paid CEO’s, expensive meals or hotels. We’ve actually purchased the items the charity is in need of and then given it to the charity.

Giving locally is SO important. It's something that I never thought of before until I started Street Bundles.

The big guys get tons of donations from national companies (WalMart, Coke, Costco, etc), but, small, local charities are often unable to meet the requirements to get donations from large companies.

With Street Bundles, for the first two years of its existence, I personally covered all administrative expenses (which were negligible) so that all donor money would go into the mission. In many cases, with smaller charities, more of your money goes to the cause because they're driven by passion.

[swils8610]

The local fire department was looking for donations from local businesses to purchase a new jaws of life. The jaws of life they had was from the 1970’s. No local businesses were willing to donate to the cause. We decided through work to donate the jaws of life. We paid for them directly to the manufacturer and negotiated a better price. We presented them to the fire company with a little ceremony. We know they will benefit our local community. The older jaws of life were passed on to a small fire department that didn’t have any. Win win.


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[Burlington]

Originally Posted by Pw92676

Thanks all for chiming in. I’ve enjoyed reading this as a nice change of pace on here.

My father in law, in his “retired life” runs and manages a local homeless shelter in his state. My wife and I volunteer at a different shelter close to us every few months. That’s our ‘sweat equity’ and thus we don’t contribute monetarily but rather indirectly. Glad to see that on here give back routinely. Easy to get wrapped up in life and forget how blessed we are. Awesome folks here!!

Time is often the thing which is hardest to give, yet the most valuable of all. Hats off to you and your family.

[Burlington]

Originally Posted by wesdaniel

I generally spread mine around. I always have friends who are raising money for one cause or another and will usually donate to their fundraisers.



You'll pardon me if I give a shameless plug here, but, most of my donations for the past two years have gone to the foundation that I started two years ago. Street Bundles

What a wonderful thing to do Wes. The simplicity of your mission statement is refreshing.

[texasmade]

I only donate to educational purposes, mainly back to my university.