Do you give money to charity?

whirlpool

Do you give money to charity and if so, do you believe your donation is going to make much of a difference?

If you don't give money to charity, is there any particular reason(s)?

The Backwards Man

whirlpool wrote: »

Do you give money to charity and if so, do you believe your donation is going to make much of a difference?

If you don't give money to charity, is there any particular reason(s)?

After you, OP.

Madam

I do and of course it makes a difference (small acorns and all that:)).

Sunnyisland

Yes, usually to Alone and victory outreach.

Chucken

The Backwards Man wrote: »

After you, OP.

How does that work if you're going backwards?

FreshKnickers

Yes. I regularly give substantial donations to the Feed Fresh Knickers Fund.

Currently we're trying to raise vital support for our upcoming Tikka Masala Thursday project. Thank you.

I used to give to Charities, now I dont. I give it to people I think need it myself. I hate that even a cent of whatever I donated was going to pay a massive salary to some CEO. They get their salary before any money goes to those who need it.

KeithM89

Drunk one night, I decided to sponsor a Panda, it was £10 a month. Paid it for over a year before noticing. Its probably dead now anyway.

efb

SvdP

ted1

The government give it for me. A huge % of the tax I pay is given to people without jobs, sick people and foreign countries.

A lot if charities are used to make up the shortfall in government funding, such as Crumlin Hispital. There should be tax benefits for making donations to state run organisations

Keith

Keith wrote: »

Drunk one night, I decided to sponsor a Panda, it was £10 a month. Paid it for over a year before noticing. Its probably dead now anyway.

you sure that wasn't just a direct debit for your bins?

KeithM89

Deleted User wrote: »

you sure that wasn't just a direct debit for your bins?

Wouldve been more useful than some stupid panda that il never even get to be mauled by.

Jumboman

I'd much rather give money to someone on the street than a charity.

A lot people running charities are on high 6 figure salaries.

Celly Smunt

I've given up really,now I just buy a bag of stuff for homeless I see around the street.It only costs about 15 to get somebody a new blanket,hat,socks,gloves and a few toileteries between dealz and penneys.

It would be interesting to have a homeless assault from boards around Christmas where a group of boardsies go around Dublin (or wherever) giving out items to the homeless.

I give to a few causes, homelessness, suicide prevention, a childrens' charity, and the cancer society. I wish I could do more for them.

mrmanunited

I do lots of marketing and advertising for charities, and they're always the worst companies to work for, they have so many staff and put so many resources into pathetic small campaigns, it just makes me wonder when peoples donations go, and its normally to find the next advertising campaign! Id rather buy a sarnie and give it to the homeless guy on the way home from work...

Lawrence1895

Never donated any money, but clothes, books, CDs and DVDs...and my old desktop computer.

oldyouth

I have monthly DDs for ALONE and Simon South East. I can only hope that it is going where I intend.

After that, I donate when and where a good cause presents itself. I try to avoid any religious involvement (such as SVP)

Celly Smunt

Actually i might ask now,would there be any interest by anybody getting into a group to go out around Halloween (it's starting to get cold then) and hand out some stuff to the homeless.Maybe even in costume?.

demanufactured

Used to..... Not anymore.

iDave

Wouldn't give one cent to a chugger

Mr Benevolent

Very rarely. The only charity I've donated more than €2 is the Simon Community. Most mental health charities do nothing except piss the money away, Simon are one of the few that use it wisely.

Amirani

Celly Smunt wrote: »

Actually i might ask now,would there be any interest by anybody getting into a group to go out around Halloween (it's starting to get cold then) and hand out some stuff to the homeless.Maybe even in costume?.

I'd be up for doing stuff like that anyway.

danish pasterys

Keith wrote: »

Drunk one night, I decided to sponsor a Panda, it was £10 a month. Paid it for over a year before noticing. Its probably dead now anyway.

Haha u sponsored an animal that would maul you if it got the chance ha them ads are funny about sponsoring man eating tigers when we should be saving humans first

!end world hungar!

Outkast_IRE

Used to but not anymore, if its something local I don't mind throwing a few euro.

I mostly don't now because they call to the door and hassle people too much for it. The more I see a charity calling to the door the more I despise them.

Celly Smunt

NiallSparky wrote: »

I'd be up for doing stuff like that anyway.

Cool,i'm going to post a thread and hopefully there'll be people on here willing to help out.It also gives a lot of time for discussion and such if the planning starts early.

Mysteriouschic

I would give money to charity but I don't usually give money to the charity people that stop in the street in town asking for your credit card details. I wouldn't mind giving money to like an animal charity or something. I work in a charity shop once a week so still doing something.

newportlad

I've been donating €15 and €12 per month to Concern and Focus Ireland respectively for a couple of years now.

I do wonder sometimes am I donating a bit too much, I'm on an average enough salary so really hope it is being put to good use.

Anyway, only copped recently that it would be tax efficient to just give one charity €21 or more a month

But which charity should I pick from the two? Any opinions?

Mr Benevolent

newportlad wrote: »

I've been donating €15 and €12 per month to Concern and Focus Ireland respectively for a couple of years now.

I do wonder sometimes am I donating a bit too much, I'm on an average enough salary so really hope it is being put to good use.

Anyway, only copped recently that it would be tax efficient to just give one charity €21 or more a month

But which charity should I pick from the two? Any opinions?

I'd recommend Focus Ireland, you'd be horrified to know how inefficient the foreign aid charities are.

Femme_Fatale

Mr Benevolent wrote: »

Most mental health charities do nothing except piss the money away

They do?

greenflash

One monthly standing order to Temple St and one to the supporters' trust of a football club. I also give to CF collectors due to a couple of friends whose kids are sufferers and I also give to the Irish Cancer Society for family reasons. Everyone else, especially those collecting for animal charities, can **** right off.

Femme_Fatale

greenflash wrote: »

One monthly standing order to Temple St and one to the supporters' trust of a football club. I also give to CF collectors due to a couple of friends whose kids are sufferers and I also give to the Irish Cancer Society for family reasons. Everyone else, especially those collecting for animal charities, can **** right off.

Charitable... yet extremely aggressive towards the charities you don't support. Ok...

MickFleetwood

Not really, no. Only to cancer research if I ever do.

BluesBerry

I give to animal charities when ever I see them collecting the guide dogs, paws dogs trust etc I think the main charities with the shops do well as it is I try and donate to the shops as much as I can but I have a soft spot for the animal ones

and Im sick of concern troicre and the troicre boxes every lent
I think it is a sh1tty move giving them boxes out through the schools putting pressure on families because the children would be eager to bring them back to their teachers I would rather the money went to the school itself instead of being shipped out of the country to fund the salaries of the employees of the charity

PizzamanIRL

I don't since I saw a report on how much of your money actually goes into executives pockets.

Yes I know that giving zero isn't going to help but I was just turned off when I saw that. They use the kids in Africa to melt your heart and then a good amount of the money you give doesn't even get near the kids on the ads.

greenflash

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

Charitable... yet extremely aggressive towards the charities you don't support. Ok...

Not really. Occasionally extremely hostile towards street chuggers but generally I just walk on or say 'no you're ok'. Once or twice I've explained why I support the charities I do over those opposing puppy farms or such. In my head they can all **** right off but because I'm civilised and not overly confrontational, I just smile politely and move on or close the door as appropriate.

Mr Benevolent

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

They do?

They're mostly information services and do very little to actively and positively help except to be a relatively ineffectual lobby group. The majority of the homeless have mental illnesses, so I consider Simon and Focus Ireland to be one of the very few who make a real contribution, if only in providing some comfort to those in dire need.

Mental health treatment in this country is appallingly bad. It's still at the sweep it under the carpet/village loony stage. The UN actually had to step in in 2011 and tell the govt to change the laws. It's a sick joke at this stage.

martinedwards

We sponsor a couple of kids in developing countries.
direct debits to Concern, tear fund & Christians against Poverty.
direct debit to church
As a canoeist I'll throw money into any RNLI box I ever see.

as to paying the people who run the charities?

you want the job done well you have to employ good people.

you want to employ good people, you need to pay them a reasonable salary.

the idea that a chief executive should work for E150 a week is naive and idiotic.

jimgoose

Yes, yes I do. I am very fortunate, and think it right and proper to make small but regular donations to certain good causes. You could argue that this has more to do with making myself feel good than genuinely helping people, but I say this to you: shi!t up a downpipe.

Give freely, Grasshopper - and it will come back ten-fold.

the groutch

martinedwards wrote: »

the idea that a chief executive should work for E150 a week is naive and idiotic.

so is the idea that they should get paid €150k a year

Kiva and animal charities
Kiva goes direct AFAIK and not to CEO stuff, and I think the animal charities I pick are the same

mrmanunited

I understand that employee's need to get paid to make things happen for charities, but when you read that some CEO's make 6 figures, it seems crazy, how much effort goes into collecting money to pay those wages?! Its when you hear how some charities have marketing budgets in the millions to 'raise awareness' that makes me sad. If I donated £15 a month to help a charity, i'd be gutted to know, im just funding an ad to get more people to give money, rather than making a difference and helping the problem

the volunteers deserve the respect giving time is impressive!

mattjack

I work for a low threshold charity , I appreciate every penny and every item of food and clothing donated to where I work.

Most charity's now will gratefully accept clothing etc at their door.You don't necessarily have to give bank details etc

Where I work has suffered redundantcy's and state cutbacks to the tune of 7%.

Where I work employs doctors , nurses , dentists , counsellors and a variety of skilled project workers.It also has residential treatment and after care housing alongside homeless and day services.

Even simple things like razors, underwear , socks , hats and gloves, even sugar on the table are all hard to come by nowadays.

homemadecider

Mr Benevolent wrote: »

I'd recommend Focus Ireland, you'd be horrified to know how inefficient the foreign aid charities are.

You do know that Concern and Trocaire have annual audited public reports published on their websites? Anyone can go and read about their spending. They are far from inefficient.

whitewave

I have one or two causes that are close to me (ABII and Headway), and support them regularly, and do some volunteering/fundraising with them from time to time. After that, I'd give friends money if they're doing a fundraiser or whatever, but that's about it. Always feel that little bit guilty when I avoid chuggers on the street...but they annoy me so they guilt doesn't last long!

jimgoose

whitewave wrote: »

...Always feel that little bit guilty when I avoid chuggers on the street...but they annoy me so they guilt doesn't last long!

I am utterly remorseless in the matter of completely ignoring those people. Also, people who harass you via telephone/email/snail-mail almost every day looking for "donations" for this, that and the other can furk straight off.

I watched a programme on BBC last night about three people/families who could barely afford food. I was so saddened by it. They had celebrity chefs go in an try to eat on the same budget as these folk.

The first guy was an old irish man, he ate almost nothing and lived in a little bedsit. He could only afford really cheap tins of soup and would make them last two days.

another was a single mother who worked full time, she had a teenage daughter and made sure her daughter ate the food which they got from the food bank, while she drank 20 cups of sugary tea a day just to keep going. She had lost 3.5 stone in 6 months, was anaemic, and at risk of bowel cancer.

I wondered about these food banks, I know we have St. Vincent de Paul and the likes, but have we anything like this? It's something I would be very interested in trying to set up here.

Mr Benevolent

homemadecider wrote: »

You do know that Concern and Trocaire have annual audited public reports published on their websites? Anyone can go and read about their spending. They are far from inefficient.

Yes, they can read about their spending, but that's a quarter of the story. The majority of countries that need aid don't have the administrative capacity to handle and distribute the money, so the NGOs give it to the government. The government takes it and spends it on military equipment and luxuries. A small % of the money is turned into aid supplies to show willing and rest is dumped into numbered bank accounts in Luxembourg - Switzerland is not as popular anymore due to the removal of certain privacy laws.

The NGOs know this but literally can't do a thing about it. That's the stark reality, and it's why I don't donate to foreign aid NGOs or charities that don't make an active, measurable and real difference to people's lives in Ireland.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

I watched a programme on BBC last night about three people/families who could barely afford food. I was so saddened by it. They had celebrity chefs go in an try to eat on the same budget as these folk.

The first guy was an old irish man, he ate almost nothing and lived in a little bedsit. He could only afford really cheap tins of soup and would make them last two days.

another was a single mother who worked full time, she had a teenage daughter and made sure her daughter ate the food which they got from the food bank, while she drank 20 cups of sugary tea a day just to keep going. She had lost 3.5 stone in 6 months, was anaemic, and at risk of bowel cancer.

I wondered about these food banks, I know we have St. Vincent de Paul and the likes, but have we anything like this? It's something I would be very interested in trying to set up here.

There seems to be only one
http://www.crosscare.ie/crosscarefoodbank.ie/

homer911

Mr Benevolent wrote: »

Yes, they can read about their spending, but that's a quarter of the story. The majority of countries that need aid don't have the administrative capacity to handle and distribute the money, so the NGOs give it to the government. The government takes it and spends it on military equipment and luxuries. A small % of the money is turned into aid supplies to show willing and rest is dumped into numbered bank accounts in Luxembourg - Switzerland is not as popular anymore due to the removal of certain privacy laws.

The NGOs know this but literally can't do a thing about it. That's the stark reality, and it's why I don't donate to foreign aid NGOs or charities that don't make an active, measurable and real difference to people's lives in Ireland.

The irony with a name like that...
I hope you sleep well at night

jimgoose

homer911 wrote: »

The irony with a name like that...
I hope you sleep well at night

He's right. That's why God invented Bono - he sorts all that stuff out and he may as well, he doesn't contribute much around here. And I sleep just fine.