Do you ever donate to charity?

Semele

I have a (very small) monthly direct debit to Amnesty and I'm going to set up one for an animal related charity as soon as I pick one! Otherwise I give money to my local animal shelter every time I'm there (they also do pet boarding which I use a lot and I usually round up what they charge by a few quid).

Ive done loads of different voluntary work over the years and I regularly donate bags of stuff to charity shops, mainly Oxfam (after researching how much of what's donated various charities actually make use of) and another local animal charity shop.

anncoates

Not in a direct debit sense but I'm a extremely soft target for stuff like collections, text donations and once-off stuff.

0byme75341jo28

coolemon wrote: »

No, I never give to charity. I generally subscribe to the views of Oscar Wilde on the matter:

"The majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism – are forced, indeed, so to spoil them. They find themselves surrounded by hideous poverty, by hideous ugliness, by hideous starvation. It is inevitable that they should be strongly moved by all this. The emotions of man are stirred more quickly than man’s intelligence; and, as I pointed out some time ago in an article on the function of criticism, it is much more easy to have sympathy with suffering than it is to have sympathy with thought. Accordingly, with admirable, though misdirected intentions, they very seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see. But their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it. Indeed, their remedies are part of the disease.

They try to solve the problem of poverty, for instance, by keeping the poor alive; or, in the case of a very advanced school, by amusing the poor.

But this is not a solution: it is an aggravation of the difficulty. The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible. And the altruistic virtues have really prevented the carrying out of this aim. Just as the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realised by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it, so, in the present state of things in England, the people who do most harm are the people who try to do most good; and at last we have had the spectacle of men who have really studied the problem and know the life – educated men who live in the East End – coming forward and imploring the community to restrain its altruistic impulses of charity, benevolence, and the like. They do so on the ground that such charity degrades and demoralises. They are perfectly right. Charity creates a multitude of sins.

There is also this to be said. It is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property. It is both immoral and unfair." - Oscar Wilde

So what do you do to promote Oscar Wilde's ideology? I strongly disagree with it to be honest.

TheBeardedLady

No direct debit here either (because I don't always have money in my acccount...like right now, for example) but give money to beggers regularly and to collections and sponsored stuff or if there's an appeal or something.

Lalealynn

Uh huh.

I have two standing orders. And I do give a few bob here and there when I see a cause online or something. I five pens and three pins for breast cancer awareness in the last few months. And of course the odd euro to people on the street. (from Merrion sq to st stephens green must have a hundred homeless between by the way it's unbelievable.)

I also give my time. I volunteer for animals causes and work with volunteerssouthDublin doing various stuff, making care packages for the homeless etc. I also do stuff with glenn and LGBT stuff. Also with causes like LGBT marriage campaign. Or rally's for things I believe in.

I do it as I want to. If I have more work stuff I do less.

I was told last weekend by six friends I have not seen in a while not to let others drain me. There are a lot of scammers out there. I have probably been taken in a couple of times. I am very emotionally intelligent but I am not very shrewd at all.

I have friends who have gone to Africa to work with kids for a few months and worked to save to fund that themselves. And used their wages to support them over there. People don't realize you have to fund that. A close male friend did it and went into shock ..when he can bag it was a mind **** to see Irish people carrying around bags of food. Like WHOLE bags of food.

You can do things that actually fit in with what you like. I preformed in mountjoy (music stuff) and worked with fr peter Mc Verry for a while. But I kind of sensed that was a bit toxic for me. When I was finished performing or leaving one thing struck me though. Every single prisoner always came up to personally thank me and shake my hand. That's rare.

I volunteer with IT for the DSPCA sometimes and to help at the shelter up near mount venus. It's great it's like having one of every animal but not all the responsibility.

I have a friend who organizes funding events for things like blood donation and other stuff. Her events were AMAZING. They were great nights out.

Time is really a generous thing to do.

On the southdublinvolunteerssite they have a list of '30 random acts of volunteering'. I love that!

You meet the nicest people. And sometimes not the nicest people. But you learn to deal with them.

It's like sometimes you have to 'zone it' and only enter in your Hazmat suit. I was probably too young to do the stuff in mountjoy when I did it. It was through Uni I did a philosophy degree and I made friends with people who volunteered and raised money for charity a lot.

It's weird though it doesn't make you a better person necessarily. The stuff I do is very lightweight. I'm a lightweight lol!

By the way the Views of Oscar Wilde on the matter were swayed considerably toward the end of his life I think by his experiences of suffering and in particular his time in prison.

Now just to leave you with this thought.

I played Jesus in a male prison. Get your head around that now! I'm female ...Get your head around that head ****ery....It was surreal!

I am amused with people who shame altruism with begrudgery meh...:p

Frito

I have supported a few charities in the past but now I am on reduced means (!) I have cut back and support one charity. I can't afford to support more than one and it annoys me when chuggers don't take no for an answer. I just pretend I already support them and add that I already make gift aid donations.
I would do some shopping occasionally for food banks.

Lalealynn

Frito wrote: »

I have supported a few charities in the past but now I am on reduced means (!) I have cut back and support one charity. I can't afford to support more than one and it annoys me when chuggers don't take no for an answer. I just pretend I already support them and add that I already make gift aid donations.
I would do some shopping occasionally for food banks.

You are a truly generous soul

Yes aggressive chuggers can be slightly anti-social.

Lalealynn

Actually some causes can be slightly aggressive and anti-social too in the way they go about them.


I can be full of hyperbole sometimes and I notice a lot of charitable causes can be online too.

Your manner is important.

0byme75341jo28

I never give money to Trocaire or that kind of crowd who chase you around the street looking for sponsorship. I've got some very snide remarks off some of them when I told them I'm not interested so I don't think I'll bother giving them anything.

Raminahobbin

I never, ever, give money to human charities, but I donate regularly via standing order to a couple of animal charities and give my time whenever I can to my local shelter.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Local Lions Club charity fundraisers regularly, themselves and the Freemason Lodge do a good service for the needy in my town. My local branch of the ISPCA also when they're collecting.