A Charity You Respect ?

degrassinoel

St. Francis Hospice

seen the work they do firsthand, really worthwhile

mariaalice

Always give to SVP and I know its not perfect, they are not there to investigate clams nor should they. I make a point of not giving to chuggers or door to door sellers or any charities that employs them.

spurious

degrassinoel wrote: »

St. Francis Hospice

seen the work they do firsthand, really worthwhile

+1
Volunteer with them too.
They survive because of donations and volunteers.
I particularly like the fact that they do not presume any religious affiliation and do not push it on anyone. You could not wish for a family member to be in better hands towards (and at, if they wish) the end.

January

Heart Children Ireland.

1 in 100 children are diagnosed with a congenital heart defect in Ireland. They do amazing work providing a clinical psychologist, they only have two paid staff members and have no government funding whatsoever. They fundraise for the heart centre in Crumlin hospital (which by the way was built using only donations through CMRF, another worthy charity, and golfer Graeme McDowell) and provide a speech and language therapist for the children there.

They were an amazing help to us when my daughter was diagnosed with a CHD in 2012 and when she had her surgery in 2014.

corner of hells

A lot of charities will appreciate a donation of your time particularly if you have a skill or talent.

It's not always apparent but many charities have a hidden army of volunteers who save a small fortune by being involved in activities.

BnB

I was really put off by SVP about 5 or 6 years ago. I was dropping a load of baby stuff into their place in Limerick. It was used but all in good condition and not rubbish. As I took it in, I saw a guy leave with a good buggy I had dropped in and throw it in the boot of his 06 Car. I thought it was ironic that I was taking it out of my clapped out 98 Passat and yet this guy was taking it for nothing.

In defence of the staff in there, I could see that they were p1ssed off with this guy and his family and seemed to know him well. He was basically trying to take everything I brought in and they were doing their best to stop him. He didn't see it as charity at all, it was a way of life to him and his family. Get what you can for nothing from SVP, The State or any other suckers.

It is a pity because I think the staff were 100% genuine and were just as frustrated as me but just felt they couldn't say no.

A few years later when I had a few more bits that we were finished with, I ended up dropping them to a shelter for women with kids who were escaping abusive relationships and I felt the stuff went to a much better cause.

Raminahobbin

I don't get involved with or give to any human charities at all, ever, I will only give to animal charities. They are usually small, local ones & I do pretty extensive googling on them before I give anything, as I have been stung before.

My only standing order is to the Kildare Animal Foundation, but I've given to or helped out (and think highly of) A Dog's Life, Dogs in Distress, the Donkey Sanctuary & My Lovely Horse Rescue. All do amazing work.

Butters1979

Raminahobbin wrote: »

I don't get involved with or give to any human charities at all, ever, I will only give to animal charities. They are usually small, local ones & I do pretty extensive googling on them before I give anything, as I have been stung before.

My only standing order is to the Kildare Animal Foundation, but I've given to or helped out (and think highly of) A Dog's Life, Dogs in Distress, the Donkey Sanctuary & My Lovely Horse Rescue. All do amazing work.

So....charity hipster?

Raminahobbin

Butters1979 wrote: »

So....charity hipster?

Nope... Just prefer to have a bit of experience with them & meet some of the staff! I don't trust most charities :P

heldel00

KBRT (Kevin Bell repatriation trust)
Fantastic charity ran by the Bell family themselves. Have helped a frightening amount of Irish families bring loved ones home at a very difficult time.

Jawgap

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

Big with the sailing crowd.

Do great work - but not short of money.

Can someone clear up - what the coast guard do V RNLI.

And life guards - they part of RNLI ?

Coastguard do coastal and close inshore work and provide the SAR helis - RNLI do inshore and offshore rescues. Coastguard also monitor for emergency calls and cover other incidents like marine pollution.

If the RNLI didn't exist we'd need to greatly expand the coastguard and we'd not get neatly the coverage we have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GplNLTgdUKw

Riva10

corner of hells wrote: »

A lot of charities will appreciate a donation of your time particularly if you have a skill or talent.

It's not always apparent but many charities have a hidden army of volunteers who save a small fortune by being involved in activities.

And behind the army of volunteers there is a team of professionals on fat salaries. Never forget them with your donations.

corner of hells

Riva10 wrote: »

corner of hells wrote: »

A lot of charities will appreciate a donation of your time particularly if you have a skill or talent.

It's not always apparent but many charities have a hidden army of volunteers who save a small fortune by being involved in activities.

And behind the army of volunteers there is a team of professionals on fat salaries. Never forget them with your donations.

Or realistically there's lots of professionals on a salary not particularly different from anyone else.
I'm a social care worker in a charity and earn an ordinary salary and do the usual like pay my bills , mortgage, look after my kids and wife and drive my 13 year old car.
That's what my "fat salary" does.

Jawgap

Riva10 wrote: »

And behind the army of volunteers there is a team of professionals on fat salaries. Never forget them with your donations.

The little bit of volunteering I do is for a charity run with 2 full time and 3 or 4 partime staff. If they're on fat salaries, they're bloody good at hiding it!

Don't tar all charities with the same brush dipped in a few notorious cases

seligehgit

SVP

Concern

MSF

donkeykong5

mahoganygas wrote: »

I mentioned my mistrust of SVP in another thread and got absolutely torn to shreds.

Some people's faith in SVP is almost pious.

I urge anyone who is giving to a charity to research where that donation is going. Better yet, get personally involved.

Was it something to do with the galway branch. If so I supported you.

donkeykong5

LoonyLovegood wrote: »

Mine would be MSF, the DCM Homeless Ministry, and Teach Solais LGBT resource centre.

Never heard of these charities. What's their full titles as a matter of interest.

anewme

I always donate to small local charities, mainly animal related.

I've a small monthly donation to the Blue Cross (since they helped my Mum a few years back when she found a little stray dog that she wantedto keep but could not afford the vets fees being a pensioner)

Did my good deed today and donated my Christmas gift from work directly to the local animal charity.

What you've never had, you can't miss.

bottlebrush

Alone

Joe prim

Raminahobbin wrote: »

I don't get involved with or give to any human charities at all, ever, I will only give to animal charities. They are usually small, local ones & I do pretty extensive googling on them before I give anything, as I have been stung before.

My only standing order is to the Kildare Animal Foundation, but I've given to or helped out (and think highly of) A Dog's Life, Dogs in Distress, the Donkey Sanctuary & My Lovely Horse Rescue. All do amazing work.

And the best thing about such charities is that they're run by the animals themselves! No dirty old humans involved.

HandsomeDan

Joe prim wrote: »

And the best thing about such charities is that they're run by the animals themselves! No dirty old humans involved.

All jokes aside ive actually seen fully animal run charities in operation. They even had a doctor on staff. I think it was a swan.

Lady Chatterton

Clare Crusaders Children's Clinic - it provides free Speech & Language therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and special education to 400 children with special needs (annually).

The clinic receives no government funding - it is funded through fundraising events and donations.

donkeykong5

Children of chenobal charity. The ceo adi roche does not take any salary at all from the charity.

Rachiee

Capuchin day center, aoibheanns pink tie, laura lynne, small charities that wouldn't get much state funding.

Just weighing in on the ceo thing its not something that bothers me in a large organisation as if the ceo is on say 150 but could easily make 250 working in a similar sized organisation elsewhere then thats enough of a concession. Plus if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

Witchie

heldel00 wrote: »

KBRT (Kevin Bell repatriation trust)
Fantastic charity ran by the Bell family themselves. Have helped a frightening amount of Irish families bring loved ones home at a very difficult time.

KBRT info

Delighted to see someone give these guys a mention. I know 2 families in my small town who have had to rely on them, and when I had a family member very ill abroad last year, I thought we were going to have to call on them.

One of the families I know have told us about how they just make such a horrendous time much easier and more bearable. They basically tell the family to just concentrate on organising the funeral and they will do pretty much everything else in getting the body back home.

Such amazing people. The fundraising group I am chair of chose them as our main charity this year and am hoping to be able to send them a cheque for a few grand next week when we get paid for an event we put on.

I have a cousin heading off with MSF soon and will make sure to give him a donation towards the charity. Generally I like to keep it local. There is a fantastic cancer support group in my town that I like to donate to from time to time too. When it is local, it is easier to see the effect of the money in the area or on specific people.

quickbeam

Lady Chatterton wrote: »

Clare Crusaders Children's Clinic - it provides free Speech & Language therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and special education to 400 children with special needs (annually).

The clinic receives no government funding - it is funded through fundraising events and donations.

See, this sort of thing bothers me. I'm sure they do fantastic work and all, but why are requirements like this left to charties to do, intead of being taken on by the HSE? And if we continue to fund such charities through donanations then there's even less onus on the HSE to take the responsibility.

I understand it's a sort of Catch 22 - you don't want to deprive a charity of funds when they do good work and there's nowhere else supplying the service, but the HSE will never take on their responsibility of doing the job while we do keep funding such charties.

Rachiee

Rachiee wrote: »

Capuchin day center, aoibheanns pink tie, laura lynne, small charities that wouldn't get much state funding.

Just weighing in on the ceo thing its not something that bothers me in a large organisation as if the ceo is on say 150 but could easily make 250 working in a similar sized organisation elsewhere then thats enough of a concession. Plus if you pay peanuts you get monkeys.

Could you identify the CEOs that could make 250k "easily" elsewhere? My experience with some charities is that they involve a mix of genuinely concerned people on the ground who make nothing, and then those higher up who mine it as a money spinner and wouldn't last a minute in the world of real business.

Jawgap

Deleted User wrote: »

Could you identify the CEOs that could make 250k "easily" elsewhere? My experience with some charities is that they involve a mix of genuinely concerned people on the ground who make nothing, and then those higher up who mine it as a money spinner and wouldn't last a minute in the world of real business.

In this context the discussion on CEO salary related to the boss of the RNLI - an ex Vice Admiral with practical experience of running and supporting a fleet (as well as commanding it). He's paid £150k per year (a Vice Adm's salary is £155k per year).

In that particular case having a leader of that calibre 'at the helm' (pun intended) of what is a de facto emergency service (that regularly sends its volunteer crews into harm's way) with a logistics chain and 'command' structure to manage is probably a prerequisite for success so arguably that guy is worth his salary. He could probably have picked up a few gigs working as a consultant for BAe or Babcock as well as a few directorships on the boards of military contracting or shipping companies and made twice the money for a fraction of the effort, and none of the worry.

If he was someone admin/manager type person who had made a career of moving from charity to charity, then the case for that salary being paid to them is an awful lot shakier.

Sleepy

CEO salaries is definitely a big issue. If you're an organisation the size, scale and complexity of the RNLI, it'd be madness not to hire someone immensely qualified and pay them a commensurate salary to what they'd achieve in the private sector for a similar role (unless the ideal candidate happens to volunteer to do the job for nothing / less of course).

When you're talking about a small Irish charity, I really don't see the justification for a six figure salary. Most of these seem to be run by social "insiders" and, tbh, don't require a huge amount of expertise to manage, a decent administrator who'd command 40 - 60k in the private sector should be perfectly capable of it.

Odd that no-one on the thread thought to mention Boards.ie's own charity exercise! The SSF is one of the few charities I'd make an annual donation to!

http://www.santastrikeforce.com/

suicide_circus

Walking past my local SVP de P centre there, a group of people smoking a joint after coming out having collected donated Christmas presents. The then proceed to jump into a 161 Pajero and drive off.

padd b1975

silverharp wrote: »

RNLI , a model of selfless dedication and just people being awsome

We must have got the short straw in our part of the world on that front.

Our local crew has been ridden with petty cliques and jealousy since it was founded, culminating in the captain being bullied out of his position.

Danbo!

Aoibheanns Pink Tie do amazing work for families dealing with childhood cancer.

With no government support, they rely on donations. They only have 1 part time employee and the rest is volunteer, so if you're donating, 92.5% will go to the charity, with 1% on wages and 6.5% on expenses.

They helped my family this year and it was very supportive, and practical. A kit for hospital with essential stuff, as you're basically living there for months. Presents for kids on birthday and christmas. Gifts for siblings who are often on the sidelines. Decorating kids rooms. Financial support as working is very difficult when your kid is sick. Two big parties a year for the kids where you can guarantee everyone is well and it's not an infection risk. If there is a kid that cant make it they'll send presents. And just last week, a massive hamper of food was delivered to every family for christmas.

donkeykong5

Says it all.

donkeykong5

suicide_circus wrote: »

Walking past my local SVP de P centre there, a group of people smoking a joint after coming out having collected donated Christmas presents. The then proceed to jump into a 161 Pajero and drive off.

Says it all.

Jawgap

donkeykong5 wrote: »

Says it all.

So based on that one case, you think SVP should fold their tent and jack it in?

SVP don't ask, if you present yourself as being in need they'll help, just as Bro Kevin will supply you with food parcel and/or meal even if you rock up in a Louis Copeland suit and step out of a Merc.....as per his interview on Newstalk yesterday.

jetsonx

I always donate to NAMA when I can. They do some fantastic work for rehabilitating property developers back into the community. Their hand-outs to out-of-work solicitors is also admirable.

I am pretty into the Kiva model - but not sure that can be called "charity" as such given you get the money back. But I have my own account I "donate" to on it - and I am part of the Atheist Ireland group account too which has loaned a few 1000 euro to many projects now.

I guess my view of charity on a personal level is along the "give a man a fish - teach a man to fish" line.

anewme

Deleted User wrote: »

I am pretty into the Kiva model - but not sure that can be called "charity" as such given you get the money back. But I have my own account I "donate" to on it - and I am part of the Atheist Ireland group account too which has loaned a few 1000 euro to many projects now.

I guess my view of charity on a personal level is along the "give a man a fish - teach a man to fish" line.

Never heard of that before.

Just looked at it and i really like it.

donkeykong5

Jawgap wrote: »

donkeykong5 wrote: »

Says it all.

So based on that one case, you think SVP should fold their tent and jack it in?

SVP don't ask, if you present yourself as being in need they'll help, just as Bro Kevin will supply you with food parcel and/or meal even if you rock up in a Louis Copeland suit and step out of a Merc.....as per his interview on Newstalk yesterday.

SVP. Have gone down a lot these days. Why do people who can afford to smoke dope and drive 16 reg vehicles receive generous help from SVP. Surely these are the very people who should be donating to the charity. Should this be pointed out to said persons ?. Also carry on of SVP in galway leaves sour taste in my mouth.

Jawgap

donkeykong5 wrote: »

SVP. Have gone down a lot these days. Why do people who can afford to smoke dope and drive 16 reg vehicles receive generous help from SVP. Surely these are the very people who should be donating to the charity. Should this be pointed out to said persons ?. Also carry on of SVP in galway leaves sour taste in my mouth.

Unless you live in Galway any money you give to SVP will not be spent there.

Plus, if undeserving people present themselves as being in need, it's the the charity or their volunteers who have 'gone down' it's the people willing to defraud a charity.

Think of it this way if the charity starts to ask people questions about their circumstances and justify the basis of their need do you think that will encourage or discourage people from asking for help. Pride is a terrible thing, and there's no need to humiliate people looking for help. Unfortunately, that leaves the system open to abuse, but it's still better than doing nothing.

TheVoodoo

Just on the subject of RNLI selflessness.

Today is the anniversary of the Kingstown(Dun Laoghaire) lifeboat disaster where 15 crew lost their lives.

Having being volunteer crew with the RNLI for years I know firsthand that the vast majority of rescues carried out by my station were not sailors in yachts, but fishermen, children and swimmers.

The CEO with the experience of Paul Bossier is exceptional, and wort every cent. Someone of his calibre is almost unheard of.

As a rough example, total RNLI running costs are £455,000 (100,000++ for Ireland included) per day. Bear in mind, that most stations have 20-30 crew and only one of these will recieve any payment (usually mechanic who is there 0800-1800). Over 95% of crew, staff, bucket shakers and fundraisers are unpaid.

donkeykong5

Jawgap wrote: »

donkeykong5 wrote: »

SVP. Have gone down a lot these days. Why do people who can afford to smoke dope and drive 16 reg vehicles receive generous help from SVP. Surely these are the very people who should be donating to the charity. Should this be pointed out to said persons ?. Also carry on of SVP in galway leaves sour taste in my mouth.

Unless you live in Galway any money you give to SVP will not be spent there.

Plus, if undeserving people present themselves as being in need, it's the the charity or their volunteers who have 'gone down' it's the people willing to defraud a charity.

Think of it this way if the charity starts to ask people questions about their circumstances and justify the basis of their need do you think that will encourage or discourage people from asking for help. Pride is a terrible thing, and there's no need to humiliate people looking for help. Unfortunately, that leaves the system open to abuse, but it's still better than doing nothing.

You are entitled to your opinion . As I am mine. I know that all money given to children of chenobal charity goes directly to that charity. Adi roche claims no wage. Sadly SVP seems to go to people these days who are far better off than me.

snubbleste

More SVdeP paid my neighbours Illegal Dumping fine
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057122508

maryishere

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd only give to non Irish charities.

I dunno, I just suspect that behind pretty much any national charity now, there is a person or people just coining it.

The only people I know who work for charity ( an Irish charity ) are certainly coining it. It is a great business to be in for them. They are better off than most of the people who give to them ( nice house in good area, lots of foreign holidays, tons of fancy clothes etc...even though they do not work hard ). I do not know about other charities but would suspect they are mostly the same.

suicide_circus

Jawgap wrote: »

Unless you live in Galway any money you give to SVP will not be spent there.

Plus, if undeserving people present themselves as being in need, it's the the charity or their volunteers who have 'gone down' it's the people willing to defraud a charity.

Think of it this way if the charity starts to ask people questions about their circumstances and justify the basis of their need do you think that will encourage or discourage people from asking for help. Pride is a terrible thing, and there's no need to humiliate people looking for help. Unfortunately, that leaves the system open to abuse, but it's still better than doing nothing.

That's all fair enough but I don't make a huge amount of money and so won't give my few bob to a charity which is so easy to defraud.

livedadream

Jack and Jill
Irish cancer society (work off 80cent a euro) on of the highest in Ireland
And locally the penny dinners

pragmatic1

Simon Community.