• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Donating....

Roy1983

Edward Sheringham
I want to donate to charity but am so sceptical I never got round to it.

If I could I'd help every kid in Africa, every elderly person heat up their living rooms etc but I just don't believe my money will end up where I want it to go.

Any ideas?
 
You want bang for buck? You don't get much better than malaria nets. You used to be able to buy a net for every £1 donated, which basically meant that for every £5 donated you saved a life.

Simplicity often rules, so try to find a charity that takes a Direct Debit, or even easier than that, pick up some extra shopping for a food bank next time they're at your supermarket.

Probably the most important thing though is to send the money where you want it to go. Find a charity that fits with your views/feelings and stick with them - I've been donating to the same set of charities for most of my working life now and I rarely feel the need to change.
 
Literally just logged in!

Yes but how do you know your money will end up going directly to the charity and not the fat cats running the show?
 
Literally just logged in!

Yes but how do you know your money will end up going directly to the charity and not the fat cats running the show?
http://www.aliveandgiving.com/

Just choose the sector you want to give to and they'll tell you who does what and what % goes to "charitable acts". You need to be a little careful though - one of my chosen charities, the NSPCC, only spends 80% on "charitable acts". That seems low because they spend a lot of money on advertising and awareness which isn't going straight to helping kids but is having an indirect influence that is beneficial.

If that still bothers you then look for a charity that doesn't require much advertising like Children in Need. They don't spend that 10% on advertising and awareness that the NSPCC do because they get all that free promotion from the BBC. They do use a slightly different model to the others though - they delay payments and invest donations. The interest received on those investments covers their running costs.
 
You want bang for buck? You don't get much better than malaria nets. You used to be able to buy a net for every £1 donated, which basically meant that for every £5 donated you saved a life.

Simplicity often rules, so try to find a charity that takes a Direct Debit, or even easier than that, pick up some extra shopping for a food bank next time they're at your supermarket.

Probably the most important thing though is to send the money where you want it to go. Find a charity that fits with your views/feelings and stick with them - I've been donating to the same set of charities for most of my working life now and I rarely feel the need to change.

We do this. It's a good idea because you are giving goods rather than money. Our young daughter loves it too because she is physically choosing the goods to buy and giving the stuff over to them so really feels like she's doing something good for other people rather than us just paying a DD every month.

I love the charity shops as well. We have a clear out, take all the stuff there and they're always so grateful and I'm like "mate, you're helping us out here!"
 
We do this. It's a good idea because you are giving goods rather than money. Our young daughter loves it too because she is physically choosing the goods to buy and giving the stuff over to them so really feels like she's doing something good for other people rather than us just paying a DD every month.

I love the charity shops as well. We have a clear out, take all the stuff there and they're always so grateful and I'm like "mate, you're helping us out here!"
I do try and give stuff to charity shops. Problem is, I don't think they'll often get the true value for them. I donated a bag a month or so ago that probably cost me thousands new - most of it was being sold for £20 each. Had i had the time and/or inclination I could have sold it on Ebay for a lot more and donated but I'm just lazy. It does give me a sense of pride though when they dress their mannequins in the window in my clothing - the wife and I have a running contest on who can get the most stuff out there. She's currently winning because she's given some old jewellery away.

Apparently one of the issues with people buying for food banks is that they're too judgemental - they'll buy healthy breakfast cereal and tinned veg but not cake or sugar. Personally, I try to buy as much of the cake/sugar type stuff as possible - I can't imagine a life on tinned veg and cereal.

The supermarkets near me in Chichester always have full donation trolleys out the front and that's something I take pride in. I had the misfortune of having to go to a Tesco in Portsmouth recently - having dropped a bag into an empty trolley I asked the girl if she was having much luck - she'd been there two hours and mine was the first bag!
 
I donate to a couple of Cancer charities and I feel certain that it gets where it needs to go. As for charity shops I do tend to drop off anything I no longer use.
 
I tend to give to the ones that do it via a one-off text msg, so you txt and it adds a fiver to your phone bill or whatever. I don't wanna sign up for a direct debit incase I don't have the spare cash that month.
 
I do try and give stuff to charity shops. Problem is, I don't think they'll often get the true value for them. I donated a bag a month or so ago that probably cost me thousands new - most of it was being sold for £20 each. Had i had the time and/or inclination I could have sold it on Ebay for a lot more and donated but I'm just lazy. It does give me a sense of pride though when they dress their mannequins in the window in my clothing - the wife and I have a running contest on who can get the most stuff out there. She's currently winning because she's given some old jewellery away.

Apparently one of the issues with people buying for food banks is that they're too judgemental - they'll buy healthy breakfast cereal and tinned veg but not cake or sugar. Personally, I try to buy as much of the cake/sugar type stuff as possible - I can't imagine a life on tinned veg and cereal.

The supermarkets near me in Chichester always have full donation trolleys out the front and that's something I take pride in. I had the misfortune of having to go to a Tesco in Portsmouth recently - having dropped a bag into an empty trolley I asked the girl if she was having much luck - she'd been there two hours and mine was the first bag!

The one near us gives out a leaflet with what would be good to buy. Once, just once mind, our daughter made us buy everything on the list! (she's a good one).
 
I donated a bit of money to a school in Fukushima, giving scholarships to kids who lost their parents and/or homes in the 2011 Japanese earthquake / tsunami / nuclear crisis. Was extremely gratifying to literally present it to the school.
 
Make sure to remember that it's only worth doing if you make everyone aware of it (much like everything else in life), if you're not already, get on fb or twitter and maybe get some selfies of you physically handing money over to the unfortunate.

On a serious note, I do completely get your concern here Roy. Charity shops and food banks are straightforward enough as mentioned but it's tough when you get to percentage going to charitable acts, charities need to advertise but if they're paying some quirky bellend in a bow tie to come up with a funky fresh approach to marketing the pain and suffering of others it becomes not so much of a clear cut line.
 
I give to organisations that receive no funding from the government. I give to a local hospice and also the lifeboat association. The life boat association is very close to my heart. Though the are a few paid employees most are volunteers and when I retire properly I intend to volunteer and help collect money for them.
 
I've just come back from my travels in SE Asia and I volunteered at a couple of very worthwhile dog charities.

However I read a story recently about a Romanian dog charity that rescued a dog and flew it to a new home in England. When that didn't work out for whatever reason, to make the dog 'happy' they flew it back to Romania, where you'll be pleased to know the dog is now very happy.

Words fail me.
 
They have a few orgs that actually track charities -> http://www.charitynavigator.org/
(as example, even though its US only). If you look/research, you can details of how much of each dollar actually gets to objective of charity.

Me, I usually donate to animals/conservation type stuff (sorry, not people), and my company does charity matching which is cool ...
 
However I read a story recently about a Romanian dog charity that rescued a dog and flew it to a new home in England. When that didn't work out for whatever reason, to make the dog 'happy' they flew it back to Romania, where you'll be pleased to know the dog is now very happy.

Words fail me.

No doubt the 10 people who accompanied the dog to England stayed and are loving life on benefits in the UK now though
 
Back