Do you give to charity and if so, how do you choose which ones?
I recently started a monthly donation (small) to Wateraid. I picked them cos I am of the firm belief that without a stable supply of clean water no progress out of poverty is possible. But with it, people can often make their own way out of the worst poverty.
I've put this in CA because I fell that charity and the need for it is a Current subject as much as a Cafe one. And not all the threads in here have to be negative or automatically controvertial.
Foxy,
A very successful alternative, for many, is Pennies from Heaven donations.
You just need your employer to look at it / set it up. Basically when you get paid you get All the employer does is round down all those on the payroll to get the whole £ and collects all the pence, which is then given to whichever the staff/company agree on as being their chosen charity/charities. Doesn't sound much and most people will almost certainly never miss a maximum of .99p in their monthly pay, however it all mounts up and to date PFH has raised more than £1m for over 117 charities, Also participation rates are high – it has a current average of 25% with one member achieving 70% in the first 3 months!
Whilst Banks per se can have their faults and detractors, Barclays advise their scheme was simple to set up, is easy to administer and has helped them raise over £283,000 for good causes over the last few years
see
There is also the Payroll Giving scheme, with Royal Mail being amongst the first organisations to set up payroll giving in 1989, and its scheme is currently one of the largest in the UK. Over the last 18 years, employeeshave consistently shown their commitment to payroll giving by donating over £32 million to charity, with 27% of employees currently subscribed to the scheme.
Basically Payroll Giving is a flexible scheme which allows anyone who pays UK income tax to give regularly and on a tax free basis to the charities and good causes of their choice. Payroll Giving donations are deducted before tax so each you give will only cost you 80p, and if you're a higher rate tax payer it will only cost you 60p.
Overall Payroll Giving has increased from £37 million in 1999/2000, to over £106 million in 2009/2010. However only 4% of UK employees participate in Payroll Giving schemes.
Have a look at
Perhaps something to consider, especially as when set up it's done for you and with Gift Aid, the charities benefit even more from these schemes
I support local Charity's such as the Lions clubs, as I like the way they support local people and local Charity's.
The company I work for does a lot for the Macmillan trust so any works charity events goes to them.
The only exception is at Christmas, we no longer give each Christmas cards in the office but instead put the money that we would have spent on them into the Twycross Zoo fund. The money we collect is donated and used to look after and feed one of the animals there, last year we raised enough for a macaroni penguin!
Aww sweet lol I like the choc penguins thou lol
I give regularly to several different charities, using Direct Debit and Gift Aid (just small amounts, I'm not boasting).
I choose a charity from different sectors, i.e children, cancer, animals, world aid etc and give to each one for a couple of years, then change to a different charity in each sector for a couple of years again, tha way I hope to spread my donations around as much as I can.
Funny thing is, since I started doing this I am a lot luckier on the lottery. Is that karma at work?
I give money to 2 charities, 1 is Macmillan Cancer Support, and the other is our local hospice.
I also help with some fundraising for the hospice. They are amazing in all they do to help patients and familes affected by cancer.
I give monthly to Tommy's have done for 16 years now, the reason I chose this charity is because I wouldn't like others to suffer what I have suffered and their reasearch over the years have gone a long way to help prevent this from happening.
Mainly support the Cancer charities though it's not on a monthly basis, several of my friends did sponsored runs last year, and I guess it's personal as its affected several people I know either directly, or people close to them.
Don't generally give to kids charities as there are so many of them and I feel they get so much already via things like Childrens In Need.
It's interesting how many different reasons and directions there are for giving. I won't give to animal charities on the principle that people must come first. I'd rather give towards the basics of life than for holidays for sick children. For me there are some basics everyone should be able to expect - clean water, the ability to grow enough food, 4 walls and a roof, healthcare to keep people well enough to work and feed themselves and their children.
In this country the main lack of those is the home. If I had the money I would love to take the people in B&B's and crap bedsits and hostels and give them a clean, warm flat or house. Wouldn't have to be big or posh; just clean, dry and warm.
Aid, after basic life-saving food/water, should focus on making people and communities self-sufficient.
I subscribe to Oxfam and Amnesty....I object to the fact that we live in a world where either are needed...How did I pick these ? to be honest I don't really know other than they just seemed to be the leading players in the fields they work in
This Christmas's collection instead of cards donations raised enough to look after a Snow Leopard this year!
I gave to Oxfam once, they have pestered me ever since, in fact, if one added up the phone calls and letters they have sent me, they have probably waisted all the money I gave them.
