Charities

[SwissJon]

With the Holiday season coming on, I thought it would be interesting to find what you feel is a good charity. Is it a small local charity that you hold dear to your heart, a large far reaching charity who help impoverished people far from home? Are you personally involved in something? Come on, spill the beans.

[Elmo]

Well I am not really into giving money away. I prefer to utilize my limited resources in personally working with those in need.

The one that consumes most of my time is working with the homeless (they need friends too). I generally spend at least 10-12 hours a week visiting various homeless locations around the area.

I used to spend a lot of time working with animal rescue groups along with my EX. I have had to give that up due to the safety of other around. We seem to bring out the worst in each other when we encounter each other.

Less regular but the most demanding is with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Rapid Response Team, as a disaster Chaplain.

[UlpilotSC]

I give to charity every two weeks year-round. The government even takes it out of my paycheck for me.

My workplace takes on local stuff- food and toys for foster families, food banks, and adopts the local residentialncare facility for the severly disabled (people with birth defects and severe mental disabilities that pretty much require lifetime care). We all pitch in to raise money and items, but outside of that, no.

[Liz Caldwell]

I'm not sure that this really qualifies, it's not technically a charity, but I am working on launching a photography project via Kickstarter.com

It's a 48 state, 10,000 mile journey to photograph America's back roads and lost highways that will eventually be a coffee table book. I'll be recording all the gps locations of the places I shoot, so if you're near one of the locations you can check it out and add your own photographic style to it. Plus, it's all risk free, and every backer gets a gift for their support

Anyway, I really believe it'll be a great project, so if you want to check it out, here's the link:
What A Trip... Getting Lost on America's Back Roads

[LMAshton]

I really like Kiva for providing microloans to impoverished people to help them improve their business. Heifer International provides animals (heifers, llamas, bees, chickens, rabbits, and so on) to poor families, along with training to help them become more self-reliant.

Mostly, we give our money locally since there are plenty of dirt-poor people here in Sri Lanka.

[metallion58]

I used to give straight from my paycheck at work. And during the Holidays, we would collect money from customers and coworkers. One of our customer deals in toys and would match our amount, doubling it, to give toys to a children hospital.
Now that I've retired, I'll have to find something else.
I'm still a bit disorganized right now...LOL !!!

[AnonymousKiwi1]

I've just donated a food parcel to the local food bank - today's the annual Christmas food drive, hubby and the kids are out collecting as I type. Every year I donate to Plunket (children's health services) and drop some coins in the box when I pick up my poppy for Anzac day. Last year I made a donation to the Red Cross for the Christchurch earthquake appeal. I tend to distrust the overseas charities. As much as I feel for the plight of the starving, I wish to support local people.

[faeriegodess612]

I donate to the local no-kill shelter here whenever I can. I've given them food our dog wouldnt eat, toys, treats, cleaning supplies, blankets and linens, things to sell in a yard sale to benefit the shelter, along with various other things. I wanted to donate to the Food for Families drive, but couldnt afford to.

I want to try and get an Angel from the Angel Tree this year if we can. That is, if they do that here in Texas. They do back home, so I dont see why they wouldnt here.

The Salvation Army: Angel Tree Program

That doesnt give a lot of info, but basically, you buy Christmas for an impoverished child, so that they at least get to experience the joy of Christmas.

[andyw]

I will give to or help out local charities which help the local community (specifically kids or the elderly) and at a push I will help out charities which are for a cause which I (personally or through friends/family) have been affected by but are national charities.

I will NEVER give to charities where the ceo and senior staff earn massive salaries from the charity or which I know spend more on the admin than on the actual cause.

[LMAshton]

Originally Posted by AnonymousKiwi1

I tend to distrust the overseas charities.

This can be a very wise thing.

In Sri Lanka, and I imagine in many other countries, anyone can call themselves a charity. There's no real regulation of charities that I know of, although NGOs (non-governmental organizations) have to be registered with the government and, I believe, submit tax returns to the government, but I have no idea if they're audited. But then, even if they are, given that bribes are commonplace here, who knows how accurate they are? It certainly is *not* regulated anything like charitable organizations in Canada or, presumably, the US.

I won't give to local charities in this country unless I *personally* know exactly how they're operated. Anyone can claim anything. When we give to the poor, we either give to trusted organizations or people or give directly.

We also give where there's low to non-existent overhead. We do know a few groups who take no overhead, so every single rupee goes directly to the poor, and they are our first priority.

Edited to add: There are also some international charities that we will not give money to since they did so many stupid things here in Sri Lanka, like helping the Tamil Tigers (terrorists) escape. Stupid stupid stupid.