Do You Give To Charities?

I do wood artwork for a living and I donate my work to charity auctions or hold them myself from time to time. I like "tunnels to towers" and "alex's lemonaide stand"
 
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Nah…

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For most charities (scam or legit), a lot of the donations go to pay roll, some go to the actual cause (if legit), and they'll have a shit load of volunteers making $0. But then the VP or CEO makes millions.

Totally understandable for execs in for profit companies to make bank because the purpose is to make money and pay everyone. And the higher the job, the higher the pay.

But charities and non-profits have a similar structure for the key office staff. But the key difference is the low level underlings (like volunteers) get $0.

I'm all for making money and capitalism, but working for $0 is stupid. Both the company paying $0 and the people willing to accept $0. For profit companies may do internships for college kids. Dont do it for free. At least pay the kids. Our company would do them and they paid them $22/hr which I think is good pay to learn the ropes, do some spreadsheets or slides. Would be pretty stupid if they did all that work for nothing.

Another problem is once you get on their donation list, good luck getting off it. You'll get mailers and phone calls forever. At least try to do it where you dont give your real phone number (my mistake). They are clever too. Even if you block their number, they got a way of bypassing it so their pre-recorded message goes straight to voice mail where it's some reason not blocked.

I think I've only donated a few times to big campaigns. Fort McMurray fire, Ukraine war, and I used to do hospital lotteries hoping to win prizes. I actually did many times but gave them away. Won some headphones (twice!) and an air purifier. But these are legit. My bro won $1000. Stupid thing is they just blindly send you the cheque in the mail as per my bro. So anyone could had stolen it and tried to cash it hoping it goes through.

I used to donate to friends or coworkers cancer walks, but bailed as soon as they'd get amped up begging for money every year. Same goes for coworkers raising money to pay for their kids hockey fees. Once you donate $20, you'll be expected to pay $20 every year forever as the parent will walk right up to you every year with a donation sign up sheet assuming you (being the gravy train) will keep paying their league fees every year.
 
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I used to until I became a jaded cunt and distrust everything and everyone I see

The cynic in tells me that the money doesn't get to the where it needs to be or is frittered away.

I know charities are on their knees and it's sad to see, I blame the government for not handling things better and making things more equal as a society.

There is so much money in the world I don't even know why the fuck we need charity.

There's people with there own islands (careful now) and all sorts of unimaginable wealth that it's almost obscene the world we live in that people are starving to death while others are doing eating competitions or doing stupid shit with food for social media.

I think give what you can to causes that you care about but I don't judge others for not giving to charity either.

I donate blood every quarter and if someone I know is running a marathon or something for charity I will throw them £20 a handful of times a year. I have some money, not a lot. I'm not doing a tithe or anything like giving away 10% of my wealth. I'm too poor for that 😂
 
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No.

All their CEOs and CFOs on six figure salaries and bonuses whilst all the people on the street collecting for them volunteer.

Some of the money paid to exec is fucking ridiculous.
 
I do but only when I do the research that they are not scummy.
Giving to food banks in general is a good idea, especially with what's happening now in the US.
 
I used to give $100 a year to a national charity that supposedly helps with managing feral cat communities but after a few years I began to get skeptical how much my donation was really helping because the sheer amount of marketing material I'd get from them every year (calendars, cards, stickers, labels, and so on) was probably eating my entire donation.

So this last year I called my local community trap, neuter, release group and asked about donating to them instead. They showed me exactly how they'd spend that $100 (reduced cost meds, surgeries, food) and I've been donating to them instead ever since.
 
Most of my donations don't really go to charities.

I'll pay Wikipedia, little kids working their side hustle, and my largest "donations" are to Ukraine for the express purpose of killing Russian soldiers.

Now and then I'll donate to individual go fund me style campaigns or get the kids in my family to do something good for other less fortunate kids.

I suppose I do get conned for $20 here and there at work for the Aga Khan foundation or some shit.
 
Gave to save the children for a decade. Then realized it wasnt going where it should. I now work in social service, so im essentially donating a peice of my soul every day.....fucking muggles......and thats muggLes, with a hard L.
 
I donated to something back in 2011 when Japan had that Tsunami. That's the only time I think.

I stick to donating canned food and doing toys for tots at Christmas. Donating to charities seems sketchy like giving cash to a homeless guy.
 
Yes Canucks House, Ronald McDonald House, and Seattle Childrens

It absolutely sucks that some kids end up with childhood cancers and other diseases which cut their lives short. Kids should be out having fun, not connected to machines.
 
I donate to a couple of animal charities.

Like a lot of people here, I was skeptical of where the money went, but here in the UK you can search the charity's accounts and they'll show you exactly how much money they raise and how much they pay to staff.

I also have changed my mind about charities paying staff. They need people who are skilled in running an organisation, logistics, advertising, etc. Etc. If the charity is to achieve the kinds of results that are desirable they need to pay market rate for those skills.
Same.

It's not logical or even reasonable to run a wide scale charity with 100% donation. Someone needs to pay for skills, distribution, logistics, and so on. So I'm more wary of "100% donation" claims.

To me, there will always be corruption. That's just life. But to still donate even up to 50% is desirable. We shouldn't be having fat paychecks either (balance with cost of skills, mind).

I won't donate to mountain climbers or travel holiday people. You know those types. "I'm climbing X mountain for chairty". And? It's good you're raising awareness but that message alone did it 100%. Actually climbing the mountain changes nothing. Rather you just post a story "These Kids are starving and need new books, donate to them here or through X verified charity". Also fine with the ones on the ground, taking supplies with them. They're good people.
 
I don't even donate to the church.

And then they go and buy their iPhone 17 Pro Max right there with the money from tithes.

Don't they get a salary? That happens to come from tithing. People give to the church and the employees of the church get paid. They get to prioritize how they spend the money they are paid for their work.
 
Same.

It's not logical or even reasonable to run a wide scale charity with 100% donation. Someone needs to pay for skills, distribution, logistics, and so on. So I'm more wary of "100% donation" claims.

To me, there will always be corruption. That's just life. But to still donate even up to 50% is desirable. We shouldn't be having fat paychecks either (balance with cost of skills, mind).

I won't donate to mountain climbers or travel holiday people. You know those types. "I'm climbing X mountain for chairty". And? It's good you're raising awareness but that message alone did it 100%. Actually climbing the mountain changes nothing. Rather you just post a story "These Kids are starving and need new books, donate to them here or through X verified charity". Also fine with the ones on the ground, taking supplies with them. They're good people.
What they might do is say 100%*, which could mean 100% of what's leftover. But if they dont nobody has an idea what is donated. And besides, nobody knows what any leftover proceeds even means or how much.

It's like when a fast food joint says buy this and they donate. Sometimes it's stated like buy a cookie and 25 cents of each cookie is donated to charity. But if they dont state exact terms, the donation can literally be only 1 penny. Maybe not even that. Maybe their donation after $1M sales of cookies is $100.
 
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Don't they get a salary? That happens to come from tithing. People give to the church and the employees of the church get paid. They get to prioritize how they spend the money they are paid for their work.
Well, there are cases, my friend... Even if they were paid a very high salary, they would still do it...

I know them well.

Tithing isn't good either. It's like those who beg in the street; once I gave some to a homeless person who was asking for food...

I offered them food and they got angry... They're malicious people...
 
I'm going to stir up controversy and I don't care...

The worst and most dangerous are homeless people with disabilities...

They are the worst and most dangerous, those are the ones you have to be careful about giving donations to.
 
Well, there are cases, my friend... Even if they were paid a very high salary, they would still do it...

I know them well.

Tithing isn't good either. It's like those who beg in the street; once I gave some to a homeless person who was asking for food...

I offered them food and they got angry... They're malicious people...

Ya I never give to people on the street unless I buy the meal.

I assume in Mexico it is a Catholic church, they probably get plenty of money.
 
I'm going to stir up controversy and I don't care...

The worst and most dangerous are homeless people with disabilities...

They are the worst and most dangerous, those are the ones you have to be careful about giving donations to.
I wouldnt disagree with that. Mental cases are bad since they are unpredictable.

A guy whose miserable due to a bad divorce going broke and loses child custody is in a shitty situation. If he does go nuts, it'll likely be isolated with his family. It might be a crazy murder/suicide issue, but it's going to be pretty predictable he'd go nuts within certain parameters. I dont get a sense he'd take out his frustration shooting his workplace or ramming a car into a crowd due to a divorce settlement.

But a total nutjob might go out with a bang shooting everyone at a school or mall, or in the subway murder case just go up to a random person slashing. Nobody is going to see that coming.
 
I also don't give money to the homeless, because they often end up earning more begging than an eight-hour worker.
Back in my early 20's I knew a girl from a rich family who used to beg downtown for fun making $200 in a couple of hours.
Of course she was real cute and folks would just fall for her sad puppy eyes and charm.

I wanted to punch her in the face 😆
 
I wouldnt disagree with that. Mental cases are bad since they are unpredictable.

A guy whose miserable due to a bad divorce going broke and loses child custody is in a shitty situation. If he does go nuts, it'll likely be isolated with his family. It might be a crazy murder/suicide issue, but it's going to be pretty predictable he'd go nuts within certain parameters. I dont get a sense he'd take out his frustration shooting his workplace or ramming a car into a crowd due to a divorce settlement.

But a total nutjob might go out with a bang shooting everyone at a school or mall, or in the subway murder case just go up to a random person slashing. Nobody is going to see that coming.
Indeed.

And a warning: If you see a homeless person in a wheelchair or on crutches... Run!

Those are the most dangerous, and their actions are already malicious.

No offense intended, and I'm not trying to cause controversy... But stay away from homeless people with real disabilities.
 
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Back in my early 20's I knew a girl from a rich family who used to beg downtown for fun making $200 in a couple of hours.
Of course she was real cute and folks would just fall for her sad puppy eyes and charm.

I wanted to punch her in the face 😆
And here in Mexico... There are social programs that give people money, and it's a good amount of money... And even so, they beg.

So, they're already taking advantage of people. Indeed, as you say...

Those who are on the street earn quite well.
 
Ya I never give to people on the street unless I buy the meal.

I assume in Mexico it is a Catholic church, they probably get plenty of money.
It depends on the area... I live in Mexico City, where people are very Catholic, and the homeless are often scammers.

But in Coahuila, people are very honest, and I support them there.
 
And here in Mexico... There are social programs that give people money, and it's a good amount of money... And even so, they beg.

So, they're already taking advantage of people. Indeed, as you say...

Those who are on the street earn quite well.
We have pan handlers on virtually every corner in certain parts of my town. You can look around and see why they are going to those areas. But when I drive through the broad "low income" areas, there are ZERO panhandlers. Why? Clearly preying on, shall we say, "income guilt", drives a lot of the success in begging in this fashion, plus I think some cultural/religious ideologies that promote giving handouts and others enforcing a willingness to take them in that way.

For example, I personally would have to have exhausted ALL POSSIBLE alternatives, selling everything I own and working the most menial jobs imaginable, before I would resort to begging on the street with one of those cardboard signs. Such an act is almost inconceivable. So while I can, with some difficultly, envision me going to that level, I USED to view anyone begging has having gone through a similar extreme degree of hardship, and thus would be "worthy" of a few bucks because they surely must need them in dire fashion.

However, broadening my life experiences and seeing other cultures very diverse from my own has taught me that there are cultures were begging and taking from the more affluent or charitable is considered totally cool and even a PREFERABLE way to make a living versus being productive but having to "work for the man" or whatever. Seeing the same dudes at corners, over and over, year after year, hearing the same hustle and the sheer 'uniformity' of their presentation, has made me very jaded about panhandlers. Even worse in some countries where they involve small kids, so those kids are growing up thinking this lifestyle of grifting off tourists or whatnot is more acceptable than working to improve your situation in other ways.

I waffle between tolerance for folks appearing to be vagrants (because some might be legit down on their luck folks legit trying to scrape money to get to their sick mother in another state) and a strong desire to see more enforcement to move bums away from commercial and tourist areas because it's an eyesore, potentially very dangerous, a drain on local resources that could be better spent on folks who could be contributors, and clearly not a situation that will resolve on it's own though panhandling.

What to do with these folks, mostly men with significant mental health and/or drug addictions, is a tricky one. A mixed approach of legalization of lucrative substances that then funds EFFECTIVE rehab, essentially permanent removal from common society in some type of confinement/asylum, and ultimately a harsh standard for behavior in public is probably the only thing that will actually resolve the problem. It may not be particularly "feel good" in a lot of ways but keeping these types of folks away from kids, off streets used by the public, out of drug dens fueling criminal activity, and shifting the focus on preserving families instead of ineffective and inefficient willy nilly homelessness initiatives that clearly are not working.
 
It's not logical or even reasonable to run a wide scale charity with 100% donation. Someone needs to pay for skills, distribution, logistics, and so on. So I'm more wary of "100% donation" claims.
The other thing that's worth mentioning is that economies of scale kick in fairly quickly. It might seem to make more sense to try and avoid any admin overheads by buying someone something to eat (or whatever) but a charity that feeds people in need will be able to get more food per donated £/$/€ even after paying staff wages. So, you might feed one person with a direct donation but a charity could take that same amount of money, pool it with a number of other donations, make it tax efficient, and for the same donation feed many more people.

That's without getting into the reach of charities that help people with rare conditions. Many people who need serious support couldn't raise the necessary money locally, but a charity that can collect far and wide can get the funds to change lives.

EDIT: replying to you, Lambogenie Lambogenie , but not directed at you. :)
 
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My wife gives a bit sometimes. Not much anymore.

I remember when we first got together she was donating monthly for a kid in Africa.
 
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