A question about : Charitable Donations
Does anyone contribute a small amount monthly to a few charities? We thought it might be nice for each of us to nominate one charity to give a small amount to monthly - to get the kids more involved etc - so I thought Ј3 each as they are 5 of us - and the kids want the dog to nominate one too - so 6 of us - but will that even be worth bothering?
Or should we all decide one for the year and give Ј18 or whatever to that charity per month for this year and change next year...interested to hear how others give?
At the moment its more like giving at bucket collections and that kind of thing, since these are always ongoing at our local supermarket but I'd prefer something more structured, to give the kids a focus....
We have in the past become embroiled in lots of charity giving via DD which is great and didn't become an issue until we hit on harder financial times...so we cut back, that and the charities used to phone quite a lot asking for increases....which I know they have to do but my husband never took kindly to those calls.
Best answers:
- Personally I'd take a yearly vote for which charity to support for the coming year, and get involved. I'd look for smaller local charities which are hopefully less likely to pressurise you to give more, and may have local events you can support as well. (By local that includes charities set up locally which work overseas.)
However you could do both: put a small amount into one pot each month and vote to send it off every six months, say, and do a regular thing.
If you make clear to a charity how much contact you want, they should respect your wishes ... - Thanks Sue, I know the charities have to raise awareness and ask for higher donations from existing donors but when you're already supporting some charities and things have become tougher financially it's not always easy. I'd love to give to everyone but it's just not possible.
- Whatever you decide to do make sure you deal DIRECTLY with the charity and not through a fundraising company.
Many/most of the people you see in supermarkets and around the shopping areas of towns work for a private company and even though you make out the DD to the charity the first payments are sent to this company by the charity! I think this is a SCAM and should be stopped.
Two years ago one of the papers did a report on this and some charities paid more than half the money raised back to fundraisers! - We had a family vote and decided to do a bit to each charity each month! My 6 yo daughter picked Water Aid, we chose the local Children's Hospital on behalf of our baby, I chose Breakthrough, Husband chose local cancer hospital, and my son is deciding which animal he wants to adopt! The dog has *chosen* the Dogs Trust! So I've set them all up directly with each charity via the website - I'd never sign up in the Supermarkets although we do give to bucket collections. I don't like the door to door guys either. You have to be so careful these days with this kind of thing, I only find out that Justgiving take a small proportion of your fundraising after I'd raised over Ј1,000 for Breakthrough, which was very neglectful of me, but I know for next time!
Thank you for your input! - I give small amounts monthly by direct debit. I was only phoned once re increasing the amount and I made it clear that if I got any further marketing calls I would stop the subscription. Not been a problem since.
(I do like the idea of the dog supporting the dog's trust.) - I am not sure of the latest reasoning, but when we first registered on JustGiving there was very little competition.
And the functionality of the other options was usually limited when they first became available.
I'm not sure we'd get many 'cold' donations / fundraising pages set up by people who just fancied doing something and were looking for a random charity, because we are not a popular cause. I'm sure that would be significant for some charities, however. - Yes, but we still get more in via JG than we pay out in the monthly sub!
- Will MSE Forum Admin (and the owners) be happy to host a topic which allows charitable concerns to be mentioned with the hope of gathering donations to the charities decided on?
Hope so, but it would be nice and helpful if an Admin commented to say yes or no and if no, lock this thread.
If it was locked it would be a pity, and it is also a pity this was not a month earlier since today my stepdaughter and some family members are on a walk to get sponsorship for an operation to help her quadriplegic spastic son which the NHS of course refuses to do.
If small local charity supporters did have permission to post about their pet charity or fundraising, then I would have pasted the donation link here.
But doing so as things stand would be unethical of me perhaps, so I refrain. - See our sticky: if it's a registered charity or a recognised donation site link then it's fine. You can see several already.
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