Charities .... which would you support, or not?

[Saracen]

For the purposes of this thread, I'm not interested in whether you actually do give, or to whom, and certainly not how much.

So please DO NOT SAY.

I'm interested in which ones you do, or would if you could afford to, back. And which ones you would not. And, if you feel inclined, why?

Are there themes you would back, and those you would not back. For instance, yes to various medical charities in the UK, but not poverty in the third world. Or yes to people charities but no to animal charities. Or yes to children's charities but not to adults, or yes to poverty but not to religious groups.

But it's about your inclinations, not your actions.

And all I really am interested in is which ones you would donate to, and which ones not. But if you really want to put a money amount on it, then please follow this hypothetical .... some complete stranger offered you a deal whereby they'd give you £10,000 provided you donate £1000 of it to charity. The deal will be monitored and you don't get the balance until you've nominated how the £1000 would be donated, and cheating is impossible. And, if you define yourself, or family etc as "charity", you lose the balance. It must be genuine, legitimate, and pre-existing (no starting your own) charities.

So how you you split the money?


So to be clear, just who you would and would not support, and preferably why, is the subject. If you really want to put percentages on it, please use the above scheme to keep everyone consistent, but it's not what I'm asking.



As a add-on, if you feel inclined, have you included any charities in your will? If so, who (but no amounts, please).

[Rob_B]

What prompted this one then?

Personally it's things like cancer charities/disaster relief/red cross etc that I'd go for.
I made an assumption reading this that you kinda know the ones that won't get donations, for me it's animal charities or anything like that. If I have £1000 I think helping to find a cure or at least treatment for cancer or helping people with disabilities/etc etc should come before finding little rex a home.
Wasn't there an advert for Downs syndrome with the tag line "Would you like me to sit up & beg?" Saying animal charities got X times as much donations as disability charities?

I'm sure many people will disagree for various reasons but..... meh

Rob

[TheAnimus]

There is one that I support pimarily, and I'll keep the name out as I explain why.

They had some horrifically bad management come in, they basically asset stripped the firm, whilst paying themselves 6 figures. They sold houses that had been used for stable rental income for a good long while. They went on a spending spree. They where kinda like gorden brown.

After they were finally outed, the hospis is in a shakey financial situations, given that they rely on donations for the vast majority of their funding, I make regular payments.

I'm also looking at trying to hand over all profits from some mobile phone apps to them.

[SeriousSam]

For me its quite simple really... if one of my frinds or family does something for charity e.g. a sponsored run then I'll donate, unless I fundamentally disagree with the charites principles. Everything else can go whistle.

[TheAnimus]

I tend not to give to anything that has a political/religious agenda, for these are normally one step away from evil in my experiance (doing good does not negate the bad!).

Also animals/poverty things. I'm sorry but we really don't care about plenty of 3rd world places, its apparent by the amount of money we spent on drink and fags outnumbering our foriegn aid, whilst often we keep them trapped in poverty for our own benefit. I'm very cold hearted you might say in my mind of cost/benefit. Why keep someone alive for a few weeks if its going to be miserable.

[LWA]

My reasoning is pretty simple - I've lost several family members to cancer and therefore I'd like to help to try and improve the drugs / testing / diagnosis etc by giving to Cancer Research.

Also I'll give to people if they do a sponsored run, trek, bungee jump (etc) as people seem dedicated enough to the cause to actually do something to get to people to donate.

[kalniel]

ICRC
One of the quietest charities around, they seem to believe in alleviating human suffering no matter the circumstances, and they don't seek any recognition etc. for it, in fact, they go out of their way to avoid it, arguing that it might hamper their ability to help.

Medicines san frontiers
Fairly similar to the above really.

Oxfam
Sometimes, just sometimes, you need organisation, contacts and a wealth of experience to make a difference, and Oxfam have that IMHO. Unlike the above two, Oxfam does use it's brand, but like them, they act all over the world - including in the UK, where needed.

[oolon]

Cancer (various)
RNLI
DEC

We also shop in charity shops and give good stuff to them to sell rather than ebaying it.

I will not give to any religious charity, I will never sign up with any chugger on the street or whom visit my house. Tins, direct or shops only.

[Guy]

2 for me, the RNLI, and Help for Heroes.

Like Oolon nothing ever goes to chuggers/house callers, or tele calls. They don't even get my time of day anymore. Direct to the charities themselves.

[jimbouk]

Had this dilemma setting up Give As You Earn at work. Personally I support a local one that helps homeless people. You see the people it supports every day and I've had good interactions with the people who run it so it was a no brainer to me.

Beyond that I ran out of ideas so I asked some friends for who they'd give money to But it seems to be charities that people have had some direct involvement in which come out on top. Either being helped from, or helping the charity through volunteering.

[DanceswithUnix]

Cancer Research.
Oxfam.

I like the idea of helping fix the future, and they both do that. Oxfam also do relief for disasters in the present, and I trust them to split any money appropriately as their triage sees fit.

Statistically I will get cancer, so there is an element of selfishness there I must admit.

[Barry]

Rett UK for the sole reason that my daughter Caylin suffers from this, tho we do give still to charities in town sometmes

[neonplanet40]

Ive been under the perception that very little money in the big charities actually make it to help them as it goes on admin costs. Or was this just one case which has caused me to not believe most of them?

But I guess if I knew that they got the money to where it was needed then I could give it to cancer research as I believe it is something most of us will have to face at some point!

[chuckskull]

RNIB - Were a huge help to my grandfather in his last years, he went blind due to complications during his long fight with cancer, they helped him keep some of his independence and dignity, meant more to him than pain relief or medical care.

RNLI - Simple enough, I can't swim. Really shouldn't need to be done by charity either, should be government, it's a coastal emergency service and we live on an ISLAND.

Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes - The way we treat our troops is embarrassing. A parade for veteran's is great and all, but when you realise that many are going to home to houses without heating, not so heart warming.

EFF - Because no-one seems to care that, copyright infringement is being used as excuse to erode our basic human rights.

Water campaigns - many of the bigger organisations, do these quite regularly along with more focused charities, something I'm a big believer in. Once people have clean water, everything gets easier. Water is the only foundation you can build long term prosperity on. Without it everything else is fruitless.

I only have one big no, although I tend to avoid religious charities, charity shouldn't have any catches.

PETA - Horribly corrupt charity. Less than 1% of their budget goes to charity work, the rest goes to advertising, convicted criminals and terrorist organisations. They also boast an average kill rate of over 98% on animals they impound(not including animals killed on pickup).

[Saracen]

What prompted this one then?
....

Well, I've had several chats with friends over a period, and it seems that many (most) people have fairly strong feelings about who they will give to ... and especially who they won't. But .... the list is often very different.

And that, really, is what's being reflected in this thread. Some people are very animal-friendly, or even type of animal friendly, i.e. dogs but not cats, or vice versa, while others would give to some classes of needy people but not others.

So what prompted this is that the thought had been percolated around inside my noggin for a while, and it just kinda finally seeped to the surface. What I'm after is an insight into what a much larger grouping of people think than the friends I've discussed it with. And, without going into detail (though some of you know some of it anyway, my focus tends to match LWA ....

My reasoning is pretty simple - I've lost several family members to cancer and therefore

More than anything else, by FAR, cancer has affected my immediate circle, both of very close family, and of a wider focus of friends. And I guess that's left me well-disposed towards Cancer Research, MacMillan, Sue Ryder (or more specifically, a particular Sue Ryder hospice who were, well, fabulous) and so on.

But, personally, animal charities don't get a look-in and, by and large, nor do foreign aid charities, largely on the basis that the government seem to be doing quite enough of that with our tax revenue and don't need me as well. My guess would be that I'm not alone in that latter perspective, and it's a disadvantage of them keeping on about ring-fencing foreign aid.

But, I guess, a major part of my interest is in how well distributed the feelings are. I mean, if 10% of us wouldn't give to animal charities but 10% of us prioritise that, it kind of evens out. So I was after a feel for what type of charity gets the most good will from us, and which don't. I suppose, in part at least, I was wondering if my own ..... perspective, my own preconceptions about what to support, are widely held or fairly narrow.

For instance, I'd guess that those that are religious may well see donating via their religion as a good path, while those that are not may well rule that out absolutely.

[Lucio]

Personally, I'd likely loose out on the money, I don't believe in donating to charity because I don't find any of them particularly trustworthy, though I will usually buy a poppy come rememberance day to remind me of the things my granddad went through.