Which charities are REALLY worth supporting?

I support local charities where I know they make a difference, also Silverline and Mary's Meals. I feel that I know that these charities use the donations effectively.

Occasionally, I will give to other charities on an ad hoc basis.

I've volunteered for my local hospice shop for many years as well as doing other things within it. I'm not saying I expect anything back in return but in that time I've never received a thank you card at Christmas or any other time. I have had cause to visit the office where it is awash in tins of chocs and biscuits from grateful patients/ families that have made there way to the office. All office staff are paid and the staff have tea/coffee free. In the shop we are volunteers who have to take our own in. It's not a moan and I'm not saying I want the acknowledgement but often in organisations the ' office ' feel they are the charity without thinking about the others that help keep it going.

I am a member of the Macular Society which is always writing to members asking for funds. I personally think that they waste money sending out magazines in thick glossy paper. Once a year every member receives a thick booklet which is very medically orientated and I would think that only a very small % of members would attempt to read it, never mind understand it. I have suggested that this be sent to those who request it.

paddyann I also support Mary's Meals.

They certainly make a lttle go a long way - supporting a child for a whole year on £12.50 - which is the sum they request as a monthly DD gift.

As I posted on the other thread discussing charities, I recently checked online their audited accounts and discovered that they aimed to deliver 93p in the pound directly to their work but in fact passed that target and it's around 96p.

A fairly small but very effective charity.

I decided long ago that as long as there are people in need I can't donate to animal charities, however worthwhile. I admit I was horrified when I realised the vast amounts of cash in the coffers of the Donkey Sanctuary.

I subscribe on a regular monthly basis to the Essex and Cambridge Air Ambulance and Little Haven hospice for sick children. Both are very worthy charities and ensure 98% of donations go to where the money is best used and NOT to line the pockets of bloated administrators.

i am a trustee of a small charity which raises awareness of a little known but fairly wide spread skin disease called hidradenitis suppurativa [hs trust]. none of the "staff" receives a salary and none of the trustees have any monetary reward. only recently, through sponsorship, have we been able to have an office - one room in a building.
we have tried many fund raising activities as quite a lot of people who are members on our face book page and on our website wanted us to arrange fund raisers so that they could attend.
last year [sorry 2015] we had sponsored walked in various parts of the country - in 2016 we had none as the walks had to be cancelled through nobody supporting them.
it's heartbreaking to set something up, maybe travel miles to get to the venue and then have nobody turn up - soul destroying.
but we know where every penny comes from and where they go - we are required to publish full financial details on the charity commissioners website.

Samaritans. Apart from the wonderful work they do, all funds received go towards keeping each branch afloat.

There is a general ignorance about the difference between overseas aid, given by governments and that organised by charities such as Save the Children. People don't seem to understand the difference and thus, the targeted and extremely effective work of these charities gets lumped together with the badly managed overseas aid budget.

Then we have the question of the salaries paid to CEOs of these charities. Some of us do understand the enormous strategic difficulties involved in, as just one example, setting up, resourcing, staffing and maintaining field hospitals during the recent Ebola outbreak. The WHO showed itself to be completely out of its depth and it was those charities that stepped into the breach and got the job done.

Those running government aid programmes and the WHO weren't up to the job. And they were paid plenty. It was the excellent strategic and logistical abilities of the charities CEOs and other senior management figures who showed how it ought to be done. They earned every penny.

Finally there's the spurious urban myths that go something like ' only 1p in the £ actually reaches those it was intended for'. This too is complete myth. All charities books are open to public scrutiny and on average 80p in the £ is the correct figure.

So let's knock these ideas on the head, once and for all.

Pen we sponsor a dog called Eric through the Dogs' Trust. He writes us lovely letters quite regularly. Oddly enough it was my GD2 who saw a stall and got me to sign up too.

I did not give to animal charities until DGD2 saw a stand outside Sainsbury for the DogTrust. I now sponsor a dog

I agree that supporting your own local charities should come first.
Once they are well supported then look further afield.
The old saying 'Charity begins at home' springs to mind.
We have a hospice, homeless shelters and food banks locally plus groups like the Round Table and The Lions who help local people at Christmas time and with organize events within the community throughout the year. we also have a local branch of the British Legion that help our elderly folk. I do make a donation monthly to Macmillan Nurses as i have seen the benefits of their services to people when i worked with the elderly. But sadly there is so much negativity relating to overseas charities i no longer feel obliged to help them.

I usually give to local charities and also do volunteer work with two community charities. I have a rule that I never give to any charity with religious connections.

www.actionaid.org.uk/about-us

93pence of every pound given goes direct to the charitable work

Mary's Meals ,they feed over one million children worldwide every day,the only proviso is they have to go to school to be fed.The families are paid to make uniforms and to cook the food ,usually a mealy porridge .They really do make a differnce .I started supporting it as it began in my neck of the woods,I already donate monthly to Oxfam and Save the Children though after hearing stories about huge expenses I might move all the direct debits to Mary's Meals

Mumofmadboys, I guess this is what I meant re Macmillan. Advice and liaison sound very grand but it was the district nurses that actually came in and helped me bathe my husband, the doctor who visited weekly to make sure we were both alright and came like the wind when there was a crisis, the Marie Curie nurse who was with me at one in the morning when he died. The Macmillan nurse? Booklets and liaison......

Salvation Army. Save the Children. Red Cross. RNLI. RBL and local hospice.

Regular donations are more efficient for charities as it allows them to do some clear planning and to make commitments to projects. Hard to do if you have no idea how much money is coming in each month. I guess they are grateful for whatever they get.

Some months ago I started to chat to the man at the stall one of the big charities had set up in a shopping mall. He told me all about their work etc and I offered to donate, I was thinking to give £5. At this point he said they would prefer a regular monthly donation and , when told that I did not want to commit to that , he just walked away from me. I noticed on one of the TVs ads recently that although they were asking us to text a small donation the screenshot also said they would phone you to setup a regular donation. They want continuing revenue and are not interested in single donations. I now will only give to collectors with a tin and refuse to sign up to monthly payments.

In addition to some regular donations I also make a loan to Lendwithcare. It makes loans to entrpreneurs in developing countries to support set up cost for their business. They then repay the loans. I just reallocate the money to someone else. You get regualr updates!

Crisis, Save the Children, Salvation Army, Disasters Emergency Committee, Himalayan Cataract Project and whenever anyone I know is doing something to raise money.

It feels to me as if there is a push, from some quarters, to undermine the excellent work of larger charities by suggesting money is wasted, pilfered away etc.

I think it is easy to see what %age of money is spent on what by looking it all up online.

It is annoying when one already donates and then is approached to increase the amount..this only shows how desperate some charities are to continue their work.

To be honest we could all do with donating to the Red Cross seeing as they'll be propping up the NHS this winter.

When donating to charity I just put a cheque in the envelope and do not include any personal details so they can not contact me to increase my donations.
I really got cross when our town raised money to build a children's hospice and when it was built and furnished they said it would no longer be a hospice. One benefactor, who had given multi thousands, asked for her donation back, I had donated but not that large an amount.

Me too annodomini. They're my favourite charity, non political, brave, international and always working in the worlds trouble spots. They don't just rush in inappropriately and without experience to disaster areas.