How do you choose who to give to?

Some years ago I had direct debits to pay anothony Nolan trust and guide dogs, I was inundated with mail and then started to get phone calls. On the last call where I was being asked to support a charity and I declined, (my spare money after bills, mortgage etc.... only goes so far), the young man on the phone informed me how much I was giving to the other two charities, and as I had declared I was a tax payer I must be earning and have a job so I should be able to afford more as what I was donating wasn't that much for someone who was working! I reported him to the charities and now make donations direct to local charities who don't come hounding me to dig deeper! I know how much I can afford.

Laine21 The trouble is a lot of the bigger charities use professional fundraisers who take commission from any money they can get people to donate. These hard sell tactics have put a lot of people off, although it does mean that the smaller local charities are benefiting as people donate to them instead.

Some years ago my mother had a stroke (she lives in another country) and I contacted the Stroke Association for information, which they supplied. I sent them a donation by way of thanks and since then have received magazines, letters etc.etc. which over the years must have used up the donation I sent them.

You can check just how much money these charities have in the bank, millions of pounds some of them. It became widely known when Icelandic banks lost money and all of the charities that had money with them. Cats protection, I believe was one. Birmingham dogs home is in the throes of prosecuting their manager and his new young wife for stealing unbelievable amounts from the charity! I'll donate, but not money, so sad to see the money going to the wrong people.

I'm on a very limited budget so I don't commit to a monthly contribution but I do give to all the collections in our local supermarket. There seems to be one most weeks and its usually a local group collecting. I can't always give much but as my mum says, if everyone passing through gave 50p their problems would be solved

I made a decision when I retired to stop the regular monthly donations. But I do now contribute online when something pops up, to one-offs assuming I have appropriate funds at that time.

From the Donkey Sanctuary Report and Accounts 2016:
"In terms of our total assets, £29.9m relates to fixed assets, most of which is land and buildings to care for donkeys across our sanctuaries. £2.9m relates to funds earmarked by their donors for specific purposes, leaving a general fund of £43.4m."
The £7.2 million they spent on fundraising is obviously reaping rewards.

I think the wages paid to the CEOs of big charities is commiserate with their responsibilities. They are responsible for transporting aid, doctors, medicine, shelters, etc across the globe. Unless you have held down a job with such responsibilities yourself then you have no idea what it entails. Some of their organisation puts the WHO to shame. Certainly during the Ebola outbreak it was the charities who stepped up to the task as the WHO proved intsekf woefully inadequate.

Re monthly donations. Charities, especially those like Air Ambulance, have huge ongoing overheads. Of course they need an idea of what their regular monthly income might be.

My message would be thank goodness so many on here do seem to be charity minded, but those who have nothing good to say would do better to say nothing rather than knock those who are trying to help those in need. I’ve heard it said many times that those who knock charities are simply looking for an excuse not to give.

I give to two charities on a regular basis - one local and one national that I have volunteered for over the years . One for disadvantaged young people and the other for the homeless .

When my children were little I decided to donate one weeks worth of their family allowance per month to charity . They are now 20 & 22 and I continue to do it , in addition to weekly food bank donations .

I donate to macmillan nurses and a wildlife fund via direct debit each month. I also donate for rememberance day and any other charities who have people in our local supermarket with their tins.

It’s easy to choose you go with your heart where your interest or passion lies

Wow grannyactivist. That’s an eye opener.
I have s/o for our local hospice and guide dogs for the blind.
I don’t do any more regular payments because I don’t want any more raffle tickets etc. to sell. Actually g. dogs seems to have cut down on that.
I give to the food bank every time I go shopping in tescos (they have a bin) and to the Salvation Army. My clothes go to the homeless.
My sister keeps telling me guide dogs have pots of money too. Maybe I should check them out.

That is true BlueBelle, my first GC was born with an horrendous cleft lip and palate, and for 19 years now she has received fantastic help and support from our much maligned NHS.
I have given ever since monthly to Smile Train which trains Doctors around the world to operate on children with the same condition who otherwise would go through life stigmatized and uneducated.
I pay for 2 children each year to be operated on in gratitude for our good fortune with my GD.

Some years ago we allocated a fixed sum of money to donate to charity each month. We then drew up a list of charities we would donate to that covered the causes we felt strongly about or where we have a personal interest. Then in each sector we try to avoid all the big name charities and direct our money to smaller more targetted charities. We support about 10 charities this way. One charity gets a cheque each month on a rota.

If we are approached by other charities we just say: 'that we have a portfolio of charities we donate to and we cannot afford to donate to anymore'. This is a surprisingly effective way in stopping other charities from approaching us more than once.

We do change the charities from time to time, but without being hassled by possible contenders to get on the list.

I think every charity should be obliged to prominently display what percentage of every £ donated is received by the cause to which we've given.

Just in from a shopping trip this morning.... standing inside a well known clothing chain was a man who had a large board advertising a well known charity. He said that he didn't want me to give him any cash donation, instead he wanted me to sign up for a monthly direct debit for "a minimum of £10". Apparently £10 a month is the least they're accepting now. He got nothing from me. I'd rather he'd have been rattling a tin and let me donate what I could afford.

A couple of weeks ago, I put all the different charity leaflets on the table in front of the grandchildren, told them that we could give sixty pounds to charities for Christmas and asked them to choose.
They sat and read them for a couple of hours, realised that the more charities they chose, the less each one got.
In the end, they chose Oxfam, Actionaid, Crisis and Care International, fifteen pounds each.
I discounted Wateraid, Viva! and and Friends of the Earth because I give to them monthly anyway.

It really made them think about other people and animals at the same time as the problem of money. They realised that it's easy to give ten times as much; in fact, I'm sure they wanted to really.

Crohn's and Colitis for me as a member of our family is a sufferer. I send all chuggers on their way and do not contribute to the bigger charities. I hate the way some charities prey on older people and also resent the money they spend on sending stuff through the post, especially the envelopes that contain 'a gift' meant to make the recipient feel guilty enough to subscribe. I've done the shoeboxes in previous years and I must say I really enjoyed thinking up good items to put in them although I believe now that donors are given a strict list of things that may/may not be included, which must rather spoil the fun. One year I put in a turquoise blue chiffon sarong with embroidered flowers which I had worn but which looked new (yes, I know you should not include anything worn but this sarong was beautiful). On Christmas morning I had the pleasure of imagining a teenage girl somewhere in the world wearing my sarong and feeling very beautiful. Well, I hope she did, and I hope it made her day. Charity shouldn't be only about the necessities, should it?

Incidentally dj, I think that was an excellent lesson you taught your DGC.

Wherever we have lived we have always supported local charities. If they ask us for a donation for a special appeal we will give, if they want a raffle prize we will give, if they want us to buy raffle tickets we will.

The national charities are another matter. Set amounts each month by standing order and ignore anything which comes in the post.

I have heard of elderly people feel compelled to give to all the ones who ask and have gone without to do so.

I went to the charity Christmas tree where the staff helped my husband when he was dying in 2012.
I asked about the reflexologist who had come to visit him, and discovered she had been made redundant this year.
The charity was packing up because they have had £80,000 lottery money taken away from them, and can longer afford the rent at the offices they have.
So I agree, support small local charities while you can.
I do that as well, by the way.

dj - what a great idea! I'm sure your grandchildren will have enjoyed the experience for its own sake, but as you say, it will also help them to think about charitable enterprise. When my children were at home we had a 'rule of thirds' for their income; so £6 pocket money was £2 each to spend, save and give. As they grew older they were free to tweak the amounts and interestingly I remember several times when all his spending money was given to charities by my eldest son who has a very compassionate heart. (He's now an accountant!)

Thanks, grannyactivist.
We are going to follow those charities this year and see what they do. These grandchildren are ten and fifteen, so the right ages to think about other people. The three month old only thinks about food and sleep.

I assume your accountant son works for the sort of company that doesn't work in tax havens.
Actually, that's a good idea for pocket money. I'll have to suggest it to my sons.

As well as there other presents, I also 'buy' a charity gift for everyone at Christmas. What I mean by that is I donate to a charity I trust, enough money to 'buy' a goat, some chickens or a school pack for a child. I choose each gift with the recipient in mind and it encourages DGC to think about children in other countries not as fortunate as themselves.

I know that each gift may not precisely buy one goat for one farmer, but that the money goes to schemes that help farmers rear livestock and the same with the other gifts.

My older grandchildren have started doing that for me, Monica. A toilet or clean water is a lovely gift.

grannyactivist I love that pocket money idea. What a wonderful way to teach children to think of others.
dj I love your idea too of involving the GC in choosing the charities and getting them to do the reading and research. It will certainly help them to think about how these particular charities operate, how their donations are spent etc.

Perhaps these ideas are the better interpretation of the maxim that 'charity begins at home'.