Do You give to charity

I have a monthly direct debit to Muscular Dystrophy which I lost me son to. I am also on give as you live (www.giveasyoulive.com) where you shop online and save money for whatever charity you choose. There are over 5,500 stores to shop from and they will all make a percentage donation of your spend to your favourite registered charity. This does not effect any discounts stores may offer you)Just go to your store via give as you live. It costs you nothing. Please think about doing it.

Just to refer back to the OP, I find it difficult to accept that some large charities only use 1% of their funds for charitable purposes, do you have any examples of this, please Pambles01. Large charities do have considerable costs but they also have large incomes. A good deal comes from bids made to governments, there's a real skill in preparing these, they may also have costs associated with staff living abroad, my niece spent several years living abroad in pretty rough conditions managing large projects with a mainly local staff. So some of the money was helping the local economy and families in some of the poorest parts of the world. I think you have to look at the overall work not just focus on the percentage paid in salaries.

I have a DD for our local hospice and each Christmas do a massive shop for our local foodbank.

Also make one off donations to small local charities. I've worked in the Charity sector and agree that there are instances of inordinate costs due to very high salaries of senior management. I also witnessed that some of these charities can lose sight of what they were originally set up for and, over time, can become more about interests of the organisation rather than the people they were set up to help.

I'm happy to give to some smaller local charities as well as some larger ones like Marie Curie and the British Legion. It's not much but 'Many a mickle maks a muckle'!
I was interested and pleased to learn that my M&S Sparks card makes a payment to a charity every time it's used. So far my nominated charity has benefited from £4 million. A very painless way to give.

London Air Ambulance, hoping I will never need to use it, Battersea Dogs and Cats home, local Cat Protection League, and Macular Society. I also add food to the food bank at my local supermarket and I give to and buy mainly books from my local charity.

We give to 3 small charities every Christmas. We decided that the couple of hundred pounds we can give to each one would make a substantial difference rather than get swallowed up amongst large corporate donations. Amongst others we’ve given to a local all night cafe for the homeless, a project in Leeds which helps women who have been forced into prostitution due to addiction (one of my daughters friends works for them so I know the charity is ethical) and a charity in Kenya that helps children who have been thrown out of their homes as a result of being raped and blamed for it plus a small rehousing dogs charity.

Pambles01

Just a question does anyone give to charity? I used to give religiously until I realised just how much the charity actually receives out of your donations maybe 1 % after mangers etc have taken their cut very disillusioned

Where did you get the 1% figure from, Pambles01? From any actual fact checking? I suspect not.

One of my dds worked for many years, both in numerous disaster areas and at HQ, for a major U.K. charity, and by far the greatest percentage of the money raised did go directly into aid.
And contrary to what a lot of people apparently like to believe, staff were not highly paid, and the chief executive of such a large organisation will typically have taken a very big pay cut in order to take that role.

I used to volunteer in a charity shop which supported the local children's hospice. After an illness, I am now unable to do this so knit for charity.

I make cannula sleeves for dementia patients. These go to the local hospital and prevent patients pulling out their cannulas which is distressing for everyone and expensive for the NHS. They are safety checked by Handmade for Dementia.

I also make 'worry monsters' for therapists to use with troubled children (knit for nowt).

I support our local cat rescue and a cat welfare charity in the Turkish town we visit regularly, both of which are run by volunteers. I also support Labrador Rescue Scotland through Amazon Smile, and I always give to PoppyScotland on an annual basis too. I've also done fundraising for Help for Heroes in the past.
Oh, and similar to Amazon Smile, I would urge everyone to check out easyfundraising.org.uk - it costs nothing, but your chosen charity (and there are hundreds to support) receives donation every time you shop through the site. Sometimes the donations can be quite substantial too.

Yes standing orders for Save the Children and cancer research even if they do not get all the money it is still badly needed .

I used to give £12 a month to Cancer research UK until they started asking me constantly for more.
I asked them to stop and they didn`t so i stopped giving.
Also found out less than 5% actually went to the charity.
I do give to Air ambulance and donate at some charity shops.
I used to give to the poppy appeal before i found that they have 70 million pounds sitting in the bank.

timetogo I don't know where you got your information regarding Cancer Research but I'm afraid it is totally incorrect, in the 2020-2021 87p of every £ raised went to research not 5p. I also get a bit annoyed when I keep receiving requests to increase my donations but charities do this because it actually does bring in more money than they spend making the request (or they wouldn't do it). Their accounts are available online for anyone to see. I totally agree that it's appalling that the Poppy appeal has such huge reserves sitting in the bank!

We sponsor a schoolgirl in Africa, have a DD to the RSPB, I regularly give to the food bank and I am a member of our local Hospice lottery. I volunteer in a charity shop and donate large items of furniture to a local charity that employs people with special needs who renovate the furniture to sell on. Always give donations to any TV appeals and disaster appeals.

Pambles01

Just a question does anyone give to charity? I used to give religiously until I realised just how much the charity actually receives out of your donations maybe 1 % after mangers etc have taken their cut very disillusioned

Have you made a typo with your percentage figure?

The larger charities are often criticized for their running costs but they are very large businesses and as such need decent management.

I did voluntary fund raising for Save the Children for 20 years when I lived in Suffolk. SCF's overheads were, and I think still are, around 10% . It's rather naive to think that they could survive on a shoestring.

If large charities didn't have good managers and Marketing people they would be running bring-and-buy sales and tombolas at summer fairs.

The top people in charities are bringing considerable expertise, and are working for a living, so command salaries commensurate with the budgets they manage as well as the other skills they are offering.

I have DDs to Shelter and the NSPCC. I used to being to Amnesty too, but left when they got too political. I have a bequest to Freedom From Torture in my will.

Pambles01 Which charity do you donate to? No fully registered British charity could get away with giving so little they collect to the charity they support. The Charities Commission would be on them like a ton of bricks.

I assume that you have been checking the fully audited accounts of the charities you support. Is ? They are very complicated.

The following link is helpful www.ncvo.org.uk/images/documents/about_us/media-centre/reporting-on-charities-3-running-costs.pdf

I give to cats protection and donate lots of stuff to the local hospice shop. I take stuff for friends and relatives as well as my own

Yes I have a direct debt for Mary’s Meals and I also support our local woman’s aid.

I too donate to a variety of charities - recently adding SmileTrain to the list. I still donate to a local Hospice, despite the Chief Exec being found guilty of stealing £100K!
I agree that big charities take out for admin, but they are and need to be administered as big businesses - bidding and vying for our donations, however small.

Once again another thread where the OP makes a mind boggling, but uncorroborated, statement - and then never comes back to justify it.

I have a portfolio of charities I support, covering a range of charity areas I wish to cover and now and again I drop one and take up a similar one.

Georgesgran, what a shocking and despicible thing to do, stealing from a hospice. I am disgusted!

yes. Next question.
I also think that saying "I don't give because some charities take too big a cut" is disingenuous. Its easy enought to see the charity's books and see where the money goes. Give or don't give but don't make excuses.

greenlady102

yes. Next question.
I also think that saying "I don't give because some charities take too big a cut" is disingenuous. Its easy enought to see the charity's books and see where the money goes. Give or don't give but don't make excuses.

IMO people like to think hardly any money goes to the actual cause, because it absolves them from feeling that they ought to donate.

Witzend

greenlady102

yes. Next question.
I also think that saying "I don't give because some charities take too big a cut" is disingenuous. Its easy enought to see the charity's books and see where the money goes. Give or don't give but don't make excuses.

IMO people like to think hardly any money goes to the actual cause, because it absolves them from feeling that they ought to donate.

yes I agree....hence the snippy answer

georgesgran was he a compulsive gambler? 9 times out of 10, when a boss steals from his employer, that is behind it.