Charity gift for Christmas

laura2506

My Mother in Law is really awkward to buy for. So hubby and I have decided to make a donation to charity as Christmas present for her.
She always says if she had millions, she would help homeless people.
Does anyone know of any sites where I could make a donation for the homeless as a gift for her?

Thanks and Merry Christmas

fengirl_2

Crisis?
http://www.crisis.org.uk/pages/donate.html

Savvy_Sue

Good one. Another national one is Emmaus. But if you google homeless charity plus your town / city / county you might find a local one, if you think your MIL would prefer that.

Dizzie77

Shelter is a National Charity that helps Homeless people -

http://england.shelter.org.uk/donate

Lovely idea - I hope MIL likes it!

el_gringo_3

This is an issue pretty close to my heart, and I've done a fair bit of charity work and voluntary work for a few of these charities.

I'd personally go for Emmaus, because I feel they have an excellent system - they take on some of the most vulnerable homeless, house them and feed them in exchange for them working - they operate a series of furniture shops, where they take in old furniture donations, clean/refurb the items and sell them on. The service users get a lot more from it than simply a roof - the experience of working in a service environment is vital for many of these guys, who have either never managed to get on the jobs ladder or historically worked in manufacturing industries which are in decine.

In addition they don't get nearly as many financial donations as some other groups, and they don't sell their soul to marketing groups who collect donations for them, as so many large charities seem to. Whilst a donation to Shelter is also a great idea - they are doing quite nicely from the Xmas number 1 malarky - spread the wealth!