Charities Wasting Money

lincroft1710

JReacher1 wrote: »

Fair enough. Not reading a charitable leaflet because they give you a free pen seems a bit weird but if that is how you roll then so be it!

Were it just a pen, I would probably read the literature, but it is usually a lot more than just a pen, hence the reason for the thread!

Cakeguts

daytona0 wrote: »

To be honest, I don't really donate money to charities these days. Prefer to give any donations directly to people, especially the homeless people around Liverpool whenever I get a chance.

You are right, though, in that people should be donating to smaller charities if their sole reason for not donating is the "waste" of money from bigger ones! Why? Because the smaller ones can't afford to send you free pens and junk like that! The money it costs to make and send that pen is instead used as a donation!

Look, I'm not against charities when they market themselves. I just don't like it when they capitalize the market. You'll typically only see the bigger ones on TV (fair play to the donkey sanctuary charity a while back! Possible exception), sending out pens, cold calling you, approaching you on the street!

I am very careful not to give money to homeless people. If you want to help them you need to donate to the homeless charities or buy them some food or drink.

Please think about this. If someone is homeless on the streets it may be because they have an addiction. If you give them money and they spend it on drugs or alcohol which leads to their death then that implicates you in their death because you gave them the money that helped to bring it about. It isn't as simple as people not having anywhere to live there are often complex issues.

daytona0

Cakeguts wrote: »

I am very careful not to give money to homeless people. If you want to help them you need to donate to the homeless charities or buy them some food or drink.

I agree with that.

Please think about this. If someone is homeless on the streets it may be because they have an addiction. If you give them money and they spend it on drugs or alcohol which leads to their death then that implicates you in their death because you gave them the money that helped to bring it about. It isn't as simple as people not having anywhere to live there are often complex issues.

I'm going to re-word your paragraph and refer you to the part where you say that food should be provided

re-wording wrote:

Please think about this. If someone is homeless on the streets it may be because they have a narrowing of the lungs/respiratory issue. If you give them food and their condition causes them to choke which leads to their death then that implicates you in their death because you gave them the food that helped to bring it about.

So do you want to retract your advice RE: giving them food, or do you get the point?


I know homeless people buy booze. I know they buy coffee. I know they buy a bag of chips. I know they go into the bookmakers (believe me, I know!) and have a £1 roulette spin. Your word "may" is key here They may give your money to the charity shelter who support them. I don't know and I don't care to be fair!

But do you know what the difference between me and a homeless person is? I can afford to get lashed or to blow £10 on gambling. Not really in a position to judge a homeless person in fairness!

The only ones I hate are the ones who lie. "Oi mate can I have £1 for a bag of chips?" ME: "here I'll go buy you a bag" HIM: "**** off"

Cakeguts

daytona0 wrote: »

I agree with that.



I'm going to re-word your paragraph and refer you to the part where you say that food should be provided



So do you want to retract your advice RE: giving them food, or do you get the point?


I know homeless people buy booze. I know they buy coffee. I know they buy a bag of chips. I know they go into the bookmakers (believe me, I know!) and have a £1 roulette spin. Your word "may" is key here They may give your money to the charity shelter who support them. I don't know and I don't care to be fair!

But do you know what the difference between me and a homeless person is? I can afford to get lashed or to blow £10 on gambling. Not really in a position to judge a homeless person in fairness!

The only ones I hate are the ones who lie. "Oi mate can I have £1 for a bag of chips?" ME: "here I'll go buy you a bag" HIM: "**** off"

It isn't as simple as that. The word is could with the choking. the word with the addiction is will.

I don't want to be the person who supplies someone with the money that gives them the possibility to buy drugs that will eventually kill them.

daytona0

Cakeguts wrote: »

It isn't as simple as that. The word is could with the choking. the word with the addiction is will.

I don't want to be the person who supplies someone with the money that gives them the possibility to buy drugs that will eventually kill them.

It is as simple as that

Four variables are present; their reason for being on the street (W), the item you give to them (X), their use of said item (Y) and the hypothetical worst case outcome (Z).

Your example used:

W = drug addiction
X = money given
Y = Purchase of drugs
Z = death by overdose

My example used:

W = medical condition which causes some sort of respitory issue or narrowing of the airways.
X = food given
Y = eating of said food
Z = death by choking

Without knowing the inside story for said homeless person, you have absolutely no way of knowing what variables W and Y are! You can only control variable X. So a typical homeless person would be modeled as:

W = unknown
X = money given in my case, food given in yours
Y = unknown (though there are fewer unknowns with providing food, I have to admit)
Z = unknown


Unless you know precisely why they are on the streets, or what their motivation for the money is, you have no way of telling what the outcome (Z) will be! We are just speculating about "what ifs". They might do all sorts with the money! They might not! A smack head might give it all to their local community group! You'd either need to be of a judging character or know the backstory to have a reasonable idea of the impact your assistance would have on them.

lincroft1710

lincroft1710 wrote: »

And one of the charities who wrote to me personally, has now done an unaddressed mailshot!

Now a second personally addressed letter!

spadoosh

When i went to rent a student house we looked at a couple of houses. We decided to pick the house (among the ones we liked) based solely on the fact that the landlord took us to the pub after and bought us a drink each. The £5 he spent (£1 a pint) returned him £15,000.

The items in that letter would cost no more than 20p. One donation of £5 would pay for that letter to go to 25 houses.

In 2013 BRC raised over £14 million from mailings. If they deliver the 20p packet to every house in the UK (25 million) that cost them £5,000,000.

If you dont want to receive letters you can contact the BRC on this dress and request to not receive them

supportercare@redcross.org.uk.

And you can give yourself a pat on the back for saving them the 20p!

Cakeguts

daytona0 wrote: »

It is as simple as that

Four variables are present; their reason for being on the street (W), the item you give to them (X), their use of said item (Y) and the hypothetical worst case outcome (Z).

Your example used:

W = drug addiction
X = money given
Y = Purchase of drugs
Z = death by overdose

My example used:

W = medical condition which causes some sort of respitory issue or narrowing of the airways.
X = food given
Y = eating of said food
Z = death by choking

Without knowing the inside story for said homeless person, you have absolutely no way of knowing what variables W and Y are! You can only control variable X. So a typical homeless person would be modeled as:

W = unknown
X = money given in my case, food given in yours
Y = unknown (though there are fewer unknowns with providing food, I have to admit)
Z = unknown


Unless you know precisely why they are on the streets, or what their motivation for the money is, you have no way of telling what the outcome (Z) will be! We are just speculating about "what ifs". They might do all sorts with the money! They might not! A smack head might give it all to their local community group! You'd either need to be of a judging character or know the backstory to have a reasonable idea of the impact your assistance would have on them.

So the answer is not to give anything directly to street people but to only donate to a charity that will help them.

Cakeguts

daytona0 wrote: »

It is as simple as that

Four variables are present; their reason for being on the street (W), the item you give to them (X), their use of said item (Y) and the hypothetical worst case outcome (Z).

Your example used:

W = drug addiction
X = money given
Y = Purchase of drugs
Z = death by overdose

My example used:

W = medical condition which causes some sort of respitory issue or narrowing of the airways.
X = food given
Y = eating of said food
Z = death by choking

Without knowing the inside story for said homeless person, you have absolutely no way of knowing what variables W and Y are! You can only control variable X. So a typical homeless person would be modeled as:

W = unknown
X = money given in my case, food given in yours
Y = unknown (though there are fewer unknowns with providing food, I have to admit)
Z = unknown


Unless you know precisely why they are on the streets, or what their motivation for the money is, you have no way of telling what the outcome (Z) will be! We are just speculating about "what ifs". They might do all sorts with the money! They might not! A smack head might give it all to their local community group! You'd either need to be of a judging character or know the backstory to have a reasonable idea of the impact your assistance would have on them.

So just give money to a charity that supports them.

lincroft1710

spadoosh wrote: »

The items in that letter would cost no more than 20p. One donation of £5 would pay for that letter to go to 25 houses.

In 2013 BRC raised over £14 million from mailings. If they deliver the 20p packet to every house in the UK (25 million) that cost them £5,000,000.

If you dont want to receive letters you can contact the BRC on this dress and request to not receive them

supportercare@redcross.org.uk.

And you can give yourself a pat on the back for saving them the 20p!

Firstly it isn't the British Red Cross who have sent 3 letters and secondly I think you have forgotten to factor postage costs into your equation.