IMHO It's time to raise awareness of the need to give donations to charities.

theoretica

billy2shots said:

A good deed is not truly a good deed if it is done for recognition or you feel the need to publicise it. 

A 'good' deed need not be purely altruistic - which it seems is what you are defining there.  If something is good to do them to my mind it is good whether talked about or not - but normalising doing good and giving kudos for doing good seem only positive to me.

Richard1212

theoretica said:

billy2shots said:

A good deed is not truly a good deed if it is done for recognition or you feel the need to publicise it. 

A 'good' deed need not be purely altruistic - which it seems is what you are defining there.  If something is good to do them to my mind it is good whether talked about or not - but normalising doing good and giving kudos for doing good seem only positive to me.

Once again it seems like theoretica and I share similar views about the whole issue of whether  charity work/donations should be kept a secret for some peculiar reason that baffles me. 

In many ways I felt this Board might be a place to publicise what members have found to be "good", well-run charities and also for useful avenues for charity work. The only way to do that would be to say which charities we support directly ( and thus have knowledge of) and draw them to the attention of others to them----otherwise they may just fall by the wayside, with no budget for advertising and no way to be brought to the attention of the many well-off people on this forum who obviously have very large savings/investments/property etc etc ( many of whom go into great detail in terms of personal info and actual monetary figures). 

However, as I have already posted, I like and accept soolin's idea of as many folk as possible putting forward candidates for "charity of the month" and will stick to what I have already said about adhering to the principle of not telling anyone what charities I support or charity work I do---if it is accepted by forum team ( if it is NOT accepted, I will have to rethink my approach, perhaps following your own preference, theoretica ). It still remains a complete mystery to me that members can tell us all about their savings amounts, share values, property prices etc etc ( and are not accused of "bragging" at their wealth)--- but members' personal experience of donations to charities( which would IMHO help certain "overlooked" charities by virtue of members' personal recommendations ) must be a mysterious "no, no" on this forum. 

Debbie9009

Op, I find your post both rude and insulting, you have absolutely no right to know what anyone else is doing for charity, many people myself included do not feel the need to discuss this with anyone else.

You seem to be implying that because there are not many posts on the subject few forum members do anything for charity, that is a very short sited view.

breaking_free

^ I'm inclined to agree with Debbie9009.

But following on from the idea of "What items are most needed in food bins", my local Lidl has shelf stickers for many items indicating those that are good for donation. I use that as my guide now, rather than making my own judgements about what people might want/need.

Undervalued

Shirker_Bee said:

So, go on then. Who receives the £30 million WEEKLY handout paid out by the National Lottery?

It sounds a huge amount but it is actually less than 50p per person in the country!

Shirker_Bee

Undervalued said:

Shirker_Bee said:

So, go on then. Who receives the £30 million WEEKLY handout paid out by the National Lottery?

It sounds a huge amount but it is actually less than 50p per person in the country!

Understood. But not everyone in the country needs the handout. So there should be more available surely? 

theoretica

On the question of how to maximise benefit to charities:

I choose to give mostly to one charity rather than divided among many as I figure every donation will need some administration, and why not minimise this overall. 

Charities will do better from me in my will than during my lifetime - likely to be different for people with children of course - but I get to use my house in my lifetime and then charities get a large proportion of it, seems to maximise benefit well.

Many free to enter places are charities and need support - museums, parks, family farms, church buildings... when I visit I usually try to put something in the donation box. I don't need other people's generosity to subsidise my fun.

Richard1212

Any news from management about soolin's good idea about drawing attention to charities by asking forumites to name their "charity of the month" please ?

I still feel that, whilst all the savings/stocks and shares Boards are going into great detail and giving personal details of all their assets, not one forumite there suggests the O/P might give £10 per month to a charity when they are advising them on what to do with their very large assets.

soolin

Richard1212 said:

Any news from management about soolin's good idea about drawing attention to charities by asking forumites to name their "charity of the month" please ?

I still feel that, whilst all the savings/stocks and shares Boards are going into great detail and giving personal details of all their assets, not one forumite there suggests the O/P might give £10 per month to a charity when they are advising them on what to do with their very large assets.

The suggestion has been made and all any of us can do is wait to see if there is any interest, or time available to come up with anything official.

As for suggestions about giving to charity, yes morally and socially it is probably a good thing to suggest, but as it isn’t exactly moneysaving advice it might cause as many negative comments as positive ones if routinely suggested on other boards. Any benefit suggestions are more likely to be centred around how to best give or donate money if already doing so. For example, gift aid or via certain types of trust. 

I would think that anyone looking to invest towards their pension and future life for instance and already worrying that they might not have enough, wouldn’t necessarily welcome a suggestion of depleting that pool with regular giving. It is a subject best handled sensitively .

Exodi

Richard1212 said:

I also donate to various UK charities as part of my 5% regular payments, especially cancer research and Macmillan Nurses ( and, like mine , I am certain that many forumites have seen their families hit by cancer). 

I think this actually draws me into an important point in the context of charities.

Most people are fully aware that there will always be someone less fortunate than ourselves. But in the face of the sad reality faced by the majority of the inhabitants on Earth, it is easier to be wilfully ignorant to what happens outside the sphere of our lives. Many of us only feel truly compelled to act on things that we encounter first-hand or second-hand experience of as we become less distanced from the issue.

I think it remains very challenging to convince people to donate to charities for issues that do not affect them on some level.

E.g. Animal charities are more likely to considered by vegans, Cancer charities are more likely to be considered by those either directly, or through relatives, effected by cancer, Specialist disease foundations are more likely to be considered by relatives of loved ones with the condition, etc.

Please don't interpret it as me saying "In closing: do not donate to charity" - just pointing out that specific recommendations of charities is unlikely to be effective and to be honest, it's a bit strange to recommend specific charities in the first place.

I don't disagree with your point that suggesting charitable donations when advising people how to manage their money. Though this can be quite a delicate subject.