Do you usually donate to charity?

[Just Add Water]

Was having this chat with some friends who were talking about how much they had donated to the fire appeal. I asked them if they usually donated to charity and they said "No, but it would be really bad not to donate to this."

We do regular donations to several charities and even when gathering stuff this time we split it between the fire appeal and our local charities as they are always in need as well.

I guess I'm just curious how other people do things :rolleyes:

[Mathermy]

Yep, we do. It's really important to us as a family and something I wanted to instill in DD from a young age.



On another note....



Happy Valentines Day:valentine: xox

[MothersMilk]

We donate all our unused clothes to charity and donate small amounts of money to different causes here and there.
It's not much but it's something.

[MsMummy]

I do monthly direct debits to three charities - an environmental one, a human rights one and an animal rights charity.

there's also a guy with a tin on my street who I give to when I see him.

I don't agree that it's bad not to donate to the bushfire appeal. I will give something but not more than I give to other charities. There are loads of good causes.

I can't remember what it was called but Peter Singer wrote something on living ethically and donating to charity. I think the upshot was that once you have what you "need" (ie. house, food, certain level of income) you should give the balance to charity. I don't follow this but I'd like to be selfless enough to.

[amandancooper]

I donated to the fire appeal, and donate to others occasionally but i dont donate to the ones that pester you in the shopping centre - so annoying! Maybe if they didnt bug me i might go and donate

[EmPowering]

well i have a sponser child through world vision which is $43 a month:)

[EmPowering]

i also put a bit of change in the childrens hospital one thats at the checkouts in supermarkets

[Fuchsia!]

I donate sometimes lots, sometimes not so much, depends on the cause, how much money i have and so forth.

Each xmas i donate a lot of toys for the Kmart christmas tree, otherwise i am always popping money into the ronald Mcdonald house tins, i support local charities aswell.

[Jender]

We have 2 world vision children - my DH has had his for 9 years! We also have one child from The Smith Family and a regular debit to a children's cancer charity and a few other ones. My biggest personal one is the MS Society. We donated to the bushfire and always give clothes away and give to people with tins and ones that come around at work. Our office does pro-bono work - I draw the line at people who call. They always call at bad times and I against that method - its intrusive.

I would not be neally as ethical at Peter Singer's philosophy but we do our bit

[Benji]

I don't understand why it's seen as heartless to not donate to the bushfire charities. I remember the tsunami a couple of years back and Australia was fantastic with their donations, but at the same time there was a famine in Guarna (sp?) that statistically killed a similar amount of people as the tsunami did, yet there was no charity for them :confused:

We all choose which charity we want to donate. I buy the magazines for the homeless, and when I can I give my clothing to charity.

[tyler's mum]

I dont donate money because i just get buy with what i have.

[Jender]

And I think that's fair - we have a high income and therefore should give more.

[mum_I'm_hungry]

We give a regular donation (direct debit) once per month to MSF (Doctors Without Borders). They're an amazing organisation. We've donated to the bushfire appeal, but I'm a bit sad to see everyone in Qld concentrating on this and not on the problems on our own doorstep with flooding. So many people up north must feel really abandoned at this time :(

[zenifa]

Yes we have a monthly direct debit to a charity, plus at Xmas time we buy gifts from CARE and TEAR and we always give to the doorknocking charities eg Bowel Cancer, someone came around this week. We do donate because we can and we have, we are very fortunate!

[WorkingClassMum]

We support;
the local op shop with donations and goods, the RSPCA with donations and goods
Diabeties Australia
RSL/Poppies
ANZAC Day - badges


I don't donate if asked - especially phone calls/door knocks.

I also donate blood

[~Candy~]

I mainly only make donations to the RSPCA or any other type of animal resue org...and with the vic fires, my donation is again going towards the animals :)

[mum of 3]

im very weiry of donating money to charitis (sp?) i donate to the childrens hospital when we are there (which is once a week i put all my change in) and i donated what i could to the bush fires but i used to work for save the children and found out just how little money actually went to the cause on a direct debit plan nothing goes to them for the first 18mths its all admin fees etc

[Leisa21]

We do when we can. We give to our Church and at Christmas time and we do clothes donations. If we can we do. We haven't donated to the fire appeal as we have nothing to give. We shopped at coles on Friday and thats the best we could do.

[Myfanwy]

We really can't afford to donate money so we donate the clothing, toys and books we no longer need.

Even though we can't afford it we do have a World Vision child that we support. If it wasn't such a good cause I would cancel it as the money could go towards clothing and educating our own children. However we will continue to support the child while he still needs us.

[MsMummy]

i used to work for save the children and found out just how little money actually went to the cause on a direct debit plan nothing goes to them for the first 18mths its all admin fees etc

gee, 18 months of donations is a lot. Maybe next time I want to make a regular commitment, I'll phone the charity direct and ask them.

I remember hearing a debate once, and one charity said about the first six months of direct debits goes on the cost of signing up the donor (ie. paperwork and paying the person who hassles you in the street until you sign up). I remember the charity said they didn't like paying those commissions but if they didn't do it, they wouldn't get the donations at all, so a percentage was better than nothing.

Are there any published figures on the percentages of donations that go on admin in different charities? That would be great as people could make an informed choice.

[Just Add Water]

I have never donated to charites overseas for that reason.. I have friends who work in refugee camps and have done volunteer work and they are shocked at the amount of money that never gets where it is needed.

The Smith Family does a program called "learning for life" which allocates you a child in Australia, from primary right through to uni, your money goes to help them pay for excursions, uniforms and other school items. It costs $27 month for a primary student and you get a report about your student, as well as a letter (I get pictures too) from your student letting you know how they're going. Personally I think it's much better to support children here first and foremost.

It's great how many people donate in various ways though. It's not always the money that counts, donating clothes and toys is just as valuable. :)

[munchkins]

I wish we could, but financially were just not able to

[srguitargirl]

we donate to
Doctors without boarders every month.
and these at least once a year
kidney foundation
local childrens hospital foundation
cancer foundation
ronald Mc Donald house
and starlight foundation
SIDS foundation in memory of Caleb an aquantences ds

we also give other donations throughout the year depending on how we are going at that point in time, it helps offset our taxes and all the charaties we donate to are relevant to our family although I did donate to the vic bushfire appeal as I felt it was somthing worthwhile to do

[Ffrenchknickers]

No surprises here but :iagree: with her up there ^^^

[Ffrenchknickers]

That was weird. Where did your post go 4B2L?? :confused: It was you I was agreeing with....

[Issey]

i will give clothes etc to charities but generally can't afford money.

the other thing that surprised me :yes: was when talking to a friend she said in Adel they deliver yellow bags ot households to fill with clothes and these go directly overseas :eek: I asked her why she didn't give to people who needed it here and she didn't know it was just easy.

I think it is really dissappointing when i go into op shops for childrens clothes to buy and there is little to none....they have all gone overseas so what about people here that need it :confused:

[studyingECS]

My parent's sponcer a child.
Donated to the bush fire appeal.
Regularly donate to that famous eye docter? (Ashamed to say I don't know his name).
The sporting wheelies charity.
A children charity for the handicapped.


I donate to fundraisers at school.
Buy raffle tickets to raise money for charities.

I should probably do abit more.

[MsMummy]

the other thing that surprised me :yes: was when talking to a friend she said in Adel they deliver yellow bags ot households to fill with clothes and these go directly overseas :eek: I asked her why she didn't give to people who needed it here and she didn't know it was just easy.:confused:

we have something similiar in Brisbane - occasionally we get a pink bag in the letterbox asking for clothes, toys etc. It says they are a commercial operation which sell the clothes cheaply to Australians and people in PNG.

I don't use the pink bag because I'd much rather give it to a non-profit charity like Lifeline as not only do they sell cheap clothes but they use the profits to help people.

I'm a little reticient to donate to St Vinnies after this:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/st-vinnies-puts-the-cold-into-charity/2009/01/02/1230681745689.html?page=fullpage

[SixtiesChild]

We're looking to donate personally to someone in our neighborhood who needs it. (Widows, orphans, the elderly)
That way I know that they get every cent.

[forbetoel]

That was weird. Where did your post go 4B2L?? :confused: It was you I was agreeing with....

:confused:...I don't know. I just snuck back into this thread then.:confused:

Can you remember what I said? :o