Category: Let's talk
this post is neither a affirmative of agreement with or disagreement with this topic, I am just curious..
who here has read peter singer. agree with it or not. or just heard him talk. do you donate to a charity? if so which one, and why do you donate? do you actively talk about your giving? If not why not? Have you heard about the pond story, how do you react to this? does the pond analogy equate to starving dying children?
If you've read peter singer, what is your reaction?
I donate to ones that actually have a track record of helping people.
I've experienced so many 501C3 organizations that collect money, but put the money, and I mean all of it, in the pocket, and don't honestly do the service they are asking for the donations for.
I don't talk about it, because I see it as buying something I want, so why say?
I don't buy say a can of soda, and tell all my friends, or anyone that will listen, I did, unless we are discussing sodas.
I think it emportant to give a little, because when I was a child, I received much from organizations that did things for blind kids.
I don't only give to things blind related, but will.
We waist money all the time on things we don't necessarily use, so why not give something to somebody.
Our world is rich, and if we all help each other, there is no need for anyone to not have anything at all.
I donate all the time. Maybe not in financial matters, but i donate my time by doing a series of volunteer works for organizations that have similar values to me. my local Guidedogs school will be the one and only organization that i financially support. It is probably the only blind organization that i'll financially support at the moment. Like Wayne, i believe in giving back to the community on what i did, and perhaps do recieve from the warmth of the community. However, i'm also very careful on choosing the organizations that i do give. What Wayne said with charity organizations that keep 70% or more of their donation on their adminstration is just wrong and unethical. Unfortunately, there are too many organizations internationally that do so, include some very big ones.
I have a history of donating time to a number of charities (including but not
restricted to the Variety Club, Canadian Cancer Society, Heart and Stroke
fund, Japanese Community in Canada, UBC/VGH Hospital Foundation etc) as
well as donating money to a number of charities (again, including but not
necessarily restricted to British Columbia Cancer Agency, the Neonatal ICU
unit at the Royal Columbian Hospital [via the RCH Foundation] etc).
I have a strict policy of NOT donating to charities who contact me over the
phone. I don't know for sure that my donation is going to the party that is
being represented, and I want to get a receipt for my donation.
I will mainly donate to groups in my community who help people in my community.
I've become a bit jaded about international aid, though I don't regret having donated in
the past. We create international incidents, then put the disaster on TV and ask for
donations.
When I was younger, I was a globalist. But I have seen how local people get left behind all
the time. So I focus on local needs first.
Uncle Leo, i know there are some international aid organizations use at least 70% of the so call donations on PR and adminstration purposes. I know and understand the important of PR and adminstration that involve in running an organization, but honestly, 70% is rather, over the top. if it is a 30/70 split rather than 70/30 split, i think i'll feel better for it. I'm more supportive of organizations that majority run and maintain by volunteers.
I do agree with Katy Kate though, i have friends that work in so call telephone marketing for some charity organizations, and also work as what they would call as money collector for charities. From what i've been told, it depends on the organization, 15% to 30% of the donation are their commition. So, if they got $500 for that day, they will get anything between $75 to $150...
No, I don't. Cuz I don't even have enough money of my own.
Nothing wrong with paying the workers for collecting. I've done this myself, but it is a shame to collect and pocket the majority or all of the funding and not give the service.
what imp said.
I have in the past and now I always get calls from them all and i don't any more. What I'm really concerned about is the amount of money that actually goes to the charity verses in the employees pockets.
I would certainly donate to causes close to my heart in the future.
I donate to www.alstrom.org
I typically donate time over money. This is because I'm more interested in furthering the mission of an organization than I am just throwing money at it. For example, after hurricane Sandy happened, I gave my time to the local people instead of donating to something like the Red Cross. That way, I have more control over where my "donation" goes. I have given to a few organizations in the past, but I believe more in paying it forward to other individuals than organization in terms of financial contributions.
I only donate to small organisations. Big organisations that have a lot of money and can afford to pay high wages don't need any money or time from me.
I like that logic Scott!
I used to donate to this organization I don't remember the name, but it's one of
those organizations that you pay for a child's and they send you pictures and a
letter from the child. I found that a little fishy in my opinion because I had this
feeling it didn't all go to the child and how did I know it went to the child in
question anyway? Oh boy did they make a big fuss when I decided to quit. I
currently volunteer at a private school where people donate so that parents
don't have to pay for the child's education. So I feel good about that. I feel that
big organizations get more money for their staff rather than for for the people in
need, I don't know it's just a thought. Like others, I'd rather donate y time or to
small organizations.
I forgot to add that many people make donations and later deduct it from their
taxes, so is it really a donation because they sincerely wish to help? Like the
rich artists who receive so much recognition, almost praise for donating
thousands to charity or the like. I have nothing against it, to each their own. In
my opinion if I donate I'd rather be anonymous and not have my name
displayed somewhere, it doesn't feel right.
Deducting said donations from taxes means maybe the teenage kids who rail against that get new shoes, braces, a new phone, school supplies, a trip to the doctor when they need it, and other such things.
The reason this is done is to lower the tax bracket so you owe less to Uncle Sam at the end of the year.
The reason this exemption exists is that the more that gets donated to private charities, the less (in theory) that the state has to pay to do chartiable work, and so it needs less in taxes.
Most people who do these write-offs are middle income people paying for the ones who complain about tax write-offs.
I wish I could spend this year's amount I owe in taxes on the college aged daughter and even the nieces too, instead. Some have yet to have perspective on this.
I avoid charities because I think that many times they can have
questionable standards. Not every single one is bad, but it can be shady as
fuck too. I don't really make enough money for the tax deductions to be
relevant.
I dunno what a lot of charities for helping blind causes are, but autism has
the gawd awful Autism Speaks which is notorious for funding groups that
have had human rights violations against them and impose eradication as
opposed to understanding, so it kind of stems from that. I know not every
organization is like that but I know they can be shady too.
Instead I spend a lot of my personal time/money/lol doing stuff for the blind
because 1) a lot of my friends are blind and 2) because it's fun to think
outside of my box lol. Like, I try to bring up actual issues with people who
don't have these problems and teach people about stuff because donations
usually go towards administration costs anyways, but if you teach web
developers to not shit on accessibility it makes the whole world a better
place. And I mean, it goes a lot with other people too, but it's just that
blindies are just what I know the most personally in my life.
IT'S JUST CHILLIN WITH THE COOL KIDS
But yeah, I don't hate people who donate or anything because I'm not
insane but do us autistic people a favour and don't donate to autism
speaks because they are literally bile.
The tax write off unless you give tones is not much, so I never claimed it.
Somethimes it is nothing.
If I were giving big money, I'd claim it, otherwise, I just think of it as a service I purchased, so whatever.
I remember donating like 10% of some sale of origami cranes or something and
I didn't get any write offs for that. Honestly, it only benefits you if you're high
income, and you need to get into a lower bracket.
What Impricator said.
Daigonite, you are in part wrong. It all has to do with what write-offs you are getting, or actually need that you can't get. You kid over age? Then you get no child tax credit, if they are over 17. But you are still caring for them.
It's falling into the "every little bit helps" category.
You never get to write off as much as you gave to charity. The thinking kind of goes: I'm donating anyway, so if I can get a little bit off the taxes I will.
But no you don't get the whole thing written off.
If you still do the 1040 EZ form, it won't write off. It's for us who have dependents and do the 1040A or more.
Oh I figured as much (it would defeat the purpose of charity) but the value is
negligible unless you're making a considerable amount of money, plus it does
have the benefit of making you have a better public image.
My partner and I do not donate to charity. It doesn't make us hugely popular, but we have political reasons not to.
We are social democrats heavily leaning towards socialists.
We therefore feel that the money tax payers pay should be going toward education, healthcare, and other benefits for all. People who work in the charity roles such as assisting people in hard times should be paid, and it should not, under any circumstances be associated with churches or business like organisations.
I will donate my time to causes I feel worthy, especially advocacy ones, but I do not and never will donate money to charities. I will however donate money to causes which are minority causes that I don't think governments should support. I view these as hobbies though. I will also make the one exception for animal related charity, since I don't think the government should be using money for that either.
As for other countries, all the modernised countries should be doing their bit to support the underdeveloped world and bringing it up to speed.
Leo, thank you for posts 17 and 22.
Every little bit does help. Just because we take the deduction, doesn't mean that our name is plastered anywhere, unless of course you count the IRS records and I doubt anyone really gives 2 shits about our personal tax returns.
Like many of you have already said, I stay away from the big charities for so many reasons. I saw during that explosion in Wesst, that people were having to account for every bottle of water they got because it would count as income, or some such silliness. I'm sure there's good reason for all that but I don't see it as helping people if you're having them obsess over such minor details.
I've volunteered many times as a guest speaker. I for both blindness related workshops as well as classes of upcoming mainstream teachers.
I also like to give allot of extras to the lady who cleans our house. She works so hard and is so nice and cheerful about it that I like to give her extras whenever I can. She's like family to us. Even if it's stuff she can't use, she takes it to her neighborhood and shares it with other families. Her husband also takes a big truck down to Mexico each month and gives out stuff to people in need.
I've also donated allot of time and items to my son's school over the years. Oh yeah, and I volunteered as a Den Leader when he was in Cub Scouts.
I think this summer, we're going to pick a family volunteer project to do together as well.
if I do research on an organization and still agree that it does what it claims to accomplish then I will donate. most of the money must go to the people served... as an example, I will give to any organization bu the red cross or united way. some huge amount of donations goes to administrative costs. also the head of the us red cross is a millionaire. the head of salvation makes $13,0
I'm not into fashion trends, and moved up here over five years ago. But Mom still has clothing of mine downstairs that I never wear, and we've decided to get rid of it. So I'm donating it all to the local Greek Orthodox Church. Other than that, I very rarely donate to anyone, unless I know that I can trust the charity and I believe in their cause. I used to give money to the Salvation Army bell wringers, but no longer do so, due to their extreme position on homosexuality. Yes, I know The Church doesn't like them either, but it's either give to them or the VA, and being a Hellenic patriot, I don't feel comfortable with that, though I do think that veterans should be respected for serving their country. Anyway, if I were to donate, it would be to those who are truly trying to help Hellas, to places like St. Jude's or to animal rescues and no kill shelters.
If you want to donate to something local, donate to your local food bank or food pantry or food project. These are people in your community committed to eliminating hunger.
One in six Americans goes hungry.
If you're taking government assistance, I'm betting you are part of the one in six that goes hungry, so we want to see you at your local food banks / food pantries. Don't be embarrassed to go to these: people in your community, many of us who have been poor before, are personally committed to this.
And, if you can't carry bags of food and supplies home, often they have a program where they can bring it to you.
And, there are often ways you can volunteer time, if you are unemployed this is a great way to give back where you can. Many of us working people can't volunteer like we'd like to, but you can, and every bit helps.