Charities You Support

[Duke]

Are there specific charities you support, either financially or through volunteer efforts? Have you ever supported a charity, that in hindsight, you wished you hadn't. If you would prefer not to mention a charity by name, feel free to generically describe it, such as a veterans' or church affiliated charity.

(Keep in mind we do not want this to become a debate about any particular charity. If someone supports a charity you do not agree with, please respect the member's/donor's preferences/beliefs.)

 

[garnetsilver]

I am planning to sponsor a child in another country; just researching it now.

 

[Paulm]

a few animal charities, refuge type "zoos" and sanctuaries. as far as people charities i would choose childrens hospital or the Gary senise foundation as top picks..

 

[garnetsilver]

I also have my eye on a charity for cats.

 

[Paintman]

The Boys & Girls Club of Northwest Indiana and local Catholic churches. And churches in general if I get a good vibe .The donation is painting these things at a huge discount. This frees them up to spend money on other things.

Also donate a lot of golf balls to area creeks , ponds and woods. If nobody finds them I figure let the fish and the squirrels play with them. ( Investment tip - Callaway and Titleist. ).

 

[Duke]

Before I donate to any charity, I use one of the charity checker sites to see what percentage of donations actually go to operations as opposed to overhead. I support primarily veterans', childrens', and Catholic charities.

My biggest problem with charities is how they share/sell donor information with/to other charities. Back in the 90s I made a donation to well known Catholic charity, within a year I was getting donation requests from over 30 different Catholic and Christian charities. I know they all got my information from that first Catholic charity because of the name variation (initials for first and middle names) I used to donate.

 

[JahaRa]

I support the local food bank and ArborDay Foundation.

 

[GoneWestUtah]

JDRF

 

[RoseRed]

Before I donate to any charity, I use one of the charity checker sites to see what percentage of donations actually go to operations as opposed to overhead. I support primarily veterans', childrens', and Catholic charities.

My biggest problem with charities is how they share/sell donor information with/to other charities. Back in the 90s I made a donation to well known Catholic charity, within a year I was getting donation requests from over 30 different Catholic and Christian charities. I know they all got my information from that first Catholic charity because of the name variation (initials for first and middle names) I used to donate.

This is such a shame. You can understand on the one hand why charities do it, but on the other hand it's not right and gives charities a bad name. Many people are probably put off donating to them because they are afraid of giving out any of their details.

 

[RoseRed]

Regular donations: one local wildlife charity and one national wildlife charity (at which I volunteered for five years on my day off).

One-off donations: various, such as for the Ukraine crisis, or the RNLI (Lifeboat charity), or "urgent appeals" from my wildlife trusts for certain projects they let me know about.