Donating to charity

zidangus

I was talking with some of my relatives the other day and the topic of charities came up. Anyway it came up that a few of my relatives do not donate to any charities, and said that they would not either no matter how much money they had, their reason being that the money never actually goes to the people that need it, citing many examples such as the first live aid, big salaries by charity bosses etc etc. I disagreed with them saying that if only one penny of my donation reaches someone who needs it then it was worth donating, but I did concede that to make a difference then donating your time, skills and effort such as working in soup kitchens etc is far better than donating just money, and I agree with them about the amount of donated money that does not go directly to the cause and gets wasted on things such as nice new buildings and offices for the charity etc etc.

Anyway what peoples attitude to donating money ? Any skeptics out there about donating money to charities ?

Mountains

It depends entirely on what charity we're talking about. In the US, if an organization is registered as a 501c-3, their finances are a matter of public record, and you can find out what percentage of donations goes directly toward the charitable pursuits vs. administrative costs.

To say "I don't give to charity at all because none of the money goes to the people who need it" is simply wrong. It's an excuse not to be generous. If someone chooses not to donate to charities, that's fine. But they shouldn't be disingenuous about their reason for doing so.

genkaku

I think some skepticism is warranted. When I wanted to donate to the Heifer Project, I looked them up and then called them up and asked, "How much of the money I give goes to the people who need it?" If I recall, it was something better than 80%, which was enough to convince me to donate.

I see no reason to have good intentions funneled into corporate jets. If you don't know, ask ... or anyway, that's my point of view.

Mountains

Exactly. There are loads and loads of charities that have ratios at or above 80% (Heifer being one of them).

zombiegirl

i donate "things" all of the time and feel fine with it, but i don't donate money too often. i do the "would you like to add a dollar to your cost for the ______ charity?" at stores pretty often, but i'm really not in the place financially to donate large sums yet.

i will say that while i think your relatives have a point, that's not a reason to NOT donate. they should just do some research to find a charity that really does give a large portion of the proceeds to the people who need it. it's simply an excuse to not give otherwise. if someday i find myself in the position to donate money, i plan to do this. i don't like the idea of someone getting rich off money meant for those in need either.

riverflow

The irony is that a lot of people I have met who think donating to charity is a waste are often the same people that think government welfare programs should be scrapped and let charity take care of it instead. :skeptic:

Mountains

Funny about that, isn't it?

zidangus

I guess that when the bad apples that result in stories such as

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/taxpayers-money-given-to-corrupt-charities-1938691.html

are talked about and exposed in the news, its not surprising that it can put a lot of people of donating, and make them cynical about charities.

But you are all right, when you say you have to dig a little deeper when thinking about donating, and check exactly what the charity does and its results and how much of your money is actually going to go into helping directly. The problem is, a lot of people either do not have the want to do this, or do not have the resources to do this. Hence, for these people the bad apples tend to tar all charities with the same brush, which is a shame as there are a lot of fantastic charities out there that really do make a difference.