Do you donate?

I give to the NRA and to the 2nd Amendment Foundation.

David

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I give money to St. Jude's research and hospital and I also give money to a college scholarship foundation for poor kids in Chicago.

I also give smaller amounts of cash to other charities.

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I used to organize bike-a-thons for St. Jude's hospital every year. We raised quite a lot of money that way - kids getting pledges for every lap they did around the track at the highschool - and it was a lot of fun. We'd have four year old kids out their on their bikes with the training wheels still on raising money for St. Judes.
That is an AMAZING organization.

Here I donate to Oxfam, the Royal Preservation Society for Nature, Birds and Wildlife - the Air Ambulance (two kids were airlifted out of our village after being hit by a car - one died, but his family was so grateful for the service he got as people tried to save his life - they started a fund in his honor), the Lifeboat Society. I do those by direct debit -£5 for each - so it's £20 pounds a month.

I always put my extra 1,2, and 5 pence coins (from change when I buy something) into the collection canisters for Children with brain injuries that are in shops.

I do a thirty mile walk for Hospice every year - usually get pledges of at least £100 each time.

I do give to people who are begging. I figure the pound or two I give them will make more of a difference in their life than it would make in mine - even if it just eases their minds a little bit and gives them comfort - helps them believe in people, whatever.

I was raised by a very conservative father who spent his life volunteering for and donating to people who were less fortunate than him. I can't walk by someone that I might be able to help without helping them. He taught me that.

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I give to the International Association of Near Death Studies

David

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@OmSigDAVID,

What do they do with the money?

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@aidan,

aidan wrote:

I used to organize bike-a-thons for St. Jude's hospital every year. We raised quite a lot of money that way - kids getting pledges for every lap they did around the track at the highschool - and it was a lot of fun. We'd have four year old kids out their on their bikes with the training wheels still on raising money for St. Judes.
That is an AMAZING organization.

The Founding Fathers used to organize gunnery competitions for the citizens, with prizes.
James Madison was particularly enthusiastic about this.

aidan wrote:

Here I donate to Oxfam, the Royal Preservation Society for Nature, Birds and Wildlife - the Air Ambulance (two kids were airlifted out of our village after being hit by a car - one died, but his family was so grateful for the service he got as people tried to save his life - they started a fund in his honor), the Lifeboat Society. I do those by direct debit -£5 for each - so it's £20 pounds a month.

I give to the Republican Party

aidan wrote:

I always put my extra 1,2, and 5 pence coins (from change when I buy something) into the collection canisters for Children with brain injuries that are in shops.

I do a thirty mile walk for Hospice every year - usually get pledges of at least £100 each time.

I do give to people who are begging. I figure the pound or two I give them will make more of a difference in their life than it would make in mine - even if it just eases their minds a little bit and gives them comfort - helps them believe in people, whatever.

I usually reject them, out-of-hand. About 30 years ago,
I was approached in Manhattan by a black bum
that asked for $7.
He said that if I gave it to him, he was going to
buy a pint of gin. I figured "what the hell" and gave it to him.

aidan wrote:

I was raised by a very conservative father who spent his life volunteering for and donating to people who were less fortunate than him. I can't walk by someone that I might be able to help without helping them. He taught me that.

I have probably given more to the middle class
or to the rich than to the poor,
tho I 've given to them also.

When I gave to street bums that were
looting trash cans for bottles & cans,
I found them to be anhedonic. Thay did not care.

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Quote:

The Founding Fathers used to organize gunnery competitions for the citizens, with prizes.
James Madison was particularly enthusiastic about this.

I'm trying to picture that old white-haired serious looking guy 'enthusiastic'. He probably just had to assume such a serious demeanor for the portrait they painted to make him look 'presidential'.

I took place in a gunnery competition. Out at my Aunt Alice's farm in Texas. My dad let us shoot at cans with a shotgun. I was about twelve. I had very good aim. I was good at archery too- and darts...I can be very competitive.

Quote:

I usually reject them, out-of-hand. About 30 years ago,
I was approached in Manhattan by a black bum
that asked for $7.
He said that if I gave it to him, he was going to
buy a pint of gin. I figured "what the hell" and gave it to him.

At least he was honest.
There was a guy in NYC when I was walking who asked me for money to take a cab because he was going to be late for his show - he was in a theatre production he said and he forgot part of his costume. He didn't have time to make it back to his apt. on the bus or subway and get to the theatre in time - so he needed money for the cab.
I knew he was lying but I thought - 'Wow - that's pretty creative'...same thing...what the hell - gave him the money.

Quote:

I found them to be anhedonic. Thay did not care.

Did you feel let down?

1 Reply

@aidan,

Quote:

I found them to be anhedonic. Thay did not care.

aidan wrote:

Did you feel let down?

I felt that the $$ was wasted.

In 1980, I came out of La Maganette, after a fine Italian meal,
on 50th Street n 3rd Ave, on a very beautiful nite.
I was standing on the corner appreciating
the stark beauty of the night; nice weather.
A woman approached me n opened a conversation,
indicating that she wanted to have dinner.
We did. Her conversation included sexual innuendo.
During the course of this discussion, and her
use of telefones, I coud see that she was
setting me up for a robbery.

It began raining very heavily. I got us a cab,
for me to go home, dropping her off
wherever she wanted to go, along the way.
She did not accept that.

I gave her $10 for a cab of her own
and went home. Somehow, I dout that she used it for a cab.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Huh? What do you think she used it for?
I don't get it - you bought her dinner - cottoned onto the fact that she was setting you up for a robbery - but you STILL gave her money for a cab?

I'd have said - 'Yeah - nice meeting you - see you later,' and left her to her own devices in terms of getting home.

1 Reply

@aidan,

aidan wrote:

Huh? What do you think she used it for?

Drugs or a pimp.

wayne wrote:

I don't get it - you bought her dinner - cottoned onto the fact that she was setting you up
for a robbery - but you STILL gave her money for a cab?

She claimed to be an out-of-work art historian.

wayne wrote:

I'd have said - 'Yeah - nice meeting you - see you later,' and left her to her own devices in terms of getting home.

She looked forlorn in the heavy rain.

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@OmSigDAVID,

Aww, that's very compassionate of you then David.

I was more likely to buy little magic stones from the gypsy traveller that used to come by my shop if it was a wet, cold day- and give her a cup of tea.

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@aidan,

Did the stones work ?

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I tried to donate at the sperm bank, but after a lot of screaming and fighting I was removed from the premises. Hell, I didnt know they had special cubicles for it !

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I give monthly to the Somaly Mam Foundation to help give former child prostitutes in Cambodia marketable skills.

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@FBM,

I donate clothing and household items to Big Brothers Big Sisters on a regular basis, and I donate both food and money to a local food bank network that supplies soup kitchens and free food pantries in my area.

I do not like giving money to people panhandling on the street, and I don't do that.

I regularly donate money to all sorts of charities--Doctors Without Borders, Meals On Wheels, ASPCA, Humane Society, American Cancer Society, my local Red Cross, National Wildlife Federation, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, UNICEF, as well as public television, a public radio station, my college alma mater, a private cardiac research foundation, and probably at least 5 or 6 others I just can't think of at the moment.

I also wonder exactly where my money is going, and how much of it is being spent on things like fund-raising and promotion. I have used this site, Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities, and I have found it helpful.
http://www.charitynavigator.org/

This is also some useful information--
How to check out a charity
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/advice/20020107a.asp

What drives me crazy is the amount of unasked for (and generally unwanted) promotional feebies, "gifts", rewards, etc. I regularly receive (particularly from the Humane Society and the ASPCA)--key chains, T-shirts, gloves, throws, boxes of note cards or Christmas cards, tote bags, and calenders, in addition to the usual address labels and note pads I constantly seem to receive from everyone under the sun. One charity also keeps sending me a nickel--with each request to send them money. Well, if they have the money to send me all these free gifts, to thank me, or to induce me to contribute, they aren't using the money the way I'd like them to be using it--to help a person or animal in need, or to support a particular service. I'd rather they didn't send me most of these things, or any of them really, so that the maximun amount would go to the primary purpose for the existence of the charity. I'm at the point that, the more freebies a charity sends me, to bribe me into contributing, the less likely I am to send them a donation, because I feel what they are doing is wasteful.

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@firefly,

There are some animal protection societies
that do not kill animals; I 've heard that
the ASPCA kills them if the animals
are not lucky enuf to be adopted
within a few days, and do it under cruel conditions.

I 'd rather donate to the NON-lethal ones.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

I have also donated to the non-lethal ones, David. But the ASPCA also performs services I do endorse, which is why I support them.

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@firefly,

Yeah, one reason I'm so selective about where I give is that it seems that so many 'charities' spend an inordinate amount of the donations on overhead, including salaries for an overstaffed headquarters, as well as t-shirts and other sundries. I looked into the Somaly Mam Foundation pretty thoroughly and don't see any evidence of that sort of thing. They haven't wasted a penny on sending me trinkets. They do sell a few trinkets, but they're mostly hand-made stuff by the residents, not mass-produced plastic crap.

1 Reply

@FBM,

FBM wrote:

Yeah, one reason I'm so selective about where I give is that it seems that so many 'charities' spend an inordinate amount of the donations on overhead, including salaries for an overstaffed headquarters,

Human nature being what it IS
and what it always has been thru recorded time
and surely also in pre-history, that is very, very foreseeable.

David

1 Reply

I dont donate money except to organizations that I am a part of, church, military family support groups and soldier support, sports, scouts and school groups. I technically donate to GoodWill although all I am doing is trying to find an alternative to the dump for things that have use still in them, I dont care about goodwill or the people who shop there. You will however find me agitating for social programs, as I want my tax dollar to go to good works, and I want to be able to turn all requests for money down with a clear conscious.

As for donating time I am much more agreeable, I am a more easy sale. Once in awhile I donate to food banks, but I have a idealistic problem with that as I think that government should deal with the needy and that reforms should be taken to make our society more equitable. I also firmly believe in the Zen motto "no work, no eat" and have no desire to help feed lazy people.

1 Reply

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