Charity

Invader

Ancient Mariner
Out of general interest, what do you guys consider a worthy cause or organisation to give charity for? Or, if you regularly or less regularly donate to charity, who do you give it to?  Big international organisations (Red Cross etc.), national ones, religious?  I'm interested.
 
I make two donations each year.  The first is to the local women's shelter for abused women and children.  The second is to a more random one.  Usually something like the Heart and Stroke Foundation, or a soldiers' charity.
 
I donate to two monthly, the Dog's Trust and Christian Aid. Both are worthwhile, in my opinion. Christian Aid came about from some canvassers looking for donations, so I agreed. The Dog's Trust I went to willingly as I feel that any organisation that is there to pick up on a dog that has been neglected or abused or whatever, deserves some of my money.
 
The two main charities that receive a donation from us are World Nature Foundation and an organization that is looking for cures to cancer (not sure I word it right but I hope you catch my drift).

Other than those two are done on a less regular schedule.
 
I give to my local church since they in turn give to many charities and/or work with them.
 
Development aid, Dutch Cancer Society, heart research and I give money to people who collect to help people with other diseases.
 
Breast Cancer Charities because my wife was diagnosed with it 3 years ago.

Without the development of Herceptin, partially funded by donations from breast cancer charities, and the backing those charities gave individuals who were refused Herceptin treatment on the grounds of cost, my wife would probably not be here now.
 
I donate to the local Red Cross. That's all I can afford at the moment.

It really doesn't matter who you donate to, as long as you donate to a trustworthy organisation that really does something and doesn't just collect the money to build a new visitor centre. They all need that sort of money.
 
LooseCannon said:
I can't, in good conscience, give to a church.
The Finnish state church (though you're supposed to call it the "people's church" nowadays)  has a legal right to collect taxes from all of its members, which is 1% of your income.  Of this, it spends approximately 90% on administration and 10% on charity (excluding volunteer work directed by the church), yet for some people, this 0.1% is enough for themselves to justify belonging to the Church.  And then they are "good Christians" who "give to charity".

I left the damned organisation as soon as I was legally entitled to. 
 
Seeing as how I am an atheist, who believes religion does far more harm than it could ever do good in this world, it would be immoral of me to donate to a church.

Try telling that one to the churchy people who go door to door.  I even won't buy fudge from the local church groups.  And I love fudge.
 
Seeing how the church kept my family together over 40 years of partition, helped educate me in moral values and serves as a last resort of stability to those who have nothing left in their lives, I don't have the slightest problem with giving it some of my money. Charity sometimes begins with those closest to you and offering them a haven. And I'm saying that without believing that God sent his son down to earth in shape of a carpenter who got nailed to the cross by a bunch of misguided people.
 
Yes mate, and that's fine, because I'm not telling you what to do with your money.  But I think that there are other things that can provide those services.  So, it's not what I want to do (give to a church), but people are obviously free to do so.
 
Unfortunately, cause of a cash shortage, most of my donation goes in the form of 'time'.  I try to help out local stuff here and there.  Tho, it usually ends up that my time gets used by my kids school for breakfasts, pancake breakfasts, auctions and the like.
 
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