Which charity should I donate to, preferably one that uses donations wisely?

[CrumbsInBed]

I was looking at signing up for the SoberOctober challenge in aid of MacMillan nurses, nurses, but I’ve heard the donations don’t go directly to the nurses. Please correct me if I’m wrong with that.

I was thinking instead of still going sober for the month, but donating what I would have spent on alcohol for the month towards a charity, where the donations are directly benefitting the people who the charity is aimed at, iyswim?
Any advice is appreciated, thank you 💐

I prefer Marie Curie to Macmillan, purely from the experiences of their work with my DM when she was dying. I always give to Marie Curie. Macmillan did nothing for her/us.

I don’t want to be lining the pockets, or pension, of the CEO, I meant to say, or admin.
I know how hard the MacMillan nurses work btw, but if the money isn’t going to them, it seems pointless.

Thanks @CramptonHodnet. Do the donations go where they should with Marie Curie? A friend of a friend is a retired MC nurse and she went above and beyond with her friends husband after a particularly bad stroke, which is why she became a friend of the family.

I would suggest that you complete the challenge and give the money to a local charity that is small enough to be run by volunteers. That way, all the cash goes to the charity and not spent on pensions and salaries.

Thanks for your advice @PanamaPattie, I’ll look into that also 🙂.

Many charities employ people and that's fair. DS worked for years for a small charity as a paid employee and volunteers come and go, don't commit, don't take the job seriously. Paid employees provide continuity and stability for the people (or animals) who ultimately benefit from the charity.

We give to our local hospice, which provides an outstanding services to people in their hour of need and provides end of life care for children and adults. They employ people - that's great as their skills are absolutely necessary to run the service. And they have many volunteers who help run various activities. I'd suggest that you revise your conception that people who work for charities are money grabbing. It is completely unfair.

@Goingonandonandon.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend, I was thinking of the bigwigs at the top, who don’t pass down the donations to the ones doing the running around. Maybe I need to re write my post title.

I also choose to donate to local charities. Larger charities have their place and are vital in times of austerity, but so are smaller charities and they don't have access to the funding streams that larger ones do.

Thanks@Bombardier25966, very helpful.
That might be the way forward.

@CramptonHodnet.
Sorry about your Mum 💐

All charities must submit accounts to the Charity Commission so you can how much is spent on what - simply search for the charity on the charity commission website.

Charities are run for their beneficiaries, but like all organisations they should be well run, accountable, with good governance and financial management. In my experience you would be hard pressed to find a charity run entirely by volunteers that can meet all these requirements - they are volunteers after all and have other pressure on their time and may not have the relevant experience or skills.

There is a lot of misinformation about charities, CEO salaries and where people's donations go. Any decent charity will explain how much of their money goes to frontline work and it is a Charity Commission requirement that charities publish the salary of their highest paid staff.

Macmillian's website for example explains; "as a result of the generosity of our donors and continued hard work from our staff and volunteers we were able to raise a record amount of £247.7 million in 2017. This meant we could invest over £192 million in our work to improve the lives of people living with cancer, £18.8 million more than in 2016." The majority of this money (£79m out of £192m) was spent on health and social care professionals. They spent another £64m to raise the £192m in the first place so an ROI of 3:1.

It's up to you whether you think that's reasonable of course. But it takes money to raise money to help more people.

I work very hard for a charity. I deserve to earn a salary and a pension for that work. The work I did directly affected the lives of 18,000 women and girls recently. I'm proud of that.
If you look at the levels of responsibility of the top CEOs, the turnover of their charity, the numbers of staff and volunteers as well as the impact of their work. You'll see why they deserve good pay. If you were to translate all of the above into a private company the salary and pension would attract a significant premium.
If we remove salaries and pensions from charity staff it will go back to the days when only the great and the good could do charity.
In terms of making your own donation I highly recommend looking for smaller grass roots charities and picking a cause that really means something to you.

@PanamaPattie I work for a charity. I deserve a salary and a pension. If charities were to rely upon volunteers many would struggle. It's a sign of achievement for a group to move from being entirely volunteer led to having a paid member of staff. I work for a small charity.

well said @SciFiFan2015

Thanks @rachelinindia.

I don’t know much about charities, which is why I posted this thread.

I haven’t meant to offend anybody, I want to make an informed decision as to where I make a donation to,

*donation to.

@CrumbsInBed try your local community foundation. They will have an amazing oversight of the need in your area. They will be making grants to groups that need funding and might be able to sign post you.
What interests you?

Totally agree with people saying that those running charities should be paid to do it properly. Charities cannot run on fresh air and goodwill.

I know @PiperPublickOccurrences could you imagine volunteers being able to line manage loads of people, prepare accounts, deal with GDPR, write the safeguarding policies, ensure due diligence, sort out pensions, campaign for change, liaise with parliament and provide for service users on a full-time basis? Then there's governance to consider, accounting policies to follow, reports and returns to Government, OSCR, Charity Commission, local authority, funders. I'm listing only a fraction of things that need to be done.
Then there's fundraising which comes with its own set of rules and regulations.
Monitoring, evaluation, continuous improvement.

@SciFiFan2015.
Thanks for your advice, that’s a great idea.
Music, gardening, and reading are my interests.

Oh and someone needs to pay the electricity bill and for toilet paper!

You've got loads of choice then! Find one that really interests you and you will enjoy it. Good luck.

Nordoff Robbins is a interesting charity. Provides musical therapy for people who need it.
Your local library might have a fund
I can is a charity that helps children communicate - might link with the reading. I remember one of their fundraising ideas was to sponsor a word in the dictionary. There's Thrive and Greenfingers for the gardening interest.
Done well giving is great fun. I give via Lendwithcare and I LOVE it.

Great ideas @SciFiFan2015, thank you.

Tomorrow night is the last night of my dalliance with alcohol for a month. (I don’t drink on Sundays, wouldn’t get up on Mondays), and it’s 1st October on Monday.

Local charities will likely have smaller overheads relatively. I used to volunteer for the British Red Cross. If you look at the entire International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, they have high overheads in some areas because they need to pay for experts in international relations, complex legal issues etc. I still think they’re a fantastic organisation and do a lot at
“Home” that people don’t realise.

I’ve started donating monthly to Mind, a mental health charity. You get a small gift through the post too. I donate ad hoc to Marie Curie as they were wonderful when my DGM was dying at home.

The recent campaign by Cancer Research really put me off them tbh. It’s like we haven’t beat cancer because we haven’t tried hard enough...