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 💐

@TakeAChanseyOnMe.

Re: Cancer Research. A few years ago now, my MIL donated to a cancer charity (I think it was Imperial Cancer), and she stopped, as she felt guilt tripped into giving more money of which she didn’t have.

I give to a local charity made up of ex pats from Sierra Leone. They do a food bank and kids holiday scheme in my neighbourhood and are fundraising to build a school back home.
Its a matter of emotional ties and personal aliegence (my son has benefited from their work) - rather than a logical, researched thing.
Having worked in the charity sector I would say that admin costs are legitimate and nessacary. I wouldn't begrudge a charity I support renting offices or paying people to do the accounts or raise more funds.

I do not like the idea of my money that I give to charities being used to pay salaries and pensions. I accept that some charities pay their staff out of donations. I will not be donating to those charities.

@panamapattie but how else would charities pay staff if not out of donations? Those donations may be from the government, lotteries, grants and trusts, corporates, individuals giving £3 a month or high net worth individuals giving £50k a year! They’re all donations. Granted some charities have profit making arms - but all the money goes back into providing services.

@crumbsinbed - not offended at all! It’s lovely that you’re doing sober October - all charities rely on good people like you! There’s been a lot of smears of the charity sector (some rightly so!) so l always like to let people know how much information is available out there and also how tightly regulated chairities are - as they should be best of luck with your fundraising!

My point is that I understand some charities pay their staff out of donations, so for example, if I gave £100 to Save the Children, £60 would be admin and salaries and £40 would benefit the children. I would prefer that £100 goes to the children, and that is why I choose small charities for my donations.

Apologies OP for the derail. I'll bow out now.

@PanamaPattie if you give Save the Children £100, £91 would go on charitable activities. Only £9 would go on the cost of raising another £91 AND other costs.

A small charity will not benefit from economies of scale like this.

One charity we've funded delivers all of its service via a staff member meaning 100% of donations go to the salary of this staff member. Our grant covered 10%. With all due respect you don't really know what is really happening.

Please take a few minutes to watch this - it will change the way you think about charities: l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ted.com%2Ftalks%2Fdan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong&h=AT2zhIWb0nDYCICkHQvGA-qleQ-lrmoC8Etnk3Sim5xQlF6RUDTi6Uia6HXpLCzS877m8W8wJqVGpRJx5h45Zmkpn4BoxyaG0N3ZGx4nDOM7EJstN17YqZKbPommti7DuiXXY2qEKettNN73eNIqVCHrAc4&s=1

As you're thinking about your drinking, spare a thought for WaterAid and those who don't even have safe water.

Or if you want to stick to the cancer theme as the idea started with Macmillan, see if there is a local community- based support centre as it's usually much clearer to see what they do with their funds.

Were you a Brownie or Guide as a child? If you were and you enjoyed it I'm sure your old unit would love a donation. Not Girlguiding at HQ level, but the individual units could use it for equipment or camping etc.

I understand the sentiment but find it a bit depressing that charities are expected to deliver amazing services without paying for the good leadership and good staff that are needed to deliver them. Most CEOs do good work which raises money and they make sure money is spent wisely.

However if you want to donate directly you could buy food for a food bank.

I've worked for charities big and small. The way that charities report their finances and in particular their spending varies wisely and a good accountant can make their 'admin' costs look very low. Few small charities are able to do this.

If you're going to donate your hard earned cash, you want to know that no one is embezzling the money and that the charity is trustworthy. This means the charity has the costs of processing funds and then publishing audited accounts. And paid finance staff. Charities need to be insured to cover their employees, volunteers, beneficiaries and the wider public. Run a donkey charity - what happens when a donkey injures a volunteer? And it goes on. The costs of running anything in the C21st are enormous. The cost of getting a CEO who has the necessary skills and experience and who is possibly giving up the opportunity of earning an awful lot more elsewhere... I don't know why I'm defending this, I believe in service to your community. I have worked with at least one CEO who pissed me off by claiming his nice coffee when on work business on expenses. Which he was entitled to do, but he could easily afford to buy his own coffee, I did. Anyway, there are other better CEOs and all organisations want to make sure they have the most competent person available at the top.

I would think about what you really care about and google to find a charity in your local area that meets that need. If you really want to research it, find the annual report and check that the finances don't have something glaringly worrying.

Charities are in the best position to know what they need to spend on. If they're doing a good job, I wouldn't question it too much (unless you're an expert).

I’d agree that Thrive is a good, responsible charity, especially if you love gardening. I support them myself. They offer horticultural therapy for people who have experienced severe illness, traumatic events, or issues such as homelessness or addiction.

I completely agree that charities need paid staff, and that those staff should be paid at a rate that doesn’t make them vulnerable themselves long term either. I don’t like to see staff members feel unable to TTC, for example, because they can’t see how to make ends meet with a baby.

If you want 100% of your money to directly benefit the cause, give to Stand Up To Cancer. Every penny goes to research and trials.

Usually Cancer Research give at least 80p out of every pound directly to research too so a really great margin.

I don’t really understand the logic in giving to a smaller charity so the money goes further, surely it will be the same just on a smaller scale? (Can’t remember who posted that, sorry.)

Local hospice or industry specific charity is my choice as I have seen first hand the good they do and their accounts are easily accessed so I know what my money is doing

Thank you to the posters who have offered further replies since I last posted. This is one of my last nights of alcohol consumption, so I might not (probably not) post again until tomorrow😄.

I am not not an expert, otherwise I wouldn’ t be on here asking the question, seriously.

All ideas and knowledge are welcome 🙂.

You could always purchase an item of equipment for a particular charity if you are concerned how the money you donate might be spent.

Can someone list a charity that they think is totally run by rich fatcats & uses donations terribly wastefully? Coz I don't know of any like that (not counting the Trump Foundation).

It’s a judgement thing. I stopped giving money to a large, well known charity when I found out that their head office is in one of the most expensive parts of London for renting offices. They would save a lot by moving to a cheaper area. So it was just my judgment. That is Medecins sans Frontieres, their head office is in Holborn.

I wonder if MSF get a peppercorn rent, though. Knowing MSF, they will be there b/c that's the type of location they need. Do you know what they are actually paying for those London offices, Going?

MSF 2017 financial summary
Income £53.7 million
Spent £55.6 million, of which
£35.9 mln in grants to operational (medical) centres
£10.6 mln other charitable projects in field (things like sanitation projects)

I guess that leaves £8.9 mln for staff travel, overheads, other things. The pdf seems to imply their office costs were only 800,000, but that seems much too low. Someone could tweet & just ask them what rent they pay for their London offices.

ps: MSF say that 2% of their raised moneys pays for their UK offices. 2% of £54 mln is £1.08 mln... pretty close to the ~£800k value. Not sure if that includes staff salaries.

Good morning 🙂.

More replies, thank you.

@Horsemad, that’s a good idea.

I will be looking at local charities over the weekend, and some mentioned here.
Thanks all for your help and input.

I’ve been to MSF London office in a volunteer capacity and they were not swish or expensively furnished. It’s an international organisation so it’s important for them to be central and accessible. The people working there are fantastic and do great work.
Volunteering in Amnesty International in London completely put me off them and I stopped donating to them after my stint there.

MSf is an international organisation, to influence policy and secure international funding it will not need offices in London.
Like all sectors of society/work there will be good and bad charities. Dh and I have worked in the third sector/ with charities for most of our working lives. There have been good and less good organizations and bosses. Dh is now very senior and quite frankly brilliant. By having him (and not some average 'doing it for love' person) his charity have been infinitely more effective. They've raised more money, helped more people and influenced policy far more. He would also be paid far far more in the profit sector for his skills and knowledge.
I appreciate that you want your money to help people directly, small charities with no overheads may be not always be the most effective. If it were me I'd choose a cause close to my heart and try and learn a bit more about them, maybe volunteer? Then you'll get a sense of how well run they are....