I'd like to donate to a charity. Which one ?

[Victoriacres]

I'm thinking of donating £10 p/m to a charity. Stuck in with covid last 8 weeks so have had plenty of opportunity to sit watching daytime tv. Every advert seems to be wwf or save the donkeys, salvation army etc. Love animals but equally have teenage kids who probably don't realise how priviledged they are. Our town has a big homeless problem and is pretty deprived as a whole.
So maybe centrepoint ? Anybody any recommendations re charities ? How do you work out which ones give you best value for money ie the ceo isn't paid 100,000s ?

Look at what your local community foundation is doing and see if any of the causes they support inspire you.

I've worked in medium charities and now a small charity. Have had a role akin to a philanthropy advisor.

Find what you love and matters to you. Do a bit of looking at the charity (website, social media, accounts) and then find a way to give regularly. Contact the charity to find the most effective way to give. ie I have a JustGiving account but I would rather people set up a standing order! (I'm not a direct debit originator so can't do that)

If you look at what your local community foundation is doing you can probably skip the checking website/social media/accounts part because they'll have done lots of due diligence.

Sometimes really big charities are important to get vast sums of money (research, campaigning etc) sometimes small charities are the best option.

Go with what matters to you and you won't regret it.

I make loans via LendWithCare and I have a CAF account into which I pay £10 a month and then once a year or so I make bigger gifts to some smaller charities.

I would also look local and small

A local homeless charity
Your local food bank
A special needs charity

Cabs for jabs
Air ambulance

This is my Lend With Care account. The really fab thing is the money gets repaid and you can invest it again. You can see I've only given a small amount but it has worked very hard indeed.

I've donated £42 and lent £675...but I don't have that much in the account!

Also if I was skint I could let the repayments build up and withdraw them. I won't because it's so rewarding.

I only ever help female entrepreneurs. I'm off to login to my CAF account and make a few donations.

I'm a fundraiser for a local charity and regular donors are a lifeline. You can make a real difference and be part of a lovely community keeping it local. Or as the others say, pick a cause that matters to you and research the nationals. I donate monthly to guide dogs as I know from a good friends just how much this charity has changed her life. CEOs salaries are to be expected. They generally earn less than they would in the private sector and you need the best people at the top to maximise the impact of these huge, sometimes multi national, organisations.

National autistic society

I give money for medical (cancer and kidney) research because I hope that more money means that the cure will be here earlier and thus saving more lives.

I also support Ronald Mcdonald because I experirnced firsthand how important it is to be close to your sick child.

I donate to Cats Protection as I had my cat from them and they were excellent and also the Wales Air Ambulance.

Check the givingwhatyoucan website or just choose something you want to support. Look at their aims and ethos.

Absolutely hate the atitude that larger charities should be avoided because of staff pay, it's a really uninformed attitude and the reality is very few charities are paying CEOs huge paypackets. I've worked for charities big, small and in between. Small charities can do amazing good locally but are almost always significantly more inefficient, I would not work for one again. Your money will (generally) go a lot further in a large, profressional charity. They have clout, they have expertise and most importantly they pay and retain competent, qualified staff to fulfill their charitable aims rather than fudging together their workload with part time do-gooders and volunteers.

I support smiletrain who fix cleft palates - such a small amount of money - such a big change to each life!

Alternatively op, check out goodgifts.com

100% of your money goes to the charity to make a difference, and you'll get loads of ideas on the website - my income varies, so if I've had a particularly good month, I'll donate to a cause on goodgifts.

I love choosing something different each time, as I believe in support for all causes!

Apologies! Its goodgifts.org

Not .com

www.goodgifts.org

Thanks everyone

International: Wateraid (crying shame that there are people without clean water and basic sanitation)

National: RNLI; the support charity for a particular disease; guide dogs or riding for the disabled (vaguely alternate) plus Christmas one-off to Crisis or Sally Army. Plus random selection of small one-off gifts when friends are fundraising for the causes that are dear to them.

Local: my local Cancer Support centre

Crisis

I donate to a local food bank. I'm also a member of a group that's a registered charity so support them and a small local charity that supports women experiencing domestic violence.

Do you pay enough tax to gift aid your donations? Because then the government tops up each of your £10 to £12.50 at no extra cost to you.

I donate to local foodbank and save all my lose change, swop for notes and donate to Sally Army.
We still have someone who collects in town, well covid restrictions permitting.

I donate to the RSPB but mostly wouldn't choose a large charity. I also donate to a local stables which gives free rides to disabled children.

As a charity fundraiser, regular cash donations are wonderful. We can use them to help pay the electricity bill, to buy socks for people who need them, get someone a fridge, print off benefits applications, post info leaflets etc.

Even better if we can gift aid the donation.

I support RNLI because their work is so vital and I want the volunteers to have the best equipment to help them do their rescues safely.

I also support a small health related charity that is close to my heart. And local branch of Mind for the same reason.

I make occasional payments to LendWithCare. As pp have said, it's so rewarding to see the number of people who've been impacted by my investment. And the entrepreneurs are creating prosperity of their community.

RNLI

The running costs % is a red herring.

Which would you choose:

A charity that spends £1 on running costs and raises £1,000 for the needy
OR
A charity that spends £1m on running costs and raises £5m for the needy?

You do have to spend money to make money. You also then have to spend money (i.e. time, skills, software etc) to make sure you are giving away money in the most effective way, measuring the impact you're having and so on. This, done well, makes the charity better value for money, not worse.

That said, I do like a local charity with a clear, tangible aim. E.g. local food bank.

I have a standing order to support the local hospice.

I'm in awe of the work they do, and it's so close to my heart.

I support and work for mencap. Fantastic charity helping people with learning disabilities and autism, downs etc. Every one of my service users are amazing people ❤