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 ?

I am the chair of trustees of a charity. We have half a dozen staff who are skilled and experienced in running the charity, managing the finances, doing the legal work which is part of our offering, fundraising for us, and managing our volunteers. The work they do could not be done by volunteers. It's simply impossible.

So yes, if someone wanted to look at our accounts, and was upset to find that a proportion of our funds goes to running costs, they would be mistaken to take that as a bad sign.
Fortunately, our major funders understand that a charity needs skilled people to run it.

I'd look at small local charities rather than large national (international) ones. Ones that might have a link to you/your family? Local cat/animal rescues, local hospices, I donate to a small premature baby charity that knits blankets and clothes for NICU babies, local initiatives for things like a new park or community orchard/garden that sort of thing

My donations via direct debit are to UK farm animal sanctuaries - Hillside in Norfolk and Dean Farm Trust - plus Dogs' Trust, Sea Shepherd and a local animal sanctuary called Pudz. But I've also given to the Samaritans, to the Salvation Army and to the local food bank.

I really like the idea of sponsoring someone through Plan international. Directly giving someone opportunity that otherwise would have none.

@murbblurb Can you expand on why you feel people shouldn't donate to Shelter ?

OP you could even split it and do £5 to 2 ?

I agree with Water Aid being a great cause - shocking that some people still don't have access to clean water.

However, if we are honest, I'm sure 99.9% of all charities are great causes - you have to narrow down if you want it to be International or National or local....... medical or not.... for people or animals..... for research or 'treats' or campaigns, or combining some of these, etc etc etc. It can be overwhelming if you don't have a cause that is particularly close to your heart.

Do gift aid if you pay tax - why turn down free money ?

Has anyone mentioned SightSavers? Not local to try U.K. admittedly but they achieve incredible things with very small amounts of money. Less than £1 can buy antibiotics which save someone’s sight. Their achievements are humbling.

Sightsavers gets a good write up from Giving What We Can. It’s definitely well up there in the bangs per buck stakes.

One that supports mental health such as Mind or The Samaritans as we are facing an even huge crisis than we have ever known.