personal experience of good and bad charities to support please

[60andsomething]

If you have been on the receiving end, please give a bit of information about which charities you think money should go to, and why, if you can, and also, which charities are not full filling their aims, in your opinion, and money should not got to

Thank you

I support WaterAid and the Samaritans.

Are these good choices for my hard earned scraps? Are there better choices?

Thank you

As a former Samaritan volunteer, who left due to their ridiculous woke and man pleasing attitudes, I don’t support them now in any way at all or even recommend them.

support charities you have a personal link to.
supporting charities is a very personal choice.
investigate how they spend your donation.

what was their woke and man pleasing attitude?

I have mis-giving about MacMillan.
My DH had terminal lung cancer and our MacMillan lady was just fabulous, helped us in a million ways and I can’t praise her enough…
However, about 4 months after my DHs death, a very pushy woman rang me from London and was trying to push me into being a fundraiser for them! This was totally out of the blue, I was at a works lunch meeting when she rang… I explained that it was too soon after being widowed and I needed to think it through and currently couldn’t stand the word ‘cancer’ so wouldn’t be much help.
Ooh, she didn’t like that!! She actually said “well, you have benefitted from the MacMillan care, you ought to give something back!!”
I reminded her that the funeral collection was hundreds of pounds all for MacMillan and to not phone me again!
Went off them after this - is this normal for them to confront people in this manner?

One of the charities I support is The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust - like The Brooke, they provide medical care for (mostly) working animals and therefore support their owners, who are generally extremely poor and depend on their animals to earn money.
This charity is very small but excellently run and very transparent, and they definitely make the most of donations. They have a very active Facebook page - looking at the posts and photos is eye opening, and the compassion the charity shows towards people and animals is very touching.

DH was annoyed by McMillan phoning. He set a DD after MIL passed away. We couldn’t really afford the amount and then they were on the phone asking more.

I don’t give my phone number to charities, email only.

examples I’ve given on here before are: if a woman phones to speak to a woman, you are to actively discourage that and look for a man to transfer them to. Tell women they can’t pick and choose who they talk to.

male callers don’t get that treatment.
I was criticised many times for refusing to transfer.

women mustn’t discriminate but men can.
it my matters not if they feel more comfortable just imagine what a male volunteer would have felt like if they answered that sort of call.

That's bad they hassled you ItIsifISayItIs I had counselling via Macmillan and wasn't hassled after at all. I did once years ago have a random charity phone me up and asked me to do the street I lived in and I agreed. Then next year they phoned again but they were OK with no for an answer that time, was a murder in the street and was a bit dicey area. I'm not heard of anyone saying they've been hassled by Macmillan.

I think the cancer charities do lots of good work as do the Samaritans - in a crisis the Samaritans can be the only option (or wait an hour for the NHS crisis line to be answered).

I support
Lumos
The Woodland Trust
A local Labrador Rescue
Alzheimer’s Society
Lake District Search And Mountain Rescue (covers all the teams in the area).

All have significance to me in some way.

I am sorry, I don't understand this post. This contradicts everything I know about how samaritans work, no transfers, and every opportunity and encouragement for callers to call in again and speak to a woman.

I always support the RNLI. Several of DH's family were/are lifeboat men and, by God, they deserve all the support they get.

A late friend of mine sadly passed away last year after a long battle with breast cancer. She and her husband (and their 2 young kids) had a huge amount of support from Maggie's. They were honestly amazing, right from initial diagnosis over the years until she sadly passed away.
They're the main charity we support now.

Women's aid.

I was in a refuge, 4dc, pregnant, and I had precisely nothing.

Within an hour we had clothes, toiletries, a food parcel, the kids had toys, it was right before xmas and they sorted some gifts out too.

We went from a long travel with nothing but the clothes we wore, to being warm, clothed and fed and safe very quickly.

I donate all my kids clothes and toys directly to the local refuge now, and make a monthly donation, because I know that it will directly help the women and kids who need it.

That's a brilliant approach

We support local small charities most of which help disadvantaged or vulnerable sectors of society.
I won't support any charity who spends ££££ on national TV/ advertising campaigns as I'd prefer my money to go to the actual cause, not the tv companies.

Local hospices
Marie Curie
Breed-specific dog rescue organisations
Local nature conservation bodies
I support a county trust that cares for a specific sort of building.

Not MacMillan as they don't continue funding their nurses after an initial period, but leave it to local hospices/NHS.
Not RSPCA as during foot and mouth, lambs were drowning in mud and the RSPCA kept their mouths firmly shut instead of campaigning for a change in the law.
Not RSPB, not National Trust - both hijacked by activism rather than sticking to their core objectives. And RSPCA here too.

that was how I thought it was when I started volunteering for them.

during training they say the right things but when the time comes for you to put it into action your other volunteer (always at least two volunteers to a shift) tells you to ignore the training as that's not how it works.
I complained to shift lead and director but they agree with other volunteer.

don’t even get me started on the eating during shifts (it’s only three hours) whilst on phone and giving bad advice!
supposed to listen and not give any advice

sounds like you had a bad experience with individuals, though, rather than this not being a charity to support.

I do think you get random eejits working for everyone, unfortunately.

I had one bad experience in the hospice where my dad died. Nothing awful, but a nurse being impatient and snappy at a bad moment.

But that was a tiny tiny part of my interaction with them and of their work, so I would still support them.

I suppose letting them know that sort of interaction is damaging would be welcome too.

I would want to know how charities treat fundraisers and if they are being exploited or put under unfair pressure.

Just telling you my experience.
I know other people who’ve volunteered in other branches and they say the same.

you asked for opinions, I gave you mine.

I agree that Maggie's centres are absolutely fab. Our experience was with the one at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. Fantastic staff and support at Maggie's.

My friend's grandfather set this up. Think he was Major Brooke.

I feel really torn about MacMillan: they did a wonderful job for us when my mum was dying.
In subsequent years I did their World's Biggest Coffee Morning regularly and one year was invited to an event, billed as a 'thank you' for their best local fund-raisers.
This turned out to be a cup of coffee and a biscuit and then a hard-sell with people with clipboards coming round to ask how you intended to raise yet more cash next time.
Many of us there were bereaved, some recently, and this pushy approach was really horrible.

I support a small local charity that funds education and development in a very poor third world country, with no salaries being paid to staff.
I also like World Central Kitchen [who lost staff recently in Palestine] because they simply feed hungry people, no political agenda.
I'm iffy about the biggies like Oxfam and Save the Children because of huge overheads, high salaries and their history of child abuse abroad.

I began supporting Women's Aid after I saw how many women in terrible DV situations posting on here were advised to get help from them. I only hope my donations did help – some of the posters' situations were/are so awful – and so many women in need.

Also:
RNLI
Woodland Trust (mainly semi-annual raffle)
Friends of the Earth
local foodbank
Trussell Trust
Plantlife (supporting UK native plant species, some so tiny and overlooked that they really need a champion or they'd go extinct unnoticed!)

RNLI because I admire the volunteers, their education work is so valuable and their training for lifeboat crews, beach teams and inland emergency responders is world class.

Royal British Legion because I believe the support they continue to give to people who've been affected by conflict is vital.

Mencap because I support the hands-on work they do as well as the campaigning for hidden issues to do with learning disability.

LendWithCare where I can invest in an overseas entrepreneur. You can choose which country to support, which sector interests you, whether to invest in a female (for instance). So i generally invest in women who are running agricultural businesses in Africa. The entrepreneur might be wanting to buy seed for crops. After time, the portal informs on her productivity, how many people she's employed, how many community members have been positively impacted. She (hopefully) repays the investment which I can then withdraw or re-invest in another project.

@zaxxon your donations absolutely did help.

My dc and I got our travel through donated money, clothes, toys, everything we needed all funded by donations.

I got into the refuge, the first night in a long time my dc were snugged safely in bed fast asleep, and I went for a bath, in total peace and safety, with donated bubble bath and a face mask, and I chose a book from a little library of donated books they had.

I still get teary thinking about that night almost 10 years on. The person who donated the book, or the bubble bath or the face mask will have totally forgotten about it probably, but I never will.

You've made a difference 💐