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

I will forever support Maggies Cancer care , the most wonderful, supportive , knowledgeable, kind bunch of people you ever could meet. Here in Scotland they have centres near the relevant hospitals, you can literally walk in and someone will look after you . It’s like being wrapped in a warm hug. I stayed with my disabled daughter in hospital after her surgery , sleeping ( or not) in a recliner chair . When it got too much I would walk to Maggies, they’d make me tea and let my lie down and sleep , tucking me in almost ! I think they literally saved my sanity xx

I'd highly recommend looking into small local charities that you can see what they offer clearly, or overseas ones with a very clear distinct mission eg i support a specific child by paying their £16 a term school fees, they write to me and have applied for a scholarship to attend university in the U.K., I've offered them to come here ahead of starting if they are successful, but I'll be matched with another 12 year old girl for her secondary education.

I have supported Lend with Care for many years now. They offer microloans to individuals and groups overseas, helping them to help themselves to a better life. You can choose who you wish to support and can draw money out or reinvest to help someone else once you have £15 credit in your account from repayments. It’s really satisfying to see how many people and families have benefited from my contributions- I usually ask for vouchers to ‘spend’ with them for Christmas and birthdays as I’m fortunate enough to have all I need. Some only pay back pence every month but in all the years I’ve been doing it only one person has ever defaulted on their loan.

In researching what actually works for children and families in developing countries I came across the idea of school feeding - Mary's Meals does this.

Having been a volunteer for similar charities I'd never ever donate to them. Someone says the word charity I run a mile.

Corruption, culture of bullying. Internal politics & squabbling between themselves.

I dont support or donate to any charities.

My favourite charity is Hearing Dogs for Deaf People because they gave me an assistance dog so I know first hand how brilliant they are. I support them in a number of ways including financial but I'll never be able to pay them back for everything they have given me.

Maggies are incredible. They're an organisation that you don't really know about unless you've been diagnosed with cancer, or someone close to you has but they're a haven of calm and support when absolutely needed and the support doesn't end when treatment ends or someone passes away, they have ongoing support in all sorts of forms. I know they're a national organisation, but I've only heard and seen them doing good things for the people who need them. I'll happily donate to them when I have cash to spare and have fundraised for them more than once.

Locally I also support charities that have an active presence and visibly do good. We have a particularly excellent local mental health charity that does this and is part funded by their not for profit business alongside donations.

My children are supported by a small, local charity for young carers, due to dh’s complex, medical issues. We are extremely grateful and try to support them in return when we can. Small and local is a good way of seeing where the money goes I feel.

What? EVERY SINGLE cancer charity...??

I support the local air ambulance and my local hospice. The hospice looked after my dad when he died and my DH is currently receiving outpatient palliative care from them.

I also occasionally donate items from an Amazon wish list to my local wildlife rescue who do a fabulous job helping animals.

I used to support Cancer Research but no longer do due to their continuing association with Ultra White Collar Boxing despite it being a shabby organisation which doesn't look after its competitors.
I prefer to support my local hospices, St Giles and Acorns.

I would imagine that is a rogue volunteer who desperately needs retraining! Terrible behaviour to do that to someone recently widowed 😳.

I once gave a one off donation to Save the Children and they phoned me very aggressively asking for a regular DD - when I refused, explaining that I had 4 other regular DDs already she became very unpleasant and accused me of not caring about children 🙄

Good for you, big pat on the back.

Thank you.🙂

I was being sarcastic.

I know you were but im not like that have a good day.🙂

Thank you, that is wonderful and so heartwarming! It has made my day to read that.

I hope and trust you & your DC are in a better place now. 💖

I worked for them for a while and it was horrendous. The lack of accountability and transparency around monetary donations was terrifying, the bullying of staff who were not salvationists was commonplace and they made the rules up as they went along where policies were concerned. I’ve never been so glad to leave a job.

Not like what? Someone who celebrates not supporting charities? Weird.

I forgot about English Heritage and The National Trust. I subscribe to them, too, always forget I’m supporting a charity while poking around old buildings or parking at the coast for ‘free’.

I didnt say i celebrate. cheer up🙂

The only charity I have given to recently was a city farm in my area. I generally don't give to animal charities but they do fantastic work with local disabled people and youngsters. I'd always rather give to smaller charities than big ones. I feel like I can see my money doing more.

My regular donations go to:
Cool earth (tackling climate change by investing in people living in areas such as the Amazon)
Medicins sans frontiers
English Heritage

I put money into Lend with Care awhile a go and just continue reinvesting the repayments

Other donations are more ad-hoc, recently I have donated to Women for women international, RNLI and a cycle refurbishment scheme working with ex-offenders.

I put food in the food bank collections when I can and occasionally play FreeRice which raises funds for the World Food Programme