Why don't you give more to charity?

[NotADailyMailJournalist]

Evening all! Me again!

On my thread about whether you would save your own beloved pet or a stranger's child, 95% of folk were saying that they would choose the stranger's child.

So if we are so keen to save strangers' lives, why are we not giving every penny (even selling everything we own) to buy anti-malaria nets?

(I have previously read that this is the most cost-effective way to save the most lives - £1 = 1 net = 1 life)

Thanks again, I do love a debate!

I think it’s because we don’t go out of our way to fix problems that aren’t ours but if one presents itself to us and we can do something about it then we will.
the people in this country and their families have their own problems and they need to invest their time and energy on themselves because there will never be enough to go about finding and fixing problems that are nothing to do with us.

Because I'd be done for child neglect if I spent all my money and sold everything I own to give to charity.

This, but also I don’t trust a lot of charities to actually manage money effectively.

The existence of charity means the state has failed. We pay tax and elect governments to run things, and yet charity persists. Truly depressing.

Even more depressing is that far more money seems to go to donkey sanctuaries (sorry donkeys) than homelessness, care for the elderly or children who need it. Also the charity sector is awash with very highly paid senior managers, the salaries for which come out of the endless fundraising drives.

I worked for a charity many years ago, I’d never work for or donate to that sector again.

Why the hell would anyone sell everything they own? How are they supposed to support their families?

OK, change that to "sell everything you own that you DON'T NEED".

When you talk about saving “a stranger’s child”, people imagine someone who’s like themselves.

The people who need malaria nets aren’t like themselves though. They are perceived as Other or Different. So people are less likely to offer support.

I would be more inclined to donate to a malaria net charity than an animal charity, though, if that helps your research at all?

Because I work for one already!

most people give what they reasonably can

Also the charity sector is awash with very highly paid senior managers, the salaries for which come out of the endless fundraising drives.

it’s a mad world when we feel fine about top manager’s earning big salaries in supermarkets, oil companies ect… but we want people to work for much less than the going rate if their goal is to reduce poverty or end homelessness. Charities can do good work if they are well run and they need experienced people to do this. The pay is less than for profit industries which is too be expected but they need to pay some kind of competitive salary to get good people who will make an impact.

Because I realised a long time ago that no matter what I did it could never solve the world's problems. So I do what I can regularly and in different ways, but I need to keep going for me and my family, so there is no point me bankrupting my family now for some cause. That cause will never end.

I'm in survival mode at the moment. Have been for all my life. Drowning myself each month. Whatever we earn goes on keeping the cogs of our lives turning.

I've also working for charity for most of my life. Both volunteer and paid. Started when I was about 17. After my last voluntary role I swore to myself I would never volunteer my time again.

I have worked in lots of health and d social care settings and see how volunteers are the backbone but most under supported work force.

I work now for a charity, paid, I invoice my time to the charity and I ensure I get what I am owed for the work I do. The level of responsibility and expertise I bring to the role I know I am underpaid, but that's the nature of working third sector. I regard this fact as 'giving' because the charity I work for get very good value for the work I do.

I also feel emotionally spent, I barely have enough for myself and kids, never mind worrying about other charities.

It also pisses me off when big profit making companies ask for me to round up, realised my son was doing it the other day and told him to stop doing it.

To be honest it’s because I don’t really care all that much, I have too many other things to worry about. Harsh I know, and I feel a bit guilty, but it’s true

Have you ever tried selling stuff you don't need?

Yeah I was at McDonald's the other day. Bought a burger and a drink. It came to £7.16 or something. And they wanted me to round it up?! So basically donate a quid? More than 10%? Here's an idea, McDonalds - why don't YOU donate.

I love this answer. I do care but my money going to pay someone’s wages does not appeal to me. I worked for a charity so I maybe slightly bitter about how “ringfenced money” disappears.

Because I don't want to. If I sold everything I own I would put myself and my family in poverty and, in the grand scheme of things, change nothing.

It's not the everyman who needs to be fixing the world's problems, especially not by throwing money at it. I help in the ways I can to causes I value and support, but I'm not going to martyr myself and my family for someone else.

I do donate to charities. I do 'give as you earn' at work, 10 charities at £5 a month each. All are environmental charities though like two Wildlife Trusts, the Woodland Trust, Marine Conservation etc. If we destroy the environment by poisoning the land, seas and rivers everything else is pretty irrelevant.

Anyway, I shall tell you my philosophy, as you have all kindly shared.

I have no partner and no children. I donate a large portion of my money to an animal charity.

I aim to keep working as long as possible so I can keep donating as much money as possible for as long as possible (and make it worth even more by using Gift Aid). (I earn a very competitive wage so my money benefits the charity more than say me giving up my job and working/volunteering for them)

And ideally I will end my life before I start spending all my money on care for myself, especially if I am no longer enjoying my life. So that I can leave as much money as possible to said charity.

I literally view this as the main purpose of my life, to support this charity as much as I can. (I also adopt rescue cats)

But yet, why did I buy a burger and drink for £7 when I could have made do with a crust of bread and donated the remaining £6.90 to the charity? Make you think!

I'd save my pets first then help the strangers child after if there was capacity to do so.

Being completely truthful, I don't really care about people outside my own bubble. They aren't my problem. Me and mine have enough of our own problems to be worrying about other people's.

Your philosophy sounds good to me.

I already do a lot more than most with regard to charity, as a donor, a volunteer and a trustee. And both here and abroad.

I don't give to animal charities. I've loved all my pets, but people (especially in the poorest countries, and after disasters and wars) are more important.

@JosiePosey here's the original thread:

Would you save your pet or a stranger's child? | Mumsnet

I am pretty poor but I support three local charities and I also give lots of unwanted stuff to them to sell instead of trying to flog it on ebay etc.
I think everybody should give what they can but in my experience the richer people I know give nothing.
I was a volunteer for an animal charity for five years and as part of this used to go and trap and neuter feral cats. I had been called by a woman who had not spayed her own cat and then allowed the resultant kittens to breed and mostly live wild in her garden. I trapped and neutered ten cats. She wanted to keep them and as they were being fed and had shelter and none were handleable to rehome as domestic cats this was agreed.
At the end of the job which had taken two months numerous trips to and from her home which was a round trip of about 40 miles each time, waiting sat in my car watching for hours for cats to go into traps, ferrying them to and from the vets, having them spayed and neutered, treated for fleas and worms and health checked all on the charity’s account I met the woman to tell her the work was all finished.
It was a big detached property in a wealthy village and she came out and stood in front of the boat parked on her drive and handed me a donation. It was £5. I felt like saying if you are that short of money to only be able to afford a fiver best you keep it.
Before anybody says we should have made her pay for everything upfront this would have meant the cats would have been left as they were and ultimately we were there to help the cats any way we could.
Conversely the biggest donations I ever got were mostly from people who were clearly not wealthy at all.
On an AMA thread the poster had said her annual income was £500k so I asked how much she gave to charity. The answer was clearly zero because her reply was that she gave her time as a school governor at her children’s school.