Charitable giving

[Homeschoolschooler]

Okay so firstly I'm just referring to those of us who are fortunate enough to have enough spare money to do this, as I know many people don't, and of course looking after yourself and your own family must come first.

One of my new year's resolutions is to organise a couple of regular charitable donations. Please can I ask which charities you think are doing really good work, and how much you think is a reasonable donation (maybe as a percentage of your income)?

The one I donate to regularly is the Trussell Trust, which runs a network of food banks and campaigns to end food poverty in the UK.

My company has a give as you earn scheme where they match whatever you decide to give. Worth asking if your employer has anything similar.

There's no right or wrong amount to give. It's whatever you are comfortable with.

Choose some charities that matter to you. My partner has a heart condition so I give to 2 heart charities. One doing actual research and looking for cures, the other doing work around awareness and support.

Shelter, Terrance Higgins Trust, Action Aid, Greenpeace. I give £8-£10 a month.

Our yearly charitable donations go to:

The Trussell Trust - both monetary & food donations

Marie Curie (direct to our local hospice) - we do monetary donations, fundraising events & given items direct (at Christmas we gave some baileys and mince pies for those at the hospice over the Christmas period) we also have periodic clean outs and take the items to the Marie Curie shops. (My DM died at the hospice, which is why we do much with/for them)

A local grassroots sport charity - DH is a member of the board so we are heavily involved with them

Our local soup kitchen - FIL has been a regular volunteer there for about 20 years. We donate both money and clothing (especially on the run up to winter)

£5 a month to our local food bank.
£5 a month to our local school uniform bank.

We are a low income household and these are charities which we may well have to use if anything was to happen with our jobs so I empathise with the people who use these services.

I give directly to my former uni for medical research on dementia.

I tend to save a bit each month into a separate 'pot' then when something arises eg a fundraiser or crisis appeal I can donate from the pot.

In terms of %, I think more in terms of % of my spend than income. No point giving away 10% of earnings if I then can't afford petrol to get to work but around 5-10% of whatever frivolous stuff I've bought- if I can spend £100 on a dress then I can give a tenner to a charity. So for the 'pot' above,
I tend to put about 5-10% of my spend money in (percentage depends on what else I have need to save for in a month)

Oxfam
Cancer Research
Age UK
Guide dogs for the blind
Plan International

Smallish DD each month, don’t notice it. Only thing I cannot stand is if they waste resources on calling and writing to me asking for more all the time.

What sort of causes are you interested in? I support a homeless charity and a health one relating to a condition affecting a family member. But I also work in the sector so happy to point you to different organisations.

We donate to a community food back, a children's hospice and a charity that provides school uniform, stationary, weekend activities with meals, etc to children from low/no income families...

all small local charities, mostly run and staffed by volunteers where you can actually see where the money goes and be sure that a large chunk of your money does genuinely get to the end user.

Crisis £12 a month
Local animal rescue £5

I’m also going to get more food for the local food backs, we bought £50 at Christmas and a lot for a local toy drive. For Valentines Day I have asked DH to do another large shop instead of flowers and wine and he really liked the idea of us splitting the cost of a shop as presents for each other for when we don’t want anything.

I know we don’t have to celebrate every occasion but we like to and this seems to be a good idea for us

Please consider a small local charity. The big charities are not short of supporters but small donations locally can make a huge difference. You will undoubtedly have some kind of homeless support, mental health, advice giving, work with people with disabilities, a food bank etc etc

Practical Action - small scale practical interventions in developing countries

PAFRAS - supports refugees and asylum seekers in the UK

Freedom from torture - supports victims of torture who have sought refuge in the UK.

CRO and UWFRA - cave rescue - most of their work is hillwalkers, with quite a bit of rescuing animals which have fallen down potholes. (Cavers don't need rescuing very often). All volunteers, and it's the expertise developed by cave rescue organisations across the UK that enabled us to give such support in the Thailand cave rescue.

I donate to my kids school due to all the cuts. Firm believer that charity starts at home.

I'd have a think about what kind of charities you are interested in supporting first, then find good ones that do that work. Animals, homelessness, debt, environment, medical research, illness support, medical aid, education, international development, disaster relief, local charities? What appeals to you?

I think as a PP says you need to think of a cause (or two) that's relevant to you.

Mine are homelessness and animals (and sometimes these crossover). I also have an element of 'randomness' when I sponsor someone so its a charity they've chosen.

Actual amounts are also a combination of fixed (GAYE and direct debits, c£45 pcm) and random (sponsorship usually £10, spur of the moment top-ups usually £2-£5). One charity I also support by giving them good quality things I don't need for their fairs/jumble sales.

And remember that support doesn't always need to be money, it can be time, services or goods.

I give to
RNLI
Royal British Legion
The local disability charity i work for.

I also invest with Lendwithcare. They are a charity that invests in entrepreneurs in poorer countries. They give small loans to businesses to but supplies, to market themselves, to buy a delivery van etc. Over time, the entrepreneur repays the money and you can reinvest it with another business. The minimum investment is £15 and I've so far invested about £75 which has been repaid and reinvested. I've helped about 8 businesses.

Whatever you do, please try to make your giving tax efficient. It helps your donation go further thanks to tax relief from the government.

@sotiredofthislife I worry that local charities might be admin- heavy, but I have no evidence for that!

"Whatever you do, please try to make your giving tax efficient. It helps your donation go further thanks to tax relief from the government." though of course this is at the expense of government revenue, so if you're donating to a charity you don' think is particularly worthy (eg you're sponsoring a friend, or giving goods to the most convenient charity shop) you might feel the extra 25% is actually better retained by central government.

I worry that local charities might be admin- heavy although the admin burden of communication within the charity increases hugely with the number of staff, so that's a reason why smaller local charities may actually have lower admin costs.

My current charity is Guide Dogs for the Blind.

I think they do fantastic work.

Local hospice

Citizens Advice - information for all
Shelter - same - help for people struggling with housing
Salvation Army -help the homeless and lost - low admin costs
Local hospice - they were great with my dad (15 years ago now)
Local Animal rescue

Compassion in World Farming