To ask how much you give to charity?

[poshme]

Not TAAT but in response to the disposable income thread.

How much money (either amount or percentage of income) do you regularly give to charity?

There a quite a lot of people who seem to have lots of disposable income, and it made me realise that I give to charity, and hadn't thought of it as part of my 'disposable income' though it is. I was wondering if people give much away?

As a couple we give to charity about 8% of our after tax income.

I don’t donate to charity as I have a low income.
But you have to be careful with who you give your money to. Most of these “charities” waste sooo much of their donations and have extremely extremely plush offices.

£20 a month to one charity helping young women in other countries.

Ad hoc financial donation to others, regular clothes donations to charity shops and clothes banks, and another small charity gets a few quid here and there from my online shopping.

£200 a month in total, split over ten charities.

£0 on a regular basis.
I dont have money to give to charity but I have time. I volunteer for a youth organisation which is a charity and I'm on the committee for a local youth sports club. I also buy for the food bank.

@SnuggyBuggy

I'm very loathe to get involved with any direct debits to charities given how many will call and pester you to increase your donation and use chuggers. I'm happy to make one off anonymous donations or give some cash to the Salvation Army or Army charities who tend to stand and behave with dignity rather than rattling tins at you.

I agree with this. I donated monthly to NSPCC. I was a student on a low income myself so donated the minimum amount and they were always ringing me up trying to increase it. It really put me off and I cancelled in the end.

There is also someone who stands outside aldi collecting for the air ambulance. I tried to give him a quid and he said they were only signing people up for a monthly donation, not taking money, so I said no.

Last year someone set up "donate unused /new toiletries" to be given to people in care homes at Christmas who would otherwise not have received a present. They received lots of donations, so I hope that this will continue as an ongoing project.

I've seen a few forums where people suggest not donating or supporting various charities

However, I believe that everyone has their own personal reasons for supporting.

I also know some people that don't support any charities, but give money & time to their family & friends instead

About 5% of income.

I think about 5%? But it’s hard to be sure, I have a standing direct debit for GOSH (they saved my sister’s life when she was a child) but otherwise it’s more sporadic. I tend to give one off small donations here and there, I also use charity shops a lot (both for donations and buying) and send books to people in prison.

I don't give anything regularly but I always give a substantial donation at Christmas and support friends' fundraising efforts generously, probably about £700 pa in total.

I do lot of volunteering.

I don't put into collection boxes because I don't think that's an efficient way to collect money and I wont sign up to anything regular because of the horror stories about vulnerable people being bullied to do so.

Nothing. It genuinely wouldn't occur to me to regularly donate. I can't afford to but even when i could have, I wouldn't. I occasionally stick some groceries in the food bank collection box in the supermarket but that's it.

£60 per month (just over 9.5k per month take home pay) plus give away all my furniture, clothes etc when I get new items.

I have a monthly direct debit which i think is £5. I donate items to the food bank now and again and will sponsor people for challenges (if it's something close to my heart or it's a good challenge for them, I can't abide the sort of sponsorship that's just done to get a race entry or is something they'd be doing anyway). And I give a lot of time over the year, outside of lockdown, at least an hour a week, usually more through volunteer led organisations.

@FinnyStory

I don't give anything regularly but I always give a substantial donation at Christmas and support friends' fundraising efforts generously, probably about £700 pa in total.

I do lot of volunteering.

I don't put into collection boxes because I don't think that's an efficient way to collect money and I wont sign up to anything regular because of the horror stories about vulnerable people being bullied to do so.

Actually, collecting boxes can be a very efficient and effective method of fundraising. Bulk buy the tins, stick the labels on, ask a volunteer to place them in pubs, cafes, shops, taxi offices etc. Volunteer keeps a simple excel sheet register of where boxes are placed. Boxes are emptied and replaced every 6 months unless the host calls to say they are full, in which case they are serviced sooner. Treasurer and an Independent volunteer spend a morning counting up the. Treasurer banks while the volunteer prints off thank you certificates. Well placed boxes can hold £150+. Just 10 boxes can raise £1k+ pa for very little effort.

I don't give any actual money. However I do volunteer for a local charity which equates to 8-10 hours a week in free labour. I also donate to and shop in charity shops. I also give away a decent amount of stuff on my local Facebook group which benefits people directly.

I give to one that still runs solely on financial assistance from the public but they de-registered from the official Charities list recently because of all the politics and assumptions made eg that they were receiving a lot of money from the Government when actually they weren’t.

The founder also didn’t have the funds to compete with larger ‘rivals’ (for want of a better word) and couldn’t afford the TV adverts etc so lost the will in that respect

As such, I give to her and an equally lesser-known cancer charity that probably no-one has ever heard of.

Tbh when the hospital refused to help us out with a wheelchair for dd and the Red Cross stepped in, I didn't care if their CEO was living the life of Riley: I cared that dd got the help she would not otherwise have got. If nobody had donated money to them for fear of waste, then she wouldn't have got that help.

And that's pretty well the approach I take now to my own charitable donations. Yes, some of that money I give may well not reach its destination, but if I don't give at all then none of it will.

I don't donate any money but regularly donate to charity shops and food banks

I won’t support large national charities as I know from people who have worked in the charity sector just how much money is wasted.
But I do have a £5 per month standing order to my local hospice lottery and I always give any donations I have to their charity shop.
I don’t have a large income but I give what I can afford. I also give a larger donation at Christmas and my children also give donations.

Support small, local charities that are close to my heart with donations and time. Do not give to large charities that operate commissioned Services that should be funded via taxation by Local and National Government. If charities can't deliver the service within the funding they shouldn't bid for it., it just creates a cycle of under funding.

About 11-12% of our income.

Nada. Zilch. Fuck all.

Don't trust charities nowadays. They're really just corporations using most of the money on themselves.

I volunteer for a dog charity, doing rehoming visits but don't reclaim my expenses, so that's a bit towards their funds. I also do knitting and crochet for the local premature baby unit, buying all the wool for that, keeps me very busy too!

nothing

They're really just corporations using most of the money on themselves.

Erm, no we aren't.