To not want to give to charities at the checkout or on the street.

[WeCanOnlyDoOurBest]

At a shop today I was asked by the store assistant at the point of paying with my card if I wanted to donate to charity. This has happened numerous times in other shops/stores as it flags up on the card machine, and I have the option to tap yes or no. However on this occasion it was pointed out to me, she was looking right at me waiting for an answer and watching if I tapped yes or no. It didn’t say which charity it was on the card machine and I declined. She gave a slight shake of her head and I left feeling really uncomfortable.
I also hate it when I get stopped in the street, I find some of them use a very pushy ‘salesman’ technique and try to make me feel like the worst person when I refuse to handover my bank details for a regular monthly donation. The last one asked me, ‘don’t you even care?’
I do give to certain charities, and I’m happy to donate food into the donation box in Sainsbury’s, Tesco etc, I’ve also raised money for cancer research by way of being sponsored on a walk.
What concerns me about giving to charities is how much of our funding and donations go into helping that particular cause? And how much is the big chief being paid out of our donations? For example Simon Cooke, the chief executive of Marie Stopes International earns an annual salary of £430,000.
I see begging adverts on TV… help the donkeys, help the cats, the polar bears, the tigers etc etc. We’re asked to donate to war torn countries, and I see the poor little babies and children half starved in terrible conditions and the mother holding the child is looking far from underfed!
AIBU to only want to give to certain charities? I feel in my heart I would rather help the people and good causes in my own country, because frankly times are hard for a lot of families given the rising cost of living, even for those who are working really hard.
I guess it comes down to me thinking ‘Charity begins at home’, and asking myself the question ‘does the funding go into the right pot that helps the cause?’

You just need to practise saying no thank you.

If there is any further comment along the lines of ‘don’t you care?, which I got once from a chugger, go with a ‘I beg your pardon?’ Delivered calmly and clearly. Then walk off.

I donate to specific charities and I’ll do the occasional extra one if family are fundraising, but never on the street and rarely at tills.

I shut down any attempt to pressurise me into signing up to DDs at the door - and I note the names of the charities which employ such methods.

Gift aid doesn't cost you more.

The charity claims back the tax you paid when you earned the entry fee. It means the bit you paid in tax gets transferred from the government to the charity. Doesn't cost you anything.

No I haven’t, and it truly wasn’t meant as some people took it. I declined to explain further because I know it will just attract further vitriol, some people just want to take it wrongly, and I do not think the mothers of those children are deliberately starving their children, why would anyone think that! What I meant was that clearly the necessary food for the babies was not getting to them through our donations. Seeing those children suffer genuinely guts me.

It does cost you a bit more at a lot of charity-run attractions - presumably because the standard price is the payment for a ticket rather than an outright gift, meaning you get something for your money and haven't necessarily been generous out of the goodness of your heart.

It tends to be around the 10-25% extra level - so a straightforward ticket for entry to the attraction might be £10, or you can opt to pay, say, £12 as the gift aid price.

Thus it does cost you a bit more, but the charity can also claim back some of the tax that you paid on the money.

Thanks for the clarification.

Pictures usually show need, if they show people whose needs have been met, that doesn't make people want to give.

There's a huge issue you may or may not be aware of around poverty porn and showing people, especially in Africa, when they're emaciated or in a particularly bad way. It's seen as exploitative and makes people think the whole of Africa is a charity case.

And as I said earlier, malnutrition (lack of the right vitamins) is usually a bigger issue than starvation (not enough calories). What tends to happen is that people only get something like maize meal for a long time, children in particular have impacts on growth and immune systems and are vulnerable to diarrhea, which can kill because malnutrition has weakened them, even if in terms of weight they look ok.

Just a heads up, as a uk taxpayer i opted for gift aid without thinking or being told the implications for me. I (wrongly) assumed it was just, as explained something the charity could claim.
Weeks later i had a letter usual thanks and asking if i wanted to donate. However it also said that i had opted to be a gift aid donor, and should my tax paying status ever change then it was my duty to inform HMRC. It concerned me that shod thos ever occur i was likely to forget this. That being the case i emailed said charity requesting they cancel my hift aid subscription.it took 3 further requests at which point i was considering reporting them to the charities commission (stated to them on my subsequent email and demanding they confirmed in writing.
Slight diversion but thought it might help to make people aware of this other form of donation which you undertake a responsibility without being informed of the implications at the time of signing.

This is standard, though, isn't it? I think that's what HMRC advise charities to put - otherwise they would be continuing to claim GA on your regular donation and then HMRC would come after you to pay it back to them, as you never originally paid it in tax that year.

Presumably, if your income dropped significantly, you'd already have stopped regular charity donations that you can no longer afford?

Could catch you out if you were previously earning slightly over the tax-free limit and you dipped below, I suppose.

I’m OP, that wasn’t my post

I know, it was to the OP of the other post. We need a new acronym for posters within a thread.