Charity/Giving back at Christmas

[jopickles]

Before I start I would just like to say I'm not a do-gooder or wanting to make others feel guilty I just wondered if people have donated to good causes or knew of campaigns going on that others may want to contribute to

I have donated 20 advent calendars to the local foodbank after seeing something Jason Mansford put on facebook and am currently arranging with work shoe boxes for the local Help the Aged centre

Anyone got any nice ideas?

Our Scout group is supporting www.facebook.com/events/1530476353853688/?fref=ts
so we are collecting clothes, sleeping bag etc for homeless people. Used to do the shoe box appeal but felt a bit uncomfortable last year but kids were keen & school promoting it so reluctantly donated. This year I had decided not to donate but found out school are not taking part anymore so won't have to try and explain to kids why we're not getting involved. The Rucksack Project sounds like a good alternative. I will also donate to local foodbank & Salvation Army.

I've donated to the Kids Company, where you can buy gifts from their John Lewis gift list. Info here: www.kidsco.org.uk/our-work/the-child-poverty-busting-programme
I also give to a couple of charities I support.

Actually, something else that I do year round is keep the loyalty cards (the ones that are a business card that gets stamped and handed in to redeem) from coffee shops near me at work - and give these to the homeless people on the streets for a hot coffee. I hate giving them cash, and over the years, there are a good few that you would recognize as genuinely homeless (rather than beggars). Admittedly, I tend to give them to the people that I do recognize mostly, but not entirely.

At Christmas time and in the depths of winter, I go to 2 shops in particular and actually pay up front for maybe 10 coffees, and get them to stamp the cards instead of giving me a caffeine buzz for a week!! So I will then have a few cards in my pocket at all times for the particularly cold days when a hot drink makes a real difference to them.

I know one time I tried to get people interested in collecting the cards to give to SIMON (one of the main homeless charities here) but that didn't work out. (Simon does a nightly soup run around the city centre).

It works out free, or pretty cheap, but is a practical thing that makes a difference.

Foodbank, which we do all year round, and Toilet Twinning.
Interesting comment from someone upthread about foodbanks being inundated at Christmas and then having low donations in the spring.
I can't decide whether to give Christmas items to FB or whether we should carry on with the basics but give more. Our FB say they are always in need of meat products like meatballs, tinned mince, pies etc, whereas they always have plenty of rice, pasta, baked beans etc.

Kids Stuff Toys are holding a Christmas Toy appeal in conjunction with Arrow and Bright FM! Dis-advantaged children are often forgotten about, we want to help put a smile on these faces Christmas morning. Drop off points are in Uckfield, Burgess Hill and Hastings Stores.

We donate to the Salvation Army toy appeal, the food appeal where they put the trolleys in the front of Asda (I assume that is for a food bank) and we are going to buy some presents for some foster cats from the Cats Protection wishlist (we adopted our cat from them earlier this year).

We will likely also do the NSPCC Christmas letters with the £5 donation for each child and a cancer charity donation as my FiL and husband's uncle are fighting cancer plus a family friend died of cancer earlier this year.

We donate to the donkey sanctuary when we do one of our Christmas activities and we will do other random small amount donations as the opportunity comes up.

Soot, a friend had a family member who got gifts via a nursery or playgroup of some sort. The parents and extended family had bought the children gifts anyway so they were not in need. I always thought they went to children's homes and those in temp foster care etc so I changed charities.

That's interesting, daisy. I wonder what the criteria is. I suppose I thought the same, or if not to kids in care then to families without much extended family support.

There should be more transparency regarding charitable giving and how gifts are distributed. There is so much need and also so much choice it is hard to make an informed decision about what groups to support, especially when you have only limited means yourself.

My dm used to pick up elderly people who were without families on Christmas Day, and drive them to have their Christmas dinner. That was SA, even though she wasn't otherwise involved with them, and it always left a good impression on me as a tangible way of doing some good.

There are a few places that do still provide transport for older people to a shared Christmas lunch, so if you can drive, and especially if your licence allows you to drive a minibus, worth googling to see if anyone in your area needs that sort of help

Does anyone support a good overseas/development charity? Or do you prefer to help local organisations at Christmas time?