Do you regularly give to charity?

[Dailywalk]

And if so, which charity(s) do you support?

When I had my dd I gave a small amount regularly to a children’s charity. I have kind of got out of the habit of it and feel I probably should?

I first set mine up to qualify for cash back switch deals on bank accounts! You had to have at least 2 direct debits going out so I set them up for £2 each to Red Cross and Water Aid. Added a few more as I opened more accounts!

I also set up a much larger DD to our local food bank the minute the credits rolled on 'I, Daniel Blake' a film about a single mother and others who relied on food banks. It was the only way I felt I could sleep that night (in my very lovely 5 bed semi with cupboards bulging)

Now that I'm a retired rather than active parent I regularly donate to Unicef, Medicins sans Frontiers and Medical Aid for Palestinians, plus ad hoc donations as and when a cause attracts my attention - eg Marcus Rashford's Free School Fund, Water Aid, the local food bank, Friends of the Earth, RSPCA......

I work for a charity. I tend to pick a charity each month to donate to, and also donate regularly to the Down's Syndrome Association and my local Mencao.

*Mencap

When my daughter was born 17 years ago I decided to donate monthly to a children’s charity but wasn’t sure which one to choose. A few weeks later a chap from Let The Children Live (small charity providing food, shelter & education to street children in Columbia) gave a talk in our church. I set up a monthly standing order to them, I also send money at Christmas instead of sending cards. I don’t ever see me stopping the SO and may even leave them some money in my will (if I ever get round to doing a will .

Yes

£3 per month to Save the Children.

Monthly £20 to Plan to sponsor a girl in Zimbabwe.

Annually £20 to Crisis for Christmas dinner.

Regularly sponsor friends worthy causes.

I'm pretty comfortable and my mum always sponsored a child, so it felt like a natural thing I wanted to do when I was able to.

Money comes out of my wages directly for charity & the gift aid is added to the contribution, tax free
I support a sight/blind charity

I also have personal direct debit for an overseas charity, where people in different countries bid for help with a loan for farming or to start a Business, it is Lend With Care

At Christmas I donate food to the local food bank

I've also made things for shoebox & Help the Aged Innocent drink hats

Yes, small monthly DDs to NSPCC, Save the Children, Cancer Research and Stand By Me. Try to support friend/family fundraising and do something ad-hoc at Christmas.

Yes. I plant trees through Ecologi and I have a direct debit set up with Compassion in World Farming. The rest of my "giving" is done via responding to sponsorship requests.

Yes. I make donations through my my wages to one charity and have a DD set up for another.

I'm a fundraiser and also do some free fundraising for a local charity.

Yes but not the big ones:
To a SW London church organisation that supports the homeless to which I also give up two weekends each winter to cook and serve.

We have a trust set up for the CofE primary schools in our old Borough to fund musical instruments and tuition for children whose parents can't afford to pay. We'd have widened it but the LA was obstructive.

DH part funds and helps organise a youth organisation in our old Borough which is an initiative between the Met and the LA to provide positive sports engagement to young people in need and deter them from crime.

The British Thyroid Foundation who were so helpful to me over 30 years ago when I was diagnosed with Graves disease.

About 20-30% of our income goes to charities, shared between church, Youth for Christ, a homeless charity, a school in Uganda and the local food bank.
We also fund interest-free loans across the world through Kiva, whenever one is paid back we use the balance to fund another one.

No. But I do support/am involved in lots of local fundraising events. My time and effort is a bigger contribution than money.

Also donate & buy from charity shops regularly
Great places for Christmas shopping, throughout the year

I have DD's for 2 charities

Dogs Trust

Railway Children - an amazing charity that helps children in poorer countries that either have no adult in their life or run away from home and end up in railway stations, the charity gets to them before they come to harm or abuse. They also help UK children.

To those of you who donate to Food Banks at Christmas, please, please consider choosing another time of year to donate. I volunteer at a FB and we are inundated with donations at Christmas ... it is very generous of people but we end up having far too much food and having to pay for storage . End of February/March is often when FBs run low of stock.
And please check what your FB actually needs we (fortunately) have very few children that need our support yet every year we get overwhelmed with Advent Calendars, selection boxes etc ... your average homeless guy on the street doesn't really want a chocolate Advent Calendar.

@Ragwort

To those of you who donate to Food Banks at Christmas, please, please consider choosing another time of year to donate. I volunteer at a FB and we are inundated with donations at Christmas ... it is very generous of people but we end up having far too much food and having to pay for storage . End of February/March is often when FBs run low of stock. And please check what your FB actually needs we (fortunately) have very few children that need our support yet every year we get overwhelmed with Advent Calendars, selection boxes etc ... your average homeless guy on the street doesn't really want a chocolate Advent Calendar.

Yes totally agree with this! We live near an area where there is a really high amount of poverty.

A local lady does a kind of food bank (not an official one) where she gathers donations and then drives around giving bags of shopping to people in need if they can't get to a proper food bank. I tend to ask her what she is short of every couple of weeks and buy a few extras on my supermarket shop and drop them off with her. She said to me at Easter she was inundated with chocolate eggs and didn't have enough people to send them to! It's the basics, bread, milk, tins, cereal and toiletries they need the most.

@Dailywalk

Plan international
And operation smile

Oh, I do give to the local food bank - not big charities though.

I stopped during COVID, they couldn’t take any more donations because our local Morrison’s store allowed them to fill trolleys, as many as they wanted with whatever they needed. I’ll donate to their Christmas present appeal.

Local causes only for me.

Direct debits for Cancer Research, RNIB and Save the Children.

I have DD monthly to Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, RSPB, British Trust for Ornithology, Invisible Women and Sex Matters.

I have a monthly budget for other charities I use as I see fit - sometimes crowdfunding appeals like for Keira and Maya, sometimes for our local food bank where I used to volunteer. I also provide weekly eggs for a neighbour in return for their monthly DD to the food bank.

Yes I choose a different animal charity each month, £5

Yes £50 monthly to various charities that help children.

Loads of great suggestions for charities that I haven’t heard of before. I’ll be setting up a dd this month. Other than the occasional sponsor of a friend I haven’t given regularly for years. Time to do something about it!