Charities we have concerns about supporting

[Doyenne]

Last year the institute of fundraising have found what many of us could have told them and that's that women think more carefully about charities and give more often.

There used to be a long list of charities I would support: Oxfam, NSPCC, Shelter, Save the Children, Cancer Research, Shelter.

One by one I've removed them from my list

Save the Children was the realisation of the behaviour they had let Brendan Cox get away with.

Oxfam was aid workers sexually exploiting vulnerable women in Haiti

Amnesty International when I realised their stance on prostitution seemed to have moved 180 degrees

Cancer Research was when they removed the word women from cervical cancer info even whilst their research showed women at higher risk of not going for scans were women whose first language was not English.

NSPCC I'm watching to see if they will belately show leadership on the need for children to be allowed to assert boundaries

Shelter I was really sad to stop supporting when I realised how toxic stonewall had become to lesbians (Strong links between the two wrt trustees).

Children in need has become an absolute no with their support for mermaids and them stopping supporting sex specific refuges.

I'm trying to ensure I don't reduce my overall charitable giving but I fear that may be an unintended consequence of my greater scrutiny.

I wondered what changes/concerns other may have wrt charities

Yes Ruth Hunt is a shelter trustee, but Polly Neate is CEO and is a good egg so I think they're ok for now.

Good second hand stuff goes to my local refuge if appropriate. My maternity wear went there and baby things- abuse can start or worsen in pregnancy so I figured they could use them. Also household stuff is good for women moving out and starting afresh with little money.

I no longer donate to NSPCC or Children in Need.

I work for a small, local charity for women and children and the consistent support of committed individuals in the community makes such a massive difference to them. Whether it be donations of clothes, food and toiletries for them directly or regular donations of money to help us to provide services every donation matters in so many different ways.

I don't support Hospices either as I'm totally in favour of being able to die when you want to if you are facing an end of life scenario. I don't want to be patronised by fancy architecture, rose gardens or well being 'palliative care' medics.

I used to work for a big, national charity with a high street presence and OMG the wastage of money paying overinflated salaries to incompetent managers who sat around doing very little.. I had access to the payroll so knew exactly what everyone was paid.

I don't know if all biggies are like this but I second a PPs suggestion to stay with the smaller ones.

Seen the NSPCC update, that's them off my list as well.

I've been raising some money for a small charity recently, I've only raised £1000 but one of the things that's been nice is that is enough to them that it makes a difference

Cross-post from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3350633-Scented-sanitary-towels

"Can I point you all in the direction of the The Red Box Project redboxproject.org/

Welcome to the Red Box Project, an initiative that quietly ensures that no young woman misses out on her education because of her period. We are 100% community driven and run by women around the UK. We place constantly stocked Red Boxes of sanitary wear in schools for young women to access, aiming to reach those who may not be able to afford these vital items.

I'm not currently involved, just following their work at the moment, but I think it's an initiative worth looking at."

I have also quietly supported Abortion Support Network www.asn.org.uk/ for years - still desperately in need of funds despite the repeal of the 8th.

I just do the GC organisations and campaigning now. This is the most important fight in a generation for women and children. Also will buy for homeless women or give money. That's it.

Don't do one of the period poverty ones due to use of 'menstruators'. Bloody good period I think.

So the NSPCC refused to answer any questions?

Quelle surprise.

What is going on with Safeguarding in this country? It has national importance as well.

Call me a cynic but has anyone heard of a 'terrorist' trans person? It wouldn't get past the laughter. Sexual abuse and rape of women and children? Well, we'll consider it given the national press exposure.

I support local charities only. Some do foreign work on small projects, others are entirely UK focused. I also volunteer for the local Foodbank and give considerable hours to that.

I am spit steaming livid about the NSPCC.

I support a MAC, Men Against Cancer, which is based in my local hospital and researches, treats and supports men with cancer.

Small local animal charities.

The local woman’s shelter, which is run by the local Catholic Church. I’m an atheist, but they don’t push their religion on the women and children.

I also support the local Catholic Church run food bank, as they don’t limit its users to how many visits they can have and also help the working poor.

Up until a few months ago I used to support NSPCC, because of my own child hood, but stopped when they supported the right to allow men and boys access to vulnerable children.

I didn't know about the MSF sexual abuse case and will look that up now, as I donate regularly to them.

Generally I hate the waste and grandstanding at the bigger charities.

What local charities would people recommend? It's difficult because of course it's important to see evidence of impact, but gathering that evidence can in itself be expensive and time consuming.

I support Retrak -work with street children in Africa

Binti international - san pro in Africa

Cambodian children’s fund - seem grass roots and effective

The carers’ Trust

Like others, I have cancelled DDs to oxfam, amnesty and NSPCC

Women's Aid.
Also care international do a micro loan scheme where you lend £15 to a small business owner and your choice and they repay it over several months. You can then lend again.

Irene, I'd suggest hospices, local refuges, refugee groups. Facebook usually has groups you can search, and the local authority often has links. Churches often do very good work, as has been pointed out they don't necessarily push the spiritual stuff.

As though they'd been reading my mind, an email popped into my inbox from Barnardo's just now thanking me for the donations I made, which have raised in excess of £70.

I'm afraid that's the last £70 they'll be getting from me, as I've been reading more about their links to Stonewall etc. They've drunk the Koolaid it seems.

I also support a micro finance charity and only lend to women myself. Most applicants are women, who have much better rates of paying back the money borrowed than men do. It's not perfect, there are stories about men making women apply for loans & then taking all the money, but I like to believe enough gets through to the women to improve their lives.

Does anyone know anything about Plan International? I sponsor a child through them and liked their 'because I'm a girl' campaign.

I donate clothes and household items to a local charity which works with family support workers. I started to become disillusioned with larger charities some years back.

But I just fon't know what to do instead. I should start giving locally and to specific campaigns as PPs have said.

I support Plan as well through regular sponsorship and donations to specific campaigns. They always seem to put the rights and wellbeing of girls at the forefront of what they do.

I regularly contribute to CAFOD campaigns and am good friends with someone who works for them.

ASN, Refuge, and my local food bank get my support too.

There's a thought, actually - I have had cause to donate to both Refuge and Women's Aid recently in gratitude for their services, and I always buy something off Refuge's list at Christmas. But I haven't seen an overt statement anywhere from either of them saying that shelters are women-only. Can anyone point me to theor policies? I did see Refuge were "considering their position", but it was from a while ago. I dont want to unwittingly fund another Canadian situation.

I’ve dumped all the big charities and switched to small local run charities (one that works with prostituted women, one women’s refugee and an animal shelter) and a couple of church run orgs that support refugees in Calais.

It bothers me that I cannot donate to charities abroad with the confidence that a) my money is going where it needs to go and b) that abusers aren’t being allowed easy access to vulnerable people under the guise of charity work and the charities are turning a blind eye.

Have cancelled them all and instead I've totted up what I was giving each month and made donations to WPUK, FPFW and a number of crowdfunders whose work centres women and intend to continue this strategy.

Me too... and more! I think Women's Place and FairPlay are QUITE EXTRAORDINARY and giving more now will hopefully help have a really big impact... NOW feels so so important

We support the Fistula Foundation, a project for educating girls in the developing world (I think it's Camfed ) and the local animal charity (all volunteers) where we adopted our dogs.

We donate clothes and such to a local hospicecare charity but mainly because they make it easy to do so.