Laptop and charity

[triskellian]

On the subject of my latest toy, this, too, is being typed from the comfort of my bed. Oh! The joy of wireless networking! It's taking me a while to get used to the keyboard, which is a strange one even apart from the fact that I'm used to a natural keyboard, but, on the whole, I declare the laptop a thing of beauty and a joy forever, as someone who may have been Rhiannon, referred to it earlier.

On charity, I've recently decided that I should be giving some money to good causes. The difficult question now is which charity. There are so many causes I believe in, and think deserve my money, and only so much money. It's hard to narrow it down even to a reasonable shortlist. The National Asthma Campaign is the only one I'm reasonably sure about, for obvious reasons, but I'd like to choose one or two more. So my question to you is, do you give to charity, and if so, which ones, and how did you decide?

Comments

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

I give £2 a month each to Oxfam (for gradual lasting improvement where it's most needed), the Red Cross (for mopping up disasters), and Friends of the Earth (cos I figure a lot of people give to charities like Oxfam and the Red Cross, because they're obviously needed, meaning that things like FotE get neglected, and because if the environment gets totally screwed up then we'll all be starving).

I'd like to give to something to do with children's rights, again because I think it's underrepresented, and because it's one of the few things left I'm passionate about, and to a homeless charity, but 3 is my limit at the moment, so I give a blanket refusal to anyone else who asks.

But this GAYE thing sounds like a good idea, I'll check it out.

[triskellian]

I'm kind of assuming that children's charities get a lot of donations, and for that reason probably not going to donate to one of them. With the possible exception of something like Childline, where I can see that it does immediate, front-line, good stuff.

Homeless charities is another one I'm considering.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Watch the small print on GAYE. That 2% adminstration charge has a minimum. If you're using GAYE for 6 quid a month on basic rate income tax, you need to do the sums to make sure it's actually worth it.