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

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I have been outrageously bad on this the last three years - I've given no money regularly to charity at all, which I consider (in my specific case rather than in general) to be unconscionable.

I finally managed to send in my Give As You Earn form last week though, so I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my charity card. I have essentially the same decision ahead of me as you do, except that I'm currently keeping things flexible - the cash is committed, it has to go to some charity or other, but I can decide on a month-by-month basis which. The dead cert in the immediate future is Comic Relief, plus either Oxfam or some other famine relief campaign.

If your employer supports it, by the way, I recommend you look into Give As You Earn. It's not taxed, which saves you having to make a Gift Aid declaration and the charity having to claim the tax back from the Inland Revenue, and the treasury adds a 10% sweetener to the deal. 2% of that is clawed straight back in administration, but it's still a bonus. If there are any useability niggles I can hopefully report them soon.

Even if you aren't going to use GAYE, there's a list of charities on their site, and an even longer one on the Charity Comission site, that might provide some inspiration.

[unknownid.livejournal.com]

I have only started giving to charity very recently -- I sent a check to Amnesty Intl a while ago, and a monthly bank draft to Oxfam. I chose Oxfam as my main recipient because I wanted to give money for something *basic*. There are lots of worthy higher-level charities, providing political lobbying/animal welfare/other things that I care about, but I care about none of them (even stuff like gay rights, which affects me directly) as much as keeping someone alive. So if my pittance can help put some food on a hungry kid's table, there's no more I could want to be done with it.

also, i have fond memories of Oxfam from spending so much time in Oxfam shops. :D

having said that, I have to start giving some money to global AIDS work, since in some parts of the world the reason that children are starving is because the adults are too sick to provide for them. awful, but true.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I give nothing to charity because my monthly income is only a whisker greater than my monthly necessary expenditure. And that's in a good month.

People's charitable instincts are really weird sometimes - there was a Guardian article the other day about how some donkey sanctuary on the south coast somewhere gets more money than quite a few of the big-name disease-combatting organisations.

[chrisvenus]

And coincidentally this is being read from my bed due to the joys of wireless. Though to be fair it could also be read from my bed due to the joys of ethernet cable and the socket in the corner of my bedroom. :)

And if you want to give money to charity then may I reccomend me as an unofficial charity. It will go on buying me things and you will know that not a penny of it will go on needless admin charges. Go on, you know you want to. :)

Charities

[ealuscerwen.livejournal.com]

I give through my firm's charity giving scheme, which has tax relief and a matched element. I like the charities, Marie Curie and Childline - they do specific good in this country and need more money to operate. I suspect that I will continue to give through the scheme as long as the charities are acceptable to me - the amounts I give are increased by half.

Also, I give smaller amounts on a monthly basis to a national teenager resettlement charity whose representative convinced me that they were a very worthwhile cause and to cancer research, and am a member of the National Trust and the Princes Trust.

I think that my priorities are based in this country and in medical research rather than abroad, partially because I am aware that more of my money will go to the cause in some direct way if it is based here. I have an interest in helping young people in trouble, which is reflected in my charity choices. I don't find Christian charities acceptable, since most have stated or unstated conversion aims and often operate specifically in non-Christian countries.

Probably the most significant thing I do is new, and involves giving time to help business mentor students in the Tower Hamlets area. I wouldn't have ended up doing this if my firm didn't offer the opportunity.

[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.

Well...

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I have some pretty funny views on charity, by most people's standards.

It's essentially because I object to the way that some things which morally speaking ought to be state funded end up needing to draw most of their money from charitable sources. One of the thngs which makes me most angry about certain right-wing commentators is the way that they jump through hoops not to pay tax and then go on about how generous they are because they give to charity ! <growl>

Consequently, I tend to favour charities where it's not clear to me that the national government (or, to be more strictly accurate: everyone in the country) should be paying. Therefore things like Cancer Research and Amnesty International, generally.

Also, I have a personal preference for things which give people the potential to lead (what I consider to be) worthwhile lives. So I'd rather pay to educate someone in a poor country than pay to feed someone in an even poorer country, despite being horrified that the latter is starving to death in the first place.

Careful choosing...

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

I tend to be rather picky about where charity money goes.
For a start there are several charities who causes I would happily support but I will not do it through them. FotE and Greenpeace being the two largest examples, possibly because I know most about what they are talking about. They don't get any money off me until they sort their act out and reduce the amount of bullshit on their sites and in their campaigns. I have a general objection to the misrepresentation of information to win a point and just because the "enemy" do it, doesn't mean the charities should.
I like charity actions which do permanent good and my favourite of these (obviously) are the forest protection schemes which basically work by buying them. Many are rainforest acres but there are also forest acres being bought up around the world and protected. It has to be done sensitively to local people and so as a result there are alternative "protect an acre" schemes for those worried that it is rather hard to check that the charity in question is buying sensibly. http://www.ran.org/give/paa/paa.html has the RAN scheme which protects (to a large extent by helping tribes win land grants from the government for their homeland) and also mentions (in passing) what makes a good buy scheme which is the extension of existing reserves. I must admit the claims about carbon balancing and preventing global warming on these sites make me wince slightly though. An example buy site: http://www.worldlandtrust.org/supporting/donation.htm

I also like to support ADHD/ADD charities which fund expensive teaching and counselling schemes to help children learn how to live with it rather than leaving their parents with only the much cheaper and more widely available drug option. Far too many parents don't have access to a choice or are even aware that drugs are not the only option.

Charities which feed, house etc those who are homeless I also like, mostly because I would rather give aid through the charities than give money randomly for almost anything to people on the street.

Give As You Earn

[chrestomancy.livejournal.com]

What do you care about? There are many charities that have more of a membership thing than just receiving donations, complete with newsletters, campaigning information and the like, such as Amnesty International.

If you're going to give to charity, it is definitely worth finding out how to maximise the impact of the amount you give. For example, Sky take the money for GAYE from my paycheck before tax (40%), then match my contribution, and add the 10% government contribution. This means that for each £10 I loose in my paycheck, £36.67 makes it to charity.

Personally I give to Azafady (because they're broke) and Shelter (because I live in London). I've got no real opinion on what sorts of charities people should support, though.

[triskellian]

Apparently my employer (pause while I realise I can't actually type lying flat on my stomach ;-) does offer GAYE. All I have to do now is choose some charities... I think I'm going to go for more of a 'set up a standing order and forget about it' kinda approach, though.

[triskellian]

Erm, no. Sorry ;-)

Re: Charities

[triskellian]

I think I'm more interested in local (this country, that is, not this city) causes, too, although I'm not really sure why. Some sort of currently-inexplicable emotional selfishness. I need to examine that some more to see if it holds up to closer scrutiny.

I'm impressed that you do so much, though.

[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.

Re: Well...

[triskellian]

You have some pretty funny views on lots of things, by most people's standards ;-)

I agree with you that some of these things ought to be state-funded, but I don't agree that the appropriate response to them not being is for them not to be funded at all, until the state realises there are, for example, no books in schools, and decides to buy some... I guess I just can't take the long view on this, cos I'm worrying about the generation of kids who will have no books in the meantime. Books for schools is another on my shortlist.

I also go for the giving books rather than food approach, but mostly because I'm contradicting myself and taking a long view. One of the reasons those kids don't have food is because their parents didn't have books. Linking back to Nina's comment about treating AIDS to help the kids of AIDS sufferers.

Re: Give As You Earn

[triskellian]

What do you care about?
This is the difficult question ;-) I care about children having a good start in life, animals not being abused, adults having the power to live happy, free, independent lives, the Earth not being harmed, diseases being cured...

With the exception of the asthma thing, I think I'm more interested in giving people - adults and children - the power to have good lives, than I am in animals, the planet, or medicine, although those are all also good causes, and I'm glad my friends support them!

But even that narrowing-down is still quite broad. I shall think some more, but thank you, all, for your comments.

[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.

Re: Charities

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I think that my priorities are based in this country and in medical research

Heh, that's close to a complete opposite from me - my priorities are primarily other countries and medical care. Which reminds me, I must dig out my "Medecins sans Frontieres" leaflets.