Donating $$ to charity

[daveshel]

In the past I made the mistake of giving directly to the Salvation Army and the American Diabetes Association. They spent every dime I sent them and more harrassing me for more. Now I give only through my employer's charitable giving program as it lets me remain anonymous to the charities. And I can choose who gets the money. If your employer doesn't have such a program, The United Way will probably be just as effective.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Give $$$ to your Univeristy that your Alumni of.


Your local animal shelter, who doesnt love kittens!

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: SSSnail
Cut out the middle man, give it to the people you see needed it most, people that you see daily. Go to a shelter, mission, etc...

bad idea
a business like Red Cross or Hunger Task Force can get 10xs the amount of food/supplies with your $1 than you can (or the needy person can) directly.

 

[Evadman]

Child's play! The Mod's will even match it if you do it today See sig for link.

Originally posted by: Homerboy

Originally posted by: SSSnail
Cut out the middle man, give it to the people you see needed it most, people that you see daily. Go to a shelter, mission, etc...

bad idea
a business like Red Cross or Hunger Task Force can get 10xs the amount of food/supplies with your $1 than you can (or the needy person can) directly.

So says the department of pulling numbers out of your butt.

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: Evadman
Child's play! The Mod's will even match it if you do it today See sig for link.

Originally posted by: Homerboy

Originally posted by: SSSnail
Cut out the middle man, give it to the people you see needed it most, people that you see daily. Go to a shelter, mission, etc...

bad idea
a business like Red Cross or Hunger Task Force can get 10xs the amount of food/supplies with your $1 than you can (or the needy person can) directly.

So says the department of pulling numbers out of your butt.

You're kidding right? Talk to any food pantry and they will tell you to PLEASE donate $$ and not food as they can stretch your dollar 10xs further.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

im gonna give some dollar bills to some homeless folks. i dont trust these organizations, for all we know they probably pocket our money.

No wonder there isn't a cure for <insert disease>

 

[LuckyTaxi]

This is pretty cool.

Adopt an Olive tree

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: Homerboy
You're kidding right? Talk to any food pantry and they will tell you to PLEASE donate $$ and not food as they can stretch your dollar 10xs further.

No, I am not. If I buy a can of beans for $1 and cook it up for someone, 100% of my $1 went to food. If I give $1 to a food kitchen, at best, 90% will go to food. Even of you found a magical charity without overhead, that means the charity would have to find a can for 10 cents that I can not find.

Now, can a charity find needier people, or be more efficient at distributing items and an average person? Probably. But ten times as efficient? not unless the average person distributes food by renting a hot air balloon and randomly dumping food over the sides as the balloon passes over food kitchens. And the guy in the balloon is blind so he doesn't know where the food kitchen is. And the food is wrapped in gold plate.

 

[Homerboy]

They can and do find the can for 10 cents that the point. They don't go down to the local store and buy the food off the shelf as you would. They have suppliers and buying power that get the a can of beans for $.10. So sure, only 90% of that $1 may go towards actual purchase, hell I'll give you only 60% of it goes towards actual purchase, but that $.60 can in turn by 6 cans of beans to your one.

Call a local food pantry and ask.

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: Evadman

Originally posted by: Homerboy
You're kidding right? Talk to any food pantry and they will tell you to PLEASE donate $$ and not food as they can stretch your dollar 10xs further.

No, I am not. If I buy a can of beans for $1 and cook it up for someone, 100% of my $1 went to food. If I give $1 to a food kitchen, at best, 90% will go to food. Even of you found a magical charity without overhead, that means the charity would have to find a can for 10 cents that I can not find.

Now, can a charity find needier people, or be more efficient at distributing items and an average person? Probably. But ten times as efficient? not unless the average person distributes food by renting a hot air balloon and randomly dumping food over the sides as the balloon passes over food kitchens. And the guy in the balloon is blind so he doesn't know where the food kitchen is. And the food is wrapped in gold plate.

The difference is that the food bank can use the $1 to get far more food than your $1 bought at the store. They get free food from manufacturers, growers, restaurants, wholesalers, caterers, and farmers and their only cost is in transporting it to the food bank. They aren't buying the food they distribute.

 

[Evadman]

Based on my admittedly brief look at transportation costs, transport is roughly 4.3 to 11.0% of the cost of a product. So assuming that 100% of food is given by growers & manufacturers, a charity could be 9 to 20 times more efficient than a regular joe. So if the food is donated from someone else, and the $1 goes to transportation & overhead only, then I can see being 10 times as efficient with that product.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I doubt a food bank supplier like Northwest Harvest is ten times as efficient as an individual, but they could easily be 3-5 times as efficient by buying in bulk (1,000 cases of canned veggies instead of 1 can at retail) and by getting some surplus food free.

I also like that food goes to families that are still trying to help their kids, instead of a guy on the corner who's given up and just wants a 40 oz.

 

[rgwalt]

Originally posted by: LuckyTaxi
im gonna give some dollar bills to some homeless folks. i dont trust these organizations, for all we know they probably pocket our money.

No wonder there isn't a cure for <insert disease>

9 times out of 10 those "homeless folks" are using the money for drugs and booze, not on food and shelter.

R

 

[IronWing]

Animal shelters in general and my favorite:

http://www.hermitagecatshelter.org/

Personally, I shy away from medical causes, cure _____ type organizations. The money there basically ends up in the hands of PR people, rich doctors, rich researchers, rich labs, and big pharma. Just my hangup, others see it differently.

 

[HombrePequeno]

You could always help provide a microloan to an entrepreneur in a third world country via Kiva.org. I'm not sure that qualifies as charity though because you get your money back.

MicroPlace.com is another microloan place owned by EBay that offers interest rates.

 

[mjh]

Since a few other people mentioned the charities I would have recommended, here is one more to consider:

World Bicycle Relief: http://www.worldbicyclerelief.org/