Charity?

[Dave2002]

Suppose you have spare cash you don't know what to do with.

Should you:

1. Give it away to some charity of your choice, presumed "well deserving", or

2. Go out and buy some "stuff" - which you might want, or arguably need.

The most "obvious" answer is 1 - but so many charities have overheads, and some sub contract some of their activities to other organisations, some of which are a rip off (IMO) so that little of the money donated actually reaches the intended recipients.

On the other hand, buying stuff arguably helps to keep people - somewhere - employed, and support them and their families, and may be more useful to everyone in the longer term.

OK - buying stuff indiscriminately is not targetted, but suppose you want to help people in a country (say) in Africa. Would it do more good to buy products known to be from that country, or to donate to a charity organisation claiming to support aid in that country?

[teamsaint]

Another option might be to invest in startups , maybe local, maybe those with some of your preferred activities, EG green/Eco friendly businesses.
Or perhaps there are opportunities to do this in developing countries?

or maybe something like this?

https://www.rebuildingsociety.com/p2p-weekly-peer-to-peer-lending-spurs-green-energy-and-other-news/

[french frank]

but so many charities have overheads, and some sub contract some of their activities to other organisations, some of which are a rip off (IMO) so that little of the money donated actually reaches the intended recipients.

Wouldn't that apply equally to a 'commercial' concern? If you want to help the people who are worst off, Third World or here, how much of your money would benefit them?

With charities, it's a matter of choosing carefully: the biggest charities have the biggest overheads, spend the most on fundraising &c. But they also make the biggest contributions.

[oddoneout]

Some interesting discussion points there Dave, many of which are connected.
If you 'buy stuff' and so provide employment through demand, then arises the question - is the business providing the employment doing so legally, ethically and sustainably?
If buying goods 'made in Africa' in order to help those in that country the questions above arise, and also that of middleman mark-up. In the same way that blanket charity card donation arrangements(eg through a supermarket) only give a tiny percentage to the advertised charities, the amount going to those making the goods you buy may be very small to provide a good profit for said middleman.
The big charities, partly because of their size, may operate in ways that you might not agree with. It's usually pretty easy(they often send such info out as part of their mailshots etc) to find out how much of the revenue goes to the object of the charity and how much is spent on other things.
A solution may be to try and find a small charity,preferably one that you can have contact with directly, that works directly with the cause that interests you.
I support a couple of 'national' charities whose aims, ethos, and operating methods I am happy with. I have pulled out of a couple of others in the last year due to concerns. Otherwise it's small outfits. These are some I am or have been involved with, as an illustration.
- charity shops for an animal sanctuary, and a local cancer charity, where I buy my clothes, donate items for sale, give directly to specific projects, and can visit them in action.
- a charity set up by a work colleague to support education in Gambia by building and funding a village school and providing things like mosquito nets etc for the families. She visits a couple of times a year and the villagers give frequent updates. Costs are transparent.
- a friend of my sister who worked directly with a women's cooperative in India to import and sell small craft items.
- a shop in the city run by a mother and daughter who go on buying trips to the part of Africa their family came from to import craft items like baskets, linens, decorative bits and bobs from village women or small cooperatives.
- local community activities, mostly plant growing related.
Also I donate money and/or materials to projects I am involved with as part of my voluntary activities.

[Dave2002]

With charities, it's a matter of choosing carefully: the biggest charities have the biggest overheads, spend the most on fundraising &c. But they also make the biggest contributions.

However some of the biggest ones are indiscriminate at times in how they do fundraising. The Red Cross is one. Broadly speaking I agree with the aims, and I do contribute - or indirectly through the Disaster Emergency Fund.

However, now if I get phoned up and told that "there is an urgent need" my response is "sorry, but I doubt that my agreeing to pay you £xxx today is going to make that much difference than if I donate next week", and then I ask, when the person at the other end discloses - and tries to play it down that "we are working as fund raisers" "what percentage of my donation will go to the charity?". At this point they usually come clean.

One person told me that "usually it's 90% - the overhead is 10%", so when I asked about his specific request he admitted that "this campaign it's 50%" so a quick calculation (ha - I'm not too bad at mental arithmetic on occasion) revealed that (I think the "suggested" donation) was £100 someone, probably in an office in London, was hoping to pocket £50 by the phone call.

Then they usually have the cheek to suggest lower amounts, down to £10 - "today", and I stonewall. Then they even suggest - "why not £1". At this point I tell them I'm really not going to do it and close out the conversation.

Obviously there are going to be overheads, but some even very well known organisations are irresponsible, or sub-contract some activities to fund raisers who take too big a slice. We think we know that things will go wrong - that people in other countries will take what they think of as "their share", so if we give 50% to the third party "fund raiser" in the UK, then maybe another 10% of what's left to the main organisation, then overheads and backhanders etc. to other "enablers" overseas it's very plausible that a £100 donation could result in less than £10 - perhaps even only £1 - getting to where it's supposedly needed.

Even if there's an argument that in some of these countries £1 would actually buy a modest amount of food or other needed materials, it's still pretty sharp practice.

You make the point that if I buy stuff (commercial markets - including transport and middle men), there will be similar slices taken - which is also true. If I buy £100 of stuff, possibly coming from some producers in a poor country, how much will they actually get? I think it depends what the stuff being bought is. If I buy (say) a silk scarf from Vietnam or Cambodia for £50 in a posh shop in London, it would probably only cost about £10 in those countries, and the real producers might only see the equivalent of 5$ (£4). So that's a ratio of 50/4 i.e 12.5:1 - but it's still perhaps beter than a possible 50:1 or even 100:1 ratio for donations to charity. Also, even if some of the middle men and "hangers on" are also taking a slice, some of them may still be more deserving and/or needy than organisers for charities in this country.

[pastoralguy]

We donated money to The RSNO when our parents died. They were very appreciative of it!

[Dave2002]

We donated money to The RSNO when our parents died. They were very appreciative of it!

I/we have donated to organisations in the UK - education etc., but I suppose my original thought was about donations to disaster funds etc. for overseas aid.