Trollheart

What's your view? Do you give, and to which one(s)? I personally find a lot of them quite pushy, but am usually persuaded to contribute, mostly due to carefully-handed guilt, so without question I'm being manipulated. But there are a lot of things that annoy or concern me about charities. Firstly, where exactly is your money going? We've had several scandals here where corruption has been revealed to be rife in the top levels of management of several charities, where directors were lining their pockets. Secondly, this "monthly debit" thing: it used to be you went into town, saw someone on a street corner rattling a box, gave them a few quid and felt better about yourself for a few seconds, and that was it. Now it's people calling to your door armed with direct debit mandates, asking for your email, wanting you to sign up for x amount every month.

The worst thing about this is that, no more than a month after you've signed up, they will always (and I mean always) call you up to try to squeeze more money out of you. "Oh, you signed up for twenty euro a month," they'll say. "Can you manage twenty-five? Only, we can get tax relief on contributions of over twenty-five euro." Now, first, I thought charities were tax exempt, so where is this coming from? Second, even if this is right, well sorry if I sound harsh, but I don't care if you get tax exemptions. What is that to me? How do I know that the money you save in tax is going to the needy? Maybe you're pocketing it. So no, I won't increase my monthly amount and please stop asking me, telling me it's only a fiver. I exist on carers' allowance of 210 euro a week. I can't afford another fiver, and anyway, you got me to sign up and give you twenty euro out of my hard-earned every month: why is that not good enough for you?

I dislike this idea of calling to your door, pushing pictures of starving children/mistreated animals/homeless/disaster victims/whatever in your face to try and shame you into signing up. It's a tactic I heartily disapprove of, and I also don't like signing up for anything at the door, whether it's electric, phone, internet or a charity. Let me look over the documentation and I'll make up my mind and get back to you. But no: it's all "can you sign now? Only take a minute." The hard sell allied to the soft soap: hard to say no, and I usually don't because then you feel like a **** for not helping.

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OccultHawk

The only charity I give to is Doctors Without Borders.

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Trollheart

Hey, it's better than Doctors Without Training...
That's Medicine Sans Frontieres, yeah? Good cause, certainly.

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Cuthbert

Knocking doors is really ****ing cheeky if you think about it.

Frownland

I've found that they leave you alone if you're a blunt dick about not being interested. It got the annual fund callers from school off of my case.

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MicShazam

Right now I don't give to any charity, but I've given to many over the years. The two I'll probably return to when I start having any money again would be Amnesty International and Greenpeace.

DwnWthVwls

I prefer volunteering for things because i have no clue where my money will end up when i give it to someone else.

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Trollheart

What I hate is when they break it down into how much it is per day. That's usually cents, but add them all up and it's still maybe 20 euro a month. But they make it seem like "Oh surely you can spare (say) four cents a day!" Bastards. Oh yeah, and another thing: they keep ringing me up telling me (ostensibly) how my money is being spent. No offence, but I don't care if I've helped build a school in Poorsville or if Pasha Taswad is SO happy because now he has a brand new pot to piss in, or whatever. I really don't care. I guess if they rang me and told me the management had had a big party and all gotten pissed on my money, I'd be upset, but as I dont' expect to hear that, I really don't want the details. I do not care. Also, it's almost always a prelude to the question of upping your donation.
**** off. Really.

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Janszoon

Every time I don't give money to a panhandler (which is every time I see one) I think about the fact that I really need to donate to a local charity that helps the homeless. I still haven't done it though so I feel like an ass. I do donate here and there to various charities though and I used to sponsor a child in the DR.

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Cuthbert

If I'm gonna help people, I'm helping people in my local community, the homeless and people at food banks. I don't know if it makes me a cunt, but I don't really want to donate to kids in other countries when there are people in my own city on the streets.