What types of charities do you regularly donate money to?

I regularly donate money to Planned Parenthood of America, the Animal Rescue League of Boston, and my college. I sporadically donate to various environmental causes.

Orphaned and/or abandoned kids. Animal shelters. The rainforests. DARE programs. AIDS research. Breast cancer research. Any person begging on the street. My accountant hates me. He could wring my neck. I feel sorry for anybody who doesn't love to give as much as I do

What are DARE programs?

I give to the War Amps
http://www.waramps.ca/
For Aids research
http://www.fightaidsathome.org/
I also get a red ribbon when I see a table selling them.
The SPCA http://www.spca.com/

Its a drug thing, DARE to keep kids of drugs. I dont know much about it, only remember the commercials.
http://www.dare-america.com/index_3.htm

Church based,
Homeless (Poor),
Aids & other health related issues,
animal rescue ect.,
School related
& candy,cookie sellers outside of stores.I never buy the candies cause I don't like chocolate bars,so I just give them the $$ & tell them they can have the candy for themselves

The Humane Society and local animal shelters

OIC! Thanks.

I give money to my church, and part of that goes to help the needy. I also give to Force Ten and other organisations who do development work both overseas and in Australia. Then some to Amnesty, and to the Australian Student Christian Movement (a non-fundamentalist ecumenical University Christian group). To medical research when I'm asked. And a little to people on the street, but there are less of them here than when I lived in the US, so not as much these days. I don't give as much money away as I'd like to, but I'm working on it.

I dont donate money to charity as I dont have any. But I do a lot of charity work in other ways. Every year, I give as much as I can to Operation Christmas Child. This is where you fill as many shoe boxes as you can with toys and presents for children in poor countries so they have a little christmas present. Last year, our class was supposed to do a box between us and not one person brought anything in for it. In the end, I searched around my house and went to the shops and bought sweets and stationery and stuff and filled 5 boxes which I took on the bus to school. I then shouted at the rest of the class for not bothering. It really annoyed me that they didn't care. I'm also a member of the League of Friends which involves me visiting wards at the hospital and reading to the elderly who are going blind and helping in the shop. I've dressed up loads of times for charities including Children In Need (where our group of 5 girls raised 800 pounds) and been in the local paper a few times for it.

I don't donate to anything regularly. I donate to things that are collecting money at school or on the street.

I haven't donated to any charities, except giving offering at church sometimes, but that isn't charity, that's Tithes and Offerings.

I don't

I donate money to overseas welfare funds, no domestic ones because quite frankly, if you can't make it in Australia then you're fudgeed up.

I give to people on the street when they do something entertaining. Being a New Yorker, I've become so hardened to the homeless, but I have to say, I find it very annoying when a perfectly able-bodied person just SITS THERE, shaking a cup of change. I'm talking about the teenagers around St. Marks Place. They've got hundreds of dollars worth of piercings and tattoos, and they have the GALL to ask me for cigarettes and money. Get off your punk lazy ass and get a job. Sell some of that jewelry. How'd you come up with the cash for that, anyway?

If you don't want to be a productive member of society, that's fine with me, but DON'T expect me to support you.

One time I saw an older homeless woman laying on the sidewalk saying "Please, please, I'm so hungry, please can I have some change, I'm so hungry." My heart went out to her. There was a cart on the corner selling hotdogs and pretzels. So I, thinking I'm doing my good deed for the day, buy her a hotdog and a pretzel.

I present them to this woman claiming to be hungry. She refused them! Hungry my ass. She basically said, "Yuck! You expect me to eat that??"

So I ate them my own damn self.

Sorry, I just had to vent.

I don't. At the moment I don't have enough spare cash to make regular donations. I am a member of Amnesty Internatinal though and we buy the Big Issue.

That's great! All the stuff you are doing.... it's wonderful!

LOL

Yeah, I think the people on the streets in NYC are amazingly tough, and there are some really annoying ones. I remember walking around St Mark's place with my SO and a good friend. It was the end of a really long week, and at that stage, my SO was working full time without pay for a legal aid organisation. We walked past a guy on the street who asked for money, and my SO calmly said "Not tonight" and the guy yelled back after him "Yeah, butt-hole, your crap stinks too!". I felt like running back and shaking him and saying "Do you realise what this man spends all of his time doing???? Helping people like YOU and he doesn't get paid for it, so shut up!! ROAR!" I was very mad!

That thing for kids which fights against drugs and violence.

church, wildlife protection, organisations who help the poor, overseas aid, schools, homeless people/beggars

You go girl!!! I never give $$$ to the people on the street,that are begging.Chances are,that they're either supporting a drug habit,or are going to buy alcohol with the $$$.

I agree with natsim,you are doing a fine thing!

i donate to environmental groups, wildlife and humane society groups, human rights and i also donate to a local youth organisation!

We routinely donate to church and charities, as well as people on the street.

My wife is involved with orphans, and gives her time, food, clothing, diapers and toys. I feel bad that we do not do more.

I forgot about the returned servicemen. I also donate clothes to The Smith Family, and I have given money to a fund to rescue bears from Chinese bear bile farms. This sounds like I'm blowing my own horn!

None. I too po'.

I know what you are saying. I don't live in a city as large as New York, but everytime I am at the transit station, I get spare changed to death. I refuse to support other peoples' alcohol, cigarette & drug habits. I have had perfectly able bodied young people ask me for money and I tell them to get a job. They look at me as if I said a dirty word or something.

I donate my time to ecological/political activist groups, sometimes. I don't tend to give money to many organisations. Well, ok, the NRA, because they need it.

I stopped donating to Planned Parenthood because their marketing got really invasive and demanding. They began calling us a lot, using dubious methods. Also, their letters seem to get more and more extreme/exaggerated every year.

Shriner's Hospitals

I donate to The United Way. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy when I do it (or maybe I just need some air conditioning and a shave?).

Someone once told me D.A.R.E. stood for "Drugs Are Really Expensive".

Probably my largest dollar contribution is to individuals on the streets. One of my favorite organizations to give to, though, is the Special Olympics, it seems so straight forward and kind: it's like "Here, kid, you're having a rough life of it, wanna try something fun?" That's a cool mission in my mind. AIDS Action, too, gets a big chunk of my charity budget, because they seem to have a way of making life easier for individual people. I also give to arts organizations, but that's more out of a selfish desire to have more arts in my community.

I donate time to charities though. I "welcome" at a local hospital. I spend an hour there each school week telling people where they should be going. It's a bit silly actually - they could be using us in better ways. In a couple of weeks I'm doing a collection for Amnesty International - I post envelopes asking for donations through all the doors on my street then go back collecting them a couple of days later. I'm dreading it! 100 houses and I bet half of them haven't even *heard* of AI!

I used to do street collections for a drama group I was in. We were a registered charity. We would go and do street theatre and hope people would donate.

I'm also planning to donate blood sometime soon. Eeek!

And I'm about to switch my Bank Account to The Cooperative because they have an ethical investments policy.

What is the ethical investments policy they have?

They don't invest in products or companies that promote unethical treatment of workers or other people. I think they only invest in greener companies and not in vivisection or GM foods. I'm not bothered about the last two - in fact I'd rather more investment was put into them than less, but I don't want my money funding some sweat-shop. Once I've had a chat with the Bank, I'll know more about what exactly their policies are.

I havnt heard of a bank advertising that here yet, could you let me know when you talk to a rep what he told you?

Chinese bear bile farms? Please explain....

The Chinese cage bears from just after they're weened. The cages are welded shut. Metal tubes are surgically implanted into the bile duct to facilitate the extraction of bile which the Chinese use in their 'medicine'. Bears usually lose their teeth though boredom when they bite the bars. Their muscles atrophe, as they cannot move. Their fur falls out through stress.

A western woman is trying to free all the bears. She is trying to educate the Chinese. She has a sanctuary set up for bears that have been freed. The more money she gets the more bears she can release and give a better life. Some of these bears have been inside the small cages for up to 15 years. When I saw this on TV I had to contribute. I hadn't seen such barbarism for many years.

Geez.... I thought veal production was bad, but this is even worse!

Where's here?

Here is Quebec, Canada.

And no banks have ethical investment policies? Heck!

There might be, I just havnt heard of it. I havnt really looked into bank policies either... so I have no way of saying really. I did a search and found this bank in Canada that has an ethical investment policy... but I've never heard of this bank before...

http://www.citizensbank.ca/insidecitizens/ethical.html

They are difficult to find I tried doing a search on the Internet - impossible! The way I found the one I want was through Amnesty International UK - The Cooperative was advertised in the quarterly magazine.

Ethical Investment funds here in Australia are usually run through independent companies rather than banks, so you might be better off searching for "Ethical Investment Funds" limit it to Canadian websites. You could also try calling the Quebec office of the United Church of Canada - they would know where you could find (non-church based) ethical investment companies.

I'll look into that, thank you for the info :)

I only donate to wildlife protection charities.

I can't understand how anyone can confine another living thing for years and not think what it must be like.

thank you! Everyone should do what they can!

I have donated to the child abuse fund in my home state

I have become very cynical towards many campaigns for donations. I still give to the cancer society but I really can't tell you what they do with the money of which, I'm sure, there is alot of! Certainly, we see progress in the research for cures against this terrible affliction. I can't help but think about all of those obscure diseases one only becomes aware of when affected by it or a family member is ill with it. Many such diseases need as much funding but are overlooked because not enough people are affected by it; imagine your child has a rare disease that only 100,000 other people have been diagnosed with it and there is not much known about it. Why? Because it's not a popular disease... Do you really want to hear that when your child is dying? You want to hear that they are researching it. How can there be parity? Face it - some charities get more bucks than others and some, more than they deserve!

THAT's the kind of help people really need!!! $$$ doesn't always get to help the people that really need it! I've seen, time and again, the heads of big organizations fill their pockets with donations. Many of the very big associations are so costly that most of the money goes to running them!
I think that donating money has it's limitations, I'd rather buy a bag of groceries for a poor family than give them $50 to do so themselves. If I take $50 out of my pocket for a poor family to buy food, than giving groceries is the same thing - the intention in the 1st place IS to provide nourishment!

I think that what you wife does has more value than $$$! I truly think that donating time is a much better way to help others.

Its not money, but I will be giving blood.

I'm very proud of her. She is much more socially conscience than I am.

You should be proud - we need more people like her!

I agree with you. Money can be stolen or abused but good intentions can't.

how true...

I give money to the Church, to religious missions, to CALM ( an organization dedicated to stopping child abuse), and to the Humane Society.

When I can, I donate to any agency that seems worthwhile at the moment. I do a lot of volunteer work (I'm just wrapping up an agency that helps all the local poor.(Clothes, small appliances, most houseware,some furniture) This has been what has kept me away lately.I've been very run-down and finding it hard to take care of home and this organization too.I'm not done yet, but will be soon.

Not to take away from anyone who does donate their money! If I had money to donate I would do that too! Everyone is so generous!

Did you hear on the news this morning? They are asking people to stop sending aid to New York... Right now what they need are knee pads and dog food!

I know! They can gladly have my knee pads, I've grown out of the rollerblade stage, and I'm sure cat food will do if they want that!

Cancer research

I cannot donate to most well-known charitable organizations because of the fact that most of them are paying their presidents and vice-presidents million dollar salaries while the people who actually do something are volunteers. The purpose of a charitable donation is not to give these parasites another lottery winning every year.

Charities are required by law to provide annual reports on request to anyone who asks for them. It makes it pretty easy to weed out the charities that use donations ethically. Don't give up on all of them because of fear of the bad ones that are out there; it's pretty easy to get the information.

christian children's fund

I donate money to faith based organizations all the time. They include: Church, missionaries, homeless shelters, summer camps, etc.

If you want to donate time, the best time to do it is this month. Salvation Army usually accepts food donations for Thanksgiving, so they can have a feast for poor people. I donated some time a few years ago, taking donations from the front area to the freezer room, and I was the only one in there doing that! Some of those turkeys were freakin huge. I especially liked moving the desserts. YUM someone's gonna have pumpkin pie... YUM someone's gonna have apple... YUM cool whip etc

I buy toys for kid's hospitals at Christmas, too. I want one of those little wagons with the wood sides. Then I can wheel a whole wagon full in! It would be fun to do that dressed as an elf, but I'm not short enough. Anyone want to be an Elf for sick kids this year? I'll give you a free coloring book!!

I donate to my church when I go. I donate to other things, but not on a consistent basis.

I'm the original Mr. Tight Fist. I did once give a pound to an group against Animal Testing.