Do you give to charity?

[Bruce Wayne]

I'm interested to know how much people give to charity. I'm in favour of reducing taxes and relying on voluntary contributions to the needy so thought it might be interesting to see how much we each donate to charity each year.

If you give your time rather than money try to estimate a value for that time.

[Bluezy]

I donate a tithing to my place of worship every week.

While here in the States, I donate pro bono paralegal work to the local Legal Defense League. Approximately 10 hours a week at a professional rate of $75 an hour. It DEFINATELY helps those would not have been able to have the legal documents they need.

Finally, I make monetary donations to the St Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis Tennessee and donations to Wee CJ's school. So in including time it easily adds up.

[PrincessPerky]

I tend to donate stuff, so all my decluttering goes to the good will. (honestly that is a lot of stuff, over a thousand a year where did I keep all that stuff?)

I would like to give more... but right now I am paying twice for education, so maybe that will count (I home educate, and still pay for the school tax)

[Snoopy2645]

I donate to goodwill, & I donated baby formula to the womens shelter & I donated school supplies to go overseas & to the stamp out hunger food drive thats what I have done recently. I am trying to give more because for awhile I felt I couldnt give anything but I believe those who give will recieve. I felt really really poor for a few years & felt I wasnt able to give now that I am giving again I dont feel poor.

[pennywise]

My comment: we pay enough in taxes to support charities. Next, the price of groceries is inflated to pay for charities. Thus, we all contribute to charity, but do not get the credit on our taxes (Campbell soup does). Personally, I like to help those who are trying to help themselves. If you are making an honest effort, you deserve help. However, I am strongly opposed to non-working mothers obtaining reduced tuition or anything else for their children. For all the mothers who work, this is grossly unfair and a practice that needs to stop. If BOTH parents are working and meet the income criteria charity is warranted. Having children is not longer a viable excuse for charity. Furthermore, I would like to have disclosure of the bonus and salaries of the charity workers. In the U.S. non-profits are capped at $200,000 in salary BUT perks are NOT and they are also not listed. Charity workers should be doing just that, working the charity, thus non-paid work. I have donated my time to a medical team in the event of a disaster, however, I give no CASH.

[obi_positive]

We give to the church; give to Red Cross, Habitat, Buckner Intl., missionaries, etc., sponsor a young girl in Haiti; donate professional time; volunteer; and did a charity 5k a year ago. In all, we probably donate about 10% more or less depending on year.

The tax benefit is good, but we've relied on the kindness of friends, family, neighbors and even strangers in the past. That's a bigger motivation for us to give back. I believe what comes around goes around, and I like good stuff to come around.

[terry1156]

I feel extremely lucky to live where I do and to have been given the opportunities that I have been given. Giving a bit to those who that don't have the same opportunities I feel is a duty.

I think that charity tends to be defined to narrowly these days and almost has a stigma that the person receiving the money or help isn't pulling their own weight. Most of the people who come to this forum know what it is like to struggle with money and that good hard working people need a bit of help from time to time.

While everyone on these boards who gives advice probably doesn't consider it "charity" they are helping others in need with advice and points to think about. I think that whenever you help another person, whether with your words, with a bit of money or in teaching them you are giving something back - I don't know if that is the classic definition of charity, but it is what I consider giving back for all that I have.

There are good organizations that need financial help to do the good deeds that they do and help others. But I don't think that giving money should be the definition of helping charity. I think that comes from inside each of us.

When I get up in the morning, I have a habit of saying to myself (my uncle taught this to me when I was a teenager) "What am I going to do to leave the world a better place today?" Sometimes it's as simple as picking up a piece of trash while walking along the street. But if you do something, then I think you're giving back and that is what I consider to be my charity.

[BAGAGT1]

I donate 1% of salary to two of my favorite charities (my employer matches 15% of my donations), plus we always donate $100 year to the MDA, since my wife recently started a new job and they also have a good charity donation program so she will start donating soon.

[tamip]

We give 10% of our income to our church, then also to other charities throughout the year as we are able. The good Lord has blessed us with so much, we want to give back as much as we can to be a blessing to others.

[jmjj215]

Giving empowers you more than anything else you can do with your money. The return you get on giving far exceeds what you could get anywhere else.

[akaivyleaf]

I give to my church, and several missions. I believe in helping out my church members and organizations where I can see/work with to see that the money and help is being distributed to those most in need.

It does good to see what I do actually bring a smile to a child's face or move a parent to tears. I spend a lot of my time with charitable causes.

[Fern]

I used to donate money to my favorite environmental groups generously and regularly, but have cut my income too much to donate anything now. I do give away things on freecycle.org and to Good Will.

I did a bit of pro bono PR work for a breast cancer fundraiser earlier in the year.

I am leaving a significant part of my inheritance to environmental groups in my will.

[MrsChambers]

I don't give to charity.

I AM charity!!

I work for a homeless shelter and make a buck fifty and a fresh piece of gum each week, so I'm always accepting donations!

)

[singinjeannie]

Know what drives me crazy? You give to one Charity and your mailbox fills up with a ton of other Charity's mail. The phone rings off the hook with additional Charities that found out that you "give". I hate this part of giving to Charities. Once they know you'll give, you're a target!

Hate telemarketing! I don't care who you're calling for, I'm hanging up.

[Some1Shy]

yep i do..but i like to know where my money goes sometimes..
so at a charity site i go to i purchase 10 chicks and they send them to people in need of course this benifits more than one family because the chickens that are given to a family are on loan so once the chick have babies the babies go to another family and so on... and another time i bought a fruit tree to..they can eat the fruit sell the fruit and produce another tree from the seed to give to another family..so my $ would feed who knows how many families with just one purchase..its my favorite charity so far many things to choose from to buy..

i only give when my "heart" is there i let me "heart" guide me on where to give my money.

[CRFSaver]

I donate to my highschool as well as my undergraduate college. I donate a lot of goods to the local Vietnam veterans charity. I tend to be quite picky on my charities. The one I gave to at Christmas time trains dogs for retarded children. In my mind this gives a child a sense of normality in their life. Allows the to go to school and having the dog also makes it easier for other children to approach them. Its one thing to be down on your luck and most of us can pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, but many of these children or young adults dont have that ability. This gives them a chance.

[Jorge]

I love the organizations that let donors purchase tangible items... like chickens and fruit trees. It's a wonderful concept!
We only donate about 1% of our income each year (we could do better) and it's distributed between a variety of charities. All of our decluttering goes to Goodwill or Salvation Army and I've probably dropped off 5-6 carloads of usable items in the past 2 years (part of MY decluttering). Every year I give my time to MS, or do charity walks, but all-in-all, it works out to only about $200 a year for my time. Boy, do I need to do better. My SO on the other hand does quite a bit of volunteer stuff. I'd have to mark it around $500 per year.

[Jorge]

I'd just like to say that in theory, I agree with you (pennywise), but in reality, I think people need to make a conscious effort to help those around them instead of depending on "the system".
However, it was frustrating to be paying for tuition in whole being a single mom and then seeing others with free rides or lots of other help. BUT, I don't think we should punish the kids for the parent's mistakes. Tough line to balance.

[sonj]

I used to give money to charites when I could afford it...now I donate just household items and clothes to a free clothing house.