Does it begin at home?

[wincrasher]

There a lots of threads with budget details. Most people trying to solve debt problems, so they don't have the luxury of giving to charity.

So the question is, do many of you actually budget gifts to charity?

Are there things you regularly donate to, like monthly? Or do you kind of do it out of discretionary income - when it moves you?

I don't consider your weekly tithe at church in this category unless they have a big program giving to the community that you give this tithe to support primarily - i.e a woman's shelter, soup kitchen, hospice care, etc.

Do you consider charity a luxury if you can afford it, or is it a basic budget item?

[neatdesign]

At this point in time, yes -- donating money to charity is a luxury that I cannot afford. However, I try to make a difference in other ways, such as contacting my senators and representatives about issues that matter to me, my community, and the causes I care about. Voicing my opinion, after all, is free.

BTW, giving money to a church is most definitely a charitable donation. If it isn't, then you're giving your money to the wrong people for the wrong purpose.

~ Jenney

[wincrasher]

Jenny,

What I meant was that most churches your tithe supports the maintenance of the church and the programs to support the congregation - like trips, the music progam, sunday school, etc.

Some big churches do big programs in their communities, maybe even operating facilities like a soup kitchen or woman's shelter. You'd probably give more to support these kind of things.

[Seeker]

There a lots of threads with budget details. Most people trying to solve debt problems, so they don't have the luxury of giving to charity.

So the question is, do many of you actually budget gifts to charity?

Are there things you regularly donate to, like monthly? Or do you kind of do it out of discretionary income - when it moves you?

I don't consider your weekly tithe at church in this category unless they have a big program giving to the community that you give this tithe to support primarily - i.e a woman's shelter, soup kitchen, hospice care, etc.

Do you consider charity a luxury if you can afford it, or is it a basic budget item?

Interesting concepts here.

(1) DH & I do not "budget" for charity -- we use our own personal mad money for giving to others; if we so desire.
Same usually for gifts, unless it's a dual thing... for instance a marriage we both attend versus a birthday party for his friends versus my friends where only one of us may attend.

(2) Agree with the second poster, giving to church is not exactly budgeted but comes from the pool of "our" money. It's agreed upon. But with this, if DH & I were to lose our jobs, we would certainly suspend giving to the Church.

OP sees giving to the Chruch as an obligation... sorry, for us, it's an obligation only after our own needs are taken care of. I have no problems giving other things that come from spares (blankets from homeless drives that the church does come around Thanksgvving each year.

I suspect that many people give to charities around the end of each year in order to increase tax deductions as well... I'll admit that I've given more to charities in the past when I've actaully been able to itemize deductions. Now, I think with this economy, many charities are hurting.

[mdcrim]

I don't budget for charity per se, but I do donate household good regularly. I learned a few years ago that the several hours of my hosting yard sales and haggling never really brought in much money and donating the stuff to charity brought a much larger return. So we don't waste the time with yard sales, we just donate.

[kork13]

I do bugdet my charitable donations. For me, that includes tithing to my church (I personally consider it an obligation), charitable causes I give to through my church, and also a few charities through the Combined Federal Campaign. Tithing/donations to my church is fairly regular (within $10-20, month-to-month), and since it's a regular monetary outflow for me, I include it in my budget. Same with the CFC--the same amount is taken from my pay each month, so I account for that in my budget.

Including it in my budget just makes it easier for me to assess what money I really have available for me to play with. Works for me very nicely, but clearly it's not how everyone views it.

Looking back, I wanted to answer your last question more explicitly. I am doing very well for myself right now... well-paying and reliable employment, fairly little debt, and controlled expenses. I personally consider it an moral obligation to give as generously as is reasonable to the people who need it. Think of it as an obligation, moral humanity, karma, or simply a nice thing to do, but I think that giving to others is important. Even when I was making less than $500/mo in college, I still gave similarly as I do now (of course, fewer dollars to the charities, and 10% of 'not much' is 'even less').

[disneysteve]

I'm not exactly sure how to answer this. We don't really have a budget in the sense that we all generally use that term. We don't have a formal, written spending plan that spells out where every dollar goes every month.

That said, we do donate to charity on a regular basis. We have certain donations that we make each year. We are also members of our synagogue. Unlike churches, synagogues typically have set dues that one pays to be a member. Even though that is technically a donation, I don't really think of it as such. I think of it more as a standard bill just like a gym membership or school tuition. On top of that, we give other money to the synagogue throughout the year as pure donation.

We also support PBS, my undergraduate college, the local Jewish Federation and a few other causes.

[markusk]

I don't consider your weekly tithe at church in this category unless they have a big program giving to the community that you give this tithe to support primarily - i.e a woman's shelter, soup kitchen, hospice care, etc.

Do you consider charity a luxury if you can afford it, or is it a basic budget item?

If you give $100 to a "charity" how much goes to the overhead of that "charity" and how much to someone who is actually in need?

My understanding of "tithing" [to God] is that it is charitable giving but I do not believe we are necessarily called to give our tithes to a specific church. In other words, you can give all of your "tithes" to a homeless shelter, hospice, soup kitchen, etc, and God is still honored. However because we currently belong to a local church we consider our "spiritual home," and because we believe in the vision and the mission of our church, a significant portion of our tithe does go to support our church.

We budget our charitable giving. It was not easy and it does take some purposeful planing. For example, when we started off many years ago, it was from our discretionary income and it was only about 3% of our income. Over the years, we increased our giving by about 1% every year, and now it is a part of our budget like our electric bill and 401K (which is maxed by the way). Some wise peopel over the years told us that there will be circumstances/obligations and phases in our lives when we will not be able tithe 10%, but God understands.

Althought it is difficult at times not see charitable giving as an obligation, ultimately tithing is my response to God's grace.

[Caoineag]

I tend to volunteer time and items more than money. I usually pick a "project" and work from the viewpoint of accomplishing that. One of my "projects" was helping a friend move cross country and getting established. Another project I did was helping an acquiantance stay in college by paying for her books when she failed to get all the financial aid she needed.

As I get my debts paid off I plan on expanding my monetary donations to worthy organizations (I tend to research admin costs and so on). I personally think everyone should make an effort to make life better for their fellow human beings with whatever they have to offer. But that doesn't always require money, sometimes it just requires time and effort.

[wincrasher]

I'm beginning to think that the norm is that people give to things when they are hit up for it. That generally people respond to a disaster or event when the call goes out for donations. Or when people go door to door.

I've read some financial gurus believe if you budget a certain amount each month to give away, it changes your attitudes about yourself and your community in a positive way. I guess they are saying it builds positive karma.

I can see that.

[MonkeyMama]

I personally think of giving cash to charity as a luxury.

I think charity is very important. But I think it's more important to dig in and get your hands dirty. Giving money to charity is a bit like hiring a maid, in MY opinion. I know few would agree. But I wouldn't put charity high on my priority list financially. I have always preferred to volunteer time. When we both worked and had less time, we gave more cash to charity. I've way cut back my charitable giving since working full time and having kids (just no time and not a lot of cash) but my spouse, who does not work, spends hours every week volunteering in the community and for non-profits. BEfore kids, I always volunteered and he never did. So it kind of ebbs and flows but as a household we are pretty consistent.

I also don't like it as a monthly budget item. There are a few charities we give to annually. I like having the discretion to give more when something important comes up, or when we receive a windfall. This last year, with the economy, we have decided to give more, and more to the local food bank. Other times we may want to help a friend in need. I actually prefer more community work and helping out people we know who are in need rather than giving money to large organizations.

Actually, like another poster, our giving comes mostly from our mad money too. My dh does not like to give money to organizations at all. So if I want to, it comes from my mad money. (Which is code for the allowance we get for the stuff we don't agree about spending on). This year I talked him into giving away my Christmas bonus and donating some money to the school, from the budget. But that was rare. As we make more money he is more open to the "luxury" to give money away though.