Ask:
There are just so many places to give money away.
How do you decide where to give your money?
How do you know which places are legitimate?
How about door to door solicitations? - How do you feel about those?
What about kids selling chocolate bars door to door?
What about phone solicitations?
Friends involved in a fund raiser walk or run?
I believe strongly in being generous with our finances but lately I really don't like being put on the spot and asked directly if I'd consider giving.
What are your thoughts?
Answer:
We do a lot of our giving locally. I also tend to research things a bit to make sure they jive with our religious beliefs. (For example, there are some nationally known and popular organizations that I refuse to give money to because of their support for abortions. But, that is OUR choice. I get some flack for it, but that is what we believe.)
I tend to give to the local Caring and Sharing program, the Catholic Outreach program both of which provide food, clothing, shelter and money to those who need it locally.
This year we are donating towards the American Cancer Society because of our pastor's recent death from lung cancer. His family is putting together quite the tent for the Relay for Life.
My dh gives at work through a federal program, but that is sort of a "have to" thing when you get to his level. We don't disagree with where the money goes and we can choose from a number of organizations.
When the tsunamis hit, we did give some money to the Catholic Relief Services because it really upset us. Just the sheer number of people who died, orphaned and left homeless was staggering. That was the only way we could think to help those on the other side of the world. We also researched which organizations provide more money and less of it goes towards overhead costs when we decided where to send the money.
As far as door to door stuff, I tend to buy from the kids I know, but I am a sucker, too. I hated doing that in school and wish they would not make the kids now. We do NOT send it in with dh to work though. I just think that is so wrong! My dh has people under him who might feel they "have to" buy to stay in his good graces. If a person writes ANY reviews (my dh does), I don't think it is right to take stuff into work to sell. I didn't like it when I worked so I don't think we should do it to others.
Answer:
Now that we are more involved with our Church most of our donations go there, there really isnt enough to spread around to everyone.
In the past we have supported the Cancer Society, Hemophilac assoc. (dh has it) and Juvenile Diabetes foundation (my mother passed from that awful disease)
Door to Door and Phone NO unless you count Easter Seals and Purple Heart for clothing donations.
Dislike the school fundraisers but do pass out to grandmas and aunts. Dont want to get dh involved to take to work it would be a vicous cycle imo.
He does give to the United Way which is fine but its sort of a forced charity in the working world!
Answer:
How do you decide where to give your money? Research...
How do you know which places are legitimate? Research...
How about door to door solicitations? We don't give to those.
What about kids selling chocolate bars door to door? We don't give to those either.
What about phone solicitations? Nope
Friends involved in a fund raiser walk or run? Nope, not typically
We give a big chunk to our church, where we are very involved. We also donate to our kids school. Other donations, it really depends. After the tsunami happened, we gave a large donation. Before we donated though, we research who to give to, how much of what we give goes to the people that need it etc
We donate our time at two shelters in our area...donating gently used items like clothing, toys, kitchen items etc Dh took our two sons when he worked on a team project painting and doing some general fixing up of a women's shelter in our area. We continue to help, financially and with our time because we really believe in what is being done there, that people are being helped etc I think it's also very important for our kids to see that not everybody has a warm bed to sleep in, shoes on their feet and food to eat. That it's important to help.
Answer:
I am very stingy with my money, mainly because I have to be. If I had enough to donate, I would. Even now, I try to donate to the Salvation Army and the Cancer Research Society. But I don't donate to fundraisers for the schools and stuff like that.
Answer:
i donate to cancer society (my mom died very young from) and my sister does the race for the cure.
our district does not have kids sell stuff. they do fundraisers and we donate pop cans for these types of things not door to door sales.
never phone solicitations or door to door either.
Answer:
This is something we struggle with. My husband is a teacher and is constantly getting hit up to buy something. It's hard to know where to draw the line. We donate to our church weekly. We also donate to St. Jude's Hospital when we have the extra money, although it's only $10 here and there. We do donate to friends doing walks or fundraisers, but only about $10-$20. We do buy from the kids that go door to door usually. We do not buy from random people who are selling a magazine subscription (I learned the hard way and never got my magazine and the company was a sham). If we had more, we would donate more, so we do what we can. We try and donate our time to things in order to make up for the money we can't donate. I have learned to stop going to parties that I'm invited to like jewelery parties or parties along that line. We just don't have the money.
Answer:
We give locally through our church as well as to some outreach programs that we have worked with and know where the money goes. Also, some larger organizations -like St Judes.
I no longer give through phone solicitations. They annoy me, have frequently been rude and I learned that with some, such a small % goes to the organization.
Door to Door- not usually, but depends. We try to do a little if its kids we know doing something for charity. And, try to find something cheap if its kids we know selling for their school. But, that depends on when they hit me up, and what they seel. I like buying pizza and cookie dough, not big on some of the other things.
We try to do walks and such when we can, so do try adn support our friends likewise when we are able to
Answer:
How do you decide where to give your money? I donate to causes I care especially about- the Humane Society is one I support. Also the American Lung Associate, because those problems have affected my family. I will give some money after a major disaster also.
How do you know which places are legitimate? I give to national organizations that I know to be reputable. A while back I look up to see what percentage of donations go to benefit the cause.
How about door to door solicitations? - How do you feel about those? Almost never
What about kids selling chocolate bars door to door? Every time with candy bars and I usually will buy other items too, especially if I know the kid.
What about phone solicitations? Very rarely
Friends involved in a fund raiser walk or run? Every time, but just a small donation
Answer:
I do not EVER donate money to charities using a paid fund raising company, the percentages of what goes to the actual charity are horrendously low...all of our donations go to our local church or our denominational charities and missions..
~C~