Giving to one charity - home or abroad?

c_man

Home. Never give to Trocaire or the likes. You'd have to be demented to think your money will make it to Africa!

Benny_Cake

Fair play to you OP. Whether you give at home or abroad,try and pick a charity that isn't spending vast amounts on Admin.That,for me would also include organisations that use "chuggers".I'll be giving a few quid to the Capuchin centre in Dublin,the provide meals,showers and food parcels to the homeless and needy.They need more help than ever now,a sign of the times.

starbelgrade

Ellie2008 wrote: »

Because...if you tax people excessively you remove the incentive to work, particularly the lower paid.

That's not necessarily true. If taxes are high but are spent equitably on the provision of top class services to the public, there is less of a need to earn more as the costs of education, health, housing, childcare, roads & other social infrastructures becomes less expensive.

There are ways of taxing - but more importantly ways of spending tax - which don't reduce people's disposable income & actually increase their overall standard of living.

The problem with Ireland is that our governments constantly have low tax rates & provide crap and expensive public services. People are happy enough when taxes are low and they have money, but when higher taxes are required, we are unhappy to pay them as we know that we don't get value for money on them from the services they go towards funding.

If the opposite were the case, you would see very few charities dealing with social problems in this country as there would be little or no call for them.

old hippy

Hmmm. The last charities I've given to were for Japan tsunami, Haitian quake and a local gig to raise money for people affected by the riots.

NIMAN

Thanks again, plenty of good ideas there.

I think I will stick with local charities.

Only ones I don't agree with would be Japanese tsunami (Japan is one of the worlds wealthiest countries) and anything to do with animals. To be honest I like animals, but I'm afraid all humans would have to take precedence for me.

My name is URL

If you're going to give to an international charity then consider MSF. They do some fine work

old hippy

NIMAN wrote: »

Thanks again, plenty of good ideas there.

I think I will stick with local charities.

Only ones I don't agree with would be Japanese tsunami (Japan is one of the worlds wealthiest countries) and anything to do with animals. To be honest I like animals, but I'm afraid all humans would have to take precedence for me.

As Japan has played such a major part in my life, I wanted to give something back. It's a personal thing.

(Japan may well be wealthy but it's been in a recession since the 90s)

Shenshen

NIMAN wrote: »

... anything to do with animals. To be honest I like animals, but I'm afraid all humans would have to take precedence for me.

That what most Irish people seem to think... I think that was one of the biggest culture shocks I ever suffered.

Freddie59

Ellie2008 wrote: »

I'm not sure I understand what social responsibilities are you referring to? There is only so much an individual can control do do we just sit back and wait for social change and meanwhile people starve....

I don't give to sports clubs either, nothing wrong with sport of course but I fail to see why I should help pay for others to do it unless you re talking about little kids in a badly offer area, but full grown men playing football they can pay for it.

Do you not realise that these 'fully grown men' are running, in some cases, several juior teams, providing for these young people out of their own time? One to ponder as you look down your nose at them. And so what if they're collecting for a 'badly off area'.:mad:

Freddie59

NIMAN wrote: »

There are so many adverts in the media these days looking for money and I was thinking of donating something for Xmas, I was wondering who to give to.

The choice is endless.

Should I give to an Irish or a 3rd world charity?
Should I help my own people or people on the other side of the world?
Would an Irish donation make more impact than trying to donate to the 3rd world problem?
Should I be asking these questions?

What would you do?

Gave to Trocaire recently. Then found out the CEO is on €120k a year, with two others on €100k a year. Never again. That's SIX THOUSAND EURO A WEEK to pay three people's wages. it's nuts.

In future I will be checking on the salaries of these people before donating.

Ellie2008

Freddie59 wrote: »

Ellie2008 wrote: »

I'm not sure I understand what social responsibilities are you referring to? There is only so much an individual can control do do we just sit back and wait for social change and meanwhile people starve....

I don't give to sports clubs either, nothing wrong with sport of course but I fail to see why I should help pay for others to do it unless you re talking about little kids in a badly offer area, but full grown men playing football they can pay for it.

Do you not realise that these 'fully grown men' are running, in some cases, several juior teams, providing for these young people out of their own time? One to ponder as you look down your nose at them. And so what if they're collecting for a 'badly off area'.:mad:

I think its clear enough from my post that i meant that I wouldn't donate to adults playing football with eachother. I was absolutely not looking down my nose at anyone so I am sorry if you mistook the tone of my post. All I meant by badly off area was that if a rugby team from Blackrock college or wherever were fundraising I won't donate frankly they don't need it.

I have great admiration for people who give up their free time to coach kids so please do not accuse me of looking down on anyone.

Freddie59

Ellie2008 wrote: »

I think its clear enough from my post that i meant that I wouldn't donate to adults playing football with eachother. I was absolutely not looking down my nose at anyone so I am sorry if you mistook the tone of my post. All I meant by badly off area was that if a rugby team from Blackrock college or wherever were fundraising I won't donate frankly they don't need it.

I have great admiration for people who give up their free time to coach kids so please do not accuse me of looking down on anyone.

Apologies to you likewise. There are so many people giving of their free time for young people it is unbelieveable. And then a substantial amount of the Lotto money goes to fee paying clubs like Golf Clubs, etc.

Freddie59

NIMAN wrote: »

Thanks again, plenty of good ideas there.

I think I will stick with local charities.

Only ones I don't agree with would be Japanese tsunami (Japan is one of the worlds wealthiest countries) and anything to do with animals. To be honest I like animals, but I'm afraid all humans would have to take precedence for me.

The country may be wealty, but these are normal human beings like you and I. Every bit helps.

gigino

jack presley wrote: »

Whichever charity you choose, try and find out how much of the donation goes to salaries and other overheads and how much actually goes to the cause

+1. I googled a well know charity which helps kids in eastern europe etc at xmas time, and saw on their website accounts which show their staff get an average of 50k a year. There is even mention of the charity making payments towards their staff pensions too. Thats a lot more than most people in Ireland earn, yet they are looking for charity off us ?

Charity should begin at home anyway, instead of sucking money out of the country. The government is borrowing 700 million or so a year just to give to " charities" abroad anyway. ..thats more than enough.

old hippy

gigino wrote: »

Charity should begin at home anyway, instead of sucking money out of the country. The government is borrowing 700 million or so a year just to give to " charities" abroad anyway. ..thats more than enough.

Yeah, I was going to send money home to Ireland this year but as my home is now outside of Ireland... feck it.

On a personal level, I find the type of person who says charity begins at home are usually the biggest tightwads you could wish to meet.

seanknowsall

gigino wrote: »

jack presley wrote: »

Whichever charity you choose, try and find out how much of the donation goes to salaries and other overheads and how much actually goes to the cause

+1. I googled a well know charity which helps kids in eastern europe etc at xmas time, and saw on their website accounts which show their staff get an average of 50k a year. There is even mention of the charity making payments towards their staff pensions too. Thats a lot more than most people in Ireland earn, yet they are looking for charity off us ?

Charity should begin at home anyway, instead of sucking money out of the country. The government is borrowing 700 million or so a year just to give to " charities" abroad anyway. ..thats more than enough.

I never give to foreign charities. We have always had enough needy causes at home. I sorry but Africa is not of any concern to me. St. vincent de paul and local cancer hospice gets my donation ( sadly not alot). I was watching a news report on rte news the other evening about the shoebox appeal for children in.....uganda etc. I was so angry to see the well off do gooders packing boxes for children in foreign places. What about charity starting at home??

Dudess

Yeah, where does "charity begin at home" come from? It's presented as fact, but it's just an opinion.
I'd send money to a charity that needs it most urgently - a disaster far afield is more worthy than a local club IMO. Not that I wouldn't support a local club either, but if it was a case of either that or the disaster-afflicted place, well, no-brainer for me.

old hippy

seanknowsall wrote: »

I never give to foreign charities. We have always had enough needy causes at home. I sorry but Africa is not of any concern to me. St. vincent de paul and local cancer hospice gets my donation ( sadly not alot). I was watching a news report on rte news the other evening about the shoebox appeal for children in.....uganda etc. I was so angry to see the well off do gooders packing boxes for children in foreign places. What about charity starting at home??

What an ugly sentiment, indeed. Fortunately, some of us do gooders care about the welfare of fellow human beings and can see the bigger picture.

foxyboxer

I give 10% of my earnings to the church first thing each month.














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Benny_Cake

seanknowsall wrote: »

I never give to foreign charities. We have always had enough needy causes at home. I sorry but Africa is not of any concern to me. St. vincent de paul and local cancer hospice gets my donation ( sadly not alot). I was watching a news report on rte news the other evening about the shoebox appeal for children in.....uganda etc. I was so angry to see the well off do gooders packing boxes for children in foreign places. What about charity starting at home??

What is it with people complaining about "do-gooders"?. We should help out to the best of our abilities - there are good organisations working at home and abroad which are deserving of our support. Suffering,wherever it happens,is everyone's concern.

gigino

most of the money ends up in the pockets of the "charity" workers themselves, or corrupt customs officials etc.
Charity begins at home. Keep the money circulating here.
Our government gives enough hundreds of millions of OUR money already to the nuclear power of Pakistan, to corrupt regimes in Africa to buy more arms etc.

old hippy

gigino wrote: »

most of the money ends up in the pockets of the "charity" workers themselves, or corrupt customs officials etc.
Charity begins at home. Keep the money circulating here.
Our government gives enough hundreds of millions of OUR money already to the nuclear power of Pakistan, to corrupt regimes in Africa to buy more arms etc.

:rolleyes: Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

I'm also going to stop buying Irish produce as I should be concentrating on the economy of the place I now call home. I might have words with employers here, too & ask them to only employ British people, get rid of all the Irish and other undesirables.

Because that's the way forward, isn't it? :rolleyes:

gigino

old hippy wrote: »

Because that's the way forward, isn't it? :rolleyes:

no, the way forward is to pay charity heads 250,000 a year plus pension, and send the rest of the money to corrupt governments in the 3rd world. Did you know Concorde was used once just to ferry in champagne + chocolates for a dictators party in Africa ?

old hippy

gigino wrote: »

no, the way forward is to pay charity heads 250,000 a year plus pension, and send the rest of the money to corrupt governments in the 3rd world. Did you know Concorde was used once just to ferry in champagne + chocolates for a dictators party in Africa ?

Which country in Africa? Are you aware that a few incidences of corruption does not make the rest of the world untouchable?

I wonder would your stance change if Ireland was to be hit by a flood, quake or famine in the future?

carfiosaoorl

I would donate to a local charity. I just picked a few charities that i donate to, they are ISPCC, Autism Ireland and Irish lifeboats.

Voodoo_rasher

your own - the 3rd World is a bottomless moneypit which has Bono to care for it.

Indeed have you not heard that Unicef will soon be launching a Save the Irish Children appeal soon? (oops being sarky here)

old hippy

Voodoo_rasher wrote: »

your own - the 3rd World is a bottomless moneypit which has Bono to care for it.

I'm actually astounded at the misinformation & falsehoods being posted here. Very disheartening indeed.

gurramok

On the subject, a homeless man died last night in Dublin. I've given to Capuchin centre before a few times, at least they are not a 'business charity'.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1206/dublin.html

Wibbs

old hippy wrote: »

I'm actually astounded at the misinformation & falsehoods being posted here. Very disheartening indeed.

How is it misinformation? If you are an old hippie then like me you will have watched throughout your life as on a yearly basis the Trocaire box was passed around, followed hard on their heels by radio and TV ads. And what has changed? The help the third world ads doing the rounds on TV today look the same as they did 20 years, 30 years ago. Yet trillions have been ploughed into these areas. Einstein said the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. New thinking needs to applied. The richer nations need to grab the bull by the bollocks and try new strategies, not keep giving money or going on white guilt holidays to build brick houses or worse of all expensive charity events like runs/cycling type marathons to "help the third world". That waste of money is beyond daft. I know a guy who did one of those Sahara runs for Africa type things. Came back with a severe, near fatal dose of Smugitis. Yea and how much did your air fare cost? And your aircon hotel and your food? Go away.

As already mentioned, the admin costs with some charities are beyond ridiculous. If you're earning 100 K a year, don't try to guilt me and wave a chugger box in my face, or you'll be risking a prostate check with it. If Geldof or Bono do so then expect it rammed so far up it will catch in your back teeth.

Secondly every single one of us reading this is already giving to the third world in the form of overseas aid. http://www.dfa.ie/home/index.aspx?id=25276 Out of date figures, it's closer to 7-800 million euros today. How would that figure help this current government balance our books and help people on the street? Worse still, we're now running at a major loss as a country, yet we're borrowing to make up this figure and taking it from the tax base. If a company was going bankrupt and the accountants spotted a monthly standing order to a charity that was being paid out of company loans and profits they'd have a fit, yet this is what is effectively going on.

Thirdly as a nation we've done a helluva lot already. Far in excess of our size. And we've been doing it since the foundation of this state. People forget the large group of Irishmen and Irishwomen who "went on the missions" in the mid 20th century. Many never came back. We have given and continue to give out of proportion to our size. In the economic shítfest that was 80's Ireland, we gave more per head than any other nation with the exception of tiny and rich Bermuda to Live Aid. Yep good oul Ethiopia. Massive population boom since then and more and more famines. Rinse and repeat.

Sorry as far as I'm concerned when we are looking down the barrel of hardship for so many of our citizens, hardship that will result in disease and death for many of them, I think WTF. People are dying at this moment on hospital trollies for want of a bed. It may even hasten their end, or at best take the dignity from it. Old people are at risk of dying from cold this winter. Carers who are taking a large burden onto themselves and from the state(and the rest of us) are in difficulty. There are families I know where the kids are freezing because they can't afford heat and are also going to bed hungry. So no, feck overseas charities at the moment. Especially overpriced and ineffectual ones. At least look to our own first and if we have any left over or we're in a better financial state then look beyond our shores.

old hippy

"Look to our own"?

Ugh. To think sometimes I actually miss Ireland.