Charity

[jeffreyab]

How many of you give to charity?

Roughly how much and how often?

Comments

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

We average between $500-1000 per year. Usually there are one or two lumps donated to favorite charities around Christmas time, and then irregular donations to the church collection basket. We also give most of our unwanted stuff to charity--so a few bags of clothes, old books, household stuff--say once a quarter. I would actually like to do better. Given our income, this is pretty stingy. But we have debt that needs paying off, too.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

We do, but I prefer not to give dollar values.

We also donate to political causes.

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

We also give clothing to secular charities. We don't give to charities that discriminate.

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Much less than I'd like. We donate things to Goodwill and make occasional financial contributions. I've got royalties from a small-press mainstream book going to RAINN and a local rape center. But mostly, income goes into things like diapers and keeping the house.

[elmwood.livejournal.com]

We do. Annually, we make a largish donation to Street Kids International. On a more ad hoc basis we get hit up by local charities who come to the door when they are having drives - The Cancer Society, MS. This year, my eleven year eschewed birthday presents in favour of donations in his name. He chose the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Alzheimer's Society.

[charlie-ihsan.livejournal.com]

I donate as much as I can to Goodwill, and also am a member of the Arbor Day foundation. So I donate to them... but I don't have as much money as I'd like to donate to people. :(

[snarkactual.livejournal.com]

I do a little volunteer work for various organizations, probably less than I'd like. I give money to certain charities, especially Ronald McDonald House, Make a Wish Foundation, American Cancer Society, Komen Foundation, Ovarian Cancer Research Fund and United Cerebral Palsy. Most recently I've added FallenHeroesFund and Fisher House Foundation to the list. I tend to empty my loose change in the Salvation Army buckets during the Holidays. Sometimes donate to the local JCC and Hadassah Hospital charities. I tend to donate a little to animal shelters. Essentially, I donate a little from every pay period. The Cancer charities are because I survived two wives who died of cancer at an early age and hope someday no one has to go through that. I give to Ronald McDonald House, because of what I saw during trips to distant cancer treatment centers (Houston, Cleveland, San Francisco, San Diego). I give to United Cerebral Palsy because I have a god son afflicted with the disease. The more recent ones, because Soldiers wounded in war should have the best rehabilitation and a place for their families to be near them that this country can offer. The Salvation Army is an old habit started as a child even though we didn't have much, we had more than others. The JCC and Hadassah are because my son used to ask me for money for them. Animal shelters because pets give so much and don't deserve a raw deal.

Sometimes I just do stuff, sort of random acts of kindness except with money, food or what not. When asked, I tell the person if they get a chance, do the same for someone else. Who knows, it may come back around someday.

[corbet.livejournal.com]

For the past ten years or so I always gave around $300/year via United Way, but at the moment that's not the case. I've been giving smaller amounts to relief funds.

[pompe.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to define charity. Is environmental protection charitable? World Wildlife Fund?

Nevertheless, I give once a year to certain international charities like Med.Sans Frontiers, and I give away old stuff to the homeless-helping organizations in the city. On occasion I've also given money to medical research funds.

I also tend to give to specific aid efforts as they come up - Darfur, the quake in Pakistan etc, and the typical amount I give is around 50euro or so in such cases. As I think my civilized nation should use some of my tax money to help the needy here, I prefer to give to efforts abroad where people don't have what we have or to science.

donations

[airynd.livejournal.com]

i give a lot of clothing and household items to goodwill and to local families and will volunteer my time for organizations i believe in (altho less now than i used to, sadly.) i don't have enough money for my bills, so i have a hard time giving it away.

allyson and rob (landlords, friends, neighbors) give 10% of their entire income to their church. ten percent of every dollar they receive, whether it's earned, a gift, a tax return, my rent money, everything. allyson says that since they started giving so much, money has never been a problem - it all comes back to them, somehow.

i wish i had a bazillion dollars to give away...nothing would make me happier!

[avt-tor.livejournal.com]

Last year I gave over $1000 to United Way, and a few hundred here and there for tsunami relief, Hurricane Katrina relief, and the Pakistan earthquake relief. this year I'm on a different payroll system so I've only made a couple of small donations. United Way is painless because it comes out before taxes; they can also forward to another charity, which I used to send some to Care.

(Turns out I gave to tsunami relief two months before the tsunami. Precognition helps once in a while.)

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Who was collecting for tsunami relief before the tsunami?

[gabriel-le.livejournal.com]

I sponsor a kid in India, and used to be more active in giving to charities when I was an active Christian.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

We contribute to the Red Cross every year. I drop off unused items at either the AAPS thrift shop or the Salvation Army, whichever is easier at the time. I donate blood regularly. I will send money to various charities in lieu of flowers when someone dies (I try to target the disease they died of; e.g. the American Cancer Society). Occasionally I ponder which charities I would support should I win the lottery and want to dump money on charities rather than the government, and wind up with ideas like Amnesty International, Medecins sans Frontieres, and Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation (because I used to do their bookkeeping).

I tend to get cynical fast with charities, because I saw too many of their checking accounts while I was working in Washington DC. I try to determine the compensation of the directors before donating, as too many directors of charities are getting six-figure salaries. Sorry, I don't really want to pay to send some bureaucrat's kid to Phillips Andover.

[scifi-sara.livejournal.com]

I give money here and there.

I also like to donate my time volunteering for special events like Fundraising Walks.

[haniaw.livejournal.com]

I usually donate around $1000 per year - dividing it between: Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, the United Way, Canadian Cancer Society, Heart & Stroke Foundation. I also buy sponsorship type memberships to the Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario, a portion of which is considered a donation and is therefore tax deductible.

Charity

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

We do.

Not nearly enough, and not nearly often enough.

B

[marcy-italiano.livejournal.com]

We sponsor a child in Africa. We donate clothes of course. And, I also consider our cell phone bill from New Orleans to Houston a donation. LOL! We've also been donating a lot to the local students getting ready for our move. HA! That's my quick answer. :)