[lindaelane]

I donate to Tunnel to Towers for free (in addition to my monetary giving). How? Every search I do on Bing creates a small donation. If you choose this search engine, there are various charities they donate to.

I donate to Compassion International for free (in addition to my monetary giving) How? Visiting smile.amazon.com instead of just amazon.com causes one-half of one percent of everything bought to be donated to the charity of your choice. It adds up.

I give a small amount to help hunger for free. Clicking at thehungersite.com (even while on a VPN) generates a small amount of food each time it is done. I mean to do it daily, though I sometimes forget. No email address is entered to give by clicking at this site. Many would not trust this but I have had no problem over the years and I do trust it. Make your own decision.

[lindaelane]

Originally Posted by Papa_lecki

First, look at the financial statement called “statement of activities” - it shows you the percent of costs spent on admin and fund raising. If that percent is above 7 to 10%, its not a well run charity.
).

I have always gone with "expenses" 15% or less, with 85% going directly to beneficiaries. Why? Because advertising is needed to increase the amount that is given - more will be helped if a charity advertises (within reason). Also, hiring able and talented people is important. Charities may see their best people leave if salaries are not competitive. I've been deeply involved with my favorite charity, Compassion International, visiting headquarters, working for them, attending special events, and I am convinced that the 15% to expenses is wise. They are careful to keep it under that percent. They have more than doubled the number of people they help over the years. I have visited the sites where they are helping and they do great work.

[oneclickplus]

Originally Posted by ccrider

First, let me say that I am not opposed to contributions to wherever you choose to make them. It's your money, time, etc.; your decision. However, now, when I pick up my mail, on some days 4 out of 5 pieces of mail are requests for money. Can't turn on the TV without being bombarded with requests for money. Like most people, I can afford a certain amount of my budget for this, and my question is: Is it better to spread your money around, making smaller contributions to more requests, or to make much larger ones to a few requests. Just trying to get a feel on how other people in The Villages feel.

I think the answer is that this is a very personal decision by each person. There is no one correct answer. Most of our charity money gets concentrated to a few priority organizations.

My opinion: from a practical standpoint, if you spread it out such that a larger number of organizations get small amounts, I think your overall effectiveness is diminished or possibly even neutered. Many will then use most / all of YOUR money to solicit you endlessly for additional $$. Personally, I can only use so many return address labels and small note pads.

[airstreamingypsy]

I give to Best Friends in Kanab Utah, and local animal shelters where I've adopted dogs. Best Friends is legit, and when they email for more money it's accompanied by pictures of cute puppies and kittens..... win win.

[ccrider]

Thanks loads. I am the originator of the thread, and I was amazed at the number of replies and the very good thoughts of all of them. Gave me the answers I needed.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by Mrmean58

Now that's solid reasoning. Give money to a charity you believe in and then punish them for sending you too much mail. If you ran a charity wouldn't you go back to those who have donated in the past?

But how often should they be sending you mail asking for donations?

Once a month, twice, three? People asking for further donations has gotten well out of hand

[Babubhat]

Give money locally where it makes a difference. Donating to large charities is like spitting in the ocean. They have no problem getting corporate funds

[joelfmi]

That is a business that makes money from people donating

[Battlebasset]

Some great stuff here. I'll reinforce the Amazon-Smile route. I set it up with our former church back north when we lived there. When we transferred our membership to another church here I left the Amazon-Smile with the old church, as it's a way to still support them.

Not too much on an annual basis (Maybe $50) but as noted if everyone that uses Amazon were to select a charity and do it, it adds up, and is absolutely painless once established.

[Bay Kid]

I prefer to donate local only.

[Fun in the sun 2]

Please make your donations count by checking to make sure the places you donate to are legitimate, have a good record of helping, and aren’t wasting your donation. I have saved almost all the donation requests over the last 15 months. I have made a list of all the groups in the notes section in my phone that we are considering donating to. A friend has written to those groups she is donating to and asking them to only send her mail once a year or they will be taken off the donation list. I intend to do that and give them a couple chances to stop sending requests. After that I will remove them. The hard part is narrowing the number of groups. Cancer groups, religious groups that provide care throughout the world such as those that helped out in Fort Myers (we volunteered with CRS), National Church Shrines, groups that help children like St. Jude’s, Shriner’s, etc. The one thing is we are going to donate once a year so we keep track of the donations. They can all be entered in the phone notes section. Best of luck! I am working on the donations and letters this week. I didn’t include that we give to our churches and food pantries throughout the year.

[theorem painter]

I want to thank you for bringing up the Villages Habitat for Humanity Club. We work very closely with the main affiliate, Habitat for Humanity Lake-Sumter, building homes in the area. We also have instituted a program here in The Villages called Villagers Home Assist where a team of volunteers will come to your house and help you with outside lawn care, power washing, painting, tree and bush trimming, etc, for a donation to our building fund so we can continue our mission to build houses in the area. If you are interested in donating, being a member of the Club or in the Villagers Home Assist Program, you can send an email to me, Sally Read, co-president of the Villagers Habitat Club at villagershabitat @ gmail. Our Club meets the 2nd Wednesday of the month at Sea Breeze Rec Center at 6:00 PM. Anyone is welcome to come and find more about our Club and the great work that we do.

PM[QUOTE=Janie123;2164653]We give to 3-4 charities + our church each year with our larger donations. I found that large charities have lots of local presences running as their own 501c3 where you can meet the local staff. For example Habitat for Humanity is huge but they have local 501c3’s all over the place that report up to them. HFH here in TV has Lake Sumter Habitat. I personally met the leaders there and then I felt good about my donations. Here in TV is a HFH club that fund raises and builds their own homes for the actual local HFH organization. Donations to the local org can be redirected to the club for the local home build.

[Bay Kid]

[QUOTE=theorem painter;2165230]I want to thank you for bringing up the Villages Habitat for Humanity Club. We work very closely with the main affiliate, Habitat for Humanity Lake-Sumter, building homes in the area. We also have instituted a program here in The Villages called Villagers Home Assist where a team of volunteers will come to your house and help you with outside lawn care, power washing, painting, tree and bush trimming, etc, for a donation to our building fund so we can continue our mission to build houses in the area. If you are interested in donating, being a member of the Club or in the Villagers Home Assist Program, you can send an email to me, Sally Read, co-president of the Villagers Habitat Club at villagershabitat @ gmail. Our Club meets the 2nd Wednesday of the month at Sea Breeze Rec Center at 6:00 PM. Anyone is welcome to come and find more about our Club and the great work that we do.

PM

Originally Posted by Janie123

We give to 3-4 charities + our church each year with our larger donations. I found that large charities have lots of local presences running as their own 501c3 where you can meet the local staff. For example Habitat for Humanity is huge but they have local 501c3’s all over the place that report up to them. HFH here in TV has Lake Sumter Habitat. I personally met the leaders there and then I felt good about my donations. Here in TV is a HFH club that fund raises and builds their own homes for the actual local HFH organization. Donations to the local org can be redirected to the club for the local home build.

You'll do a FANTASTIC job! My 2 homes look beautiful. Thank you for what you do.

[ThirdOfFive]

We donate to charities but do so on an individual basis, never through a third party and absolutely never to one of those one-size-fits-all charitable corporations. I'm not going to badmouth any reputable charity but there is a good chance that those conglomerates that dole out money to many different charities might be giving money to a cause that you don't necessarily agree with, or deny contributions to causes that you think might deserve more. Or at least something.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive

We donate to charities but do so on an individual basis, never through a third party and absolutely never to one of those one-size-fits-all charitable corporations. I'm not going to badmouth any reputable charity but there is a good chance that those conglomerates that dole out money to many different charities might be giving money to a cause that you don't necessarily agree with, or deny contributions to causes that you think might deserve more. Or at least something.

I once got a call from a telemarketer asking for a donation to a charity. It was a young, naive woman who was apparently calling from her house bacause I could hear children in the background. I asked her where she was located and she gave me the name of a small town in Texas. Then, I said to her, if I donate $100, how much money she would make? She said that she would keep $85 and send $15 to the charity. I told her that was fraudulent, and that she should be ashamed, get an honest job, and I hung up.