Sunday 24 July 2011

Don't ever buy me a goat!

I must admit i have always thought of charity donation as a very personal thing.
For example i mainly support the alzheimer's society due to my nan having alzheimer's and the mnd association due to my uncle having mnd. Both have now passed away but i like the idea of perhaps one day, maybe not even in my lifetime but one day... a cure being found and other families not having to suffer losing their loved ones in the way me and my family have.

Other people i presume will tend to support charities that they have some sort of connection with. Either through relatives, themselves or something they love like animals.

There are several charities i avoid, for example those that send me pens and raffle tickets all the time even though i never requested them and they seem to send them out to everyone as it says "to the householder" rather than my name. Several charity bosses seem to live in upmarket houses, drive really expensive cars and a few well known charities have given the same sob story on adverts for the last 10 years. For example if we haven't managed to stop at least some children in poverty stricken places from dying every few minutes by now then something is seriously wrong.  Especially when you think of how much must of been sent to them in 10 years. I also doubt we are the only country sending them money. So what has actually happened to our money over the years?  What have we improved? Nothing if you believe the adverts

So if i ever receive a gift certificate telling me i have sent some country a goat, chickens, a toilet or other such nonsense i wouldn't be very impressed. Not because i don't have a heart but because i think the majority of the money that goes on some charities never ends up where it's supposed too. Thinking about it, i would rather support small local charities that really seem to struggle to exist. At least then i would have a feeling of the money actually being appreciated and used for its purpose.

4 comments:

  1. Good point. Something which annoys me is many of the countries we send aid to have more millionaires than we do, yet they can't be arsed to help out their own people, so it falls to us - the tiny little island. That said, I give as much as I can to charity as SOME of it has to get there.

    Did you know that less than 1% of the rubble has been cleared from Haiti (last time I heard)? Shocking!!

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  2. I'm with you. I tend to help out charities locally where I know the money is going. I stopped giving to the United Way when I found out that their ceo and upper management were getting 2% interest loans from United Way when the rest of us were paying 13%.
    Ann

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  3. Now you will laugh out loud because you know the goat thing ... well I did that one year because I was SO tardy with my Christmas shopping that I thought this would be a perfect fix! (You are probably right about the money though).

    Well, my 14 year old niece got to be the benefactor - she, via me, got to buy an African household a goat! When she received the card telling her she'd supported the cause and would not be getting a beautifully gift wrapped, exquisite piece of jewellery from her Aunty, her jaw dropped six inches!

    I have supported NSPCC for 30+ years by monthly DD and I am fairly certain that they do a good job of making certain as much of the money as possible goes to the children they are there to help. I'm a keen advocate of helping to support children - they are after all, our future.

    Thanks for your #FF ;o))

    @Ladybizbiz

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  4. I appreciate everyone supports different charities, i do think it's a personal thing though. Yet it's always nice to get different views. :)

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