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Do you give money to charities/non-profits?

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Re: Do you give money to charities/non-profits?

#11

Post by _benj »

There are a couple of charities that my wife and I donate to but a few are from people we have come to trust (John Green, MrBeast philanthropy) and something particular happened this year during my taxes (US), it was the first year that itemizing deductions made sense and I received an unusually high tax refund.

This is personal very personal but I see my privileged compensation in tech as a tool to help those who were where I was, and also because it brings me joy to help were I can. Talking with my accountant it does seem that I’m rather alone, at least among the population she works with, in my philosophy of giving, but it’s brought me satisfaction and unexpected financial benefits! (Who knew that giving gives back!)

Re: Do you give money to charities/non-profits?

#12

Post by dazc »

I'm against giving money to charities in principal as the money is often wasted, used inefficiently and, in some cases, enables people to continue to make bad choices in life.

However, I do donate to a small charity in the UK that provides beds for children living in relative poverty. https://zarach.org

Firstly, the money goes directly to help improve a child's life in a clear and visible way, regardless of whatever else his/her parent/s are spending their money on.

Secondly, it's a very small charity with only a couple of paid employees who are necessary for the organization to function and are not just a job creation scheme, for want of a better description.

/relative poverty as opposed to real poverty elsewhere in the world.

Re: Do you give money to charities/non-profits?

#13

Post by 1-12-2022-hn »

dazc wrote: post #12

I'm against giving money to charities in principal as the money is often wasted, used inefficiently and, in some cases, enables people to continue to make bad choices in life. However, I do donate to a small charity in the UK that provides beds for children living in relative poverty. https://zarach.org Firstly, the money goes directly to help improve a child's life in a clear and visible way, regardless of whatever…

Thanks a lot for the reply!

Re: Do you give money to charities/non-profits?

#14

Post by 1-12-2022-hn »

_benj wrote: post #11

There are a couple of charities that my wife and I donate to but a few are from people we have come to trust (John Green, MrBeast philanthropy) and something particular happened this year during my taxes (US), it was the first year that itemizing deductions made sense and I received an unusually high tax refund. This is personal very personal but I see my privileged compensation in tech as a tool to help those who we…

That is a very interesting scenario. Thanks for sharing!

Re: Do you give money to charities/non-profits?

#15

Post by mattbgates »

1-12-2022-hn wrote: post #7
mattbgates wrote: post #3

My priority in the United States: 1. Children's Hospitals (St. Judes, Ronald McDonalds house) 2. Animal Shelters (local is best) 3. Veterans 4. Teaching/Education Institutions 5. Climate Emissions (Stripe) Can't tell you that I'm donating thousands of dollars or anything like that, but usually if it asks for a donation at the end, I normally "round up" or donate a dollar. For children's hospitals, you want to look at…

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer! And great job taking care of your second grandfather! One thought of yours regarding charities in general that I find particularily interesting is: > you've done your research and you know at least 80% plus of your dollar is going to the actual cause I'm wondering what would be the effect of organizations guaranteeing (suppose they could guarantee) that 92% of your dollar is goin…

You want the majority of your funds to go to the cause rather than charity. It'd be great if we did live in a world where all of it could go towards paying for just the cause, but there can be a lot of overhead to make things happen, especially for hospital or bigger charities. I mean, I'd think that donating to an organization where 30 cents of my dollar is going towards the cause and 50 cents is going towards the admin/employee costs.

Take one of the biggest charity stores in the United States, Goodwill. Many people take their things there, drop them off, and they have a bunch of workers in the back getting paid to bring all that stuff in, make sure it works, clean it, price it, and put it back on the shelves, and sell it, for someone else to buy.

This is basically "community charity" where a portion of your dollar is going towards paying those workers, the overhead of the administration, and the locations themselves. CEO salary is about $500,000 to $1,000,000 per year. Is that necessarily a bad thing? Are people unhappy with the direction of the store? Sometimes I think this store has overpriced items for something that was donated to someone else, but who am I to judge? I didn't buy the location, keep the store open, waiting for people to drop off their things, and resell it. So in essence, it may not be a bad thing at all if only 50 cents of my dollar goes towards "charity".

Re: Do you give money to charities/non-profits?

#16

Post by mattbgates »

KomoD wrote: post #6
mattbgates wrote: post #3

My priority in the United States: 1. Children's Hospitals (St. Judes, Ronald McDonalds house) 2. Animal Shelters (local is best) 3. Veterans 4. Teaching/Education Institutions 5. Climate Emissions (Stripe) Can't tell you that I'm donating thousands of dollars or anything like that, but usually if it asks for a donation at the end, I normally "round up" or donate a dollar. For children's hospitals, you want to look at…

> but usually if it asks for a donation at the end, I normally "round up" or donate a dollar. "it"? what is "it"?

"It" is that machine where you swipe your card. It asks you if you want to donate an amount or sometimes round up your total bill so it donates the change.
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