Doing stuff for charity... am I missing the point?

[filthy1980]

a lot of organized charities are a racket, fund raising largely goes towards paying everyday operating costs, the "cause" is last in line and generally only see the benefits if there are "profits" leftover once costs are covered

there does also seem a mass door knocking drive by charities lately, all seemingly employing ideological students, within the last 2 months i've had three different charities knock on the door, all for different causes but with the same pitch, usually open up by quoting an IMF/WHO/UNICEF etc stat followed by a closed question which you can only answer one way i.e. (in the last year we've stopped 20 kids dying, that's great right"?) then they use that answer to wrangle money out of you

but they don't just want money or donation, they want a monthly direct debit

well they can f**k right off

i offer to make a one off donation and pull my wallet out, they say they can't accept cash only DD's, i say do you have website i can make donations on, they reply yes, i close the door

[Paddy]

OK so why should I pay for a bunch of white middle class people to feel like they've achieved something with their lives? I'm not interested in rewarding them for beating a challenge, surely their real challenge is getting the will-power to do these things without needing someone pushing them!

Exactly

[northernladuk]

OK so why should I pay for a bunch of white middle class people to feel like they've achieved something with their lives? I'm not interested in rewarding them for beating a challenge, surely their real challenge is getting the will-power to do these things without needing someone pushing them!

But there in lies the problem.. You are not paying them.. You are giving your money to charity and unfortunately people don't tend to give a tulip about any charity unless there is an event tied it or some sob story on TV. If you give that amount freely and regularly then just politely decline and point out you have already given.. Unfortunately a vast majority of the public don't have have to be cajoled by events like this.

Have to say it makes me laugh how it takes one day a year and hours of picture of starving kids for some people put their hand in their pocket and donate £5. They even have the gaul to have a go at me when I won't donate to that event even though I give 100's freely and they have to be told to give a fiver. I give to charity freely, I don't like being asked/begged for it.

[Mich the Tester]

OK so why should I pay for a bunch of white middle class people to feel like they've achieved something with their lives? I'm not interested in rewarding them for beating a challenge, surely their real challenge is getting the will-power to do these things without needing someone pushing them!

Yep, but you know that's unlikely to happen. I really wonder how many people are self-motivated to train and run without others around them or a push from their surroundings. I am, but I'm a bit nutty. Perhaps you could see it this way; you're investing in them doing something worthwhile together, which can't be a bad thing for the local area, and the local area also benefits from the food bank being stocked up.

On that tangent, the food banks here in NL are struggling to meet demand. Scary that in one of the world's richest countries there are tens of thousands of people depending on charity hand outs for their food. Good in the sense that people will donate food to help others, but scary that it's necessary.

[mudskipper]

When I did Lejog, I lost 3 weeks billing, and paid for B&Bs, food, transport to/from start and finish. Probably cost me around 10K all in all. Three of us did it - between us we raised about 2K for Sue Ryder. But the point was that we wanted to do Lejog, and would have done it anyway without the charity angle. If the charity could benefit from us doing it, all the better.

Edit: and when we were doing it, and saw donations coming in, it was motivational during the tough days!

[shaunbhoy]

OK so why should I pay for a bunch of white middle class people to feel like they've achieved something with their lives? I'm not interested in rewarding them for beating a challenge, surely their real challenge is getting the will-power to do these things without needing someone pushing them!

Hey, it is your prerogative to be a tightwad if you like d000hg. Nobody is holding a gun to your head.

Blessed are the poor and all that..............or not, apparently.

[DimPrawn]

On that tangent, the food banks here in NL are struggling to meet demand. Scary that in one of the world's richest countries there are tens of thousands of people depending on charity hand outs for their food. Good in the sense that people will donate food to help others, but scary that it's necessary.

A lot of people have very little money left for food after they've paid out for the essentials .... like smokes, drink, a new tattoo and satellite TV sub.

[Mich the Tester]

Played lots of 'charity' rugby matches or tournaments for charity sides, and it can be great fun. Fondest memory was playing in a team that raised money to pay for providing counselling to kids who'd been bullied and sending schools on 'challenge days'. I went on one of the challenge days myself, along with a couple of other players and a hundred kids from a school in Holland. Quite a confronting experience that probably did everyone some good.

[Gibbon]

About 30 people, around half from my church, successfully completed the 3 Peaks this weekend in support for the local Food Bank. It's a great cause and I admire their dedication but according to their JustGiving page they have raised £650 - let's say £1500 with other pledges included.

To take part, each person had to pay £120 towards accommodation and extensive travel costs. So after slogging their guts out and giving up time training, if each of them had just given (hah!) £120 to charity they would have raised £2000 more, i.e. double. Not excluding money spent on kit for the event.

Now to me, it seems that if they really cared about the cause they would have been better off not doing the 3P at all. Of course we can talk about them spreading the word but if we assumed that has negligible effect, am I missing the point or are they?

You missed out on a religious experience, apparently the vicar from Horton or Settle used to go up Pen-y-Ghent in a thunder storm and talk to God.

Otherwise I agree with and since I gave some money for a charity sky dive years ago and found out all the costs came out before the money went to charity I've never given to these type of events. I do give to the non aggressive homeless though and never to those chuggers who fill whole streets.

[TheFaQQer]

They even have the gaul to have a go at me

Unless they are using Asterix (or one of his friends), it's "gall".