Do you give to charity? Why? Why not?

[auckland investor]

Do you give some of your salary or investment income away to charity?

Be it church, community group, St John, etc.

Various books on finance say to put a certain amount aside.

Personally I never give to charity. Most of them are big multinational corporations so I'm not even sure where the money goes.

[Toasty]

I sponsor a child through World Vision ($600ish pa), another $500 pa to WWF for some NZ wildlife sanctuary. And random amounts to people who ring up about sick kids and penguins etc and the odd street colector. Probably around $1500 pa all up.

This is less than .01%of my before tax and expenses income. Pretty sad really. Should really be doing more but you only have to look around to wonder if it really does anything.

[PC]

Only to specific charities with honesty about their "admin" costs and some certainty as to what happens with the money.
e.g. Starship hospital support.
Door knockers or beggars - please go away.

[drelly]

I tend to give to the Sallies and Cancer charities but no regular payments. I have supported various charities with web design work over the years but I've found that my loyalty is rarely (ever) returned or appreciated, so I've stopped doing any new work. I've worked in charity before as well and a lot of people doing that sort of work seem to forget the importance of showing appreciation to those who support them.

This is less than .01% of my before tax and expenses income. Pretty sad really. Should really be doing more but you only have to look around to wonder if it really does anything.

You make $15m a year?

[TheLiberalLeft]

Toasty - you make $15,000,000 and give away $1500?

[Wayne]

I give my time to my local Lions club. No admin fees at all - all money collected goes to those in need.

[donna]

Toasty our (Marc & i) charity contributions are the same as yours and also less than 1 percent (I think you meant 1 percent not .01%).

When we die - the charities do better going from less than 1 percent contribution to over 10 percent.

Some people are better at giving their time and that is very valuable and much needed.

cheers,

Donna

[CaptainLoo]

I'm surprised St John get away with calling themselves a charity. As far as I can tell they do nothing without getting paid.

[Davo36]

I donate a small amount each month to a few charities.

I've also put in a lot of time, setting up databases etc. Some charities treat you really well, some don't. The Auckland SPCA was terrible.

[essence]

Helicopter Rescue (or whatever it's called!), St Johns, Sallies, Poppy Day..... that's about it.

Greenpeace & all those planet saving, penguin cuddling, sandal wearing, hemp clothed, hippies who don't cut their hair...... don't come and accost me while I'm shopping, I SNARL!!

[Wayne]

I'm surprised St John get away with calling themselves a charity. As far as I can tell they do nothing without getting paid.

Maybe a little unfair - we (Lions) use their disability shuttle for a day at an event we have and they do that fo nothing. We provide a donation but that is always afetr the event.

[CaptainLoo]

Maybe a little unfair - we (Lions) use their disability shuttle for a day at an event we have and they do that fo nothing. We provide a donation but that is always afetr the event.

Youre lucky, community trolley derby here was quoted $250 an hour, minimum five hours, to have them attend a two hour kids event.

They complain of being used as a taxi but I don't know of any taxi who would charge $65 for four ks like St John charged my cousin.

[CaptainLoo]

Just after writing that got a visit from a friend who ended up in Wanganui hospital, they didn't kill him but tried to discharge him at 10pm. Ride home with St John was going to be $700. 87km ride.

Charitable much?

[Simmo]

Yeah I must say a bill I received from St John came as a bit of a shock. The way it was pursued was overly aggressive too IMO.

Ironically my ride in the helicopter was free. Guess where my donation dollars go first????

[Winston001]

I too support chosen charities and recognise that its impossible to know quite how efficent they are. And how effective my donations are. But its easy to be cynical at which point you close the door and that is not my character.

I've supported the SPCA (life member), World Vision, the Blind Foundation, and First Church Invercargill for 25 years. I'm also a trustee for various charities and former chair of Habitat For Humanity, Invercargill. Went on a voluntary project to India a few years ago at my own cost. Excellent and worth doing if you'd like an interesting trip overseas.

I also volunteer at Habitat's charity shop which is enjoyable and nicely dovetails with my Scottish ethic of reusing furniture clothing etc for other people to benefit. Waste not want not.