Charity
 

Do you give to charity? If so, to which one(s)? This is not meant to brag about how generous we are, I just thought it would be nice to share with others some good causes we really believe in that others may not be aware of.

I used to give $10 or $20 to about 20 different charities throughout the year. Now I focus on just a few.

SPCA of Erie County - I donate to them weekly through payroll deduction.

St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital - same as above

American Cancer Society - donated through work a lot in the past

Best Friends Animal Society - Hubby & I found this place in UT. It was a total fluke, we happened to be driving by during our cross country trip in 2000 & saw the sign & decided to stop in. They do wonderful work - it's a no-kill shelter in the middle of a beautiful canyon.

Best Friends


Second Chance Boxer Resuce - This is the agency through which we adopted out Bubba. All volunteer, all non-profit.

Second Chance


I've also donated to the ONE campaign as well as the American Red Cross recently. I give clothes to Goodwill or the City Mission.

Wow Paula - that is impressive!!!

When I'm more settled financially and caught up with myself more I hope to donate more to charity.

FOr now all I have to donate really in my time - I've not done anything here in Rochester yet - but I just found out how to become a dog walker at the local shelter lol - and there's a homeless shelter that I've been looking into volunteering at :)

It's not all that impressive - a couple bucks here & there. I'm not exactly a philanthropist. :o

I wish I had more time to volunteer, but I just don't. Maybe I'm making excuses & I'm just lazy, who knows. I think it's great that you're thinking about volunteering. :nod:

And it's the thought that counts, right? :laugh:

No - I used to volunteer at this homeless place in Phoenix - for a week or two during the summer- three years in a row - LOVE that place. My dream is to be financially viable enough to take a year-long leave of absence from work and go work at Andre House in Phoenix full-time (They have a volunteer program - volunteers live and work Andre House all year) - it's just an amazing place and I've had amazing and life-changing experiences there.

Until then, however, I'm trying to find the right place for me to volunteer here :)

Canadian Diabetes Association
Tuberous Sclerosis Association
The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto)
Canadian Cancer Society
Save the Children

I'm not exactly rolling in the dough, but I try to give what I can. Here are a few to which I've donated in the past year:

R.O.S.E. Fund (provides victims of domestic violence with scholarships and funds for facial reconstruction surgery) http://www.rosefund.org

Environmental Defense Fund http://www.environmentaldefense.org

America's Second Harvest http://www.secondharvest.org

After the tsunami of last year, I gave to the Red Cross and UNICEF, and I give to a few local charities.

Fave charities
 

I am a volunteer for Hospice and I work in a soup kitchen every Thursday night.

I donate to:
 

At my school, I donate to all the food and blanket drives for the homeless. I also like to contribute to the Christmas donation for children who don't get any presents on Christmas.

As of a few minutes ago, you can add this one to my list. :)

Special Olympics
Feed the Children
Second Harvest

:thumbsup: :wavey:

I've looked into giving to a few on your list - Surfrider and the Ocean Conservancy. Glad to see they're recommended. :nod:

United Way - through payroll deduction

My college and university - I donate to scholarship and library foundations

Canadian Cancer Society

I am the friggin charity case! haha..I give to United Way once a year. Usually $25 or something of the sort. I just cant afford to help out charities when I'm struggling myself.

I used to volunteer more of my time to various charities (when I was in college) but I don't as much anymore (time constraints). :sorry:

I do donate to St. Jude's through an automatic payment once a month ($10 per month).

I donated to the American Red Cross after 9/11 and again after the tsunamis.

Pledged my friend who ran a marathon to benefit an organization that helps AIDS victims in the D.C. area.

I occasionally donate old clothes, and a few causes I'm considering in the near future:

Doctors without Borders (monetary donation)
Young at Heart Pet Rescue (a local pet rescue--donating some possessions and possibly volunteering for a fund-raising event or two, :) --even though this probably won't amount to much, if feels good to actually be doing something again).

Someone mentioned charity being tax-deductible. Just wanted to mention that although this is true, a lot of us who don't make enough or who don't have enough assets or sources of income or whatever to bother with itemizing our taxes do not bother with the deductions, even though we donate to causes that are tax deductible. :shrug:

Yearly I donate to St. Jude's and to my daughter's former orphanage in China. Occasional donations go to www.angelcovers.org, which helps children in orphanages around the world. They recently provided new cribs to my daughter's orphanage to try to help with the lead poisoning problem there. :angel:

Also the United Way, Humane Society, and I give clothes and household goods to Goodwill.

Carol

Local Fireman's Fund
Local COPS Fund

World Parrot Trust (My favorite and biggest - they buy forested Parrot Habitat and also train former parrot poachers to guide ecotours :angel: This charity is in my friggin will.)

www.worldparrottrust.org

Sign the petition to stop wild caught parrot imports into the EU !

exactly what kind of support do you provide our boys in blue :wavey: :wavey:

I think there's this video floating around called "Sparky at The Station".... :shocked:

:laugh: You and Colin Farrell :eek:

BTW - has anyone seen ole Colin Farrell in the video - I looked on the net for it, but could not find it.

There's always a drive contributing to the children's charities where I work. I also do Clothe-a-Child activities at work. We raise money year round , and in the winter time, around Thanksgiving, we have a huge outing and take underprivledged children from our community to Great Times (kinda like Chuck E. Cheese; most of these children don't have the opportunity to ever go there) then we take them to Shoe Carnival and get them 2 or 3 pair of shoes, then we take them shopping for winter clothes. And I do mean a full wardrobe. It's awesome to see their little faces light up when you tell them, "yes, you CAN get that sweater if you want..." Prior to our outing, we're given a sheet with details of the child we sponser, and their dream toy they want for Christmas. So we go and buy that prior to the outing, and Santa gives it to them after our shopping trip. It really is an emotional and eye opening experience for me, and others as well. I cry every time I leave my "child."

It's funny you posted this, I just called to volunteer at the Berkeley Shelter. They're no kill. It sounds all nice and good, but I could not be happier than if I was to hang out with animals all the time. It's like....free therapy. I actually can't wait. This will really coalesce my skills of "petting every dog I run into when I walk, and every cat who will come to me, too. I even talk to cats the won't come to me. I say 'whassup, Mr. Kitty? Are you being good? Yeeees...good kitty! You know, just to say 'hi' :shrug: '"
Look at what they need people to do! Could I be any more in heaven??? :) :woohoo:
I can't really do the handyman stuff (although I suppose I could paint, or carry stuff) but the socializing of dogs and cats, and the help with dog obedience is right up my alley. Yeah, I can pet/train dogs and cats for my volunteer work. :nod: Here's where my real skills can come into play! :laugh:

Socialize and nurture dogs
This runs the gamut from just visiting and bringing treats, to feeding, walking and grooming. Training for volunteers is scheduled frequently and at convenient times.

Socialize and nurture cats through Cat Cuddling
Spend quiet "touch time" with our beautiful felines to make their stay at BEBHS as much like home as possible.

Foster program
Provide vital temporary care at home for a too-young kitten or a dog who needs to experience home life before adoption.

Obedience Class program
Help out at obedience classes as a training assistant.

Mobile adoptions
Help us transport and exhibit our animals in high-traffic public areas to maximize their exposure

Provide administrative support
Stuff envelopes, generate donor letters, etc.

Share your artistic talents
Design signs, brochures, take photos, create scrapbooks * help us make BEBHS more attractive and create materials that promote our mission in the community

Serve on the Board
Provide oversight and strategic direction, and raise money for BEBHS

Handypeople
Our building always needs fixing. Bring your tools and we’ll set you to work!

I haven't seen it. But I would like to. :laugh:

I do ASPCA, American Cancer Society and St. Judes. At my father's funeral we had envelopes for donations to St. Jude's and quite a few people wrote checks right there.

A good way to volunteer if you don't have a lot of time is to give blood. Nothing else has a higher benefit/time ratio. I've given every 8 weeks for over 25 years.

That is true, but unfortunately some of us can't give blood for some reason or other. For me, it's because I don't weigh enough. I'll just have to think of some other way to donate my time! :nod:

You must have a thing for the ocean. :)

I was a little hesitant to give to Surfrider because they obviously have an alterior motive for protecting the beaches - so people can surf there - but I made a promise to someone that I would donate to that charity in return for a favor so I had to.

I suppose it doesn't really matter why a charity tries to protect something, just so long as it gets protected. :shrug:

I don't make much money either, which is exactly why I save all my receipts. Every little bit helps.

I do - I love the ocean. :) I actually didn't know that about Surfrider. Hmmm.

If you look at their website, they have links to surf reports and things like that. So my impression was that it seems to be a surfer's charity and the person I made the promise to is a big surfer. Also, if you look at their mission statement, it suggests as much. But, like I said, as long as the beaches get protected that's the important thing.

I am confused - are you saying surfing is wrong or somehow detrimental to the ocean? Or are you saying the ulterior motive makes the cause not genuine?

But don't you have to have a certain amount in deductions, like $6000, in order to be able to itemize? I thought it was something like that. In any case, I don't think my deductions would amount to anywhere near that, so I don't bother. I just do my taxes online for free using the simplest form there is. :shrug:

Same here, my deductions would never exceed the standard deduction. I tried to itemize once and I had a lot of deductions that year due to being unemployed and they still did not exceed the standard deduction.

Wow, what a wonderful program! :thumbsup:

I'm not saying either one. I have nothing against surfing or the people who participate in it. Obviously, if I thought there was anything really wrong with the charity's motives/goals I wouldn't have made the donation nor would I post the link here or on my own website (actually, there are three links to Surfrider on my website), promise or no promise.

All I said was that, at first, I was a little hesitant to donate because they aren't trying to save the ocean/beaches just for the sake of the environment and the wildlife that inhabit it. However, after giving it some thought, I decided that as long as they are working to protect the beaches and the ocean and promote low-impact ways of enjoying them, that's all that mattered.

Gotcha :cool:

My fav organization to contribute to is htpp://www.heifer.org

I also support our local food pantry and our local "Angel Trees" during the holiday season.


Me too!!! :wavey:

Well, I want to give to more but for now I give $20 per month to Masspirg. I also give to the Red Cross and the International Rescue Committee on occasion. Now I get all kinds of solicitations for donations. I wish I had the money to help them all. But I am just one woman! Oh yeah, and I try to buy the breast cancer stamps and I did a walk for the American Cancer Society earlier this year and raised almost $300.

Wow, that's awesome! :)