Getting asked for Money/Food

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Getting asked for Money/Food

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#1939824 16-Jan-2018 15:43

Continuing from my post above... I do take your point though, when considering large, international charities like Oxfam and Greenpeace. But they are more political than charity and I will never, ever donate to them due to the poor yield to their end constituents. Governments are definitely better than those rogues.

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DarthKermit

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#1939863 16-Jan-2018 15:49

I made the mistake of signing up for monthly donations with greenpeace. Some time afterwards, they started phoning with some environmental campaign or cause and asked if I'd like to up my donation. This tactic continued on until I eventually cancelled my donation.

kryptonjohn

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#1939865 16-Jan-2018 15:56

I like charities that are small and focussed. Like City Mission, Fred Hollows Foundation etc.

Mega "charities" leave me cold. They are either politicised (Oxfam), commercialised (Greenpeace) or careless and the money ends up with corrupt dictators and terrorists (World Vision).

Coil

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#1939869 16-Jan-2018 16:03

DarthKermit:

I made the mistake of signing up for monthly donations with greenpeace. Some time afterwards, they started phoning with some environmental campaign or cause and asked if I'd like to up my donation. This tactic continued on until I eventually cancelled my donation.

I know of someone who worked for GreenPiece and the one thing they said was that they wouldn't even give them a cent if they had all the money in the world.

Coil

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#1939870 16-Jan-2018 16:05

I am very surprised people have not suggested Hospice as a charity worth donating to.
My Family donate lump sums every time we have someone we know or are related to in that Hospice.

allio

864 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1939875 16-Jan-2018 16:10

kryptonjohn:

allio:

Bung:
Sam91: I get stopped by the charities with iPads frequently. I signed up once to the monthly plan once, because I felt like donating $20 one off, but not ongoing. I cancelled after the first payment. I dislike these fundraising methods, I prefer someone with a bucket, I'm always happy to chuck in a few dollars here and there. It's a tough ask when you know a large chunk of your donation is going to the person signing you up, rather than the cause.

With one of the charity collection companies at the $20 per month level they keep 100% of the 1st years donations. Unless you stay committed as a donor longer than that the headline charity doesn't get any of the money. Even at $60 a month the collecting company keeps 70% of the 1st year.

That is insane. What a colossally inefficient way to do things.

This is one reason why I am not a big fan of charity in general (though I acknowledge that most of them are extremely worthy causes). Society would be much better off if we all just paid slightly more tax with the government distributing it where needed.

I find your faith in the government distributing tax more efficiently than someone like City Mission very surprising.

City Mission overheads are absolutely tiny and that's forced on them by lack of funds. They are lean as lean can be. Government departments (and city councils) have recourse to almost limitless funds so they have less need to operate efficiently.

Only need to look at the operation of the post office/telephone company when it was part of the government to see this. 6 weeks to get a phone line unless you offer someone a crate of DB. Or now days look at Auckland Transport and their mega $million new head office right in the ritzy Viaduct Harbour district and their hundreds of employees on $200k salaries.

Unlimited taxpayer/ratepayer funding.

I'm happy for all good charities to continue existing and doing good work. It's the revenue raising side of it which is troublesome. When charities are forced to compete with each other for limited donations, inevitably more and more resources are dedicated to shaking down the public rather than helping the people that need it. I'd rather charities just have to lobby the government rather than have thousands of foreign backpackers wearing Unicef jackets lobbying me.

kryptonjohn

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#1939881 16-Jan-2018 16:28

Coil:

I am very surprised people have not suggested Hospice as a charity worth donating to.
My Family donate lump sums every time we have someone we know or are related to in that Hospice.

Agreed. Rotary Club run a golf tournament annually at Pukekohe Golf Club for the Totara Hospice in South Auckland. They are wonderful people and I always play in it and throw some dough at the auction. Felt a bit bad last year as they run a "Beat the Pro" bet on one of the par 3s and I did beat him to double my $20 bet! So I had to tell him to keep it in the pot and I would take a good hard gloat instead!

Sam91

620 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1939910 16-Jan-2018 16:41

allio:

rather than have thousands of foreign backpackers wearing Unicef jackets lobbying me.

Accurate

Come to think of it, I think the iPad mob should have to declare the fee structure to the donor. "You must subscribe for x amount of time in order to pay for our comission, after which, your monthly payment goes direct to the charity, where a further 40% is sucked up by their administration costs". Still keen?

I regret my $20 donation, I should've just donated to Joel in Liberia. I've been following that series as well.

Another small charity doing good is Fight for the forgotten. This guy was an MMA fighter, but he now dedicates his life to pygmy people in Congo. They basically go around and build as many wells as they can. I believe the administration costs are minimal.

Rikkitic

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#1939914 16-Jan-2018 16:49

Those are the kinds of charities I also want to support. I recently stopped supporting Médecins Sans Frontières. I believe in their work but the more you give, the more they want, and the problems never get better. I found it profoundly depressing.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

kryptonjohn

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#1939916 16-Jan-2018 16:56

Yep, it's troubling. If a charity addresses famine by shipping in food, it makes the problem worse the next year. So I like ones that help them grow food themselves or helps them control population growth/fertility rate.

blakamin

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#1940119 16-Jan-2018 19:47

JimmyH:

Starscream122:

Stan: Mental illnesses is definitely a part of the problem as are cigarette prices and housing costs.

But it is hard to weed out the scammers from the others, genuine groups like the salvation army do good work around this.

I'm not going into details but I have experience in this and if I didn't have family and friends I could have very easily become homeless even in NZ.

cigarette prices should have nothing to do with it!

But in the real world they do. Cigarettes are a product that some people find very hard to give up, particularly some mental health patients who can pretty much depend on them. When you squeeze the price of a highly addictive product then some users will give it it up (which is presumably the Government's objective). Others will do what it takes to sustain their addiction - including going without things like good food, clothes for their kids, blackmarket buying, missing rent payments, begging, and (in some cases) violent robbery (either of sellers directly, or to get money). Pretty much the same behaviour as heroin addicts struggling to afford their habit.

This was a pretty forseeable consequence of the government jacking prices up to the levels they have.

(Note for the avoidance of doubt: I don't smoke, never have, and neither do/has anyone in my household, and I don't like smoking. So I have no personal axe to grind. But I do think that in their rush to stamp out smoking, recent governments have got a bit carried away and overlooked the other social consequences of the huge price rises they have engineered).

I'm going to add to this because @JimmyH has hit the nail on the head.

Ask an ex heroin addict if they smoked after they gave up heroin... You'll find 90%+ did,or still do. You'll find the same with methamphetamines.

So there's a thing for you... Drugs that can kill you if you get them wrong, are easier to give up than cigarettes.

PhantomNVD

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#1941268 17-Jan-2018 08:22

I support charities like $1warriors http://www.onedollarwarriors.org.nz they have a specific cause for each donation you are asked to give toward, and they support local Kiwis who just can’t afford lifesaving/life changing medication/surgery. Each cause has its own givalittle page and the money goes directly to the needy recipient, whose progress you are also kept updated on.

Kiwis helping kiwis!
https://givealittle.co.nz/donate/fundraiser/one-dollar-warriors-fight-for-megan