Charities

[Toinho]

Are any of you regular charity donators? Any causes you’re passionate about? Where should people who want to donate be looking? 

I’ve recently started sponsoring a disadvantaged child, money goes towards education and tutoring options. 

[nudge+]

I'm VERY wary and distrustful of charities and NGOs, as in my experience, for every good one there's a bunch of questionable ones that take advantage of people's generosity at best, and exploiting and abusing the disadvantaged they claim to take care of at worst. That's especially the case for those operating in developing countries, but I feel that the whole humanitarian sector of "doing good" is infested with corruption, fraud, money laundering.

That said, I donate regularly to a local one which works with vulnerable kids and provides them protection, education, medical services and vocational training, all while trying to reintegrate their families.

[Toinho]

1 minute ago, nudge said:

I'm VERY wary and distrustful of charities and NGOs, as in my experience, for every good one there's a bunch of questionable ones that take advantage of people's generosity at best, and exploiting and abusing the disadvantaged they claim to take care of at worst. That's especially the case for those operating in developing countries, but I feel that the whole humanitarian sector of "doing good" is infested with corruption, fraud, money laundering.

That said, I donate regularly to a local one which works with vulnerable kids and provides them protection, education, medical services and vocational training, all while trying to reintegrate their families.

There are a lot of dodgy organizations unfortunately or scams using children. In developing countries, not everything you see is the real situation. It’s a sad part of human nature. I did a lot of research before making a decision, and went for a child in Australia. 

 

[Azeem]

I lend a lot of money to people i know.

 

[Toinho]

9 minutes ago, Devon Von Devon said:

I lend a lot of money to people i know.

 

So they pay you back? Do you charge interest?  

[Azeem]

Just now, Toinho said:

So they pay you back? Do you charge interest?  

Some do some don't and i don't remind them if they dont 

Does taking a free ride to home count as interest ?

[Storts]

I have regular donations to several places - two of which being Shelter and The Donkey Sanctuary. Far more inclined to donate for animals tbh, just better than humans in every way imaginable. Regularly give to my local animal shelter too. 

[Danny]

No regular donations but if I do it's generally Great Ormond Street. Other than that buy the odd meal for a homeless person.

[Dr. Gonzo]

I've donated to Doctors Without Borders before. I forget what motivated me to do it, but I did that once. I donate to a local animal shelter here too.

Did you lot hear about Mother Theresa's former charity selling off fucking babies? 

[Toinho]

19 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I've donated to Doctors Without Borders before. I forget what motivated me to do it, but I did that once. I donate to a local animal shelter here too.

Did you lot hear about Mother Theresa's former charity selling off fucking babies? 

Good on you.

and, no? Wtf 

[nudge+]

Just read about it earlier today. Not surprised, after all, it is a former charity of Mother Teresa...

[Dr. Gonzo]

32 minutes ago, nudge said:

Just read about it earlier today. Not surprised, after all, it is a former charity of Mother Teresa...

That bitch tortured kids because she thought it made them closer to Jesus and they made her a fucking saint. Such a joke.

[Guest]

On 16/07/2018 at 00:35, Storts said:

I have regular donations to several places - two of which being Shelter and The Donkey Sanctuary. Far more inclined to donate for animals tbh, just better than humans in every way imaginable. Regularly give to my local animal shelter too. 

You sir have my respect

[Cicero]

On 7/15/2018 at 18:35, Storts said:

I have regular donations to several places - two of which being Shelter and The Donkey Sanctuary. Far more inclined to donate for animals tbh, just better than humans in every way imaginable. Regularly give to my local animal shelter too. 

Now this wouldn't sound hypocritical if you were Vegan. 

 

Children's hospitals along with fight against depression organisations are the most recent for me 

[The Artful Dodger]

I donate to NSPCC and Save the Children, adults are lost to the system already.

[Inverted]

I volunteer as an adviser with Citizens Advice. Most of the time I feel like what we do is little more than plug a hole, when the wider problem is a (mostly intentionally) failing social security system, and a complete lack of information for regular people on their rights as tenants, employees, and citizens more generally. 

But sometimes, in amongst the hours spent on hold with the DWP or spent filling out online forms for people with no computer skills,  you get someone who you feel like you help. 

[Stan]

10 minutes ago, Inverted said:

I volunteer as an adviser with Citizens Advice. Most of the time I feel like what we do is little more than plug a hole, when the wider problem is a (mostly intentionally) failing social security system, and a complete lack of information for regular people on their rights as tenants, employees, and citizens more generally. 

But sometimes, in amongst the hours spent on hold with the DWP or spent filling out online forms for people with no computer skills,  you get someone who you feel like you help. 

i'll pick up on the tenants bit as I see it from a different angle (social housing) - the information is out there if they were bothered to look hard enough for it and gave enough effort and time to research it. I've seen far too many times, in my line of work, that people are unwilling to take responsibility for situations they find themselves in (or avoid it in the first place) because they've come from a life of having everything given to them, instead of themselves finding it.

So when they come a bit unstuck, they want/expect someone to be there for them to do the dirty work and help them in their predicament.

It's a bit of a sweeping generalisation, I know. I see the flip side of it where there's hundreds of people I come across, also social housing tenants, who do take that responsibility and don't rely on others as much as the people above.

 

I do agree with DWP though - the Universal Credit shambles emphasises that. As a landlord, trying to get information from them is like carving blood out of stone. 

[Inverted]

36 minutes ago, Stan said:

i'll pick up on the tenants bit as I see it from a different angle (social housing) - the information is out there if they were bothered to look hard enough for it and gave enough effort and time to research it. I've seen far too many times, in my line of work, that people are unwilling to take responsibility for situations they find themselves in (or avoid it in the first place) because they've come from a life of having everything given to them, instead of themselves finding it.

So when they come a bit unstuck, they want/expect someone to be there for them to do the dirty work and help them in their predicament.

It's a bit of a sweeping generalisation, I know. I see the flip side of it where there's hundreds of people I come across, also social housing tenants, who do take that responsibility and don't rely on others as much as the people above.

 

I do agree with DWP though - the Universal Credit shambles emphasises that. As a landlord, trying to get information from them is like carving blood out of stone. 

I had a client drop in a couple of weeks ago - recovering heroin addict/likely methadone addict, various mental health issues, homeless up to about 5 months ago - trying to get his Universal Credit case worker to register a change in circumstances so his rate would increase to help cover his recent rent hike (which he was already in arrears with). 

I logged in and looked at his record of communications with his UC coordinator. His messages were long and properly written out (with some spelling mistakes, admittedly), trying to explain his changed situation, detailing his rent increases with appropriate proof, and explaining his risk of eviction. 

The responses from the case worker were a disgrace. They were written in all caps, no grammar, no detail, just text-like answers like "WILL LOOK AT THT. THINK U R GETTING RIGHT AMOUNT AS IS". 

The whole system from top to bottom is designed to fail, and riddled with incompetent, poorly trained staff with little interest in social work except doing the bare minimum to fob off their clients and collect their wage slip. 

[Stan]

31 minutes ago, Inverted said:

I had a client drop in a couple of weeks ago - recovering heroin addict/likely methadone addict, various mental health issues, homeless up to about 5 months ago - trying to get his Universal Credit case worker to register a change in circumstances so his rate would increase to help cover his recent rent hike (which he was already in arrears with). 

I logged in and looked at his record of communications with his UC coordinator. His messages were long and properly written out (with some spelling mistakes, admittedly), trying to explain his changed situation, detailing his rent increases with appropriate proof, and explaining his risk of eviction. 

The responses from the case worker were a disgrace. They were written in all caps, no grammar, no detail, just text-like answers like "WILL LOOK AT THT. THINK U R GETTING RIGHT AMOUNT AS IS". 

The whole system from top to bottom is designed to fail, and riddled with incompetent, poorly trained staff with little interest in social work except doing the bare minimum to fob off their clients and collect their wage slip. 

that's shocking.

it's set up to fail from the start - it was rushed through and the resources weren't available from the start, either. They heavily underestimated the effort or technology available, not to mention staff required that would need training. Their phone lines are shite and in most cases you have to get through 2 or 3 people when trying to get information that you won't be able to get online

[Toinho]

Get your own topic. 

[Cicero]

20 minutes ago, Toinho said:

Get your own topic. 

Dont tempt him. He will 

[Carnivore Chris]

The RSPB

[MUFC]

On 15/07/2018 at 15:21, nudge said:

I'm VERY wary and distrustful of charities and NGOs, as in my experience, for every good one there's a bunch of questionable ones that take advantage of people's generosity at best, and exploiting and abusing the disadvantaged they claim to take care of at worst. That's especially the case for those operating in developing countries, but I feel that the whole humanitarian sector of "doing good" is infested with corruption, fraud, money laundering.

That said, I donate regularly to a local one which works with vulnerable kids and provides them protection, education, medical services and vocational training, all while trying to reintegrate their families.

Some of the major well known charities. They pay people hundreds of grands per year to promote the charity. Like marketing in a way, how do people feel about this?