Wish We Hadn't Donated to Charity: Mailbox Overflowing Now

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I don't donate to charities. If you read into many of them you'll see that although they claim to be non-profit, a lot of the money goes to other places before it gets to the actual people in need. Plenty of people locally who need help, rides to the hospital, etc.

I'll donate parts and time locally to people who need help with car repair (friends or single moms truly in need), or buy coffee for someone who looks like they really can't afford it like a young student. My goal is to eventually be in a position in life to do something like youtuber ericthecarguy's "fix it forward" series.
 
How did you donate? Did you provide your name/address?

I've put donations like clothes into large plastic bags then placed them by the curb for pickup on designated days, and I've never been spammed. There are also dropoff centers. Were they to ask for my personal info, I won't provide it. I don't care if I lose the tax deduction
 
I would never donate money - then itemize it to earn money, on Tax Day. Besides, a ridiculous amount of donated money is used for office work, maintenance / upkeep.

It's very easy to help people financially. One only needs to take a drive into the inner city, or take a close look at a few homes in your own subdivision.

It's easy to help people in our own neck-of-the-woods and I don't need a foundation to either show me how, or use a percentage of my giving, to pay their own bills.
 
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted by Ws6
I dont have enough expenses to itemize, so donating doesnt make sense. If I ever do, I'll weigh this if its worth it. TY for heads up, OP.



Please, Ws6, Donating shouldn't be associated with your tax relief , should it?

Why else would I do it? If I wanted to help someone, I can probably do so directly without a "charity".
 
Originally Posted by pandus13
Originally Posted by LoneRanger
Originally Posted by Aredeeem
The upside is you'll never have to buy a return address label for the rest of your life.


LOL, that's one of the freebies some of them enclose to guilt you into throwing coin to them.

Just to be clear though, we do support a few charities and we give weekly at church which helps with community relief efforts and the local food bank. Just can't feed all the stray cats (metaphor) that are showing up.


1.Recycle the paper. It keeps USPS employed.

2.Burn the paper. Feed your lawn with the ash.

3.Search THAT thread in the past when somebody posted a USPS approved way to change a return envelope into an fridge sized box and send them back whatever...


My Dad cuts up all the papers in the envelope and mails it all back to them in the postage-paid return envelope.
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Originally Posted by dadto2
My Dad cuts up all the papers in the envelope and mails it all back to them in the postage-paid return envelope.
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I do that as well. I actually hope for junk mail that has the prepaid envelopes. Did that with all the Sirius XM junk I got after my trial ran out.

Most donations ill regularly do is about once a month and go to Giant Eagle and buy 16 or so cans of store brand green beans, corn ect and take it to our local food bank. If we have any old clothing, we will take it as well.
 
There's a huge overhead running an organization, that includes charities.

I remember reading an article years ago (probably 10+) that compares the overhead, and the lowest would still have alike 15-20% overhead (MSF / aka doctors without border) and the worst is like 80% (Fallen Warrior? or is it United Way or World Vision).

Donating food that's not on sale is sort of subsidizing the merchants too, I know around here the cereal prices are always high during food drive season, so I bought before the season and donate using those inventories.

Around here the biggest problem we have is housing affordability, and I don't think anyone has a simple solution for that. Donating canned food or old clothes probably won't help them too much.
 
Originally Posted by JohnnyJohnson
Its called a Spam filter.

Also you never give these people your real personal account just set up a Junk Gmail account.


I went outside to the street mailbox and looked. No spam filter. Can you tell me what it looks like? Does it stop the letter carrier from placing cans of spam in the mailbox? I hope not. I like that stuff, slightly seared, with ketchup on white bread.
 
Hold on now, do I hear correctly? Postal Carriers are delivering Spam? I don't want it every day, but once in awhile some free Spam delivered right to our mailbox would be okay.
 
A national charity did something real nice for a kid I knew with a terminal disease and his family. I approved so I sent them $100 so they might help other kids. I am sorry to say they must have spent all my money on stuffing my mailbox the next 5 years asking for more. I do not know how they can help anyone and I am disgusted with them. They will never see another dime of my money. Mybe they made money selling my name, cause suddenly lots of national charity's started begging me for money.
 
Originally Posted by Ws6
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted by Ws6
I dont have enough expenses to itemize, so donating doesnt make sense. If I ever do, I'll weigh this if its worth it. TY for heads up, OP.



Please, Ws6, Donating shouldn't be associated with your tax relief , should it?

Why else would I do it? If I wanted to help someone, I can probably do so directly without a "charity".



Sometimes it hard to plan that trip to Yemen or North East Syria. where help may be needed.
 
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted by Ws6
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
Originally Posted by Ws6
I dont have enough expenses to itemize, so donating doesnt make sense. If I ever do, I'll weigh this if its worth it. TY for heads up, OP.



Please, Ws6, Donating shouldn't be associated with your tax relief , should it?

Why else would I do it? If I wanted to help someone, I can probably do so directly without a "charity".



Sometimes it hard to plan that trip to Yemen or North East Syria. where help may be needed.



I have no desire to help Yemen when I see my fellow countrymen and women in need.
 
Originally Posted by Ws6




I have no desire to help Yemen when I see my fellow countrymen and women in need.[/quote]

No one should be in need in the US. We have all sorts of social services.
But many may be in need due to mental health issues or drug dependencies.

So, Ws6, you feel a person is "better" or more deserving of help if they live in the U.S ?
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by PandaBear
I remember reading an article years ago (probably 10+) that compares the overhead, and the lowest would still have alike 15-20% overhead (MSF / aka doctors without border) and the worst is like 80% (Fallen Warrior? or is it United Way or World Vision).


Wounded Warrior Project was caught. Unfortunately I have 2 of their sweaters, but at least they're nice sweaters.
 
I donated $25 once, seemed like a good cause. Supposedly the donation was for a year's worth of good will. I was immediately bombarded by that same charity for additional donations. A bunch of mailed items as well as phone calls 4 or 5 times a week. Then other charities for similar causes filled up my mailbox.

One good outcome is that it is clear to me that these charities that bombard us with mail and phone calls are spending a good chunk of our donations in the effort to raise even more money. In other words, a good chunk of the donations we make are not being used for the purpose that the charity purports to spend our money on. I now know which charities are only charities in name only and do not do all that much good with our donations, and which ones to never donate to again.
 
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite


No one should be in need in the US. We have all sorts of social services.
But many may be in need due to mental health issues or drug dependencies.

So, Ws6, you feel a person is "better" or more deserving of help if they live in the U.S ?




Hmmm...you've brought up the crux of the issue..."deserving" and "better".

Let me lay out my thoughts for you, and you can feel how you want about them.


This world, Western civilization in particular, has never in recent times (last 1K years) known the level of prosperity we now know. EVER. We have never known this level of peace, and security. Forget what you see on the news, murder statistics have been dropping hard for the last 100 years, and war casualties now pale to what The Great Generation saw, isolated tragedies not withstanding.

We are so prosperous, that we have people like you, on a computer, on the internet, talking about "help people in Yemen..."

That would blow your great grandpa's mind, most likely.

But things "at home" are starting to show the strain. Our infrastructure is rotting, for example. Also, consider what you said about mental illness and so forth. We need a place to put some of those people who are unable to function. All this money spent re-building 3rd world countries after natural disasters? let's spend that on our highways and on bringing back the massive state-run mental health institutions so we can keep Raggles from bouncing between jail, the street, and short-term inpatient stays until he/she murders someone or is murdered.

NEVER EVER in the history of EVER has charity been the solution to wide-spread problems. Charity in specific, particular cases, can do a lot of good. Charity when applied shotgun style is just a waste. LBJ should have that point proven quite soundly by now.

You cannot buy someone out of poverty.


So back to me, and Yemen...dude, I don't care about Yemen. I really don't. I don't care about any of it, and I think anyone who claims to is either virtue signalling and in it for the IG likes, or they are ignorant/selective. Why? Because there are hurting, needy people all over this globe, and if you donated equally to all of them, you would both a) only be able to afford a fraction of a cent for each, and b) Lose all of your money, so that means you gotta pick and choose, and you know what? I pick and choose my friends, my family, and me. You do you, and that's 100% cool in my book, because I'm gonna do me. We can't all have equal joy in this life, and I won't sacrifice mine and me, for other. You can call that selfish if you want, but again...you do you.
 
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