Donations

Flymeariver

Flymeariver

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Justin
Do you donate annually to a cause?

How do you decide who your dollars go to? Ever checked out to see what the ratio of dollars to value is? Appears some charities take quite a bit off the top for their executive salaries.
 
My company matches my donations to our industry State League and I direct them to AOPA's Air Safety Foundation. At least I use their product.

I am stingy who I donate money to for exactly the reason you stated.
 
ASPCA, Humane Society, CAF, Collings Foundation and various other small charities. Annually, I'd say I give out $700 in charitable organizations. Haven't checked to see where the dollars go.
 
Numerous charities, exact ones vary from year to year.

My tradition is to sit down on Christmas day, after the "family stuff" is over, and write checks. That's the way I've done it for at least 20 years.

I don't do religion so my contributions to other charities are pretty generous.
 
AOPA ASF, EAA, and my local chapter, EAA106'. They have a scholarship fund and try to send a couple of worthy 17 year Olds to a week in Oshkosh. Last year it included two I flew as young eagles.
Anyone that wants details on this, follow the link or pm me. The deal is every dollar raised from private donations are matched by the former president and her husband, and separately by the company they work for.

http://www.106.eaachapter.org/donatetoeaa106.htm
 
Flymeariver said:
Do you donate annually to a cause?

How do you decide who your dollars go to? Ever checked out to see what the ratio of dollars to value is? Appears some charities take quite a bit off the top for their executive salaries.
Click to expand...

I look for a charity that supports something important to me. I donate through payroll deduction to the Stephen J Siller Foundation they support the families of fallen FF's and PO's and assist disabled vets. My company matches my donation up to $200. I do it to honor a friend of mine who was FDNY and gave his life on 9/11.

I've also run in their Tunnel to Towers 5K if you run it's a pretty emotional event for a great cause...read the story of Stephen Siller and you'll understand the 5K

If you want to check on a Charity I personally use Charity Navigator.
 
Thinking about helping Kanye West out of his troubles and contribute to his Go Fund account. :rolleyes:

Salvation Army is my primary. :yesnod:
 
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Flymeariver said:
Do you donate annually to a cause?

How do you decide who your dollars go to? Ever checked out to see what the ratio of dollars to value is? Appears some charities take quite a bit off the top for their executive salaries.
Click to expand...

I only donate to organizations that keep their overhead to 5% or less. That's very few. The Salvation Army qualifies.
 
I have confined most of my donations to local charities whose principals I personally know, whose good works I personally can observe. Humane society, food pantry, outdoors/wildlife group.
Too many large national organizations have taken on the undesireable characteristics of large corporations, imo.
If you donate to many of the large national animal or "humane" organizations, you need to investigate. So many of them do not spend a dime on direct animal assistance like their ads lead you to believe, they spend most of their money on executive's enormous wages, lobbying expenses, attorney's fees. It's been a while since I have looked at this, so do your own research with charitynavigator etc. Even Wounded Warriers was bashed recently for spending so much on things that do not directly help the intended cause.
 
I do a payroll deduction for Ronald McDonald house. As well as organized a few fundraising concerts for our local chapter. I have always been impressed with how they treat guests.
 
Like several commented, I donate to causes that are personally very important to me. Most are some sort of social aid, a couple are arts-related.

I try very hard to get as local as I can. Rather than give to the overall or state organization, I'll try to find my local chapter.

Meals on Wheels is one of my favorites (and pretty non-controversial!) Several elderly family members first volunteered with them and later used their services, albeit in different states. I like everything about them and haven't heard bad stories.

I also freqently donate blood, but that is a different kind of donation.

Thanks for the info on Charity Navigator. On high salaries - a senior exec at a national charity makes what seems like a shockingly large salary, but it's maybe half of what the commercial world pays. (That was said about Mark Baker when he joined AOPA, for example.)
 
I pay dues to my "Special Interest" groups of choice. Then, my wife and I give monthly to the highest ranking charitable NGOs. For the last several years, its been Mercy Corp, and Save the Children. I also donate cash to the Navy/Marine Corp Relief Society once a year.

This year, I've joined Angel Flight West. I have yet to fly as a mission pilot yet though.
 
I give 15% to my church, and 15% to mostly local charities, like the children's home.
 
Salvation Army and Fisher House (fisherhouse.org) are good programs with low admin fees. Local food banks.
 
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Most of my donations lately have been to the Keep Timmy in the Air Fund but various cancer research organizations have been the norm every year since my mom got breast cancer. She survived.

I stopped giving the deadbeats on the street corner money especially since the locals seem to be making it a career.
 
Flymeariver said:
Do you donate annually to a cause?



How do you decide who your dollars go to? Ever checked out to see what the ratio of dollars to value is? Appears some charities take quite a bit off the top for their executive salaries.
Click to expand...


Yes. Actually monthly -- but it works out to an annual number of course. One particular charity we haven't missed a monthly check in almost 20 years. It's what adults do.

By asking where the dollars are going, and not handing a dime to anyplace or anyone that can't answer that question, to our satisfaction. Some charities sound great. But if they don't have accounting to show where it's going, I pass on those.

Yes. Almost always, unless it's a one time thing.

They do. They're often also scumbags. Not always. But often enough that it's a concern.
 
Look at CharityNavigator.com. They have a lot of legit charities listed and you can see what the Admin costs are. It pretty helpful.

We set aside money in a bank account monthly earmarked for charity. Our main charity we give to is Guide Dogs of Texas. We provide a lot of the clothing merchandise to their store via our small business and have sponsored advanced guide dog training for specific dogs. We plan to name a puppy this year. I think 'JC' would be a good name. :)

They provide Guide Dogs to blind Texans and support their clients for life. We visited them last year just to make sure we were getting our money's worth and were VERY impressed with the organization. They breed and raise the puppies on-site until they go to puppy raisers for basic training. Then they come back and get the Guide Dogs training. Very impressive program

One thing I look at is the executive salaries. I wont support an organization who's top exec makes some ungodly salary. I want my money going to the cause not to the executives. Dont get me wrong, if you administer a large organization properly you should get paid for it, but the top exec at the Red Cross makes over half a million!. Thats a tad rich in my estimation. Forbes reported that the top guy at the Salvation Army makes a little over 200K. I can live with that.
 
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Since no one else has commented on it, if I were to not be a poor college student I'd give to Cloud Nine Rescue Flights which is formed and operated by our own Ted Dupuis to take dogs and cats out of kill shelters to adoptable homes.

http://WWW.cloudninerescueflights.org

+1 on donating whole blood too
 
I give to my school for without that I would not be where I am today. I also give to our church both money and time and to other church-led organizations like the one building handicap ramps for local homes and driving the meals on wheels van about once a quarter.
I pay dues to organizations that I join-AOPA, EAA, ...
On what we call "Giving day" the day after Thanksgiving, we clean out our closets and take stuff to the Salvation Army.
I stopped giving to the Combined Federal Campaign after I read through their list of organizations that get money.
I also run a Toy-for-Tots drive at work each year.
 
Give, no. But I am a member of the Lions Club and we do stuff throughout the year to raise money for the community/charities.
 
PBS and a local nature center

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk
 
I just give $5,000 to Henning. He know how to distribute it.
 
Here I see United Way being pushed for donations at my company-----after looking into them they will not ever see a penny from me. Horrible standards and high exec pay
 
It's AWESOME that there is no spin zone.

How else would we know who "doesn't do religion", who doesn't like this corporately funded "charity" or the other?

help me understand this thread going on with it's contributions in conflict with

NOTE: Politics and religion and any other topic likely to become highly charged are not allowed, and threads may be deleted or closed if they start or trend, respectively, towards "spin" topics.


Case in Point: I don't do religion That is somehow allowable?

Meh
 
rolivi said:
It's AWESOME that there is no spin zone.

How else would we know who "doesn't do religion", who doesn't like this corporately funded "charity" or the other?

help me understand this thread going on with it's contributions in conflict with

NOTE: Politics and religion and any other topic likely to become highly charged are not allowed, and threads may be deleted or closed if they start or trend, respectively, towards "spin" topics.


Case in Point: I don't do religion That is somehow allowable?

Meh
Click to expand...

Don't think saying I don't do religion is a topic...plenty of others in the thread have mentioned St Jude, Salvation Army, etc. Don't understand the sensitivity.
 
I live in Maryland, where the official motto is

"If you can dream it, we can tax it"

So, as the taxes, state and fed, have trended constantly upward, I no longer donate to charity. Except I shove $10 in the Salvation Army bucket a few time around Xmas, as a thank-you for a childhood kindness they did me.
 
Three of our Purple Board denizens do a bike ride every year for the Pan Mass Challenge. I donate to their rides every year that they're doing it. That's pretty much the only ones I bother with.

Here are their links if you're interested...

Andy Rickard
Shawn Nault
Adam Bezanson

The Andy's link will show you how this started for them.
 
Anymouse said:
Three of our Purple Board denizens do a bike ride every year for the Pan Mass Challenge. I donate to their rides every year that they're doing it. That's pretty much the only ones I bother with.

Here are their links if you're interested...

Andy Rickard
Shawn Nault
Adam Bezanson

The Andy's link will show you how this started for them.
Click to expand...

An excellent choice for sure. I've donated to them the last three years. Go Team Beezy Bee!!!

We donate to the church. We've been supporting a child through Compassion International for about 12 years now. I probably spend about 30 hours or more a week related to EAA Chapter business. Currently focused on grant requests to fund our growing youth programs.

youth.eaa690.net
 
I'm president of a 501(c)3 non-profit, so we pretty much stick to that. But we also donate to Adam's PMC ride.
 
rolivi said:
It's AWESOME that there is no spin zone.

How else would we know who "doesn't do religion", who doesn't like this corporately funded "charity" or the other?

help me understand this thread going on with it's contributions in conflict with

NOTE: Politics and religion and any other topic likely to become highly charged are not allowed, and threads may be deleted or closed if they start or trend, respectively, towards "spin" topics.


Case in Point: I don't do religion That is somehow allowable?

Meh
Click to expand...

1) This thread topic is not religion, it is Donations.
2) This thread topic is not politics, it is Donations.
3) This thread topic is not likely to become highly charged.
4) This thread has not become highly charged. It has remained orderly, non-aggressive, and reasoned.
 
AuntPeggy said:
1) This thread topic is not religion, it is Donations.
2) This thread topic is not politics, it is Donations.
3) This thread topic is not likely to become highly charged.
4) This thread has not become highly charged. It has remained orderly, non-aggressive, and reasoned.
Click to expand...

Agreed. This was a very simple thread to see how others choose to give. I find it important to think of others but also not be taken advantage of as we choose to bless others.
 
Back in October I found out an old friend and his family were about to become homeless. I helped them out from October till January, and they are back on their feet, now. My wife would be upset if she found out how much help I provided.
 
Animal Rescue League of El Paso.

That's it. The staff is all volunteer and I know that every penny that I donate goes to funding the shelter.
 
One of the areas my wife and I focus on in making charitable donations is meeting basic needs. Consequently, we donate to food banks in the two communities were we live. Recently, we've gotten involved with backpack programs. Many children who participate in free/reduced breakfast and lunch programs through schools have little or no food over the weekend. A backpack of food is provided to those children generally on Friday to help offset hunger over weekend. They return the backpack on Monday and the it get refilled for the next weekend. Many of these programs are sponsored through churchs that do the fund raising and partner with school districts but some are through food banks that also partner with schools, particularly over holiday or other breaks. It is tough to learn or behave when you are hungry so the schools that have these programs see better student performance. It's really hard to fathom how so many have so little to eat.

Something to think about if you have a few extra bucks.
 
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