How to Get The Most out of a $300 Charitable Donation/Good Deed? Suggestions Please!

Lhumanpiranha on 27/02/2018 - 21:26

I have $300 I would like to donate/give as a good deed to help others who are in need.

Was wondering if you guys had any suggestions as to how I could possibly GET THE MOST (aka OzBargain the shit out of this) $300 so it has the greatest possible net positive effect.

The $300 doesn't have to necessarily help a lot of people, I'm thinking more along the lines of simply making a big impact period, whether that impact is concentrated solely on an individual, a family, or a larger group of people.

Don't care about tax deductions and honestly would kind of prefer to steer away from charity organizations etc (unless you know of some where the majority of funds (90%+) donated actually goes towards the end cause, and not just marketing expenses).

Open to any and all ideas… except for aiding Nigerian princes and princesses.

Cheers!

Financial Charity Donation

Comments

  • [Deactivated] on 27/02/2018 - 21:35
    +1

    donate to me
    bsb 163 1390
    acct 90906619

    im not a Nigerian princes or princess
    I PROMISE

  • toristo on 27/02/2018 - 21:45

    How about 95%?
    http://www.fredhyde.org/using-your-dollars/

    Remarkable organisation, but actually read about Fred Hyde. He recently passed, but was still out building school despite his age. Very remarkable man.

  • toniyellow on 27/02/2018 - 21:59
    +2

    http://www.changepath.com.au/ is good for figuring out your priorities

    Keep in mind charity is complicated.

    You can hire a dumb IT guy for 50k, or a smart one for 100k. Should a charity hire a dumb one because then it looks like they spend less on admin? They'll waste heaps of time due to mistakes. But that won't be as visible to donors. The dumb guy might even leave all the donors credit card information vulnerable. The smart guy might ensure the safety and privacy of their details. But if donors don't ask about that and they do ask about admin costs, the charity is facing some conflicting pressures.

    It costs 200k to do a independently audited annual report that tells donors how their money was spent. Or 50k to do a hatchet job. It costs money to do a survey to see if what you spent your money on actually worked. It costs no money to do never do a survey but then if it is never tested once, how do you know what is working and what isn't?

    This is made up, but you get the picture. Charity is complicated. We should all avoid the Shane Warne Foundations of the world. But not blindly chase lowest admin costs possible.

  • ihbh on 27/02/2018 - 22:04
    +1

    Microfinance - help people help themselves. From experience the default rate is very low as the borrowers take pride in not accepting a handout.

    • humanpiranha on 28/02/2018 - 00:27

      Yeah I've put a decent amount of money in Kiva and it's great to be able to help people with loans through that!

  • GG57 on 28/02/2018 - 09:32

    You really need to decide what resonates with you.

    If you wanted to help the largest number of people, $300 goes further in a developing country. For example, 48 page exercise books from Officeworks @ $0.15 each = 2,000 books for children who may not have any. But, books are not useful without pencils etc., and the stationery needs to get to the destination, but there is still an opportunity to assist a large number of people.

    Alternatively, if you have a connection to a local person on hard times just now, $300 could be just the boost that person needs to get over their current circumstance.

    Microfinance projects (as mentioned above by others) have the benefit of being ongoing and re-used.

  • Steptoe on 02/03/2018 - 23:13

    Google “effective altruism”

  • watwatwat on 03/03/2018 - 06:12

    The only answer you need to see if givewell.org. They use data to find the most efficient charities out there.

  • CheapskateQueen on 25/02/2019 - 23:41

    well i put my ozb skills to use last year to get the biggest bang for my buck and im doing it again atm

    I use the Coles spend $50 x 4 wks to get the free $50.

    Each week i bought feminine hygiene products (pads and tampons), and other basic hygiene products (shampoo soap toothbrushes etc). I only bought things that were 50% off that week.

    I was even lucky that there were a few bonus stackable $5 bonuses.

    I ended up with about $400 worth of goodies for probably $170 cash. No tax deduction for me but I'm pretty happy with how far I spread my buck.

    Donated it to a shelter at xmas.

    Currently got a 4 x $50 spend again that im doing. This time I'll be donating things to a womens domestic violence shelter.

    Long story short if you're prepared to put the effort in you could do something like that. Could try with basic foods, hygiene, underwear, etc

  • [Deactivated] on 26/02/2019 - 05:19

    Consider the 1 to 2 million leper victims in several poor countries.
    The cure is cheap, but not enough funds are available to keep up with the need.

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