Not everyone can afford to donate to charity and there aren't/shouldn't be any "rules" on how much to donate - donate what you feel you want to give (not just money, there's your time, food, pre-loved items).. however, my question is, if you do donate regularly to charity, how did you decide how much to donate and how often do you increase the amount you donate?
Donating to charity
eve on 10/01/2013 - 01:21
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This question is sort of related - in the US, there are a number of organisations that monitor and rate charities based upon certain criteria - % in salaries, % overhead, % actually dispersed, etc. I can find no such reports here in AU. Is that because charities are not required to divulge their spending? I ask this because - if I want to donate $XXX to either the Salvation Army, The Smith Family, or St. Vincent's - they're all the same sort of organisation. Which one to get the most bang my my buck? How do I know if charity XXX has huge overheads or only a small amount actually gets to those who need it? And, if reporting is not required by the goverment, why don't these charities actually make this information public themselves? I'm really wary of giving to an organisation that does nothing but pay salaries and advertise…So my question - how do you decide who to fund?
I haven't seen a website comparing or aggregating Australian charity expenditure, but I've found that the charities I've considered do release an Annual Report (usually located in the Publications section) which will give you the exact $$ information for the past year.
Regarding overheads etc, I remember once hearing that Red Cross actually spends a lot on administration, however, the reason for this is that the money is used to promote their international brand, which gives them the power to do their work. So perhaps the cost of admin is not always a bad thing.
My workplace has matched & pretax donations for some charities. For every dollar i donate pretax the company matches the amount. I donate $15 a fortnight ($30 after company component is added) to Smith family using this method as it comes out pretax so i dont miss it. i went with smith family because for a few reasons - I like they focus on helping disadvantaged children and i had also heard readcross have a lot of overheads so not all the money may get where its needed. I avoided Salvo's as i do not like thier discriminatory policys towards Gays.
Hi I donate to charities on the following basis, World Vision sponsorship is a fixed cost. However all others, I used to donate the equivalent to what I spent at a restaurant for a meal for myself. When I got married that became what we spend on a meal. I now have children and fortunately I have been able to increase the amount I give again. As a general rule I have usually given annually 1-2 days of wages.