On donating to charity and what they really need
Toward the beginning of January, someone posted a request for information on where to donate gently used items to poor_skills after having been treated very rudely by someone at the local Salvation Army. One of the commenters on that thread posted a lengthy explanation of why charities that take donations in kind have to be picky about what they take. Speaking for myself, I remember going with my mother as a child to our local Goodwill to make donations and seeing an astonishing amount of junk in the donation area. I'm talking about stuff that absolutely was neither usable nor salvageable.
On another front, charities that respond to emergenies like the International Red Cross have their own issues. There's a reason, well okay several reasons, that they ask for cash donations for these. This blog post from the UK Red Cross explains some of the issues. Other issues are discussed in the comments. One point that was not brought up there, but was brought up in comments on another blog that I read was that the cash donation that you make today may end up being used to respond to tomorrow's disaster. When disasters strikes, the responders don't have time to wait for donations to come in, they have to act now. That means laying in the supplies ahead of time. The UK Red Cross article mentions keeping stockpiles of emergency supplies at various points around the world ready to ship when a disaster happens nearby to cut transportation costs. That's an example of prepping in advance.
Oh, and while we're at it, while some charities do indeed spend excessive amounts on administrative costs, choosing who to donate to purely on that basis can cause other sorts of problems.
Just some things to think about.
On another front, charities that respond to emergenies like the International Red Cross have their own issues. There's a reason, well okay several reasons, that they ask for cash donations for these. This blog post from the UK Red Cross explains some of the issues. Other issues are discussed in the comments. One point that was not brought up there, but was brought up in comments on another blog that I read was that the cash donation that you make today may end up being used to respond to tomorrow's disaster. When disasters strikes, the responders don't have time to wait for donations to come in, they have to act now. That means laying in the supplies ahead of time. The UK Red Cross article mentions keeping stockpiles of emergency supplies at various points around the world ready to ship when a disaster happens nearby to cut transportation costs. That's an example of prepping in advance.
Oh, and while we're at it, while some charities do indeed spend excessive amounts on administrative costs, choosing who to donate to purely on that basis can cause other sorts of problems.
Just some things to think about.