In this economic downturn, which charities do you still support?

[Anonymous]

I used to give to a much wider variety of charities but it's tough this year.

What I kept:
--two charities that serve lower-income students in DC schools
--St. Jude Children's Hospital-- $10/month as I have for 11 years
--in-kind donations such as children's clothes. My friends don't get hand-me-down winter boots this year; a shelter does

What I didn't:
--World Wildlife Fund and Nature Conservancy
--My university
--ACLU
--A couple of state and local civil rights groups


I feel bad that the Pandas and my alma mater don't have my help right now, but it just feels like you have to cut back, and when it came down to it, my number one priority is helping to ensure that today's kids have a shot at a job tomorrow. It's really tough to do it, though, and I feel guilty every time I treat myself to Starbucks or date night.

What have you kept and given up?

[Anonymous]

Believe it or not, the one charitable group I keep is one that fosters and re-homes abandoned animals. There has been a real surge in abondonments and turn-ins as the economy has gone downward.

[Anonymous]

OP, we have made similar choices as you: we kept donations to Bread for the City, Washington Scholarship Fund (gives scholarships to low-income students), and two medical charities for specific diseases that are important to us; we stopped World Wildlife Fund and Nature Conservancy.

[Anonymous]

PLAN, which helps build and support basic infrastructure like health and education services in rural parts of my home country.
Manna Food House here in MoCo.
And I drop all my hand me down clothing at Interfaith Clothing Center in Gaithersburg.

[Anonymous]

We are actually keeping our total $$ the same, just redirecting a bit.

Keep:

Compassion International (we sponsor two children)
Local (county) Red Cross
Food Bank - gets extra $$ now from the skipped ones.
Our church

Skipping:

Donations to college and private high school (wasn't so much they will miss us).

[Anonymous]

We stepped up our giving. We give manily to our church programs that provides critical housing and food. More people than ever are coming to the church to get help wiht their electricity, heating, and house payments.

Ironically, our church is bringing in more money than ever. Sermons are so focused right now around the poor and needy, I think people are really opening their wallets.

I also have taken in 2 foster children (brothers), parents lost their home and the family was living out of the car. We are housing the children as long as it takes for mom and dad to get employed again and into a house. The mom and dad are coming over anywhere between 3-7 nights a week to have dinner with us.

Now is not hte time to pull back, but to dig deeper. However all of my giving is focuses to help the human population for critical issues, nothing w/ schools, arts, or animals.

[Anonymous]

The dire economic news has given me a greater realization of how truly fortunate we are...and, as a result, we have upped our contributions, but have not taken on any new charities. (In retrospect we could have been giving more generously, but for whatever reason, we had fallen into a rut) We make monetary contributions to approximately six charities, a church, and my alma maters. My husband allows me to decide how we direct our charitable giving although he occasionally surprises and wants to write a check for a particular cause (which I've always agreed to). My favorite DC-based charity is So Others Might Eat (SOME). I tend to give things we don't need anymore (e.g., furniture, baby stuff), but I'm thinking about organizing a spring yard sale on our street and donating the proceeds (at least from what we sell) to SOME.

[Anonymous]

I'm actually doing the opposite of some PPs. I am keeping the giving to my children's private schools and my undergrad alma mater, but cut out other giving, including our church.

Part of that is because we have given a lot to the church for a number of years, but recently it has been going in a new direction and we are not sure it is the right place for us. I also feel that we have an obligation to give to our schools.

As an aside, if you are involved with fundraising, never say to someone who wants to give you money that you don't need theirs. This happened to me with my grad school (after years of hearing from them what a poor fundraising record they had I told them it was probably not smart to publish levels of giving without permission; they responded defensively saying there was no fundraising problem) and my church (when I offered to fund a solution to a chronic problem, but one of the senior church members who is very competitive told me they would find a different solution because they didn't need my money). This also happened to an extended family member. He carried a very large check around with him all weekend at his college reunion because he wanted to donate it (too bad he doesn't want to give it to me!), but no one would agree to take the check because they weren't the right person. At the end of the weekend he tore up the check. People want to donate to help. Making it hard for them or rebuffing their attempts to give can make them want to say forget it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm actually doing the opposite of some PPs. I am keeping the giving to my children's private schools and my undergrad alma mater, but cut out other giving, including our church.

Part of that is because we have given a lot to the church for a number of years, but recently it has been going in a new direction and we are not sure it is the right place for us. I also feel that we have an obligation to give to our schools.

As an aside, if you are involved with fundraising, never say to someone who wants to give you money that you don't need theirs. This happened to me with my grad school (after years of hearing from them what a poor fundraising record they had I told them it was probably not smart to publish levels of giving without permission; they responded defensively saying there was no fundraising problem) and my church (when I offered to fund a solution to a chronic problem, but one of the senior church members who is very competitive told me they would find a different solution because they didn't need my money). This also happened to an extended family member. He carried a very large check around with him all weekend at his college reunion because he wanted to donate it (too bad he doesn't want to give it to me!), but no one would agree to take the check because they weren't the right person. At the end of the weekend he tore up the check. People want to donate to help. Making it hard for them or rebuffing their attempts to give can make them want to say forget it!

This happened to me recently. I wanted to give money to my church for a specific purpose, and one of the elders told me the church "frowns on" donations that are restricted. It was a substantial donation, and I was appalled by this response, especially in this economy. I decided to offer the money to another church (not mine), and they took it without hesitation.

I've kept all my donations the same, except for our private school. Had to cut back somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm actually doing the opposite of some PPs. I am keeping the giving to my children's private schools and my undergrad alma mater, but cut out other giving, including our church.

Part of that is because we have given a lot to the church for a number of years, but recently it has been going in a new direction and we are not sure it is the right place for us. I also feel that we have an obligation to give to our schools.

As an aside, if you are involved with fundraising, never say to someone who wants to give you money that you don't need theirs. This happened to me with my grad school (after years of hearing from them what a poor fundraising record they had I told them it was probably not smart to publish levels of giving without permission; they responded defensively saying there was no fundraising problem) and my church (when I offered to fund a solution to a chronic problem, but one of the senior church members who is very competitive told me they would find a different solution because they didn't need my money). This also happened to an extended family member. He carried a very large check around with him all weekend at his college reunion because he wanted to donate it (too bad he doesn't want to give it to me!), but no one would agree to take the check because they weren't the right person. At the end of the weekend he tore up the check. People want to donate to help. Making it hard for them or rebuffing their attempts to give can make them want to say forget it!

I will continue to donate to our school. It has need blind admissions and practice matches the mission statement. Might even give more.

[Anonymous]

I give blood, does that count?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I give blood, does that count?

Absolutely. It can save a life.

Red Cross ought to do an ad campaign encouraging people who want to do their part but can't afford $$ donations to give blood this year.

[Anonymous]

We give to the Capital Area Food Bank and will continue to do so. But as for all of the random mailings and neighbor drop-offs to support one cause or the other, I definitely do not whip out the checkbook quickly or at all nowadays. Yes, there are many fantastic and worthy causes out there, but I'd rather put our lump sum of charitable giving toward one cause rather than sprinkling it around.

[Anonymous]

We have cut out all charitable giving as we are preparing for our taxes to go up and the money has to come from somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I give blood, does that count?

Yes, yes it does! And thank you!

--from someone who's condition restricts them from giving.