What is your HHI and how much do you donate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those churches are golddiggers! What exactly do they DO with all your cash?

They pay the Ministers and the staff their salaries and benefits. They pay the mortgage on the building. They pay the maintenance costs on the buildings. They pay the dues owed to the Denomination to pay for the building, salaries....etc for the national staff and organization. It costs ~$1500 per person to run our Congregation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I apologize for being clueless, but I thought members of a church had to tithe 10% of income? Or is it voluntary?

It's voluntary in most cases. Tithing (giving 10% of income) is an old standard and some consider 5% to be the "modern tithe." But in reality few people give even that. I try to give 10% combined to church and other causes...some years I achieve that and sometimes I don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I apologize for being clueless, but I thought members of a church had to tithe 10% of income? Or is it voluntary?

Not all Congregations. Ours suggests 3.5-5%, but we don't get that but from 10-15% of the membership.

[Anonymous]

HHI $20k.
Salvation Army: $500
Young single mother:$500

[Anonymous]

HHI $160k. Donations are typically between $6,000 - $8,000 per year.

[Anonymous]

Our HHI is about $270k. We probably donate in the range of $1000-$1500. Just $100-$200 to a number of different causes - universities, FONZ, NPR, wolftrap, united way, womens center. Plus a couple of household goods donations to goodwill or AMVETS.

This thread is making me feel like we should do more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$804K last year ($400k base, rest bonus in a great year)
$3k donations
I feel pretty ashamed that I gave so little. I plan to give more once some large life expenses are more manageable (but don't we all 'plan to give more'?)

$300K HHI
$15K donations (5%)

One thing we did was up our donations over time to the usual suspects (e.g., our colleges, NPR, local food bank, Heifer project). E.g., instead of giving $50 a year we give $500. Now every charity we donate to gets $500-1000, although we also give smaller amounts ($50-100) to sponsor people in charity walks, etc. We have added some more charities each year.

We try to give to a mix of local (mostly), national (some), and international (a few) charities. With the local ones in particular you can meet the people who spend the money and see what they are doing. (We know someone who runs an international charity and feel comfortable donating a lot to them.) Most of the donations are for areas we're interested in--education, food, health care, and housing. We don't give money to arts groups, unless you count NPR and PBS. We also don't make any political donations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$200,000....about $125 to various organizations and clothing/furniture to Salvation Army. I'm in a helping profession so I do give back in other ways

And do you write off this generous effort? What a joke.

Actually I do write it off . I spend 40 hours a week in a helping profession in a marginally paid position for my level of education so while I'm not giving much financially, I am being charitable in other ways.

Love. More people should really actually "do" instead of "donate."

Because 200k is marginally paid? Please, education does not and should never equate to an expected salary. I hear this all the time with govy lawyers that make 6 figures.

I'm the pp who called the contribution a joke. I too work in the public sector making less than I could in the private, but I donate a ton more than you. You don't seem very charitable in your attitude.

[Anonymous]

240k. 3000-5000 per year for donation.

The 10% tithe question is interesting. Even in my church, people asked whether it should be pretax or post tax. Our pastor answered one should be a happy giver. That's the spirit of giving. If you felt reluctant to give, you weren't ready. And there's no requirement to give.

Churches vary. I attended another mega church before. The church building was gorgeous, situated on a piece of land that was donated a wealthy developer. The church had several thousand members. The pastor in that church had his son and his friends on the stage all the time. It's like his personal club. Each Sunday they displayed the tithe they collected the previous week. I left that church after the pre-Christmas service, where the church advocated everyone send in gift for the pastor, and only cash, checks, and gift cards were going to be accepted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. This thread is a real eye-opener.

So many people with so much money that are so unwilling to help others with charitable giving - and seem to be so resentful that anyone would even suggest that they could maybe give a little bit more.

I'm at $160K HHI, $3K donations - which I've often though was too low. But apparently I'm quite generous with my giving compared to many DCUMers. And yes, I have kids, and medical costs, and housing costs, and, like everyone else, need to save for retirement and college.

The people who quit giving because "Obummer"? Are you the same people who say we should cut government and let private charities fill the gap?

The more I think about it, the more sick reading this thread makes me feel. There's thousands of hungry children in the DC area. Would it kill any of you high-income earners to make a donation to your local food bank?

The thing is, and I know this may be difficult for you to understand...I just don't care what you or anyone thinks about how or where I spend my money. I don't give funds to any charities and I have my reasons. I do provide financial support for people I know who have outrageous medical bills, or aren't able to save for college or pay for private school due to circumstances beyond their control.

Having seen first hand how many non profits are run by clueless people, I have no desire to hand over money to them. I didn't get to my net worth by being a dummy nor did I get here because I'm not a generous person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. This thread is a real eye-opener.

So many people with so much money that are so unwilling to help others with charitable giving - and seem to be so resentful that anyone would even suggest that they could maybe give a little bit more.

I'm at $160K HHI, $3K donations - which I've often though was too low. But apparently I'm quite generous with my giving compared to many DCUMers. And yes, I have kids, and medical costs, and housing costs, and, like everyone else, need to save for retirement and college.

The people who quit giving because "Obummer"? Are you the same people who say we should cut government and let private charities fill the gap?

The more I think about it, the more sick reading this thread makes me feel. There's thousands of hungry children in the DC area. Would it kill any of you high-income earners to make a donation to your local food bank?

The thing is, and I know this may be difficult for you to understand...I just don't care what you or anyone thinks about how or where I spend my money. I don't give funds to any charities and I have my reasons. I do provide financial support for people I know who have outrageous medical bills, or aren't able to save for college or pay for private school due to circumstances beyond their control.

Having seen first hand how many non profits are run by clueless people, I have no desire to hand over money to them. I didn't get to my net worth by being a dummy nor did I get here because I'm not a generous person.

You obviously care enough to post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$200,000....about $125 to various organizations and clothing/furniture to Salvation Army. I'm in a helping profession so I do give back in other ways

And do you write off this generous effort? What a joke.

Actually I do write it off . I spend 40 hours a week in a helping profession in a marginally paid position for my level of education so while I'm not giving much financially, I am being charitable in other ways.

Love. More people should really actually "do" instead of "donate."

Because 200k is marginally paid? Please, education does not and should never equate to an expected salary. I hear this all the time with govy lawyers that make 6 figures.

No, people like government social workers and the like
do FAR more in a day's worth of work than most donations made by people who have no clue about the situation they are trying to ameliorate. They are in the trenches, develop innovative and effective programs, and have hands on, meaningful impact on people's lives.

I don't care about anyone's donations or HHI. I greatly admire people who make helping others their life's work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You obviously care enough to post.

Yeah. It doesn't cost anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$200,000....about $125 to various organizations and clothing/furniture to Salvation Army. I'm in a helping profession so I do give back in other ways

Loser. That's why I hate a certain type of big non-profit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI - $625k
Donations - $0
Guilt - None

This is right around where I am. $900K of HHI..

$5K of donations to alma mater -

as for the rest, we have made the decision to help the people directly around us when they need it rather than soaking it into a charity where we really cannot see the outcome.

I'm curious...how do you do that? Whom do you choose to help?