How Much Do You Give Annually to Charity?

[Anonymous]

HHI up to this year (when we both got decent raises) was about $280k; the last few years, we've given between $11,000 and $14,000, which feels insufficient. Hoping to give more now with some of our additional income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:0 we pay over 250k in taxes

+1

I pay more than you in taxes. I vote. I trust the government to help the poor and provide basic infrastructure and schools. (Yeah, they could do better....especially if others voted in their interests rather than making my balance sheet bigger). I donate to charity only when it is a social expectation (and I secretly hate it, every gala makes me cringe so much it looks like I'm smiling).

I find I feel better about donations I make where I (a) don't have to have my name displayed publicly and (b) don't have to go to a gala. Those donations also go farther because the organizations aren't spending money on the gala. I wish I could trust the government to help the poor and provide basic infrastructure and schools, but unfortunately, that isn't the case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI around $350k, give about $30k. Striving for 10% but rarely make it. It makes me sad to see others who are so stingy when so many are in great need.

This is awesome. We make a bit less than you, and only give about $6500 a year. Half of that to our church, and the rest given as automatic monthly payments to Maryland Food Bank and four other charities we support. If you’re gonna give, consider giving as a monthly automatic donation. For one thing, they can use the money more efficiently if they know they can budget based on it.

Giving to your church isn't particularly generous. It only means you give to people who think like you do. It doesn't mean you're giving to anyone or anything in need.

100% agree

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My HHI is about $80k, I'm a single mom, and I give about $2000 to charity a year.

Your poor child...

So your stealing from your children to give to strangers. Put that in a 529 or 401k instead

Wait, what? Why is everyone else with kids allowed to give to charity but this woman isn't? Who says she's not funding a 529 or 401k?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI around $350k, give about $30k. Striving for 10% but rarely make it. It makes me sad to see others who are so stingy when so many are in great need.

This is awesome. We make a bit less than you, and only give about $6500 a year. Half of that to our church, and the rest given as automatic monthly payments to Maryland Food Bank and four other charities we support. If you’re gonna give, consider giving as a monthly automatic donation. For one thing, they can use the money more efficiently if they know they can budget based on it.

Giving to your church isn't particularly generous. It only means you give to people who think like you do. It doesn't mean you're giving to anyone or anything in need.

100% agree

Maybe depends on the religious institution and what they do with the money. When we give to our synagogue, we typically give directly to their social action fund, which mostly spends the money on direct social services or gives it to other organizations that do. But we also give more money to other organizations than we do to the synagogue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does giving to churches really count as charity?

It does if the money is used for things that help the needy and less fortunate, but to me it doesn’t count otherwise.

Then most charities don't count. Most of the money donated to charities is not spent on charitable programs. It is spent on employees and executive salaries.

[Anonymous]

We make about 800k hhi and probably spend $500-$800 a year on charity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$200,000 income and we usually give 2-3k per year. But only to animal and environmental charities. People suck.

You sound like my 12 year old who would rather save animals than starving kids. I really hope she grows out of that. I'm sad its too late for you to grow up.

[Anonymous]

We have recurring monthly donations to WAMU, the ACLU, Save the Children, St. Jude’s, and Emily’s List. Together, they amount to about $1600/year. I’d like to increase that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We make about 800k hhi and probably spend $500-$800 a year on charity.

I would be like this, but I donate to private schools quite a bit on top of our tuition. I fundamentally believe taxes and charity target the same goals - to help society and the poor. Therefore, by sending my kids private and paying for taxes to support public I am doing more "charity" than most folks here.

I also pay a much bigger piece of the pie than most when it comes to funding public programs that help the poor - public housing, shelters, Ukraine, food stamps, and all the other wonderful things our government funded programs support.

If folks here think that's stingy then start making more money to support these programs more! You win AND the less fortunate win! Also, please always vote to make our public schools better!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does giving to churches really count as charity?

It does if the money is used for things that help the needy and less fortunate, but to me it doesn’t count otherwise.

Then most charities don't count. Most of the money donated to charities is not spent on charitable programs. It is spent on employees and executive salaries.

There are absolutely a lot of inefficient, wasteful nonprofits out there. And there are some nonprofits that do good things but don't need any more money. (I have taken my kids to Children's National Medical Center and am appreciative of their great work but would never give them money, as they already have many hundreds of millions of dollars in assets and pay their execs millions.)

But there are many, many, many who are doing great things and truly helping people and can actually use the money. If you choose not to give, that's your decision, but the argument that "I won't give because the money will always be wasted and won't help people" is clearly false.

I'm the person who mentioned Givewell (givewell.org); they not only look to see if the money is being actually spent on productive things (rather than bloated salaries), but review evaluations to see how much that spending helps, and also whether the charities have the capacity to use additional funds well.

But there are many others. Some places to start:
https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/
https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/best-charities-to-donate-to-2022/
https://impactful.ninja/best-charities-for-international-aid/
https://www.charitywatch.org/top-rated-charities
https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/12/01/20-local-charities-giving-tuesday-donation-washington-dc/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HHI around $350k, give about $30k. Striving for 10% but rarely make it. It makes me sad to see others who are so stingy when so many are in great need.

This is awesome. We make a bit less than you, and only give about $6500 a year. Half of that to our church, and the rest given as automatic monthly payments to Maryland Food Bank and four other charities we support. If you’re gonna give, consider giving as a monthly automatic donation. For one thing, they can use the money more efficiently if they know they can budget based on it.

Giving to your church isn't particularly generous. It only means you give to people who think like you do. It doesn't mean you're giving to anyone or anything in need.

100% agree

This applies to a lot of charities and non-profits, not just churches.

[Anonymous]

zero

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does giving to churches really count as charity?

It does if the money is used for things that help the needy and less fortunate, but to me it doesn’t count otherwise.

Then most charities don't count. Most of the money donated to charities is not spent on charitable programs. It is spent on employees and executive salaries.

That's not actually true; you can look at Guidestar and see what percentage charities put into programming vs. overhead, but it's not "most" spend on overhead for most organizations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does giving to churches really count as charity?

It does if the money is used for things that help the needy and less fortunate, but to me it doesn’t count otherwise.

Then most charities don't count. Most of the money donated to charities is not spent on charitable programs. It is spent on employees and executive salaries.

What an excuse to be stingy. Yes charities need employees to provide program services to people who need them. Some make good use of volunteers but you need staff on a day to day basis.

OP, yes you are also stingy. You’re giving a quarter of 1 percent to charity. Spend less on your cars and home and try to think about others. We have a similar salary to you and donate 20x as much and still feel like we aren’t giving away enough to those who need it.