Anonymous wrote:You need to do a tree from a reputable charity. Ours was legos, hats/gloves, science kits and dinosaur stuff. Reputable charities will review requests and specifically state how much you should spend on a child. Ours was $75-100

$75-100 that a lot and you know they're signed up through multiple agencies.

They get away with it because Angel Tree let's them. Send Angel Tree an email. There are asks that we wouldn't even buy our kid even if we have the money. It's crazy. We have since stopped using this "charity." We felt we were being used.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to do a tree from a reputable charity. Ours was legos, hats/gloves, science kits and dinosaur stuff. Reputable charities will review requests and specifically state how much you should spend on a child. Ours was $75-100

NP. The one I do is reputable, it’s a major county based organization. Still, the wants are very expensive. I do think kids just want those special dream gifts that their peers have. Also, often even poor kids have technology and video games.

I participated in one for foster kids this year. The wish lists were all very reasonable but clearly the kids had tech and video games. Lots of requests for Roblox cards, V-bucks, gaming headsets, etc.

I think those sound totally reasonable. It’s asking for an actual entire $400 gaming system that’s the problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to do a tree from a reputable charity. Ours was legos, hats/gloves, science kits and dinosaur stuff. Reputable charities will review requests and specifically state how much you should spend on a child. Ours was $75-100

NP. The one I do is reputable, it’s a major county based organization. Still, the wants are very expensive. I do think kids just want those special dream gifts that their peers have. Also, often even poor kids have technology and video games.

I participated in one for foster kids this year. The wish lists were all very reasonable but clearly the kids had tech and video games. Lots of requests for Roblox cards, V-bucks, gaming headsets, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares if they resell something? They own it, right? Anyone who needs money that badly is desperate. Why not help them? Who are you to judge?

That’s one view, not an unfair one. I am totally willing to admit it’s paternalistic, but in a program like this I’m giving because I want the satisfaction of having given nice gifts to kids who otherwise wouldn’t have gotten them during the holiday season. Not funding purchases to be resold for cash, even if it is to purchase Tide or whatever. If that’s what I wanted to contribute to, then I would just give cash to a needy family.

If we wanted to just help families we would definitely just give cash.

This isn't about just helping families. It's about giving a gift to someone. Cash would be spent on groceries, bills, whatever. There are other programs to assist with that.

Anonymous wrote:Very Entitled.

It's likely that everything is given to them from local and govt. services and they expect the same from you. We stopped doing those all together as a result of expectations.

Same. I think it's plenty nice to give a new gift within reason. Haven't donated in years and won't so long as wish lists are unrealistic.

Anonymous wrote:Who cares if they resell something? They own it, right? Anyone who needs money that badly is desperate. Why not help them? Who are you to judge?

I used to do these all the time & then I heard my SIL signed up for one. At the time, she and her husband were perfectly capable of working but were choosing to live off the system. That alone was infuriating. Some kind soul bought them Christmas dinner and a slew of gifts for her 5 children including a new bike for her oldest who was around 11 at the time. Guess who got his bike stolen within a week because he left it out front without locking it up or putting it away? They signed up again the following year and guess what nephew got again and proceeded to get stolen AGAIN??? She had no shame is signing up and it was infuriating. It soured me on participating in these.

I now do my research in the charities I participate with. There's just too much grift these days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just don’t give to charity the government already takes and wastes enough of my earnings

That doesn’t make any sense at all.

It actually does

it reminds of those people in the grocery store who wait around with a full cart asking for people to please help paying for their groceries.

What’s in their cart? Filet Mignon and other expensive meats. Fancy cheeses. etc…You clearly are doing just fine. I’m not paying for you to eat better than my own family does without asking for help.

The angel tree I picked up had "Wegmans gift cards" on it. Not Safeway. Not Giant. Wegmans. I was annoyed.

Haha you can’t win because my Salvation Army tree assignment included a “grooming kit” for a 12 year old girl which I could only assume was an enforced translation of whatever she actually said? Plus I didn’t know her ethnicity or anything related to hair. So I just went to Ulta and got anything that looked like tween skincare (ie insanely expensive adult skincare) and tucked in a gift receipt. Hopefully I got close.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who cares if they resell something? They own it, right? Anyone who needs money that badly is desperate. Why not help them? Who are you to judge?

That’s one view, not an unfair one. I am totally willing to admit it’s paternalistic, but in a program like this I’m giving because I want the satisfaction of having given nice gifts to kids who otherwise wouldn’t have gotten them during the holiday season. Not funding purchases to be resold for cash, even if it is to purchase Tide or whatever. If that’s what I wanted to contribute to, then I would just give cash to a needy family.

If we wanted to just help families we would definitely just give cash.

Anonymous wrote:Who cares if they resell something? They own it, right? Anyone who needs money that badly is desperate. Why not help them? Who are you to judge?

That’s one view, not an unfair one. I am totally willing to admit it’s paternalistic, but in a program like this I’m giving because I want the satisfaction of having given nice gifts to kids who otherwise wouldn’t have gotten them during the holiday season. Not funding purchases to be resold for cash, even if it is to purchase Tide or whatever. If that’s what I wanted to contribute to, then I would just give cash to a needy family.

Who cares if they resell something? They own it, right? Anyone who needs money that badly is desperate. Why not help them? Who are you to judge?

Anonymous wrote:I just don’t give to charity the government already takes and wastes enough of my earnings

That doesn’t make any sense at all.