A few weeks ago I was asked to help at a charity event by calling the charity auction. There were some really great items up for auction and with an expected audience of around five hundred business people and their partners there was a solid opportunity to raise some much-needed funds so I agreed to donate my time and skills. I'll admit that my auctioneers voice and skills were a little rusty due to lack of use (it's been years) but I practiced for a week or so and figured I'd do a reasonable job.
The event was a great success and much was raised, most of which will go to the right place.
I can't recall who I was speaking with in the last couple weeks but someone on Hive mentioned charities and we were commenting about how many of them are dubious at best.
Much of the funds raised go to paying salaries, for "fact-finding", conference and seminar trips, the CEO's new Jaguar and other such "operational" things which don't leave much for anything else. It's for that reason I do not donate funds to charities preferring to donate my time and skills instead and, even then, I need to know the funds raised will actually do some good rather than line the pockets of those running the charity.
There's an entire industry that revolves around charity and so many are simply there to create revenue that doesn't get to where it's supposed to and even though there's systems in place to prevent that...well, there's some clever folks out there circumventing the system and taking advantage of others for their own gain under the guise of being a charity.
I was pleased to give my time and skills, the event was well run, focused on bringing attention to the cause and I know the funds raised will make a huge difference to those the charity exists for...I mean military veterans, not those who run the charity.
I received a nice framed letter of thanks a couple days ago and it'll sit in my home office with other such things and will make me feel a degree of contentment knowing that I helped to make a difference to a few people; that's a nice feeling to have I think.
So, what's up?
With that in mind, making a difference to others, I thought I'd see if anyone else has volunteered their time and skills in aid of a charity and, if so, did you feel the need to vet the charity to ensure the funds raised went to the right place first? What did you do to assist and why did you do it? Also, have you ever had a situation in which you discovered a charity was misappropriating funds raised? If so, what was the situation? Feel free to comment and tall me what's up should you wish to.
Design and create your ideal life, tomorrow isn't promised - galenkp
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The only charity I will give is to my friends and neighbors.
Yep, most charities are shit, just fucknuggets lining their own pockets.
Probably not quite the same as charity but me and my mother used to go to dog shelter and walk some dogs. We stopped doing that because my mother started thinking about taking one of those dogs home. I am not ready to have another dog. Saying goodbye is hard. Besides most of the dogs there were ill so the time of goodbye would likely come sooner than later.
Giving up one's time to help others, volunteering, is still a form of charity I think. Nice work, I'm sure the dogs appreciated it.
Hi Galen. It's the same for me, I don't trust charities very much. It's also the same for me, distrust is not synonymous with doing nothing.
And answering the question, I donate part of my time to a small organization I am part of as a psychologist. About six years ago a friend, a victim of workplace bullying, told me that a small group of bullying victims wanted to organize something so they could help others. So I signed up. Since then I give time, money and, when necessary, I assist victims in consultation at a symbolic price.
This is my experience and I am glad that you enjoyed this charity auction and that everything went well.
Nice work on your charitable efforts, if more people did that there would be no need for charitable organisations that are basically just revenue raising for those that run the organisation. Keep up the good work, I'm certain your making a big difference to those you assist.
I completely agree. If it had not been this way, non-profit victims, with the only goal of helping, I would not be collaborating with them.
Best regards.
It's something of a thing here for execs of nonprofits to play fast and loose with money. Tends to get quietly swept under the rug because it's embarrassing for everybody too. I'm like you, I'll volunteer my time/skills or give directly.
Lol, in college we used to joke about setting up a charity just to create cushy nonjobs for ourselves.
We should start a charity in aid of...in aid of...well, who cares what we pretend it's in aid of as it'll actually be in aid of us!
Oh hang on, we're not fucken greedy assholes, so let's not do that at all.
Recently one of these organisations was questioned here, on the occasion of a disaster that occurred... many testimonies from people... in short, I have investigated some and the use of the funds is more than doubtful, some say they go to children and never arrive.
I have witnessed how people from an organisation that was there to organise took the best of the donations of clothes to take them themselves.
I don't give money to these organisations either, I have given my time on two occasions and I have seen some ugly things.
Some people have no conscience and will do anything to benefit themselves over others, even create charities that simple feather their own nests. Reprehensible really.
I fully agree. They also claim to have done things when in fact it was a group of people outside the organisation who did them. It's all about maintaining the international name, the fame.
I think it might have been me you were talking to, but that doesn't really matter. I think the corruption is more of a problem with the big national charities than the smaller local ones. I'm sure it happens everywhere, but if you can find a group where you know the people it helps. My wife and I used to give to a national charity every month that had global reach, but working in the public schools we see so much need in our local area that we decided to focus there more. We often buy Christmas gifts for students who we know won't get much and we transport holiday meals for families. I made it clear to my wife when we got together that if one of her students needs something she never needs to ask my permission (not that she needs it anyway), she just needs to let me know the charges are going to show up on our credit card statement.
If everyone focused on their local areas and did the right thing there would be less people in need; I also think that example would ripple outwards and inspire others to do the same thing; the problem is, so few want to do anything at all that doesn't revolve around, or directly benefit, themselves.
I totally agree. All we can do is keep trying.
You are right Galen, I know many of these organizations that are responsible for allocating funds that in the first place are contributed to the social and their purpose ends up being another, that is why personally I have always preferred to stay distant from these organizations, on one occasion I saw how corruption moved in a blatant way in a foundation for children, the truth is that it hurt me too much because I had a great appreciation for its founder, I opened up and from that moment on I prefer to make specific contributions to people who really loved it. need, without recklessly enriching a swindler
Corruption has long arms, meaning it reaches to a lot of places and charities are all too often a magnet for those looking to take advantage of people's generosity for their own gain. I think it puts many people off from donating,l funds, myself included. I am happy to donate time though but I have to know the charity is legit.
There have been a lot of incidents in my country where charity companies were caught using the money raised for other people as their own
It's quite a crazy world we live in nowadays
Greed is a powerful motivator I think and so many people give in to it.
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