How often do you give...

[perinova]

Just a fun lifestyle/personality check...
Beyond your standard charities there are always fund raisers crossing our neighborhoods, more often than not during the Holiday season.
How often do you get guilt-tripped into giving?

 

[Outtahere]

I use to drop the spare change I had in my pocket into the bucket but I've stopped for two reasons. I use my credit card for all purchases now and rarely have change and in my area we've had several bell ringers that have up and walked away with the kettle at the end of the day never to return.

 

[Baxter]

I've let myself be guilt-tripped into handing a few bills to a panhandler. But I try to funnel my charity to the organizations that provide food or shelter instead, to better ensure that it's not spent on booze.

I had a professor who kept a stash of McD gift certificates in his wallet, so he'd have something to hand them that could only be used for food. A neat idea, I thought.

But I'll confess that I find the salvation army bells so loud and annoying that I'll walk past as quickly as I can.

 

[azanon]

Was it in YMOYL where the author said "I am my favorite charity?"

Seriously, i have yet to reach a point where i'm able to fund all of my self-labeled "reasonable" financial goals. For example, i am relatively satisfised with my money going for retirement, and the bills are getting paid, but I havent been on a decent vacation in years, and i continue to have very frequent occurences where the money in the check book is completely bottomed out by the time i'm paid again.

I'm not religious, but I do like the idea i used to hear in church about that everyone has something to give; for some its money, some its talents, and so on and so for. To me, the money folks are those that make sick amounts of money that greatly exceed what they really need. For example, my high school best friend is now "head of surgery" at a private firm and brings in close to 1 million a year in income.

I'm reminded of another sermon in a church where the preacher tried to guilt the congregation by pointing out that 80% of the money is given by 20% of the church. I hope that I wasnt the only one that realized that's exactly how it should be. 20% of the members are probably far more blessed with money in their lives than the other 80% and very well should give more than the remaining 80%. Or restated, if income/means aren't distributed equally, then where exactly did this preacher fall and hit his head to think that the congregation should give equally anyway.

 

[ex_CFO_now_RVer]

We give to bellringers, never to panhandlers.

Dave

 

[azanon]

We give to bellringers, never to panhandlers.

Dave

That bellringing hurts my ears, to be quite honest. My ears are a bit sensitive i admit. I just wish they could find a less obnoxious way to stimulate people.

 

[Khan]

That bellringing hurts my ears, to be quite honest. My ears are a bit sensitive i admit. I just wish they could find a less obnoxious way to stimulate people.

Locally, they often have people who play carols on different instruments. A man or woman will play trumpet or guitar or clarinet or violin, sometimes there is even a small combo.

 

[BOBOT]

A friend keeps his pockets full of nickels this time of year. When he passes the bell ringer he tosses in a handful - makes an impressive noise!

 

[John Tuttle]

Try giving blood. Takes about half an hour, you can lie down and rest, you have people telling you how wonderful you are for donating, no ringing bells (maybe some musak) and it won't delay your ER date.

 

[Khan]

Try giving blood. Takes about half an hour, you can lie down and rest, you have people telling you how wonderful you are for donating, no ringing bells (maybe some musak) and it won't delay your ER date.

And you'll never have to buy another t-shirt.

 

[JohnEyles]

I've let myself be guilt-tripped into handing a few bills to a panhandler.

I don't ever give them anything. But the local homeless shelter is the biggest
recipient of charitable donations from me, next to United Way.

But I try to funnel my charity to the organizations that provide food or shelter instead ...

This brings up a much bigger issue. How do you think about charitable giving in
retirement, especially ER ? I gave handsomely (IMHO) when I was earning a big
salary, and I easily COULD still be earning said salary (since I'm ER'ed) so I am
not sure how to think about it. The crack I come out is to still give money to
organizations that directly help unfortunate people (United Way, homeless shelter,
UNICEF), but not to ones that are simply "good causes" (PBS, NPR, enviro
organizations, alma mater). What do people here think ?

As far as timing, I figure Christmas is the giving season; so I sit down
(just did it) and figure out how much money I want to give and who I want
to give it to and write a bunch of checks. Sometimes I include a form letter
with my check warning them that if I get too many solicitations during the year,
I'll asume they're spending too much of my money on fund-raising. Any phone
calls are met with "please take me off your call list, I don't respond to telephone
solicitations" and if I'm sympathetic to the organization "if you send me
something in the mail, I'll be glad to look at it"; works like a charm.

 

[Baxter]

How do you think about charitable giving in retirement, especially ER ?

For us, it's unchanged. We made our ER budget based on our LBYM pre-ER spending, and the charitable giving was included in that budget.

I can imagine that would be one of the first categories to get cut back if we needed to trim the budget. In that case I would hope to donate more time instead of money.

 

[Nords]

Try giving blood. Takes about half an hour, you can lie down and rest, you have people telling you how wonderful you are for donating, no ringing bells (maybe some musak) and it won't delay your ER date.

That's frustrating. I've donated gallons over the years but now I appear to be permanently banned for having spent time in Europe in the 1980s... apparently there's concern that people might be carrying the prions that lead to bovine spongiform encephaly.

 

[John Tuttle]

That's frustrating. I've donated gallons over the years but now I appear to be permanently banned for having spent time in Europe in the 1980s... apparently there's concern that people might be carrying the prions that lead to bovine spongiform encephaly.

That's a bummer. The list of questions and the reasons you can't give get longer all the time. I'm O neg, Rh neg and CMV neg, so my blood goes to babies. They hit me up every eight weeks.

 

[d]

i pass the bellringers several times a week, but never drop a dime. i do, however, send them a modest check every month, plus a considerably larger annual contribution. my support stems from my grandmother who, when i was quite young, would take me "downtown" at christmas time, and always made a contribution -- she more than once told me how important it was to support the less fortunate. i later learned that, many years prior to that, she was among the less fortunate receiving their support.

 

[bpp]

That's frustrating. I've donated gallons over the years but now I appear to be permanently banned for having spent time in Europe in the 1980s... apparently there's concern that people might be carrying the prions that lead to bovine spongiform encephaly.

Same here. I assume blood banks in the UK can't be so picky...

 

[retire@40]

Maybe it's because I'm a control freak, but I've never been a big fan of just giving money to an organization. It bothers me that I don't know (and will never know) if my money will be used the way I intend it to be used.

I've donated my time to local causes (like cleaning streets and parks in my community, driving elderly people to shop and doctor visits) and I've purchased things to give directly to a person or group that I know will benefit them directly (like purchasing school supplies for kids affected by Katrina and mailing them directly to a teacher contact in that area).

 

[maddythebeagle]

Maybe it's because I'm a control freak, but I've never been a big fan of just giving money to an organization. It bothers me that I don't know (and will never know) if my money will be used the way I intend it to be used.

I've donated my time to local causes (like cleaning streets and parks in my community, driving elderly people to shop and doctor visits) and I've purchased things to give directly to a person or group that I know will benefit them directly (like purchasing school supplies for kids affected by Katrina and mailing them directly to a teacher contact in that area).

I agree with giving your time....I suspect that is popular with this crowd...

 

[Nords]

I agree with giving your time....I suspect that is popular with this crowd...

That's one scary avatar dog, Maddy... did it stick the landing?