Poll:How much do you give to charity?

[RetireeRobert]

Quote:

Originally Posted by youbet Since OP clearly spelled out the parameters as percent of annual spending, why don't we stick with that?

Because I like the way I did it better.

Besides, the only category I fit in, 10% or more, I go in that same category in the poll chart whether one uses annual income or annual spend. Certainly, percent of of annual spend is greater than percent of annual income.

Or are you suggesting OP should add more categories to the poll? So it would catch such difference for those on the upper ends of the current chart?

[Sojourner]

Right now, it's a horse race between "Less than 1%" and "10% or more" in the poll, each with 1/3 of the total vote. Interesting how the majority of folks here are either nongivers or lavish givers.

[Dash man]

We’ve given about 28% so far this year. Our largest contributions go to our church, Catholic Charities and a seminary. We also support a homeless shelter for women and children, a couple of food banks, a children’s hospital, Tunnels 2 Towers, Building Homes for Heroes, Team Rubicon and sponsor two children, one each in Honduras and Haiti.

[Aerides]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sojourner Right now, it's a horse race between "Less than 1%" and "10% or more" in the poll, each with 1/3 of the total vote. Interesting how the majority of folks here are either nongivers or lavish givers.

or other. Several folks here talk about the time they spend working directly, volunteering with various organizations. Sweat is harder to measure than cash, but undoubtedly its value can be far greater.

[athena53]

Mine is close to 20% of income, because I can. My withdrawal rate is under 3.5% and my assets have increased 4.6%/year annually after withdrawals in the 7 years since I retired. About half that goes to my church. I can't take it with me and DS and DDIL live modestly and will probably stash whatever they get away for their kids (and donate a chunk, I'm sure).

I do enough actual volunteer work that I turned down Presidency of the Garden Club because I already wear several hats at church, including Vestry Warden, maintaining the web site and occasionally preaching, but t's a joy to see a need somewhere else and be able to help.

[RobbieB]

Second Harvest Food Bank
Humane Society
Hospice of San Joaquin
Salvation Army
McHenry House - Local family shelter

[Sojourner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aerides Sweat is harder to measure than cash, but undoubtedly its value can be far greater.

Very true. It would be interesting to know how many hours of their time folks around here are donating to charity, but that's for another poll.

[FREE866]

Great thread. This year will be ~5% of my spending. I mostly give directly as opposed to donating to large organizations. I know many people that do absolutely heroic work to help cats, dogs, and rescued farm animals so instead of giving money to ASPCA for example I'll give to people I personally know who do TNR work that save thousands of cats.



For humans I will buy food packages and have them delivered to their homes. I'm only in my 5th year of ER so I don't want to go overboard, but my plan is to give more substantially as the years go on.

[Souschef]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sojourner Very true. It would be interesting to know how many hours of their time folks around here are donating to charity, but that's for another poll.

Very true: I volunteer at a local hospice repairing their wheelchairs, and until recently flew patients for Angel Flight West.

[ivinsfan]

I like the direct route in addition to helping fund my church.


MSP has a brutal climate and DD lives in a first ring suburb. Every single year kids come to the elementary school with no coats, too light of a coat or half way up the arm sleeves...


They ask for used coats and send them through the local dry cleaners. My daughter and I decided no kid should have to wear a coat and be approached by a schoolmate saying that's my old jacket.


Every year we hunt and peck for the cheapest new good quality coats. Right now I have two boxes containing 20 coats for all sizes and sexes. The teachers and admins at the school keep an eye out for kids that need updated winter wear. They will be dropped at area schools in the next month.



I prefer to do things like this, as in see a need and try and fill it with no middle man. Some years I find more causes and some years a little less. But knowing 100% of my spend go to help someone works for me. So I guess that is time and money in one swoop.

[RetiredHappy]

We also do an annual Adopt A Family before Christmas time. We used to do the Salvation Army one for many years. Right now at our club, we do one for the military families and it is also called "Adopt A Family". We love shopping for clothes, gift cards, toys etc as per their request lists and add a little more.

[rk911]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sojourner I see there hasn't been a poll here about charitable giving in over 10 years, and a recent thread got me wondering about it. Of your annual spending, how much goes to charity each year? Feel free to post any details about your charitable giving once you've voted.

lately we've been giving low 4-figures to some and high 3-figures to others...depends on the charity. we support roughly 30-different charities. we are also bigggg tippers.

[ownyourfuture]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunset I followed the motto charity begins at home

Same for me

In 2020, I donated $300 to St Jude's research hospital because you could write it off even if you didn't itemize.

Because of changes this year, (The charitable write-off is no longer above-the-line) not sure if I'll do it again ?

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/30/some...ble-gifts.html

[kcowan]

These have been unusual years for us. Hip replacement and Covid last year. Hurricane Nora this year. Our friend and Food Bank founder had her restaurant washed away this year! So we funded her big time. Big hit for us.

But normally Cancer, Heart and Stroke, 2 Hospitals, 2 Animal Shelters, 1 University, 1 Food Bank. Averages just under 10%.

[euro]

OOOps, I misunderstood the poll. I thought the question was % of net worth,, not annual spend..... So, I marked <1% but in reality it should be >10% (of annual spend - in fact: MUCH >>> 10%).....

[Helen]

We don't have a set amount, but it seems to increase every year. I always give to the Oregon Food Bank. We also support a local school that caters to housing insecure kids, amongst other things we buy Christmas gifts for each child. Various animal charities are always a must. Lately our largest donations have been directly to people who are in dire straights or friends who need help.

[athena53]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownyourfuture Same for me In 2020, I donated $300 to St Jude's research hospital because you could write it off even if you didn't itemize. Because of changes this year, (The charitable write-off is no longer above-the-line) not sure if I'll do it again ?

I'm surprised that losing the deduction would make that much of a difference in your decision to donate $300.

For those of you who are in the low end of the poll, may I ask why if you want to volunteer your reasons? I know some people believe that they get taxed enough to help the less fortunate, support the arts. etc. that it's enough. I know that those on very limited budgets (e.g. SS only ) just don't have much to spare.

I just can't imagine not donating what I do as long as I feel it's sustainable. My top priorities are not outliving my savings, helping with my grandchildren's college costs (oldest is only 7) and leaving a legacy. So far I'm on track for all of them.

[euro]

Quote:

Originally Posted by athena53 I'm surprised that losing the deduction would make that much of a difference in your decision to donate $300. For those of you who are in the low end of the poll, may I ask why if you want to volunteer your reasons? I know some people believe that they get taxed enough to help the less fortunate, support the arts. etc. that it's enough. I know that those on very limited budgets (e.g. SS only ) just don't have much to spare. I just can't imagine not donating what I do as long as I feel it's sustainable. .

^^^ This.

[Sojourner]

Quote:

Originally Posted by athena53 For those of you who are in the low end of the poll, may I ask why if you want to volunteer your reasons?

OP here. Last year, I allocated roughly 2% of my annual spending budget to charitable donations. One of the reasons I created this poll was to see what others are doing, in part so that I might get motivated to do more. My goal is to get up to at least 3% this year.

If I'm being honest, the reason I haven't done more is primarily down to my frugality. Many years of LBYM and extreme "carefulness" with money has left me with such a frugal mindset that I find it difficult to willingly part with nontrivial amounts of money, for any reason. Now that I'm in a position to be less careful and more generous, I want to extend that to charitable giving, but it's slow going. Discovering and embracing the concept of effective altruism last year helped loosen my purse strings a bit. This year I am planning to give more to organizations like Giving What We Can, as well as to humanitarian relief orgs like the International Rescue Committee.

[brett]

Mostly to our local food bank on a quarterly basis.

We review our giving and decided to support those with the highest efficiency and no longer support those than had extremely high overheads or admins.

When we see 50-65 percent of our giving goes to salaries, admin, and fundraising we stop giving to the organization. We want our money to count and to end up where we want it to go.