Every year around this time we get inundated with requests for charitable contributions, mostly from worthy organizations. This year, something called Giving Tuesday is on Nov. 27. My own opinion is that I’d rather pay taxes to government agencies that are supposed to take care of the sick, the homeless, the environment, and whatever, but that’s not the way it appears to work in our current society. So it works out that charities spend a large portion of our contributions on obscene salaries and on their fundraising efforts. CEO salaries of $500k to one million and up are typical for large charities like the American Cancer Society, Goodwill, American Red Cross, Boy Scouts, etc.
The other thing that pisses me off is when I see that a charity that I donated to is spending a fair amount of my donation on requests for more money, including crap I don’t need like stickers, greeting cards, address labels, and cheap paper flags, supposedly handmade. The worst of these was a fairly large package I received from something called St. Joseph’s Indian School. It included all of the crap I mentioned previously along with a pen and a couple of made-in-China dream-catchers (Christmas tree ornaments I guess). This outfit made over $50 million a year for their poor little school of 200 kids or $250k per year per kid!! Oh and it’s a Catholic charity and the school kids are required to go to mass – so much for respecting Native American traditions.
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It looks like you have solved the problem: research the organization before donating.
Personally, I would much rather donate to a charity that I can research, decide if I want to donate, and decide how much to donate, than have money taken from me without my consent by the government.
sfvpool
Level 7
Nov 24, 2018
2
Well we all pay taxes, but it's not really without our consent since our elected representatives have approved it. And a small percentage of our taxes does go to these causes. I'd just prefer that more of it went there than to pay for our bloated military and to pay interest on our national debt.
I'm not going to defend our cocked-up system where Trump (and Bush Jr.) lost the popular vote by a significant amount and still got to be president. And when I said everyone pays taxes, I obviously didn't mean to include Trump or his crime family and their corrupt charity. Even so, that's the deal we got by living here and I'd sure like to see it change, but I believe we can elect more people of good will who will do what's right rather than what's profitable for them and their cronies.
@jerry99 We would probably disagree on what is good for the country, but I'm not optimistic that people will elect anyone I think is good. Trump's election is a great example of it. I thought that a Republican would win, regardless of who it was. I thought there were a couple of good Republican candidates in the Primary and was surprised that Trump won, with his lack of ideas, bully tactics, and complete pragmatism. I think it is a sign of the direction the US is going -- towards dictatorship.
Looking for some particular response or just venting?
Giving Tuesday is a day when donations are matched by corporations, private donors, etc. So the impact of donating on that day is bigger than most days.
CEO salaries seem high but not compared to the private sector for a similarly sized organization.
I generally avoid donating to religious organizations for issues like you mention.
shockwaverider
Level 8
Nov 24, 2018
0
Yeah, just venting. I was pissed at the St. Joseph's mailer because it made me feel guilty about throwing away their crap, which I guess was their objective. [cnn.com]
I make a significant-for-me number of donations and I get really annoyed when I see that money being wasted on asking me for more. I get especially annoyed when I see that they've sold my name and address to other charities (I'm looking at you NRDC) and I never donate to them again.
@jerry99 I'm with you on the free crap I don't want and the selling of mail lists. Donating anonymously helps minimize that.
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