Choosing a Charity to raise money for

[Black Anarchist]

I am doing a 200 mile bike ride, and I have the opportunity to raise money to a charity
unfortunately, I am not sure which charity raise money for.   I am a little bit sceptical
about their efficiency also.  Some charity profit margins are so low it might as well be
 a wealth transfer from the labour of the unpaid workers to the charities cause. And this is after the local authority and government subsidies.  The unpaid workers might as well donate money directly rather than work in these thrift stores.

 

One charity shop manager pissed me of by showing bad management knowledge.
He didn’t want me to scan his books to find valuable books while the staff admit they
do not have the time to check the items themselves. The logic being,’ those who regularly buy books from them like to believe that sometime they are getting a bargain’. This assumes that the buyer would check the price of the book online after reading it, have an Amazon Seller account set up and willing to wait long enough to sell it or sell it on ebay and get peanuts for it.  I wish that Walmart worked this way, I would sneak in a scanner.

 

Anyway, I need a charity that your average person is likely to want to donate to.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3357458/One-five-UK-s-biggest-charities-spending-half-public-donations-good-causes-spend-little-ONE-CENT-charitable-work.html

 

[Cuffy_Meigs]

First may I wish you well with the cycle ride. 200 miles is a long way!

 

Like you, I was sceptical about how much money went anywhere near good causes so I did a little research into the main UK charities, after which I was even more sceptical. Suffice it to say that the whopping percentages they claim go to their "good cause" include an awful lot of things one wouldn't expect, such as their own salaries, pensions and "consultancy fees". Add to that some crazy salary and benefits packages being paid to people whose CVs and responsibilities scarcely seemed to justify them and it was all a bit depressing.

 

To generalise, I concluded the best of the bunch in this respect seemed to be the religious and environmental charities which might attract donors but may not attract you(?). For what it is worth, the best I could come up with was the Salvation Army. They looked to be mostly unpaid, had no outrageous salaries, target deserving recipients a million times more efficiently than government welfare and didn't obviously take advantage of the situation by ramming religion down people's throats.

 

I am no expert having just spent a few hours looking into this so I may be completely wrong. I'd be interested to know other people's thoughts.

[Black Anarchist]

 

 

I am no expert having just spent a few hours looking into this so I may be completely wrong. I'd be interested to know other people's thoughts.

 

Those hours are more then enough. The Salvation Army is good. My views on Christianity are the same as Stefan's. I wonder how this charity would go down at my workplace. Most are not Christians but there are a few Africans at my workplace perhaps they can add support.

[percentient]

Have you checked the Effective Altruism movement?

 

Don't let your inner Rand dismiss the whole thing over the "altruism" part. They have a lot of good things to say. One of which is a realization that you already made: most people do most good by giving money instead of time. Helping people involves specialized skills like anything else, and if you really care about the results, just train yourself into the highest-earning professional you can, take a lot of risks, start companies, make as much money as you can, find the best-documented charity with best marginal impact and dump your money on that.

 

They're a bit Africa-focused though, given the utilitarian universalist approach. If that doesn't bother you, maybe pick one of these and highlight how many helping-units you get with each bank note.

 

http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities

[Black Anarchist]

One of which is a realization that you already made: most people do most good by giving money instead of time. Helping people involves specialized skills like anything else, and if you really care about the results, just train yourself into the highest-earning professional you can, take a lot of risks, start companies, make as much money as you can, find the best-documented charity with best marginal impact and dump your money on that.

 

 

http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities

It was the unpaid worker who thought that I it is a cheek to scan books and make a profit at the charities expense. In so many words, she expressed that it is virtuous to be an unpaid worker. I wanted to say, stop working in this charity and come out with me to do some thrifting. We will work all the thrift stores this side of South London from Waddington to Clapham north, next we can sell on Ebay, Amazon and you can give your profits to charity( A lot more work a lot less chatting).   

 

They're a bit Africa-focused though, given the utilitarian universalist approach. If that doesn't bother you, maybe pick one of these and highlight how many helping-units you get with each bank note.

 

Not a fan of Africa focused charities. Most African countries are not economically free. You just have to ask how easy it to buy a prefab shipping container house buys some cheap land( Got to be cheaper then London)  open up a small business in Africa. The inflation-tax will probably finish you off.

[percentient]

I get your point, but I doubt that freeing a kid of parasitic worms will make her more socialist. How about this,

 

"For every mile ridden, and for each dollar from you, I will print a hundred leaflets explaining market capitalism, and throw them from a helicopter"