Tipping spinoff: What about charities?

Pea-n-Me

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 18, 2004
Op in the thread on tipping mentioned "This time of year".

Do you feel obligated to give to the bell ringers collecting for charity, i.e. Salvation Army and such? What if you go into the store frequently or the same charity is collecting at another store you frequent?

And what about when you're asked to donate at the cash register, i.e. "Would you like to donate $1 to Children's Hospital or something like that?

We also often have charitable collections at work this time of year, how do you feel about that?
 
Other than Salvation Army bell ringers, I always do all my charitable giving directly with the organization. Store and cash register giving is a hard pass. For one, you don’t get any of the tax benefits when you give through the store and second the store claims your donation on THEIR taxes which I always find super shady. No Walmart YOU did not give $100k to Charity x, your shoppers gave a $100k and you took the benefit and credit. If a store matched donations that would be different.
 
My wife can't go past a Salvation Army Kettle with out putting a dollar in.
We are at a point of our lives where the kids are grown, and bills are lower, so have have been able to donate more than in past years. Food Bank and local SPCA are our favorite charties.
 
I don't often put money in the kettles, but we do tend to give more during December to charities, often because we're trying to get those last deductions in for the year as well.
 


Op in the thread on tipping mentioned "This time of year".

Do you feel obligated to give to the bell ringers collecting for charity, i.e. Salvation Army and such? What if you go into the store frequently or the same charity is collecting at another store you frequent?

And what about when you're asked to donate at the cash register, i.e. "Would you like to donate $1 to Children's Hospital or something like that?

We also often have charitable collections at work this time of year, how do you feel about that?


1. No. 2. No 3. No Don't get me wrong we do donate as we can. I recently checked what we had given to our church (I work there) over the last number of years and went Whoa! We gave that on our salaries at that time. Wow!

DH and I are better off financially, but we have 2 in college now and a junior in high school. We have made the decision to cut our charitable giving drastically and give more toward our kids. As they were growing up, we did without a lot and they all wore lots of hand me downs. So we feel strongly that helping them through college years (and grades are great and they are maintaining scholarships) is important as we did not save for college because we could not afford to when they were young. Our own poor college kids are our charity!
 
I never give to churches that masquerade as charities (i.e., the Salvation Army), as I frown upon tax dodgers (charities have rules they must follow, churches are basically tax-free money laundering pits).

Best advice is to use https://www.charitynavigator.org/ if you want to give responsibly and effectively.


I do know that at least on the local level, the Salvation Army here does put a lot into the homeless and downtrodden, with facilities for a shower every few days and a place to do laundry and help with utility bills, assisting with getting personal documents so that folks can get to work, and opening cold weather shelters. So much more could be done, but there is a lot of Not In My Backyard in our community when it comes to finding a place to open a facility to house homeless.
 


Op in the thread on tipping mentioned "This time of year".

Do you feel obligated to give to the bell ringers collecting for charity, i.e. Salvation Army and such? What if you go into the store frequently or the same charity is collecting at another store you frequent?

And what about when you're asked to donate at the cash register, i.e. "Would you like to donate $1 to Children's Hospital or something like that?

We also often have charitable collections at work this time of year, how do you feel about that?

I don't carry cash and try to scurry like a rodent past the Salvation Army, have heard they are very reputable. Is this true? . However, I am tired overall of being solicited everywhere I go including home! We donate a lot each year to the charities of our choice, however, not to every single person we are asked by or we'd be broke. Second most annoying after the grocery (and I know the cashiers are forced to ask so I'm always pleasant) is our neighborhood. People are constantly posting on our community site heart wrenching stories of things to donate to. One recently asked if people had it in their hearts to give to a fund of a friend of a friend of a sister. When the OP was asked where the person who would be getting the donations lived, she had no clue--just the gofundme link. Yeah, pass! I won't give on gofundme unless I absolutely know the story is legit. My husband had to give a $100 at work for a charity collection and I know it went to a good cause. I just think it's a lot of $$$. That amount won't break us at all, but I have been on a position in my life where it would have been grocery money and I wonder if anyone else that had to give is in that position.
 
Op in the thread on tipping mentioned "This time of year".

Do you feel obligated to give to the bell ringers collecting for charity, i.e. Salvation Army and such? What if you go into the store frequently or the same charity is collecting at another store you frequent?

And what about when you're asked to donate at the cash register, i.e. "Would you like to donate $1 to Children's Hospital or something like that?

We also often have charitable collections at work this time of year, how do you feel about that?


I don't see Salvation Army at the stores I frequent and I never have cash. However, I usually participate in every food drive/food donation at registers that I come across.
 
the only 'in store' i do is when dutch brother's coffee is doing one b/c they are always the FIRST and most immediate bushiness to step up and help whenever there's a tragedy/need in our community (within hours the local news will be blasting that the local locations are donating both a dollar of each sale as well as collecting-and the recipients get that money FAST when they need it). other than that i prefer to give to individual charities-we have a very reputable animal association that does great work so i've given directly to them in the form of cash or items of need. items of need appeal to me as well-the local food banks will send a shout out that they need certain items (often times shelf stable products) so i keep an eye out for those when they are on sale, stock up and donate, the battered women's shelter asks for travel sized toiletries (they mention hotel size in particular) so i collect them when we travel and then donate when i've got a bag full, the homeless support group asks for warm winter clothing so i swoop in when gloves and hats are on sale to give.
 
Other than Salvation Army bell ringers, I always do all my charitable giving directly with the organization. Store and cash register giving is a hard pass. For one, you don’t get any of the tax benefits when you give through the store and second the store claims your donation on THEIR taxes which I always find super shady. No Walmart YOU did not give $100k to Charity x, your shoppers gave a $100k and you took the benefit and credit. If a store matched donations that would be different.
This is a great point, I've never really thought about it that way!

I do know that at least on the local level, the Salvation Army here does put a lot into the homeless and downtrodden, with facilities for a shower every few days and a place to do laundry and help with utility bills, assisting with getting personal documents so that folks can get to work, and opening cold weather shelters. So much more could be done, but there is a lot of Not In My Backyard in our community when it comes to finding a place to open a facility to house homeless.

I don't carry cash and try to scurry like a rodent past the Salvation Army, have heard they are very reputable. Is this true? . However, I am tired overall of being solicited everywhere I go including home! We donate a lot each year to the charities of our choice, however, not to every single person we are asked by or we'd be broke. Second most annoying after the grocery (and I know the cashiers are forced to ask so I'm always pleasant) is our neighborhood. People are constantly posting on our community site heart wrenching stories of things to donate to. One recently asked if people had it in their hearts to give to a fund of a friend of a friend of a sister. When the OP was asked where the person who would be getting the donations lived, she had no clue--just the gofundme link. Yeah, pass! I won't give on gofundme unless I absolutely know the story is legit. My husband had to give a $100 at work for a charity collection and I know it went to a good cause. I just think it's a lot of $$$. That amount won't break us at all, but I have been on a position in my life where it would have been grocery money and I wonder if anyone else that had to give is in that position.
I've seen them do a lot of good when there is a tragedy like a fire, or during the winter helping the homeless.

I have found myself wondering, though, with so much cash, whether all of it makes it back to its destination. That, idk.
 
The Salvation Army does a lot for people in our community, so I always try to put a little cash in the bell ringers bucket when I pass by.

I am about 50/50 on whether I give the extra dollar or round up my change at the checkout at stores when they are doing collections.

The bulk of my charitable giving goes to my church.
 
I very, very seldom have cash on me so I never have put any money in the bell ringer kettles. I'm sure I'd throw a buck or two in if I did, but I won't go out of my way to get the cash just to do it.
 
No.

I have certain charities I give to each year, and that is my charitable giving for the year.

I made an exception this year when our city was affected by tornadoes, but chose a local charity and gave them a direct single donation for that.

SW
 
On rare occasions I might toss some money in the kettle, but I feel no obligation to do so.
 
We give the majority of our donations to our church as our tithes. If I have cash I will throw a dollar or two in Salvation Army pot. I don’t give to everything when asked or we would be broke.
 
I never give money to any charity when they fund-raise by

  1. Shaking a bucket on the street
  2. Asking me to add a donation to my bill at a cafe
  3. Have a collection box at a store cash register
  4. Chuggers in the street asking me to sign up to monthly donations

I only donate to charity by
  1. buying items in their high street shop
  2. buying merchandise direct from them via their website or pop up shop
  3. doing an event where I have to get sponsorship
 

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