Tipping spinoff: What about charities?

I generally do not give extra at holidays. We have a giving schedule as part of our budget that we follow year round. Our December charity is one that involves Christmas help though.
 
We have a set group of charities we contribute to during the year so feel no extra pressure during the holidays. I will throw a dollar into the Salvation Army bucket and we always donate several items to Toys for Tots every year. As for the in- store or restaurant request we just do a few . The campaigns for Ronald McDonald Houses & other charities whose causes we have connections to we gladly give a few dollars.
 
I give to the retailers asking for $1 at check out.
I don’t give donations to charities regularly.
I give to gofundme if i know or know of the person and the reason is something I agree with (and it usually is)
I work in special ed and give to my students and those in the school all the time.

I would much rather give straight to people that need it than to big organizations.
But the small $1 here or there is fine. I don’t give much thought about it. Retailers don’t tend to sponsor controversial places. Lol
 


I refuse to give to the salvation army but we donate a lot to our school district and various animal charities. Sometimes the local grocery chain has events to round up for veteran charities or food banks and we donate frequently to them as well.

Just curious, you are not the first to say something about Salvation army. What’s the beef? I truly don’t know anything positive or negative.
 
Just curious, you are not the first to say something about Salvation army. What’s the beef? I truly don’t know anything positive or negative.

The Salvation Army is a religious group. They offer services without discrimination, but there is doubt about their hiring practices. Because of the religious foundation they require employees to be celibate unless married. This is an issue for many LGBT.
 
The Salvation Army is a religious group. They offer services without discrimination, but there is doubt about their hiring practices. Because of the religious foundation they require employees to be celibate unless married. This is an issue for many LGBT.

Thank you for explaining.
 


I worked for the salvation army- the drivers are paid and it is policy NOT TO ACCEPT TIPS, The helpers are beneficiares of the rehabilitation center. They are provided foo, shelter, clothing and intense rehabilitation. I quit after exposing a widespread scam where driver would " refuse" donated items then offer to remove them for a small fee- terms like call it lunch or take care of us we take care of you were thrown around. I told the dispatch supervisor, but the majority of the beneficiaries and employees ( mostly former beneficiaries) were doing similar scams. To my knowledge it still occurs. DO NOT TIP OR PAY for donated items to be taken
 
I donate to a few charities when I can throughout the year. The Red Cross, The VFW, and I do some stuff that I don't wish to make public, because that's not what it's about for me.
 
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?

No, we don't. We donate during other times of the year, to specific charities and food banks, when they don't have as much coming in. Some that we donate to include American Kidney Foundation; St Jude's; St Mary's food bank (AZ); Food Pantry of Green Cove Springs (FL); Mandarin Food Bank (FL). Only place we do the cash register donation is at Firehouse Subs; they round up change and buy fire gear for firemen.

ETA: we do work with DH's work during the holidays. Each office of the company does something charitable. Last year, his officegot together with the local Boys & Girls Club. They did a lunch with the kids and volunteers there (instead of having their monthly office lunch, paid for by the company); had presents for each of the kids (these were donated by the employees; DH gave card and board games, Pokemon decks, and nail polish kits); and donated things to the location, like basketballs, art supplies, etc (company donated).
 
Last edited:
I support my church. I also give to several of my favorite charities on a regular basis. In general, I don’t support anyone else with a monetary donation, especially at stores or on the street.
 
I worked for the salvation army- the drivers are paid and it is policy NOT TO ACCEPT TIPS, The helpers are beneficiares of the rehabilitation center. They are provided foo, shelter, clothing and intense rehabilitation. I quit after exposing a widespread scam where driver would " refuse" donated items then offer to remove them for a small fee- terms like call it lunch or take care of us we take care of you were thrown around. I told the dispatch supervisor, but the majority of the beneficiaries and employees ( mostly former beneficiaries) were doing similar scams. To my knowledge it still occurs. DO NOT TIP OR PAY for donated items to be taken
Welcome to the Dis.
 
There are definitely charities I only give to around the holidays. The Salvation Army kettles is one of them.

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 valid point, if that sort of thing matters to you. A buck doesn't really nudge the dial for me as far as a tax deduction so I give it at the register sometimes. This isn't to imply anybody else needs to; you're completely right that it's pretty disingenuous of the mega-corps to hype this as their own amazing contributions to the community.
...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
Funny but I absolutely hate buying things for charity. Maybe it's not the same sort of thing there as it is here but it seems like the stream of Scouts/dance troupes/sports teams/school clubs or whatever trying to sell junk as fundraisers is unending. I'd much, much rather give them a few dollars donation than have to buy their over-priced popcorn or wrapping paper or whatever they're hawking.

The only exception is Unicef Survival Gifts. Beginning when my DS was in Jr. High, he and his crowd "gave" items out of the catalogue as birthday gifts for one another. I can't even count all the mosquito nets we sponsored over the years - that one was really trendy for a while.
 
Funny but I absolutely hate buying things for charity. Maybe it's not the same sort of thing there as it is here but it seems like the stream of Scouts/dance troupes/sports teams/school clubs or whatever trying to sell junk as fundraisers is unending. I'd much, much rather give them a few dollars donation than have to buy their over-priced popcorn or wrapping paper or whatever they're hawking.

I totally agree!!! The Boy Scouts have been set up in front of Kroger every Saturday for the last 2 months here with their popcorn!!! I think that is way too may weeks to have the same thing out there - even if people did buy the first week or two, I'm sure they are tired of getting hounded because the kids stop you as you go in and as you go out to ask you to buy it.
 
I worked for the salvation army- the drivers are paid and it is policy NOT TO ACCEPT TIPS, The helpers are beneficiares of the rehabilitation center. They are provided foo, shelter, clothing and intense rehabilitation. I quit after exposing a widespread scam where driver would " refuse" donated items then offer to remove them for a small fee- terms like call it lunch or take care of us we take care of you were thrown around. I told the dispatch supervisor, but the majority of the beneficiaries and employees ( mostly former beneficiaries) were doing similar scams. To my knowledge it still occurs. DO NOT TIP OR PAY for donated items to be taken
Welcome to the dis.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top