14 ms·

I went back on Archive.org, and it does seem to be the case that they've been up front about their religious affiliation (online) at least since 2013, when I st

by tptacek 6mo ago

I went back on Archive.org, and it does seem to be the case that they've been up front about their religious affiliation (online) at least since 2013, when I stopped looking. The pitch K4K has had for most of this time isn't about the good that they do so much as that they're very good at picking up your car conveniently and maximizing the IRS impact of the donation. (Donating your car is probably not a good deal and you might be better off just having it bought and picked up by a salvager, and then taking the money and donating that.)

SoftTalker 6mo ago
That was back in the days when if you had mortgage interest, it was to your advantage to itemize deductions and include charitable donations. With the much higher standard deductions now, far fewer people file a Schedule A.
- dhosek 6mo ago
  There’s also the cap on the deductibility of local taxes. The Trump tax “cut” raised my tax rate by roughly 3% (although I’ve tended to have lots of fluctuations in my income and deductions over the last 15 years so it’s hard to make good comparisons from one year to the next).
dec0dedab0de 6mo ago
People donating things aren't generally looking for a good deal. I don't really care about the religious aspect, but if you're calling yourself kars4kids, the proceeds really should go to kids. In general, charities should have to be more up front about how their donations are being used. With rules being stricter as they get bigger. That is to say, the local fire department doesn't need to tell me how much of the hoagie sale is going to beer, but once you're buying commercials there should be some transparency. As far as car donation options the purple heart is still around. I think at one point either the EFF or the FSF used to do it too, but I can't find it anywhere. Does anyone remember that?
- tptacek 6mo ago
  It does go to kids, it's just a religious charity for kids. That's an extremely normal thing. I'm Catholic, we have them too. And they're not hiding it. I don't think it's a good donation! I wouldn't use it. Like I said, I'd junk the car and donate the proceeds.
  - pessimizer 6mo ago
    Just from personal experience, Catholics are better at this. Other religions often consider religious instruction a charitable function. Catholics just help you, and you're moved into wanting religious instruction. When I would go to St. Vincent's as a homeless teenager, the only indication that I wasn't receiving services in some government office was the foot-high cross on the back wall. I don't remember a single mention of religion. Plenty of Protestant churches would make you sit through a service before feeding you. edit: that's what I get for not reading the article before commenting. This is just fraudulent. It's a charity doing Zionist things for Jewish youth. Most non-Jewish people wouldn't donate to a kids' charity that wouldn't do a thing for their children if their children were needy. The only need it's attending to even in Jewish children is the "need" to love Israel and not enter into interfaith relationships.
    - aidenn0 6mo ago
      Are you saying that Catholic charities are more catholic in who they help?
      - dhosek 6mo ago
        Mostly. There are exceptions, like the Catholic adoption agencies wanting to discriminate against same sex couples in placements, but as far as using charity as a means to directly evangelize, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. A big part of that is also just a cultural aspect of Catholicism—we tend not to be big on the reaching out to people to join the church and there’s a tendency among Catholics to view themselves as members of an exclusive club rather than a party that there’s always room to bring in more people (the late Andrew Greeley commented on this in his book, The Catholic Myth and during a recent project that had me visiting a number of Chicago churches over the last year and as part of that viewing a lot of parish websites to check for Mass times, the numbers of parishes that had any indication on how to become Catholic at all was minimal (the vast majority assumed that you knew what RCIA/OCIA meant and I think I saw maybe a half dozen parishes that had the words “how to become Catholic” somewhere on their home page, all of which were predominantly Black parishes. On the other end of the spectrum, there were a handful of parishes where it was a challenge just to find an address and list of Mass times anywhere on them).
StanislavPetrov 6mo ago
>and it does seem to be the case that they've been up front about their religious affiliation (online) at least since 2013, when I stopped looking. If they were only soliciting funds on their website, which made it clear that your donation was being used to send 17 and 18 year olds to Israel, that would be a different story. In reality, the vast majority of their donations come in from people who are totally unaware because they hear the radio jingle, which is sung by little kids, and makes no mention of their religious affiliation or their affiliation with a foreign country. Here in New York I've been hearing these radio ads on a daily basis for literally decades and had no inkling about the true nature of this "charity" until today.
- FireBeyond 6mo ago
  And courts in multiple states now have ruled that their advertising is fundamentally misleading, so this whole "well they've always been upfront" is clearly not undisputed.
goldfishgold 6mo ago
I disagree that even on their website they’re forthright about what they do with the money. Look at it. https://www.kars4kidsprograms.org/ https://www.kars4kidsprograms.org/ === We empower kids to be great. Kars4Kids provides the foundation kids need for successful, happy and meaningful lives. … We’re a national Jewish nonprofit providing mentorship, educational support and nurturing year-round environments together with our sister charity Oorah. Whether it’s tailored care from staff in summer camp, the safe haven of afterschool groups, or a mentor's listening ear, we provide the support youth need to thrive. === Sure, they use the word Jewish, but they carefully chose language that suggests a) the money goes to a wide range of underprivileged children, not just Jewish children and b) that their programs are traditional support programs, not trips to Israel.

by tptacek 6mo ago

SoftTalker 6mo ago

That was back in the days when if you had mortgage interest, it was to your advantage to itemize deductions and include charitable donations. With the much higher standard deductions now, far fewer people file a Schedule A.

dhosek 6mo ago
There’s also the cap on the deductibility of local taxes. The Trump tax “cut” raised my tax rate by roughly 3% (although I’ve tended to have lots of fluctuations in my income and deductions over the last 15 years so it’s hard to make good comparisons from one year to the next).

dec0dedab0de 6mo ago

People donating things aren't generally looking for a good deal. I don't really care about the religious aspect, but if you're calling yourself kars4kids, the proceeds really should go to kids. In general, charities should have to be more up front about how their donations are being used. With rules being stricter as they get bigger. That is to say, the local fire department doesn't need to tell me how much of the hoagie sale is going to beer, but once you're buying commercials there should be some transparency. As far as car donation options the purple heart is still around. I think at one point either the EFF or the FSF used to do it too, but I can't find it anywhere. Does anyone remember that?

tptacek 6mo ago
It does go to kids, it's just a religious charity for kids. That's an extremely normal thing. I'm Catholic, we have them too. And they're not hiding it. I don't think it's a good donation! I wouldn't use it. Like I said, I'd junk the car and donate the proceeds.
- pessimizer 6mo ago
  Just from personal experience, Catholics are better at this. Other religions often consider religious instruction a charitable function. Catholics just help you, and you're moved into wanting religious instruction. When I would go to St. Vincent's as a homeless teenager, the only indication that I wasn't receiving services in some government office was the foot-high cross on the back wall. I don't remember a single mention of religion. Plenty of Protestant churches would make you sit through a service before feeding you. edit: that's what I get for not reading the article before commenting. This is just fraudulent. It's a charity doing Zionist things for Jewish youth. Most non-Jewish people wouldn't donate to a kids' charity that wouldn't do a thing for their children if their children were needy. The only need it's attending to even in Jewish children is the "need" to love Israel and not enter into interfaith relationships.
  - aidenn0 6mo ago
    Are you saying that Catholic charities are more catholic in who they help?
    - dhosek 6mo ago
      Mostly. There are exceptions, like the Catholic adoption agencies wanting to discriminate against same sex couples in placements, but as far as using charity as a means to directly evangelize, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. A big part of that is also just a cultural aspect of Catholicism—we tend not to be big on the reaching out to people to join the church and there’s a tendency among Catholics to view themselves as members of an exclusive club rather than a party that there’s always room to bring in more people (the late Andrew Greeley commented on this in his book, The Catholic Myth and during a recent project that had me visiting a number of Chicago churches over the last year and as part of that viewing a lot of parish websites to check for Mass times, the numbers of parishes that had any indication on how to become Catholic at all was minimal (the vast majority assumed that you knew what RCIA/OCIA meant and I think I saw maybe a half dozen parishes that had the words “how to become Catholic” somewhere on their home page, all of which were predominantly Black parishes. On the other end of the spectrum, there were a handful of parishes where it was a challenge just to find an address and list of Mass times anywhere on them).

StanislavPetrov 6mo ago

>and it does seem to be the case that they've been up front about their religious affiliation (online) at least since 2013, when I stopped looking. If they were only soliciting funds on their website, which made it clear that your donation was being used to send 17 and 18 year olds to Israel, that would be a different story. In reality, the vast majority of their donations come in from people who are totally unaware because they hear the radio jingle, which is sung by little kids, and makes no mention of their religious affiliation or their affiliation with a foreign country. Here in New York I've been hearing these radio ads on a daily basis for literally decades and had no inkling about the true nature of this "charity" until today.

FireBeyond 6mo ago
And courts in multiple states now have ruled that their advertising is fundamentally misleading, so this whole "well they've always been upfront" is clearly not undisputed.

goldfishgold 6mo ago

I disagree that even on their website they’re forthright about what they do with the money. Look at it. https://www.kars4kidsprograms.org/ https://www.kars4kidsprograms.org/ === We empower kids to be great. Kars4Kids provides the foundation kids need for successful, happy and meaningful lives. … We’re a national Jewish nonprofit providing mentorship, educational support and nurturing year-round environments together with our sister charity Oorah. Whether it’s tailored care from staff in summer camp, the safe haven of afterschool groups, or a mentor's listening ear, we provide the support youth need to thrive. === Sure, they use the word Jewish, but they carefully chose language that suggests a) the money goes to a wide range of underprivileged children, not just Jewish children and b) that their programs are traditional support programs, not trips to Israel.