4 ms·
Poll: Do you donate to charity?
Out of curiosity after the new Gates letter was published (http://annualletter.gatesfoundation.org/?cid=bg_fb_po0_012103/#section=home)
- jonhmchan 13y agoI think it's a fair guess that many members of the HN community are well off. As I encounter more and more developers, entrepreneurs, and others who visit this site regularly, I find that the question of whether one should feel obligated to give to charity becomes more relevant. Thoughts?
- wgeorgecook 13y agoI don't think I'm the run of the mill HN user, but I'm an undergrad in biology. Still give to charity.
- oneeyedpigeon 13y agoYou shouldn't feel obliged to give to charity, but you definitely should give to charity
- humanrebar 13y agoWhy shouldn't someone feel obliged to give to charity?
- ChuckMcM 13y agoThere are financial donations and service donations. The latter can be much more effective. A really effective donation is spending one Saturday a month helping to fix computer problems at a non-profit of your choice. We also used to create refurbished computers for them out of donations from folks with excess computers.
- Domenic_S 13y agoI have a goal to donate at least 10% of what I earn to charity. The form varies -- sometimes writing a check to an organization, sometimes handing out cash or 'gifts' to the actual people who need them. I prefer to try and donate locally if possible. Yes, there are a lot of global opportunities to help, but I prefer trying to make a small difference where I live. I actually get a great deal of joy from giving money/stuff away.
- splat 13y agoThat's basically Catholic social teaching right there. Try to donate at least 10% of your income, more if you can afford it (known in Catholic theology as solidarity), and preferentially donate to local causes (known in Catholic theology as subsidiarity).
- shervinafshar 13y agoWhat Gates mentions in that article was brought up by many in the past; e.g. "Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There is Another Way for Africa"[1]. Personally I prefer to donate to small micro-funding campaigns or lean, local NGOs. In case of disaster relief I still might donate to Red Cross though. One of the services which I recently started using and really enjoy the way it works is One Today[2] by Google. All in all, it's always helpful to look at the numbers[3] to make sure that your donations are not used to rent fancy offices in downtown London or NYC. [1]: http://www.dambisamoyo.com/books-and-publications/book/dead-aid http://www.dambisamoyo.com/books-and-publications/book/dead-... [2]: http://www.google.com/onetoday/ http://www.google.com/onetoday/ [3]: http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3277#.Ut7yo9LTlYg http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary... Edit: Formatting, grammar.
- gcb0 13y ago> article. remember, it was not an "article", but an advertisement.
- shervinafshar 13y agoThat's subjective.
- gcb0 13y agoan article hardly has only one point of view and does not throw quizzes after each pair of paragraphs to enforce the Indoctrination.
- shervinafshar 13y agoSounds just like a bad article to me.
- gcb0 13y agoYes and No. The rule is very simple: Never through a proxy. examples, good will, bill&melinda, are proxy. your money will just disappear and make fat bankers fatter. wikipedia, software projects (go openBSD!), working in a soup kitchen.... no proxy. Give!
- cmollis 13y agoYes, but my answer may also depend on how you define 'charity'. One might define as giving to those who ask of you , without any expectation of repayment (in other words, out of sheer good will). If that is the definition, then yes, I do give to charity. I often give to my local education foundation (yearly, in fact). I have donated to the Red Cross, and I have also given spare change to bums on the streets of NY. I have no idea what is done with this money, nor do I care. I give because they seem to need it more than I do, and I hope they do something constructive with it, and helps them in some way. Does this mean I am 'charitable'? Or just a poor investor? (I suspect the latter, and I suspect that you would probably agree if you looked at my stock portfolio)
- csixty4 13y agoCash donations to causes I care about. I volunteer at an animal shelter and help staff fundraisers & outreach when needed. And, I maintain & host the web site for another animal shelter.
- grimtrigger 13y agoThe response bias on the poll is going to be overwhelming. Still, its an interesting discussion.
- steven2012 13y agoI'm probably a 1%-er, given how much my wife and I earn. I don't give to charity. Not because I don't believe I should, but I still don't feel like I'm at the stage where we can afford to, given how expensive life in the Bay Area is. We live well within our means (2 cheap cars, no cable tv, eat-in most days of the week, ...), but the idea of having to pay for a ridiculous mortgage to live in a safe area with good schools, pay for a nanny to take care of our kids because we work so many hours, having to save for our retirement, saving for our kids' educations scares the hell out of me, and puts a freeze on any extraneous spending of money. I feel like we are one dot-com-bust away from total financial disaster. Once we have a more stable financial picture in the next 10 years or so, I definitely would like to donate my money, and maybe more importantly, my time, but until then, I think I will abstain from donating.
- joejohnson 13y agoIs your combined family income over 445k? That's how much the 1% make (2013). http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/17/does-your-family-make-over-232000-congrats-youre-in-the-top-5-percent/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/17/d...
- ronaldx 13y ago$100,000 (net) household income would get you comfortably into the World 1%: http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/why-give/how-rich-am-i http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/why-give/how-rich-am-i
- dannypgh 13y agoAnalyzing income distribution is a lot less telling to the kind of persistent inequalities that exist in our society than wealth distribution. See http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/measuring-the-top-1-by-wealth-not-income/ http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/measuring-the-t... -- to be in the top 1% of wealth in the US you need to be worth around $8.4 million.
- steven2012 13y agoNot to get into specifics, but like I said, I'm probably a 1%-er.
- yetanotherphd 13y agoA trivial amount, like $200 last year. I give to charities that seem to be cost efficient, like those in givewell.com
- CrazedGeek 13y agoIndirectly. I don't directly donate to charity, but I do purchase Humble Bundles and similar things that donate a percentage to charity.
- MidsizeBlowfish 13y agoI never set out specifically to donate, but every year I end up giving to pit bull rescues, local animal shelters, and Oxfam.
- webhat 13y agoYes, and I ask for people to donate to charity for in lieu of Christmas, Birthday and other gift giving events rather than giving me a gift. My current favourite charity is freetheslaves.net
- IgorPartola 13y agoEdit: obligatory reminder: online polls are meaningless. pg please drop this feature. End edit. Not charity as such but I loan money on Vittana. I believe they are actually making a difference and I think the little bit of money I have in their system can make more difference over time than a straight donation. Also, any time a friend or a coworker is collecting money for a cause I pitch in. This has less to do with my belief in the particular charities, and more with my belief in my friends and coworkers.
- rschmitty 13y agoAt least make it so you can only select 1 option (I realize there are _some_ polls that are better with multi answer)
- mek 13y agoOF COURSE! Donating to charity has been painful sometimes.. In some case I believe my donation was eaten up by greedy man-in-the-middle handler and that sucks. Example: donate 5 euro using your phone and find out the phone carrier charges 12% for the service! :O My last donation/charity: 50000 DOGES to the Jamaican Bobsled team! Easy, secure and without any compromise - crypto ftw \0/
- Ryel 13y agoI have not, and will not donate anything to charity. I much rather invest the time, money, and resources, into avenues where I can measure the impact and determine what a successful ROI is.
- brandonhsiao 13y agoQuestion as someone who doesn't donate yet but would like to once it's financially feasible: what are some good charities to donate to?
- citricsquid 13y agoPersonally I love Kiva, "Kiva is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to low-income / underserved entrepreneurs and students in 70 countries." http://kiva.org http://kiva.org
- RussianCow 13y agoThis is really cool, thanks for introducing it!
- dustcoin 13y agoIt is worth noting that while Kiva is a non-profit, the loans go through potentially for-profit middlemen who may charge very high interest rates. Additionally, money is actually sent to borrowers before their story is even posted to Kiva. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiva_(organization)#Pre-disbursement_of_funds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiva_(organization)#Pre-disburs...
- cowmoo 13y agohttp://changefol.io http://changefol.io is a site that I use to set up micro-donations that's based off my daily spending, e.g., donate $0.05 for every $1 I spend at the gas pump to Sierra Club; $0.10 for every $1 I spend at the grocery store to WWF (World Wild Life Fund).
- gsastry 13y agoThe truth and opportunity is that donating to some charities creates disproportionately more good and well being in the world than other charities, so this is a very important question. http://www.givewell.org/ http://www.givewell.org/ is one charity evaluator that tries to answer this with in-depth analyses. I recommend them!
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- tomp 13y ago15€ every month to Amnesty International, ever since I first got a job (2.5 years ago). However, my income has increased since, so I'm considering giving more, but I want to choose the organization with more care and consideration (i.e. less money for bureaucracy, more for the actual aid).
- nether 13y agoYes. I don't have friends or family, so I donate the amount I probably would have spent on gifts every Xmas. I donated US$250 to GiveDirectly (direct cash grants to Africa) this season.
- shurcooL 13y agoI give some money to people doing awesome work on open source that I want to support via Gittip [1]; does that count as charity? [1] https://www.gittip.com/shurcooL/ https://www.gittip.com/shurcooL/
- beefsack 13y agoI regularly donate to the EFF, their cause is the most important to me at the moment.
- bryanlarsen 13y agoAbout half an hour ago, somebody came to my door collecting money for a legitimate veteran's group, and I gave them a small donation. It's -35 out, and somebody is volunteering their time to go door to door for a charity. My large donations are more carefully chosen and usually done at the end of the year -- this year we did them at about 11:30 on New Year's Eve...
- pfg 13y agoNot sure if this is true in your case/where you live, but here in Europe, the vast majority of door-to-door-canvassers are actually employees hired either by the charity or an agency that works for the charity.
- buro9 13y agoExpenditure expands to meet the funds available. With that in mind, I've operated a tithe for over 15 years now. If I give before the funds are available to me I have always adjusted accordingly and never felt like I was burdened or put out by donating. When I've tried giving what I have left at the end of the month (rather than immediately after receiving income), I find I can't afford it. Then I make excuses about how it's hard to afford it. Give early, give when you're earning little, give a % and let the amount increase with your earnings. What I actually donate has dropped significantly, because I moved from being employed to founding a company and my earnings collapsed. But it remains a similar % as always. The original inspiration for this was speaking to some co-workers many years ago who are Muslim, and their sharing the fact that all Muslims give a tithe to charity and most target the most impoverished and hard-up people rather than a religious cause. I was quite moved by that and took up the practice. In some ways I think of it as just an income tax that I can target towards things I believe in: homeless charities, cycling causes, computers and education for those without access to either.
- hornytoad 13y agoKeeping all our money to ourselves, not only having enough to keep us warm and our stomachs stuffed, but actually being able to spend on a lot of luxury, e.g. most of the tech gimmicks around, while other people are literally starving is obviously inhumane. However, donating to "charities" is just not gonna do it. I'm not talking about details like "don't give 'em fish, give 'em a fishing rod". Rather, considering that we, at a minimum the so-called "West", have been and are still collectively robbing other countries and regions blind, all that we individuals are able to give back is way less than that. Just have a look at Indonesia now and in the last couple of decades, or check what most African countries export vs. what they import to see it is still ongoing. Lately, at least most of South America is finally getting out of the morass. But not due to charities from the West, rather due to their standing up against Western capitalist interest. So after understanding that we - as a society, and everyone living in it benefits from society - are not really philantrophic by giving a little back having taken a lot. Our time and money needs to go where we think we can change this system. A big task, but just giving to some charity is not gonna cut it.
- xarien 13y agoMy wife and I give to different charities. I'm a strong supporter of advancing education so you'll find me giving the most to my alma mater and the wikipedia foundation. For her, it's charities like UNICEF which have a very low operational budget and do tons of good and local charities such as animal shelters. We generally split our donation budget in half and distributed that way.
- philip1209 13y agoI've been experimenting with this lately. Specifically, I've been comparing my thoughts on money vs. time donations. I ran a charity:water campaign for my birthday last month and donated a third of my goal personally. I am amid a 6-week experiment of volunteering for 2 hours every week at a local shelter. Between money and time, I am able to see my impact more with my time. However, economically the question does become raised of whether the opportunity cost of volunteering for a fairly basic job makes it more reasonable to work for an extra hour and donate that cash for the shelter to hire somebody on my behalf. It may sound heartless, but donation ROI is something worth considering. That being said, I can see the impact of my efforts while volunteering, which is rewarding and makes it a sustainable habit. I'm also amid some estate planning. Upon death, I am planning on donation of both my assets and my body[1] to charity. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_donation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_donation
- ctwy 13y agoI try to donate 10% of gross income. Rationale: A lot of religious people tend to tithe. Religious institutions tend to support socially conservative causes. To counter the monetary influence of religious institutions, I need to put my money where my mouth is and "tithe" to socially liberal causes.
- blueblob 13y agoGrad student that makes a stipend of $1,900/mo with a rent payment of $400 and car payment of $300 here. I do not donate because I do not have great insurance nor do I have sufficient savings to last more than 2 or 3 months if I were to no longer be funded at school.
- standeven 13y agoI donate 10% of my after tax income, not for religious reasons. I've done this at every stage of my life, no matter how "poor" I may feel compared to those around me. The nice thing about donating a percentage is that it's never more than anyone can afford (unless you're doing something wrong).
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- fredsanford 13y agoI will donate to a charity that will directly take cash and not pester me for my name/address etc. The last thing I want or need is to get on one of the nagging "please give" lists. I give when I can, when I can afford it and to those I think deserve it. Like war veterans left without help by the government or public television.
- fmavituna 13y agoOne thing to take advantage while donating is even the small amount of money for you can mean a lot to someone who lives in a 3rd world country for example: Cataract operations in Africa (which allows someone to see the world!) cost about $75, mostly done by western doctor volunteers. There are charities that organizes this, such as this one : http://katarakt.ihh.org.tr/en http://katarakt.ihh.org.tr/en Just this charity operated 24K+ people so far. You can spend $75 to some random thing such as a fancy dining out or you can help someone to see.
- Suitov 13y agoI may have to cancel my monthly RSPCA donation so I can pay for my house. That'd be sad.