I made the decision some years ago to only give to animal and 'environment' charities. This was based on my personal (probably deeply flawed) belief that there is more than enough money to go round to take care of people if governments got their act together.

As Junkyard says, much of the UK charity work should be state funded. The same goes for research based charities. The problem I have with those is that the big pharma companies step in and reap huge profits without putting that much back (relative to profits that is).

I'm fed up with getting grief from chuggers. they really put me off.
if i want to give my funds away, i want it to be on my terms. not by a direct debit of enforced guilt.
and some of the worst ones are plain rude about it IMO.
tend to be uni students who think EVERYONE in the world wants to be part of thier "crazy" uni games and in jokes.
(i wasnt even one of those when i was at uni)

friend of mine missed her train home from visiting me in uni, and being deepest darkest wales, it was 2 hrs for the next one, and she couldnt be bothered to walk back to campus thanks to stupid heels on her girl shoes, so we took a homeless guy who was getting harrassed at the station for a fish and chip supper and chatted to him for 2 hrs.

his name was Conrad

mudshark puts forward an interesting theory that happily agrees with my own thought, though that's convenient and possibly not based on a massive amount of thinking on my part.

Not wishing to bang on endlessly (so I'll stop after this), if Hospices were funded exclusively by the state (via NHS or otherwise) they'd stop being hospices and become another form of hospital.

I agree with the dislike for chuggers and I'd never sign up with them on principle.

I give a monthly donation to Whizz-Kidz at the moment, but I'll spread the love a bit and move it to the RNLI or Air Ambulance at some point (if I can bare the guilt of stopping my standing order :lol:)

Talking of the Air Ambulance – I'm constantly amazed at the number of collection vehicles they have. I would be very surprised if it doesn't cost more to run the collections than the helicopters and crews.

Regarding running choppers, I was recently told by someone from within the coastguard that it costs about £4000 per hour to run one of the seakings, but the military write it off as training. If you're 2 hours from the base they launch 2 seakings, and in order to track them they may launch a plane to track and co-ordinate at a cost of £30,000 per hour. So you're looking at a minimum of £152K if you need helicopter assistance 2 hours from a coastguard base 😮

I seem to remember a random fact that a friend once told me about the poppy appeal. Apparently 70p or so from every pound goes on admin overhead, which was why she refused to donate money through them.

it costs about £4000 per hour to run one of the seakings, but the military write it off as training. If you're 2 hours from the base they launch 2 seakings, and in order to track them they may launch a plane to track and co-ordinate at a cost of £30,000 per hour. So you're looking at a minimum of £152K

is that over & above what it would have cost to keep them in base or extra to fly them?

Stop donating to charity! – get involved instead.You will soon change your tune about the work charities do,after putting in long hours for free,getting no thanks,and getting stressed because you can only do a wee bit.Why give a tenner for instance, when you can organise a rideout for £5/head,and hand that over instead.There are good and bad charities,but its up to you how well infomed you are – dont expect chuggers to tell you the whole truth.Thats what singletrack is for!!!!!

is that over & above what it would have cost to keep them in base or extra to fly them?

I'm not sure, but I think extra to fly them as he was saying it's considered the cost of a training mission. Bet it includes the additional costs such as extra stripdowns/engineering costs, wages etc etc.

I refuse to give to chuggers. I have a standing order to the Wilts Air Ambulance lottery, because although it's shared with Wilts Police, the Ambulance side of it gets no government funding, and Wiltshire is a bloody big county, so ambulances can take some time to get to an incident. My brother would probably not have survived an RTA the other side of Devizes last year, or at least lost an arm, without having the paraffin parrot to get him to Frenchay in Bristol. He's now back on a motorbike, and hoping to finish the ride to Spain that the accident curtailed. The RNLI also get money from me, as they also get no government help, mainly because they don't want some beaurocrat on £150000 telling them how to do their job. I work for a company that runs lotteries and raffles for most of the major charities, including RNLI, RNIB, RNID, Barnardos, British Red Cross, Guide Dogs, etc. Through the lottery alone RNLI raises getting on for £4million per year, so the money gets to the right places.

I'll be shot down for this but I'm loave to give any money to cancer research or macmillan (i have raised money in the past) I know i'm told the macmillan nurses do a sterling job but it wasn't the case for our family.

Mr father recently passed away from a rare form of cancer and there wasn't much support from macmillan.

In the future I think i'd rather voluntary work and help directly.

I do think the air ambulance do a sterling job

I reckon I pay enough in tax to cover most things the needy need but as the people I vote for choose to spend it on frivilous things instead I find myself clicking on a Charity site to make a (tax deductable) donation for work I consider important and my government doesn't.

Changed my standing order from a cancer charity to Shelter Box a few months back after I came to the conclusion that the vast amount spent on cancer research seems only to prolong life by a very limited period and at a pretty poor quality at that.

charity takes pressure off governements and international agencies to solve the problem

Actually that isn't quite true. Governments when they fund international agencies require the agencies to raise part of the money themselves from private sources within their own countries. It's partly how they determine if there is popular interest in both the organisation doing the work and the work that they are doing.

Regularly supporting an organisation (even once a year) has the double benefit in making it easier for them to show they have popular support and hence raise money from governments/EU

If you want to make sure the money actually goes to what you think it is going to rather than admin then give directly rather sticking the cash in a tin (and never to a chugger). There will still be some goes on admin but the organisations are then obliged to make sure the rest goes to what they were fundraising for (certainly true in the world in which I work).

I give to a charity for sick young children, close to my heart as my lad spent a few weeks in SCBU

You could also think of donating your time and expertise to a local charity, for example as a trustee. Many of these don't have the large fundraising resources of the big national charities, but often do equally valuable work at a local level. You will also be directly able to see what your 'donation' actually contributes to, and you will probably get more satisfaction than just putting your hand in your pocket. The skills and experience gained could also be be useful in your career, and will certainly enhance a CV. See http://www.do-it.org.uk/ and http://www.timebank.org.uk/index.php