Charity for the year – what are people’s favourites?

Hi, we’re looking at some charities to donate to over the next year, and wonder what people here think are ‘best’?

Best here meaning some combination of effective, value for money etc. and not hyper local. So avoiding the big international ones, unless they’re particularly good.

This year aiming for some social ones and some wildlife/nature type ones.

Previously I’ve liked heal rewilding, trees for life, trussel trust, fare share.

Interesting to hear what people like .

I support a small rural school in Nepal.  It came to my notice due to the involvement of one of my ex colleages.  Its 100% efficient in that every penny gets spent in the school and the amounts of money I have are enough to make a difference ie £60 is one kid gewts a free education for a year.  Education has benefits far beyond the individual

Home

Mountain Rescue

No adverts, raise their own money and are there to help even the terminal stupid.

Instead of giving money to environmental charities I do some work for them.

I donate to:

Greenpeace, which I avoided for a long time thinking they’re just a bunch of hippies. Then I read an article on the work they do…

TreesForLife which is restoring the Caledonian Forest (call it personal carbon offsetting).

Trussell Trust – I kept seeing food donation points as I left the supermarket and if I ever remembered while shopping I ddn’t know what to buy, so this avoids those dilemmas.

Mountain Rescue – not regularly, but I keep meaning to get into the habit of paying a “fee” each time I go out. If everyone paid £1/2/5 per ride / walk they’d probably be set for life.

Please consider https://www.home-start.org.uk/ – I’m a trustee for them.

It’s a national charity but organised into local schemes  (usually county, and then local within the county) supporting families with children under 5. You can donate centrally, or find your local scheme and donate directly.

https://www.home-start.org.uk/Pages/FAQs/Category/how-home-start-helps

Always looking for volunteers as well, but given the nature there is a fair amount of training (safeguarding, etc.) that volunteers need to do, so not easy to just rock up and help. But, we’re here to support parents, not just Mums, and to do that we do need Dads too.

Scottish Charity Air Ambulance – I hope never to have to call on them – but want them to be there in case we do..

Macmillan / A Hospice – They did good things

A couple of dog rescue charities for our fav breed of hound – just a couple of quid a month each.

this gave me the nudge to complete my donations for the year.  Money that I would have spent on christmas dinner and presents has gone to charities instead.  thanks

Trussel Trust rock for a big org.  Greenpeace and WWF too, advocacy as well as action is great.

We have a family budget and normally discuss it each year.

Currently:

Water Aid

Marie Stopes

Bush Heritage Australia

Indigenous Literacy Fund

Mountain Rescue……but I feel a touch of self interest there in my generosity.

Trussel Trust as above

Médecins Sans Frontières , that’s mainly because I know two people who worked/work for them and hear what’s happening and often unreported in the UK.

And Tools for Self Reliance. Just love everything about the concept – the meaning the donating of tools provides, often at a time if loss for a family. The sense of purpose for those that volunteer for them and use a lifetime of skills for a good cause. And the opportunity for a self supported future it gives the the recipients of the tools and training overseas.

We have a family budget and normally discuss it each year.

What a great idea 🙂

btw, if you are looking for charities that work in a particular part of the world that you care about then there is a global registry of who is working where but it isn’t compulsory to report there although most organisations with government funding of some sort do.  So it won’t work to find smaller charities like the people the TJ donates to but it will find larger ones

e.g. for Nepal basic health

https://d-portal.org/ctrack.html#view=search&sector_group=122&country_code=NP

In the home of the ‘snip quote to change meaning’, might I also remind at this point that the Fuller quote (in both senses – Thomas Fuller, C17 clergyman) is

“Charity begins at home, but should not end there”

Worth also adding that, whilst all charities will obviously welcome donations, what many really struggle for, especially the smaller ones, is people’s time to help out with either the gruntwork and/or the admin.

Mountain rescue and Macmillian for me. Both just quietly go about their business without making a big fanfare, wasting money on cell endorsements and keep their running costs low.

Mountain rescue and Macmillian for me.

Same pair for me. When I give away stuff on the forum I’ll often ask the recipient to make a wee donation for me too.

I also provide free, un-needed, kit to local outdoor shop who provide a range of services aimed at getting the less well-off into cycling (even if just for transportation), walking etc.

In terms of charity work, I do a little for Sustrans and quite a bit for Scotways. It can be argued that these (like MRT) are a bit self-serving from my POV but it’s a small attempt by me to pay something back.

My regular donations are Cats Protection (monthly SO) and the local Donkey Place (change goes in the ‘Donkey Pot’ and they get it when it’s full)

Usually a collection for Mountain Rescue at races. I’ve never actually needed them but it’s reassuring to know they’re about

On an international scale I support Oxfam, MAG (Mines Advisory Group), Greenpeace and just given some money to Medical Aid for Palestinians. I also donate to appeals from Disasters Emergency Committee.

Locally I support Citizens Advice Bristol and Caring in Bristol as a voluntary trustee of both, and I also volunteer with the latter having just done 7 days helping with their Caring at Christmas project for people experiencing homlessness or who are vulnerably housed.  I also have a monthly donation to Avon Wildlife Trust.

I agree with IHN that many charities, particularly locally-based ones, would also benefit from volunteers whether as trustees or volunteers helping provide the services and activities that the charity delivers. For example, many smaller charities have difficulty recruiting people with financial management experience as Treasurers, and organisations such as local Citizens Advice charities are always wanting people to train as volunteer advisers.

I won’t give to MacMillan, personally. Not much good when we needed them, and certainly used to have some slightly dubious fundraising practises (fundraising for a “local” centre, putting the minimum possible amount into the pot but claiming naming rights, and any funds raised above their contractual contribution went to a central pot, not the local project they implied it was for…)

Mountain rescue, Marie Curie or local hospices for me.

My regular donations are a monthly one to Dogs Trust as well as semi frequent purchases off the wishlist for my local Greyhound rehoming org (Crossing Cottage Greyhound Sanctuary). I also give up some of my time for the greyhounds.

This year with me likely to venture out into the peak and south yorkshire a bit on my bike I’ll be dropping some towards mountain rescue.

– Mountain Rescue

– East Midlands Air Ambulance

Because I hope I never need these… but paying forward just in case I do !

– Matt Hampson Trust (ex Leicester Tigers prop paralysed in a scrum – his trust helps others with spinal injuries, and is inspirational to have done such good for others after his dreadful injury).

– Dogs Trust, and Guide Dogs for the Blind.  Because Dogs are ace. And assistance dogs are doubly ace.

This one for me:

https://sunshineandsmiles.org.uk/

Local charity supporting families who have a child with Down Syndrome in/around Leeds.

Disclaimer: set up by my wife and a few other parents we met when our 15 year old daughter with Down Syndrome was born.

Medicins sans Frontieres – working everywhere, doing all kinds of work

More generally – there’s a lot of complete Daily Mail SHITE talked about charities that are supposedly more efficient according to online ratings because 98% of money is spent on projects etc. It’s totally misleading because most charities don’t simply hand out rice and blankets. A friend was a trustee of a charity that worked with care homes etc in developing countries to protect at risk kids. They had a small number of people on staff that were experts in this area and did the work. And yet because their wages counted as “overhead”, they got punished by a cutoff in donations because they appeared less efficient. So then they had to make the experts redundant and hire them as consultants on a gig-to-gig basis – which is less efficient.

More generally you’re looking at a situation like @Philby talks about: there are high skill jobs that charities need (like financial management) but they can neither get volunteers to do the job and nor can they pay people to do it (because they go down the rankings on these stupid comparison websites). GAH!

Mine are Unicef, Mind, Rewilding Uk, Trussell  Trust and another one I forget the name of.

My work have a scheme with CAF to pay money into a charity account that I can donate from.  This comes out as salary sacrifice so I can put extra in.

Sick Children’s Trust (provides accommodation for parents who have children in hospital) or RPMRT would be my first picks.

After that, Seawilding maybe? Or someone doing peatland restoration?

Some  great suggestions. @theotherjonv I’ll take a closer look at home start, I work with children things like sure start have definitely been missed. Although I guess there’s always a part of me that feels charities shouldn’t have to do the work of governments.

For those interested I really like heal rewilding, the recently bought an old (failed unprofitable ) dairy farm near me and are turning it into essentially a rewilded nature reserve. Felt like a really tangible good thing.

https://www.parrots.org/donate

https://www.whizz-kidz.org.uk

https://www.orthocycle.org/

https://www.foreverangels.org

https://www.lincswildlife.com

https://www.oxfam.org.uk/donate/

The ones I donate money to are the RNLI, Secret World Wildlife Rescue, Beaver Trust and Guidedogs.

Others I donate food/meds/supplies directly to (and stuff they can put in their charity shops if they have them) are Cuan Wildlife Rescue, local cats protection and smaller local cat rescue charities.

There are a few others but they’re ad hoc (when I see something they post up on social media).

Money wise I donate to the Hants air ambulance & a small dog rescue charity who specialise in looking after elderly dogs.
Time wise, I am a member of Hants Search & Rescue, a Lowland Rescue charity who look for high risk missing persons. Lowland Rescue are a really important part of the SAR world, if not quite as ‘sexy’ as Mountain Rescue, spending their time helping the police to find vulnerable people who are missing wherever it may be.

RNLI, Wiltshire Wildlife, National Trust, Wiltshire Air Ambulance.

We stopped our monthly donation to the RSPCA off the back of some criticism of the Red Tractor scheme a month or two back – dunno how well founded the criticism really was, but Mrs Lawman got a bee in her bonnet about it, so that was that. Its going instead to the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth this year at least.

Theres some really good ideas above for other charities, so thanks to OP for starting all this. @houns mentioned Cuan Wildlife Rescue place who accepted a lost hedgehoglet we took to them in November, so they may make the shortlist.

RNLI, Camphill Communities, Beira’s Place

Local mountain rescue and RNLI for me, in the hope that I never need them.

Uppsala Stadsmission for me. There are people in my town that are not as comfortable as I am and I _can_ help, even if it is in a small way.

The Sick Children’s Trust.  After using there services just after my daughter was born prematurely I know that the service they offer really helps.

The Trail Pot: National Mountain Biking Development Fund 

A charity dedicated to developing the grassroots. And founded by a SingletrackWorlder ?

The Trail Pot Launches: A National Mountain Biking Development Fund

Camphill Communities

thank you for that one easily – a pals kid is attending one.  Nice to hear it being noticed