I was doing some early tax work. This year I cut back on the number of charities I contribute to. This year I gave to

 

Boy Scouts of America

Rio Grande Council (BSA)

Troop 41 (BSA)

Surfriders

Barak Obama

Rick Perry

United Way

American Cancer Society

AARP

Catholic Democrats

 

 

I was doing some early tax work. This year I cut back on the number of charities I contribute to. This year I gave to

 

Boy Scouts of America

Rio Grande Council (BSA)

Troop 41 (BSA)

Surfriders

Barak Obama

Rick Perry

United Way

American Cancer Society

AARP

Catholic Democrats

 

Not charities, FYI. You've been robbed.

 

For me: Salvation Army & Amvets (not sure if either are actually charities since the term has been thoroughly bastardized these days), I donate all of my kids older toys and cloths (and my own cloths) to them. I even donated a few official White Sox jerseys to them I had for years that I never wore (a Jose Valentine one and a Keith Foulke one), prior to last year it was older blanks I had laying around, but I'm sure someone stole them instead of giving them to someone that actually needed cloths (I know, it's bad of me to think this way, but I do). That's the problem with charities these days...can you even trust them to give away the stuff you donate, or are they sorting through it before hand and taking the good stuff for themselves?

Edited December 24, 201213 yr by Y2HH

I forgot about Salvation Army and Goodwill. I've seen some of the stuff I've donated in the stores, but yeah, I wonder if the employees get first crack at the stuff and how much of a discount they receive.

 

As for the political donations, well, they are deductible. Obama received a couple extra donations during the final weeks. I loved their fundraising campaign ideas. I did feel robbed by Perry. I expected him to do much, much better. It confirmed in my mind that the staff is more important than the person. Perry was a much more skilled campaigner than Bush, yet bombed early.

Phi Chi Theta Foundation (my business fraternity)

Goodwill

I'm going to choose one more charity for this year, may be Red Cross since my company has an excellent relationship.

 

Taking advantage of my company's 3-1 match program though

KEXP Seattle and the Sea Shepard

Children's hospitals are my passion. It breaks my heart to see a child who has cancer.

The Animal Foundation here in Vegas.

As for the political donations, well, they are deductible.

They are? Serious Q.

Not a big fan of giving money to anything but will contribute post disasters.

 

My main charitable contributions come out of my veins in my left arm. If I do my limit over a full year, that's between $1000-$2000 worth of supplies contributed to the red cross/place taking the donations.

Yeah I regularly donate blood too. Very convenient at my work as they have a blood van quite often.

I've never been one to donate to charities a whole lot due in large part to the fact that I don't have a lot of money. I do however donate almost every time a cashier at a store asks for $1 to such and such charity and do frequently dump change into the Salvation Army buckets and the Ronald McDonald house buckets.

 

I think I might be more apt to donate if the CEOs of these charities didn't make so much money. It makes me sick to see the CEOs of these charities pulling in million dollar salaries. Makes you wonder how much of your money actually goes to the cause and not "administrative fees".

I've never been one to donate to charities a whole lot due in large part to the fact that I don't have a lot of money. I do however donate almost every time a cashier at a store asks for $1 to such and such charity and do frequently dump change into the Salvation Army buckets and the Ronald McDonald house buckets.

 

I think I might be more apt to donate if the CEOs of these charities didn't make so much money. It makes me sick to see the CEOs of these charities pulling in million dollar salaries. Makes you wonder how much of your money actually goes to the cause and not "administrative fees".

Some of these organizations are quite large and require top people to run them efficiently. I would assume (and of course could be wrong) that these CEOs/Presidents are paid much less compared to similarily sized for-profit CEOs/presidents.

 

If it's required to pay that much for a leader to run that organization well and keep the organization on the level of support you expect from them, than I don't think it's bad at all.

 

Of course, if they are just scamming the organization by cashing the checks and using the organization as their personal slush fund than of course I have issues.

I do more volunteer work than I do donation. I am President of a local scholarship group, plus I help out at places like our zoo.

The salaries for non profits and generally lower than at for profits. Great fundraising people command a great salary. Would you rather hire someone for $20,000 who can raise $50,000 ($30,000 extra) or a guy for $100,000 who can raise $500,000?