Charity donations

It's started for the year. Everyone wanting a piece of your wallet. Well, Al has that all year, and 'everyone' is me, but what I'm on about this time is charity donations.

Most people have charities that they donate to happily, and regularly. 'Regularly' in my book is annually (or, in Al and my case - twice in two days last year when the Rescue Helicopter was doing it's thing! I sent a donation in from the post appeal, and the next day they rang the house and Al gave them a donation over the phone as well), when whatever charity it is has their appeal, or else when that charity is brought to your mind. eg. A case of animal cruelty sparking an extra donation to the SPCA, or a family member or associate being diagnosed with or having a cancer scare sparking a donation to the cancer society, that sort of thing.

My charities are the Rescue Helicopter (I know someone who needed it, and it saved his life), SPCA (obviously, I looooove my animals, so the SPCA gets some lovin' as well), Canteen (the children's cancer charity, because, well, they're kids). I think that's it. Those are the ones that get the bigger amounts (eg. $10, $20 that sort of thing). Then there are the street appeals, which always get whatever coins I have - Breast Cancer Awareness (breast cancer in the family), the Foundation for the Blind (my grandmother went suddenly and unexpectedly blind late in her life, and they were amazing to her), Hearing Dogs (my husband is deaf ...or at least seems to be ...no, in all seriousness, I think it's a great concept). There are probably a few others too that I can't think of for now.

Anyway! We all have our charities. The thing that gets me though, and in part dictates who I will give to, is that for a lot of charities, it is no longer good enough to give them a donation of your choosing, or just your coins. You have to give $30, or $50, or my personal favourite, an automatic payment. Why is that? Have some 'charities' turned into such big business that your donation of whatever you can spare honestly just isn't worth it to them? Where the heck is the money going?

A few years ago, I had a girl come to my house on a Barnados appeal, and requested an automatic payment. I said that I wasn't prepared to do an AP (at the time, apart from my objections to charities requesting APs, I just didn't have the money) and I said I'd give her a cash donation. I had prior to that always given a donation to Barnados during their appeals. Do you know what she said? That they don't take cash donations because it's not worth their time to collect them (this was on a door appeal, presumably if they do street appeals, it's different. Presumably. Hopefully.). I've never forgotten that. I was disgusted. And I have not donated to them since.

At the weekend I got mobbed by the 'Save the Children' people, and it was the same thing - AP please.

The thing is, you can't save everyone but you do what you can when you can. If organisations are going to turn away your dollar donation, and they do that to a thousand people the chances are that those same people will tell them to beg off when they ask for an AP and won't give that organisation donations in the future either, so what have they gained?

And now for another pet hate ...traffic light window washers. It really shouldn't be illegal to run them over.