Community Chat

[ID2]

I choose not to ""toot my own horn"" and brag how I donate to this or that. Donating is something personal. JMO

[Mom2Dogs]

yes, we give to a program where policemen take needy children shopping.

[shorelady]

Yes, I do donate to Toys for Tots because my son was a Marine, and I consider it a worthwhile charity. I also donate to our church's giving tree and help coordinate the donations. Each "ornament" on the tree gives a family ID number, age, name and requested items (clothing only). The donations are distributed to these families. Even though these families are "pre-approved" (for the lack of a better word), I am sure there are scammers in the bunch.

I am sure there is hardly a charity around where someone doesn't take advantage of the charity's generosity. And, yes, there are people and always will be people who will "work" the system and take pride in their scamming abilities. That is the chance you take with all charities.

I learned a valuable lesson about those clothing bins in parking lots of stores. The charity "rents" their name to usually a rag company to use on those bins. The clothing is then shredded by these rag companies. Useful clothing is destroyed. Wonder how many people think they are actually donating to worthwhile charities.

[golding76]

Yes. As a matter of fact, yesterday I dropped off some gifts that my older son bought for the charity, and today I dropped off my donation.

I hope the gifts reach children who will be thrilled to have something for Christmas.

[I just this minute finished telling my son that one of his gifts has been sitting at the top of the Toys for Tots box for the last 28 hours; the toy is that cute.]

ETA: The collection box is in the lobby of my office building. The building management company has set out the box every year since I've been there (13 years), and the owners appear to be astute. In fact, I think they are quite sharp... so I'm hoping all is on the up and up. My wish is that nearly every one of the gifts reaches its intended recipient.

[faeriemoon]

On 12/10/2014 ID2 said:

I choose not to ""toot my own horn"" and brag how I donate to this or that. Donating is something personal. JMO

No one is tooting. We're discussing our favorite charities.

[Clover29]

On 12/10/2014 shorelady said:

Yes, I do donate to Toys for Tots because my son was a Marine, and I consider it a worthwhile charity. I also donate to our church's giving tree and help coordinate the donations. Each "ornament" on the tree gives a family ID number, age, name and requested items (clothing only). The donations are distributed to these families. Even though these families are "pre-approved" (for the lack of a better word), I am sure there are scammers in the bunch.

I am sure there is hardly a charity around where someone doesn't take advantage of the charity's generosity. And, yes, there are people and always will be people who will "work" the system and take pride in their scamming abilities. That is the chance you take with all charities.

I learned a valuable lesson about those clothing bins in parking lots of stores. The charity "rents" their name to usually a rag company to use on those bins. The clothing is then shredded by these rag companies. Useful clothing is destroyed. Wonder how many people think they are actually donating to worthwhile charities.

Where we used to live, we had bins that specified they were for rags. We therefore dropped off decent clothes at Goodwill, and put rags in the rags bin. We moved in May, and now all the similar bins here say they're for clothes not rags. If they are only for rags, that would actually suit me better.

[Mominohio]

On 12/10/2014 faeriemoon said:

On 12/10/2014 ID2 said:

I choose not to "toot my own horn" and brag how I donate to this or that. Donating is something personal. JMO

No one is tooting. We're discussing our favorite charities.

I don't think sharing ideas about ways to help others, or a word of caution about an organization or experience shared with others constitutes bragging. I am glad to know about other's experiences and ideas for giving, as some of the things we have done in the past no longer are considered credible (by me, anyway) and I am always looking for places or ideas that are.

[feline groovy]

On 12/10/2014 brewhaha said:

I don't think the tots would know what to do with the toys I buy.

[hckynut]

No

[issiestorm]

When I worked at Whole Foods we had a choice (at the store I worked at, that is) to either join the employee gift exchange or buy a gift for the giving tree which was run by an organization that collected toys for under privileged children or elderly people. I opted for the giving tree. I assume the people that ran this were up front and honest.