Charity “payment plans”

[J-hop]

Anyone here work/volunteer for a charity? Wondering what’s going on with almost every charity seeming to go to these payment plans?

Unfortunately over the last year I’ve turned away every charity that came to my door. I am more than happy to give a donation on the spot, but will never sign up for a payment plan and unfortunately none of the ones that came to my door even had an option to donate outside of a donation (payment) plan.

I get that it gives them a relatively steady and predictable income each month and maybe they see that once people are on they are more likely to stick with donating to them. They also have to pay less people to canvas if they do. However I’ve never talked to someone that’s on a payment plan or would even consider it.

Is this more profitable for them? Haven’t they lost out huge on one time donations?

[max_boost]

I prefer to give my money to struggling College girls. It yields the best returns and I know exactly where the money is going however I did get honey potted recently but I thank her for the lesson/experience as I will be stronger moving forward.

[J-hop]

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I prefer to give my money to struggling College girls. It yields the best returns and I know exactly where the money is going however I did get honey potted recently but I thank her for the lesson/experience as I will be stronger moving forward.

Ok I guess I’d make that one exception on the payment plan thing

[rage2]

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I prefer to give my money to struggling College girls. It yields the best returns and I know exactly where the money is going however I did get honey potted recently but I thank her for the lesson/experience as I will be stronger moving forward.

Haha, we gotta go out for dinner and catch up on your stories.

[A790]

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Haha, we gotta go out for dinner and catch up on your stories.

x2

[redblack]

Lol at maxboost, I didn’t think those easy ne girls went to college.

[eblend]

Speaking of payment plans, got suckered into Plan International child sponsorship like 3 years ago. I really want to cancel it, but kind of feel like a dick. Will the child I am sponsoring all of the sudden drop out of school because no one supports him, or is it like a pool and they carry on? Thinking of what kind of excuses I can use to get out of this with ease.

[Mitsu3000gt]

I won't donate to any charity that calls me, comes to my door, interrupts me in the +15, or harasses me in any way. I didn't even know they had payment plans now - that seems a bit shady, especially knowing that a lot of people forget to cancel things like that or if they make it a hassle to cancel, people are less likely to do so. Not to mention the potential guilt associated with canceling a charitable donation - preying on that all just seems like a greasy tactic to me.

Our work did a sponsor a family thing last year and I started to question it when I saw one of the families had 5 kids, and the mother was pregnant with a 6th.....maybe stop having kids if you can't afford basic necessities?

I try to research charities to find the ones that give as close to 100% as possible to the end recipients and I donate to those on my own when I am able. I forget the exact name of the charity at the moment but I liked buying things like goats and mosquito nets for people in third world countries.

[botox]

Only charity I give to is bottle drives cause at least they are doing some of the work and not just asking for handouts. We also donate to this other place that calls us once every month or so for used household goods and clothing cause it's a good way to get rid of old stuff and we just leave it outside and they pickup. I hate it when you donate once then they send you monthly invoices. These things look pretty legitimate and my wife thought we had to pay it but then I looked at it and filed it properly in the shredder.

[msommers]

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especially knowing that a lot of people forget to cancel things like that or if they make it a hassle to cancel

Literally how everything is going these days. It sucks.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Literally how everything is going these days. It sucks.

Yup. I had no idea charities have sunk as low as telcom providers and virtually every other subscription service. Sign up today, cancel any time!! (but we'll make it a huge hassle to do so and we hope you'll forget, and if you do cancel we will harass you constantly and put you on every mail and call list)

[ExtraSlow]

I have a different take on these kind of things. If it's a cause you truly support, and you plan on supporting longer term, an ongoing payment plan is actually pretty great. My family gives to two different charities on a monthly basis, each about $20/mo, so it's not financially onerous, I won't forget to give, and as a bonus, both are through my credit card so we get reward points.

The benefit is huge for the charity, as a stable income stream means they can plan their activities much better. One-time donations often have significant costs, particularly if they are attached to one of those big events like Walk for the cure, ride to conquer cancer, showhome lottery etc. Costs can be more than 50% of funds raised for some of those. Ongoing donations have low costs for the charity so they can use more of the money for actual charitable programming.

Anyway, I really like the ongoing donation option, and I use it for my two favourite causes.

EDIT: Also, I can't speak to all charities, but these aren't any kind of hassle to cancel or change. I reduced one recently and it was a very quick and pleasant five minute phone call. No pressure or guilt at all.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[nismodrifter]

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I prefer to give my money to struggling College girls. It yields the best returns and I know exactly where the money is going however I did get honey potted recently but I thank her for the lesson/experience as I will be stronger moving forward.

Honey potted, LOL, dude I had to google that shit.

[bigbadboss101]

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Speaking of payment plans, got suckered into Plan International child sponsorship like 3 years ago. I really want to cancel it, but kind of feel like a dick. Will the child I am sponsoring all of the sudden drop out of school because no one supports him, or is it like a pool and they carry on? Thinking of what kind of excuses I can use to get out of this with ease.

If that is how you feel, may be you should phone in and cancel. My take is it's better to do something and feel positive about it than to do something and think 'well that sucked'. Most likely someone will sponsor him/her after.

We have a number of sponsored children and when we send them extras for birthdays or Christmas we often get pictures showing what they purchased. It can be food, toys, stuff for school, clothing etc. To us it's heart warming. We as Canadians blow that $ amount ten folds easily on stuff we don't really need. First world problem.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Most charities are crooked, none of the money goes where you hope... it disappears into admin and "charity to charity" donations.

Most people the charity game end up in politics later too... same game, spending some body else's money

This. It is very difficult to find a charity that is A) something you want to support and B) is not crooked.

Finding charities where 100% or close to it of the money you donate making it to the actual end user of the cause you want to support is extremely difficult.

[ExtraSlow]

Charity Intelligence is one place that does some research on the management and effectiveness of charites. They have lot of info on the website: https://charityintelligence.ca/

A few good ones from Calgary:
https://charityintelligence.ca/chari...etwork-society
https://charityintelligence.ca/chari...drop-in-centre
https://charityintelligence.ca/chari...gary-food-bank
https://charityintelligence.ca/chari...roject-society
https://charityintelligence.ca/chari...rgency-shelter

Not sure what the reason is, but it's really rare for those "medical" charities to rate highly. Seems like most of those are pretty poorly run, or are outright corrupt.

[bjstare]

Haha its funny how many people just assume all charities are crooked. Not saying some aren't crooked, but it's not nearly as bad as the perception. United way is one that gets a ton of shit for overhead cost and inefficiencies, when in reality their operating costs are only ~10%. Good luck finding any normal business that operates with that low of overhead.

[eblend]

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If that is how you feel, may be you should phone in the cancel. My take is it's better to do something and feel positive about it then to do something and think 'well that sucked'. Most likely someone will sponsor him/her.

We have a number of sponsored children and when we send them extras for birthdays or Christmas we often get a picture showing what they purchased. Sometimes it can be food, some toys, stuff for school, clothing etc. To us it's heart warming. We as Canadians blow that $ 10 folds easily on stuff we don't really need. First world problem.

Yah, it's not a lot, like $42 a month, that's probably why I haven't bothered. If I lost my job I would cancel, but it does feel like you are doing something. I prefer to help animals, and assuming I won't have any kids, plan to donate everything I have to some animal shelter when it's time to go.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Haha its funny how many people just assume all charities are crooked. Not saying some aren't crooked, but it's not nearly as bad as the perception. United way is one that gets a ton of shit for overhead cost and inefficiencies, when in reality their operating costs are only ~10%. Good luck finding any normal business that operates with that low of overhead.

I think part of the problem is it's not overly easy to find out which ones aren't crooked. People don't want to pour through financial statements and go digging for independent analysis to find out if 10% or 99% of their money is going toward the cause.

Or if people see that there are employees making $250-$300k/yr working for charities, I think that lowers the desire to donate.

United Way is probably the most annoying charity I've been exposed to, which is the main reason I don't donate to them.