How to donate (anonymously) to small charities
We all like to give a little something to favourite small charities. But it can be difficult to discover which ones are using the money right. And if you like to give to lots of small causes, sometimes you feel more comfortable remaining anonymous. So you don’t end up on mailing lists, being bombarded by donation requests and free plastic pens.
How to keep your giving private
You could create a new Paypal address and give that way.
Or use Charities Aid Foundation (individuals or businesses can tick a box or set up an account) to donate anonymously. Your details are not passed on, although this only works for UK-registered charities.
In the UK, use Gift Aid if you pay tax. For every £1 given, charities can claim an extra 25p.
You could invest with Charity Bank, a savings account where funds help community projects.
Why do supermarkets ask us to donate?
Who you give to is up to you. One modern irk for many these days is when supermarkets ask you to donate when you pay for food. For a start, many of these are big animal-testing charities that perhaps you don’t wish to donate to anyway.
Plus if you give privately, it’s the supermarkets that should be also giving. Not ‘forcing you’ to give extra to a charity you may not have researched or know much about. Tesco and Booths both do this.
One reader asks ”I’m not the one making billions in profits, you are. If you feel the need to do good, how about you donate on my behalf? ‘
How to research small charities to give to
It’s important to not just give to charities, because others tell you to. Modern humane medical research is not just kinder and cheaper, but has far better chance of finding cures for disease. If you give to medical charities, switch to one of these.
For others, enter your ‘passion’ at Find That Charity. It will bring up big charities first, then smaller registered ones. Once you find ones that interest you, look them up at the government’s Register of Charities. This will tell you what their income/expenditure is, and if anyone earns over £60,000.
If you like to help animals abroad that receive little help, read up on how to help street dogs and shelters in Eastern Europe. It may be worth getting a Paypal account if you wish to donate anonymously. Because without a UK registration, they won’t qualify to list at Charities Aid Foundation.
No money? Donate time and skills to charities
It’s good to donate money. But if you’re strapped for cash, most organisations also welcome donations of other kinds: from volunteering cleaning and helping out to building/decorating work. Or using office-based skills to promote charities and drive fundraising.
Photographer Sophie Gamand uses her photographic skills (above) to snap animals in shelters, ready for adoption drives!
- Got building skills (or leftover building materials?) Donate them (or help out) at local animal shelters, or even animal shelters in Eastern Europe, that need quality kennels.
- Techy person? Help to design websites by using office skills. Or launch fundraising campaigns and add donation buttons on social media.
- Provide pro bono consultancy services, if you have legal knowledge. To help charities with financials and office jobs.
- If you’re good at copywriting, write grant bids, design brochures or make promo videos.
- If you speak another language, translate documents to take campaigns worldwide.
- Mentoring: If you’re an expert in something, train others. This could be fundraising to public speaking, to sharing knowledge that could help other volunteers.
A Good Thing (donate unwanted goods)
A Good Thing lets businesses donate items to small charities via an app, rather them languishing in offices or going to landfill. From office furniture to laptops, you can even donate meeting room space.
Obviously there are safety caveats in place (don’t donate faulty electric goods or non-PAT tested electrical goods, sofas and mattresses need fire tags). Also don’t donate used car seats or anything that could cause safety issues.
For example: A dental surgery had an unused dispenser just lying around. It was donated to a homeless shelter, to sanitise rooms for residents. It would have cost £1600 new, they got it for free!
Many small charities often have what you don’t need from old crockery to office chairs and sets of ring binders for office organisation. The site above has charities with wish lists (as a business, you can also list what you have that others could use).
Why ‘positive media’ raises more charity funds
All of us care and wish to donate a little something to causes we care about. But there is a real issue (especially in the UK) with big charities showing upsetting TV ads (or posting them in newspapers).
Apart from the questionable practice of spending thousands of pounds (when this money could go to the charitable work), many people find them so distressing and negative, they switch off. And donate elsewhere. So charities lose funds anyway.
Of course the reality must be heard to help change laws and bring legal action for abuse. And for this reason, undercover investigators do amazing work but showing the general public does not help. Aftershock is a book to help people who witness upsetting scenes cope.
Nick Cooney founded a successful charity that helps farmed animals, and wrote a book How to Be Great at Doing Good, which suggests the same. His take is the awfully upsetting ads that then ask us to ‘donate just £3 a month’ do more harm than good:
Instead of ads showing baby bears being ripped from their mothers for the bile industry, focus on the rescued bears and the good you are doing.
Instead of images of starving children with flies around their eyes, focus on the work you are doing to help hungry children.
Instead of posting brochures of factory-farmed pigs through people’s doors, use the money to create simple vegan bacon sandwich recipes, or negotiate discounts on popular brands.
Remove upsetting ads online too
You may watch something on YouTube, then get distressing ads in the sidebar. You can remove these via the free Unhook extension. It’s not to say you don’t help. But distressing you does no-one any favours.
It’s far better to simply keep your mental health intact, find a few charities you wish to support and donate to them.
What does the law say on charity ads?
The ASA says that it’s actually illegal to cause people too much mental stress, due to showing upsetting ads to raise funds. One complaint for a vegan charity showed a woman eating blood and offal, while blood was dripping from her mouth and teeth. This actually was not upheld. But this is not the way to inspire people to try plant-based lifestyles.
Empaths (who feel the suffering of everyone and everything) are more likely to give away money they don’t really have, in order to help if they see a distressing ad. Yet often the charities that show these ads have quite a lot more funding than most:
Although charities get discounts, the typical 30-second TV commercial costs around £20,000. A week-long campaign would cost over £300,000. Why is this money not being spent on the said causes?
