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Charity Shopping

Lilly Nowhere Late

05:16 / 15.12.06

What does the Barbelith contingency think of xmas shopping through charities such as this: http://savethechildren.sandbag.uk.com/
???
I've got lots of people on the list who usually get/give small curious token pressies which are not unappreciated but not really necessary either. My inner cynic tells me to beware charity shopping but my inner good deed doer says bah! to that skepticism. Have you gifted or received this type of thing? Do you believe in savethechildren faeries?
Should I buy the yak?

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:06 / 15.12.06

Well, according to Save the Children they give the actual thing you have purchased to somebody. Oxfam have a breakdown at Oxfamunwrapped.com explaining where the money you donate goes - basically to the gift and a bunch of services around it. The RNLI, on the other hand, doesn't actually buy a pair of boots - it's just a metaphor for your donation, really - a show of comparative value. Your £40 is _like_ these boots, and you can think of it as a bootsworth of money, but it will be spent as we see fit.

So, I think it depends on what you mean by "really", I think, and who you are thinking of funding.

doozy floop

11:10 / 15.12.06

If you're dubious, you could always just make a donation to the charity of your choice and concoct your own physical representation of the donation to present to the recipient - and smaller charities at least are generally able to produce a thank-you letter or similar for the person in whose name you've made the donation.

Blake Head

16:25 / 15.12.06

I heard (through the charity grapevine) that Oxfam have recently been criticised, erroneously as it turns out, for putting the gift choices of the donation-making public before the needs of its recipients. While in fact, if there was a completely imbalanced purchase of certain items or services as gifts, they would not spend all their marked funds on those items if the recipients don't have a need for them. So yes, the money you give will go towards that gift, but only if it's appropriate to do so. If they have a surplus of... yaks... they'll put it towards something else.

Oh, and charity shopping in general, amongst other reasons around what happens with the funds, aids in re-cycling goods at a local level, so yes I think it's definitely a good thing.

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