Charity Begins At Home

I've wanted to write this post for a long time but I've never gotten around to doing it. I've been put off because charity is a tricky subject and getting the right tone is tough. It's considered bad taste if you loudly broadcast all the things you do for charity, doing nothing at all is frowned upon, it gets a bit preachy if you bang on about it all the time and avoiding chuggers on the high street has become a new sport. Yikes.

Almost a year ago I decided that I would only support local charities. Having been a corporate whore for many years and working in the legal sector, last year I got a job with a charity. It's not a front line charity nor is it run by donations. Our purpose is to help other charities and we are funded by the council as well as other organisations like the Big Lottery Fund. We provide free services to other charities such as helping them with their constitutions, finding them volunteers, organising forums and networking events for them to attend, we offer training in subjects such as writing bids or tenders and we also loan them expensive equipment they cannot afford to purchase or hire from elsewhere (eg laptops, projectors etc). We aren't the only charity like this, there are at least 290 similar charities in the UK. Each one helps local charities offering a service in the town they are based. 

Anyway, the point is that the moment I started working there my eyes were opened. I was suddenly made aware of how many small charities and voluntary organisations there were in my area and how hard it was for them to help people. These charities don't have monthly direct debits from countless residents across the country, they don't have high profile advertising campaigns and they don't have thousands of sponsored events taking place. What they do have is staff who believe in the cause they are working for, volunteers giving up their time to help and a huge sense of community spirit. 

I never really understood what 'charity begins at home' meant and I've probably still got it all wrong but for me, at this moment in time, it means helping the charities in my home town. Instead of sponsoring people to run/cycle/climb on behalf of well known national charities, I've been donating the money locally instead. One person I spoke to through work recently told me that their charity's annual income is £2,000 a year. A whole year! I used to earn more than that each month and it's probably less than what some of the big charities spend on a single airing of a tv advert. 

Money reserves at charities has always been an issue for me. I was once told that Oxfam always had a reserve of £30 million for advertising. I have no idea whether that information is true or accurate but I do know that it set off a seed of doubt in my mind about where the money goes for every major charity. How much is spent on advertising, staffing, building maintenance and general expenses? Some of it seems so wasteful. I've never been keen on sponsored gimmicks either. The 'raise £2.5k and go on a jungle trek' concept doesn't sit well with me. If you happen to have taken part in one of those events, please don't take it personally. I'm not saying it isn't a good cause or that it wasn't hard to achieve I simply mean that having to raise a minimum amount to make it worthwhile for the charity to let you go ahead with it seems a bit of an odd idea. 

These days I prefer to make donations of objects rather than money, that way I know that whatever I give is going to reach the people who need it rather than being used to fund an advert. It's a happy coincidence that supporting local charities makes my preferred method of donation even easier. The Foodbank always need new food supplies,homeless shelters/dry houses always need bedding clothing and toiletries, pet rescue homes always need bags of kibble. Of course it's not always feasible to make anything other than a monetary donation but if you give £10 a month to a national charity, that pays for someone to stand in the street with a clipboard for an hour and half while they try to convince other people to sign up for monthly donations. The same amount of money goes a lot further when you give it to a smaller charity staffed entirely by volunteers. 

You will be amazed at some of the charities in your area and the services that they offer in your own community. One of my favourite discoveries is the animal charity here that offers a scheme where dogs help children who struggle with reading. The idea is that kids may find it embarrassing to read aloud in front of their peers or family but not in front of a dog as it won't judge their abilities. 

I'm not saying that you shouldn't give to the larger charities, that would be ridiculous. I'm just saying that for me, it's not how I want to do things anymore. Obviously I still buy a poppy for Remembrance Day, put some coins in the Comic Relief buckets and round up the extra pennies on my shopping whenever I'm asked and I also still support the national charities that have a personal meaning to me. But, if you ask me to sponsor you to grow a moustache, run a marathon or stay off the alcohol for a month please don't be offended when I congratulate you on your efforts but give my donation to a charity who needs it here.