Castanet

If you give a lot of money to God, you will be happy to know God has a deal with the Canadian government that allows you a tax deduction for every dollar you give to God.

God
There is a website that lists the income and expenses of most churches in Canada. I was surprised to see most huge churches make $1 million at least. And one church in Penticton pays $30,000 interest each year. So your money could be going to the banks, when you give to God. Still, it's better than nothing I guess.

Charities
if you give money to charities, 90% of the money goes to the people running the charity.

Directly to poor people
Now with the internet, you can send money directly to poor people who make videos on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLmLr5n_UjA
For donation: PATREON → PAYPAL → Also you can use a WESTERN UNION money transfer
^ That person is poor. Should anyone give her some money?

Discuss.

So what is the best thing to do, if you have some extra money you want to get rid of?

Anyone know?

1. You can't give money to god. God is a concept. You'd be giving money to a church, run by people, who then decide how to spend it. God isn't even a factor.

2. All charities are different, so your administration fee's will vary. 90% is probably accurate for some, but certainly not all. Do some research if you plan to make a donation to a charity.

3. Give to the poor directly? Sure, if that will make you feel good about yourself, do it!

In all three cases, I truly believe that people giving money to help others is done for the intrinsic rewards of giving what you have to help others. Do it for that reason and you'll always feel better about yourself. But please, do your research before giving because there are a lot of crooks out there just looking to profit off your generosity.

Please send it to bsuds@gofundme.

^ Yup. Only give to people directly, if you got extra money.

No to charities.

No to churches.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU5nPLhv5Zc

Don't paint all charities with the same brush.

Yes, the big ones kinda suck and I recommend you avoid giving to them. Red cross, Canadian Cancer Society, etc. 90% of donations go toward "cost of running the charity".

BUT, there are smaller "grassroots" charities out there where nobody is on the payroll and 100% of donations go toward the cause.

If a Charity can't put a min 75% of the donations it receives actually towards what it is raising money for it should be shut down.

No if ands or buts!

If I were to help out the poor I would give to something that directly helps, like gospel mission who provides meals. The food bank is a good place as well although there are some wastage. If they don't like a particular food it gets thrown out or traded for other things. That being said there are many many people who are helped by food banks.

Salvation Army although technically a church they do a lot of good for the less fortunate. Always there to aide in crisis.

My personal favourite charity is Variety to help sick and disabled children.

All aspects have a downside really.

Sure you can give directly to a poor person, in fact I have to some of those median panhandlers, but I'd wager my money probably went toward liquor or cigarettes, possibly both. So is that still "helping" or is it actually "enabling?"

Far too many of the charities especially big name ones, use most of the bucks for themselves, thus I for one refuse to support them with cash.

God's name is abused by far too many shysters, looking to buy their wives some more pairs of shoes, and air condition their dog house.

There are still ways to give, but you have to be cautious.

I opt to donate a lot of computer time toward scientific medical research, as I have the equipment, and what I like is that I'm the one who decides where I help out.

Even in distributed computing, which is what it's called, there are shady operators, because some places will let you run your equipment for free, yet they profit from the work you are doing, so those are ones to avoid. As if anyone needs to donate resources, to help big pharma rip us off any more than they already do.

We live in a world that has far too many crooks.

Is it better to Give money to God? Charities? poor people?

After donating months of my time being a chauffeur for a cousin that had no drivers license,
and being nice to many other people who didn't appreciate it

I won't be giving anything to anyone.
Even if they were starving I wouldn't give them a cent.

Thinktank wrote:Is it better to Give money to God? Charities? poor people?

After donating months of my time being a chauffeur for a cousin that had no drivers license,
and being nice to many other people who didn't appreciate it

I won't be giving anything to anyone.
Even if they were starving I wouldn't give them a cent.

Yep. That'll show everyone else who is so undeserving of your apathy.

The rest of us will go on being nice to others without any expectation of appreciation. It's better to give.