Money, giving to charity and the recession

We are a charitable lot aren't we? We really are! At times seeing the response to calls for help from charities and organisations in times of major disaster makes me feel proud. I have personally worked in call centres taking donations for Children in Need and the response is overwhelming. Give yourselves a round of applause, pat on the back and hugs all round.

Now thanks to the banks and various other institutions we have had a credit crunch and a recession. This means that companies are going into administration, people are loosing their jobs, money is tight, banks are being given tanker loads of our money and governments are having to make cuts to everything because they are up to their eye balls in debt.

This means that charities and other organisations are having their funding cut and losing donations. This means that there are now a huge amount of people screaming for money, donations and help. The world they knew has ended but they still need money. I know where I live I get bags and leaflets posted through the door on a daily basis asking for donations. Walk through the city centre and you can guarantee that someone will try and stop me to get me to sign up to give monthly donations. They can be fairly aggressive and I have resorted to telling one of these people to fuck off after he grabbed me.

In these hard times the best piece of advice I can give you is be selfish. It is silly giving money to charity for five minutes of self satisfaction if you then can't afford to put food on the table or clothes on your back. Regardless of how desperate their situation seems to be, there is no point putting yourself in their position by donating what you can't afford to give.

If you have time spare then volunteer, remember giving your time is just as good as giving money. Clothes and belongings that are in a reasonable condition that you are going to throw away? Donate them! If someone stops you in the street tell them no! If you do sign up for something then realise you can't afford it then cancel the direct debit agreement. Give only what you can!

Now I am in the position where there are numerous charities and organisations that I would like to support but I can no longer afford to give to them all. I want to but it isn't realistic so I am going to have to choose which ones I will regularly support. You may want to select one charity that you have a connection with.

The charities and organisations are:

Temple Street Children's university Hospital www.templestreet.ie
Royal Hibernian Academy www.rhagallery.ie/index
National Self Harm Network www.nshn.co.uk
SANDS www.uk-sands.org
National concert hall Dublin www.nch.ie/Home.aspx
The Cathedral of St John the Baptist www.sjbcathedral.org.uk