Charitable giving

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I realize many here likely contribute to their parish, to Catholic Charities, St. Vincent de Paul and such. I’m curious about what other charities people on this forum donate to. No numbers please, just your thought and experiences with charitable giving.

I’ll start with this: I recently had dinner with a visiting priest here for Mission Sunday. While I had given for his mission, in discussions he had told me of a school in his home country that had need of a water pump. I felt the need to help with that situation too. I’ve done this kind of thing before through Child Fund Intl., but this was the first time helping directly.
 
Tithe = 10%.

Of course, that was from the Old Testament and before social nets protected our most vulnerable citizens with government programs
 
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  • Missio (the Pope’s online platform for giving to missions, it’s like a GoFundMe and you can pick a cause; if you want to feel you’re helping directly it’s a great place to give)
  • Philly Missions (Archdiocese appeal for missions)
  • Society for the Propagation of the Faith
  • Maggie’s Place (a Catholic charity providing shelter for pregnant moms in need)
  • House of Ruth (domestic violence shelter)
  • Various religious orders (About 10 different ones) that say individual or Gregorian Masses for my intentions
  • Peter’s Pence
  • The fund for retired religious (the churches have a special collection for this each year)
  • American Heart Association
  • Alzheimer’s Foundation
  • Various no-kill animal shelter/ animal rescue organizations that help animals find homes, provide severely abused or injured animals with medical care, or help animals in disaster areas or war zones. One of my favorites is House of Cats in Aleppo.
  • Occasional individual Gofundmes and collections, usually ones where I know the person soliciting funds, or a friend of mine knows them and can vouch for there being a need and the money ending up with the family in need.
  • Occasional community organizations like volunteer first responders, K of C, Kiwanis etc.
 
Yes, when I went through RCIA a few years ago they suggested giving what we are comfortable with. As an example they used 10%, with half for the church and half for the needy. But stated there’s no hard and fast rule. God Bless!
 
Charities we typically give to include:
Philabundance
Child Fund International
St. Mary’s Shelter
St. Teresa of Calcutta Elementary School
Our parish capital campaign
CMMB
St. Vincent de Paul Society
USO
American Red Cross
Building Homes for Heroes
Crossman Productions (drum and bugle corps)
Team Rubicon
Fire and ambulance services
Catholic Charities
And our parish
 
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Catholic Charities
St. Vinny’s
Heat Up St. Louis
Ronald McDonald House
St. Patrick Center
 
Great topic.

I give of course to my Church, and in addition to a number of secular charities that are especially meaningful to me, including charities supporting veterans and those supporting music activities in my community (including youth programs). I also give from time to time to the cat shelter in my community, which was a favorite charity of my mother.
 
I try to contribute to those who helped me along my path to Catholicism: EWTN, Coming Home Network, Holy Family Radio, Catholic Answers, my Parish and Diocese, Co-Redemptorists, St. Paul Center for Theological Studies.
 
When I traveled a lot on weekends, I tended to give more by mail. Now that I’m at my home parish more often, I focus most of my giving to my local parish, my local Diocesan Appeal, and my CFCA stuff. Rather than dividing an annual $x between 20 or 30 charities, I still try to give $x, but I keep it more focused. That works out okay, because my parish is poor and rural anyways. While keeping things going locally isn’t as cool as building a school in Papua New Guinea, it’s still a good thing, and there’s fewer people interested in little ol’ us than in the poor of PNG. 🙂

My things were generally food, education, and religious/rural/mission/seminary communities.

A few that come to mind–
Franciscan Mission Association
Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (they renamed themselves to “Unbound”)
Food for the Poor
Seraphic Mass Association
Mundelein Seminary
FSSP
Carmelite Missions
Diocese of Fairbanks
Catholic Relief Services
Cross Catholic Outreach
Franciscan Friars of the Atonement
Association of the Miraculous Medal
Capuchin Fransicans
Order of Malta
Sisters of Charity of Our Lady, Mother of the Church
Shrine of St. Pio of Pietrelcina
St. Jude Shrine/the Pallottines/the Claretians
Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist
Our Lady of Victory Homes of Charity
Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America

etc, etc, etc.
 
I recently started giving to Operation Underground Railroad. They are an organization made up of former special ops guys who plan missions to rescue victims of human trafficking and provide aftercare.

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I give to Food For The Poor, Cross Catholic Outreach, the Dominican Sisters of the Eucharist, and my parish and diocese. On occasion I will give to Catholic Relief Services and I give to the USO which helps our active duty military folks.
 
I feel I have to be responsible in what I give to and make sure that money is going to a good cause. However I really don’t have time to investigate every single charity.

Hence I have to admit that I only donate to the charitable fund run by the Archdiocese. I’m hoping that someone will be responsible and know what to do with the money because I don’t. I’m hoping that if there is a real need from a certain charity then the Archdiocese will lend a helping hand. If not directly maybe endorse it then I will donate directly to it. So yes I place a lot of trust on my Archdiocese.
 
That’s really great! I hadn’t heard of that one, and I used to fly special ops missions in the Air Force a long time ago. God Bless!
 
No-kill shelters and animal rescue organizations, and those trying to find good homes for pets that need new homes.
 
midori said:
my local Diocesan Appeal,
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I stopped giving to RC diocesan appeals years ago.

As a practical matter, it was just upping the size of the settlement pot for the pending litigation, dollar for dollar (yes, that is how bankruptcy law works), and not having a net effect. After a diocese had settled, it would have been a different story, but by then, I was in a byzantine parish.

The Shriners. (who fixed my daughter’s back with bleeding edge surgery that wasn’t even available outside their hospitals yet. She had 107 degrees of scoliosis curvature!).

Food for All is another one that impressed me. I find 90% to be the absolute, hard-core bottom line on money spent on the cause, with 10% being too much, as well as any money spent on soliciting those who haven’t given to that charity before). Anyway, Food for All watches their overhead so tightly as they pinch pennies that they calculated that they could buy their own planes for less than they were paying for freight–and did so!

The Knights of Columbus tootsie roll drive. While the councils are permitted to pay for the tootsie rolls they give away from the proceeds, they rarely do so, and usually kick in their own donation. So negative overhead, and the money goes partly to Special Olympics (I think that varies by state) and mostly to a local charity for the mentally disabled (previously “mentally retarded”) chosen by the council, and often earmarked to keep it out of the regular budget and instead go for something needed.

And, of course, Every Little Girl Needs Braids–but I’m biased; that’s my daughter!🤣

After my wife and her nurse spent a couple of hours un-matting her long hair after a brutal surgery, her nurse commented “Every little girl needs braids” and managed to come up with some hair clips.

It so moved her that a couple of later she did the initial drive at her school, and now has a couple of other kids in other countries doing it as well! She gets donations of hair clips and other hair things (I’m a guy; I don’t quite understand what this stuff is!), and uses cash donations (and her own money) to ship them, currently working her way through the Shriners’ hospitals, for girls after surgery.

As it turns out, the money for the shipping is the biggest deal, as she’s been able to get all kinds of donations from manufacturers (I want my closets back!). She set out to raise $50 (or was it $100) on Facebook, and ended up with over $500, including a couple of $100 donations!

(and if your business would like to contribute a shipping label or authorization, I can put you in touch).
 
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