I almost never donate to anything. I kind of want to. What is an appropriate annual amount?

7/11/2025 8:55:17 PM

2.5% of your wealth

[Edited on July 11, 2025 at 9:13 PM. Reason : I suggest https://www.breakthrought1d.org/]

7/11/2025 9:13:14 PM

The Human Fund

7/11/2025 9:31:47 PM

Give to a donor-advised fund and then make grants anonymously if you don't want to be hounded for the rest of your life for trying to do something nice. Simplifies tax preparation as well, and easy to donate appreciated securities and avoid the capital gains tax.

7/11/2025 9:34:37 PM

Or yeah, . . . The Human Fund! It's money for people. What could be nobler?

7/11/2025 9:35:24 PM

I was originally gonna suggest humanityforward.com which literally was money for people back in the day, but it's not much more than a brown dwarf lobbying organization now

[Edited on July 11, 2025 at 9:41 PM. Reason : charitably. T1D kiddos is a good cause]

[Edited on July 11, 2025 at 9:43 PM. Reason : effective altruism is out of vogue these days but there's likewise some goodness within]

7/11/2025 9:40:52 PM

^^^wow thats some food for thought



[Edited on July 11, 2025 at 9:55 PM. Reason : Will have to think about the 2.5% of gdp thing]

7/11/2025 9:54:11 PM

I've been using a donor-advised fund for years. Many benefits.

7/11/2025 10:02:08 PM

Donating isn't just money, donate your services or skills where you can or volunteer

or you can donate to a local soup kitchen type deal or to a church's nonprofit efforts or whatever else you can find locally--it doesn't need to be a national or huge org

[Edited on July 12, 2025 at 9:53 AM. Reason : another sentence]

7/12/2025 9:52:39 AM

Yes, but giving money is the best (assuming ethical management), regardless of what people want to feel.

One specific example:

7/12/2025 12:01:54 PM

The Wolf Web Charitable Endowment

7/12/2025 12:51:53 PM

^^another awesome post. Gonna call you butter, cause you are on a roll lately

Whats your opinion on audiobooks? Just rent from library or is $7/book for pretty much any book ok?

Going back to charities...am I a bad person for never helping? I feel like I am barely getting by as it is sometimes. I guess what do you all get out of it by donating? Is it a religious thing? Or volunteering not just donating/charity. Is it better to find 1 cause or like 5 causes?

[Edited on July 12, 2025 at 1:42 PM. Reason : .]

7/12/2025 1:41:01 PM

Honestly, I don't read books much:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mqYJXm6tehE&t=29s

and I certainly don't listen to them:



NTTAWWT!

But I can't really concentrate well on spoken audio while simultaneously doing other things. If I'm going to read, I want to be focused on that. But from a financial sense, if you like audio books, what would be wrong with the library? I'm not going to knock that.

Charitable giving is very individual. It depends a lot on your situation, goals, and interests. 1 or 5 doesn't matter.

One thing I like about donor-advised funds (and there are a lot of things I like) is that it gives you the option to contribute now and defer research and decisions about disbursement if needed or desired. It's not that you want to keep control of the money longer or starve charities of needed funds, but rather that it enables a habit of charitable earmarking and removes a source of stress from decision fatigue. You can then roll up larger amounts for more impactful giving to charities of greatest interest. I get frustrated with usually local groups who certainly have their hearts in the right place and want to do the right thing, but will input massive amounts of time in fundraisers that barely break even and that tie up a lot of resources. I'm talking about something that might occupy the time of 20 people for the bulk of a weekend and clear $200. It would be much better if everyone would pledge to do paid manual labor for those days and donate their compensation. Less time commitment, much easier logistics, and the charity gets more money. But usually the people that run these things have no concept of the waste of time they become. They're just trying to help, and I don't want to crush their intentions with reality.

7/12/2025 2:52:49 PM

So like what are some good ones? Not the ones that like pocket 35 cents of every dollar, the ones where your money helps more

7/12/2025 3:11:12 PM

You are asking about charities or donor-advised funds?

For charities, GuideStar is one of the standard rating / screening groups:

https://www.guidestar.org

Also Charity Navigator:

https://www.charitynavigator.org

But I have a lot more research to do for longer-term giving strategies.

7/12/2025 3:29:36 PM

I give to local stuff. Here in Raleigh, I give to Food Not Bombs which I know spends my money on feeding people. I also give to the Raleigh United Mutual Aid Hub, which provides organizing space for a wide variety of local charities and groups.

7/15/2025 12:48:35 PM

Meals on Wheels, the Trevor Project, and the National Diaper Bank Network

[Edited on July 15, 2025 at 1:20 PM. Reason : .]

7/15/2025 1:18:39 PM

Meals on Wheels is always a solid option.

Habitat for Humanity is great for both monetary and time donations.

If you have experiences with horses, Helping Horse is great. If you’re not local to the Triangle I’m sure there are similar organizations in your area.

7/15/2025 4:23:31 PM

If someone has thousands of dollars of debt, should they donate?

7/15/2025 10:17:08 PM

Most people with a mortgage are thousands of dollars in debt, so it really depends on how you frame it.

But would debt just be a convenient excuse, or is it literally a binary choice between charitable giving, and applying the same funds to an earnest attempt to pay down debt?

7/15/2025 10:20:34 PM

Oh yeah forgot about a mortgage. But definitely binary, if i donated to charity, I would have less to pay on debt

7/15/2025 10:23:30 PM

Yeah, but if that where you would redirect the available funds (to debt reduction), or would you use it to purchase something else in the consumer economy?

7/16/2025 7:37:24 AM

I literally pretty much buy what i need/pay bills and the rest goes to debt. Don't go out much, etc etc etc

7/16/2025 11:17:08 PM

In that case, I think it would be fine to continue on your own debt reduction path before prioritizing charitable giving.

7/17/2025 6:09:10 AM