Please Give To Charity....Or Else

Don't get me wrong.  I support charities and I understand that they have to run appeals to get money.  However I prefer to support the charities of my choice and to whom I give and how much is entirely a matter for me and not for the rest of the world.  The only general exception I make is that I wear a poppy to remember and out of respect for those who lost their lives in war: celebrated on Armistice Day here in the UK and ANZAC Day in New Zealand.

Yesterday the annual Red Cross appeal (one of many by different charities) dropped through my letter box: Christmas cards for me to send together with a pen to write them and stickers to let my friends know that I support the Red Cross. What this really is, though, is blackmail.  We've sent you these things so you will feel obliged to pay for them.  Well I don't.  I actually resent it.  

What it amounts to is that if I send a donation to a charity I will be bombarded with even more requests.

Most Saturdays it seems there  are  bag packers collecting for their own local cause (they are often not charities but the local football club or whatever)  on the tills of the supermarkets.  Many of these I will happily support but some I certainly am not.  I also prefer to pack my own bags.  I really don't like someone putting a bag of potatoes on top of my tomatoes.  If I feel like supporting the cause I will do so but otherwise I won't but it takes quite a lot of nerve to walk away.

I doesn't stop there of course.  We are bombarded at every moment on TV and radio with please text DONATE  £10 to 66666 or whatever. And, of course, there's Bob Geldof (but that could be a post all of its own).

I could go on but I'm sure you can think of plenty more examples without my assistance.

I know that charities have to raise money and that in some cases much of it reaches the intended cause but I think it's all gone just a little bit too far.  Or am I just being a grumpy old man?

Where Does Charity Begin

I have often heard people say that charity should begin at home and that whilst there are many in need in our own country then we should give to those in our own country before we give elsewhere.  This is an argument that could occupy a book never mind a few inconsequential paragraphs on this blog.  It's not an argument to which I wholly subscribe, by the way.  I don't, in any case, tend to give to charities dealing with needs of poverty per se.  I prefer those dealing with problems (like Age Concern or The Macmillan Nurses) or medical advancement or the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.  These are personal choices and we all have our own and often varying views.

It struck me this morning, however, that I actually spend a disproportionate amount of money on wildlife that would, in all probability, survive almost as well without my help.  I was looking at the two sacks of birdseed, the tub of fat balls and the tub of peanuts which are in my garden shed for the Sparrows and Greenfinches and Starlings and so on which inhabit my garden.  Lots of other birds come but, on the whole, they are insectivorous or eat worms and the like. 

From my observation the Sparrows who live under my eaves can have three broods a year and I think that is probably because of the plentiful and close food supply.  So it helps keep the numbers up here even if they are declining rapidly elsewhere.

When, however, I weigh up what all this costs per year it does make me wonder whether that money would be better given to one of the other charities.

Just a thought.