Regular Charitable Giving

Increasingly, we support charities through monthly payments rather than one off contributions. This means that I don't need to wonder how much I already gave to a charity this year when I get another request to contribute. Once a charity is on our list I ignore requests for additional contributions... Instead, I just look at what they have done with the money. I would consider a new charity. Here are the charities we are currently supporting:

Save the Children: This was Moominmama's pick a long time ago, before we had children ourselves. It is our longest running charity. We are giving $40 a month.

Opportunity International Australia: This funds microfinance lenders in South and Southeast Asia. I like the idea of helping people to improve their life through investing in their own business. We are giving $17 a month.

WIRES: How could you say no to helping injured koalas? We give $30 a month to this charity.

Bush Heritage Australia: They fund habitat conservation in Australia. This is our most recently added charity. We are giving $30 a month to this.

RSL Queensland: This one is a bit different as we support it through Dream Home Art Union. As most of the contributions go to prizes, it's not tax-deductible. Someone was selling the tickets outside our local supermarket and I just thought I had this intuition that I had to buy. Anyway, it's fun thinking I might win something. A very asymmetric bet. The charitable component goes to support veterans in Queensland. Also $30 a month.

All in, it's about 1% of spending. In the longer term, I would like to give more money to charity but would want to be more purposeful about it.

My Aunt's Legacy

My aunt died in 2020. She was single all her life. My father and her did not get on well. They fought each other in court over their mother's will. We wondered who she left her money to. Turns out she set up a foundation with about £5 million in assets. Most of the value came from her house and a company that seems to rent properties. The charities commission in the UK is already investigating the foundation for donating money to things that she didn't specify and maybe benefiting the trustees.... I wonder what happened to the art she inherited that they fought over? Either she had already sold it or she must have given it to someone else. 

One of my cousin's children found out about this charity when they were looking for grants for education, which did fall within one of the approved purposes of the foundation.