My household gives a small amount monthly to Planned Parenthood, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and Foundation Beyond Belief.
I just found out that the CARES act included a provision allowing anyone to deduct up to $300 of charitable giving even without itemizing deductions!
But I mean, fuck 'em, right. There’s no specifically ‘right’ way to do charity beyond ‘not at all.’
Congrats on the button clicking!
I do it this way too. My money is still better than no money. And I have to give when I’m sure I can
Little bro requests donations to either the Ute or Arapaho tribes in my area in lieu of traditional bday gifts. He’s a good’un. Googling but not sure the best place to donate. Anyone got advice? Looking at these sites:
https://www.windriverfoundation.org/donate-1
Also willing to split donations across these but figured maybe someone might know how to assess what would be the most impactful.
I think @Gdogg posted something, somewhere, about donation to a First Nation tribe. Can’t remember if it was either of those, tho.
It was a link for COVID fundraising for Navajo & Hopi. Not sure about the tribes @Greyweld mentioned.
ETA: Here is an interesting site re: issues Ute tribe is concerned about:UtePAC
Looks like there may be COVID fundraising for Ute also.
ETA2: Arapaho site, mentions some fund drives:
Arapaho
Swing and a miss.
Or a pop fly.
Today:
My e-mailbox today was an epic struggle between reminders that Cyber Monday was extended and reminders that it was Giving Tuesday. I did buy the smaller child new shoes for $20 so both sides got something. 
Good giving! I gave to my library foundation today, too. That was a first for me.
I always end up paying some late fees every year. Now that the library no longer charges them (and I am far from perfectly-on-time with my returns) I thought I should donate.
My friend is the director of the Ute Land Trust and is one of the best human beings I’ve ever met. In addition to their land conservation work, they were super involved with voter registration, voter education for non-Native folks about how Utah’s ballot issues would affect Indian Country, and protecting Ute tribe members’ right to vote after some were turned away from the polls on Election Day.
Thank you! Boom, donated!
We have always given our time to help others. Now in retirement we also donate money. Because of the virus we stopped helping people in person because we are high risk.
Just found out that (after our company was acquired), work is going to match up to £7500 of donations each year, which is pretty cool! That’s a heck of an incentive to get myself organised and consolidate most my giving into more “official” channels.
This fucks with my “charity is required, not something you should get benefit from” ethics BUT
I was able to donate to Oregon IDA initiative, which is a program that does matched saving accounts for low-income oregonians to start a business, buy a home, repair their home, or go to college. I received an IDA matching grant after saving for 2 years to start my business and it was instrumental in my work.
In Oregon, you can get a 90% credit on your taxes for your IDA donation until the spots run out. I’m donating $500 this tax year, which will get me $450 off my taxes, which is about what I expect to owe after withholding at three jobs while having a business without withholding. (My state tax rate is between 6.88-9.9%)
Feels good to give back to a program that benefitted me and that I 100% believe in. And I’ll take the tax credit.
Philosophical question: For someone with a high income that is mostly W2 (therefore highly taxed), what do you think the moral guideline is for charitable giving?
Not knowing this person’s religious, moral, or political leanings, with a high effective, what do we think is a reasonable societal contribution? When I worked in giving for people with middle incomes, I recommended 5% or “one day’s pay per month” (sometimes that is easier to conceptually understand). For someone with a $500K income, that would be $25,000 a year, which is a chunk of change.
Assuming this person is in the US, where taxes do far less to support low-income people due to our lack of universal health care, childcare, social assistance, and far more to support our large military spending (just in terms of percentage), does that factor in? Generally Americans, give more to charity than countries with good social safety nets.
I often look to religious guidelines when I think of guiding principles around charity, because religions are human’s regulated attempts to understand how to act justly and well on this earth with other people. Generally, here are some guidelines:
Thanks for the religions break out, I only knew the Catholicism one. The cap on giving in Judaism is really interesting!
I have a thought but I want to see where the conversation goes first.
My boss is an religiously observant maxist jew so he has a LOT of thoughts on giving from a Jewish law perspective and I find it very interesting.