[dotti34]

I agree, Jaysay, that administration costs take up a lot of the donations made, which is not what the ‘givers’ intend the money for. A few years ago the adults in my family decided that instead of buying gifts for each other at Christmas (although we would still buy for the young ones of course) we would donate money to buy a goat or a sheep, a water purifier, etc., for some poor person in a Third World country.
Must admit, gave us a good feeling at the time. Did this the following couple of years – but then started getting inundated with begging requests from the same charity throughout the year. The good quality paper, the glossy literature and the postage would not have come cheap, a few goats would have had to be sacrificed to pay for it all - and I bet the charity isn't administrated by volunteers either.
On top of that the wording almost ‘demanded’ that we continue giving – so we stopped!