Yesterday was so called Giving Tuesday - 1 December. It largely passed me by I have to say. Apart from giving another stack of notes to the roofer for what I am still not sure. I am embarrassed to say that yet another "day" or "charity event" has passed me by. Is it me or are we just too bombarded by requests to help. Even with the restrictions placed on charities in limiting the flyers and requests for cash, it does seem that a week does'nt pass by without something happening in the charity area.
Don't get me wrong, charities need cash to survive, but we all have our areas where we like to donate money or time. For me this has been traditionally cancer charities.
Every year instead of sending Christmas cards, I nmake a donation to charity. I tend to have favoured The Pelican Cancer Foundation. This is a charity very close to my heart. Last year I donated to Crisis - a charity for the homeless in London. Sadly I won't be doing this again as the number of mail requests for further cash not only left a bad taste in my mouth but the associated costs of such mailing must have out weighed the actual donation I made.
So this year I will revert to my usual charity, who send you a thank you email and then just get on with it. I like this approach.
There was some great news to come out of Giving Tuesday and that was the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife are setting up a foundation and donating 99% of their shares. This is such a philanthropic act. It got me thinking that there must be lots of other billionaires out there who will never be able to spend the massive wealth that they have accumulated and should follow this example - instead of finding more and more ways to limit the taxes that they pay on their wealth. Maybe we will find ourselves entering an age of philanthropy again and the "me me me " society might just settle down.
OK rant over!!!
And by the way it's December - this year has certainly rushed by.
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