Support for Ukraine

[Arborbridge]

The "DEC charities are in Ukraine and neighbouring countries meeting the needs of all refugees and displaced people" - I heard today that they had raised £55 million on the first day - though I suspect this has added in the £20 million from the tax payers.

As I thought, this aid raising is massive, not only in cash through the big charities, but the noble efforts of people in villages and towns all over Europe (inc. UK) to collect material. Ordinary guys and guyesses are setting off in vans and lorries converging on what sounds like it could be one humungous traffic jam. The French half of my family are running a poney club and they have horse boxed full of cartons of supplies being driven to Geneva - presumably to a collection point for bulk transport.
People have their own off the wall ideas of helping too - a woman I heard this morning booking a B2B in Kyiv(??) but not intending to go, just in order to get money to another family to help them. An idea, I would have thought, fraught with possibilities of going wrong, but it's orginal at least.

I remember collecting for the Hungarian Refugees, I remember the emotional intensity of seeing the Russian orchestra playing at the Prom during the invasion of Czechoslovakia*, but this exceeds all that.

Arb.

*playing the Dvorak cello concerto, Rostropovich was playing with tears rolling down his face.

[Lanark]

To put into perspective £55 million is £1.25 per citizen of Ukraine.

[pje16]

I'd rather pay in sterling and not lose on exchange rate/commission
I would have thought they would have more currencies available
I won't be the only one put off

The thing is the money has to be converted at some stage, the exchange rate you get on a credit card is not significantly different than if you donate to a UK charity in £ who then group the money together, exchange it and forward onto contacts in Ukraine.
By accepting payments in $ and € (major currencies) they at least guarantee you are likely to get a good exchange rate.

If you walk into a supermarket and buy a bag of potatoes, less than half the money you pay will go to the farmer who grew them, but thats life there are always overhead costs.

yes but as I said on the previous page usinf a UK based site
https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/u ... sis-appeal
means they get more by claiming Gift Aid (thru tax relief)

[Dod101]

To put into perspective £55 million is £1.25 per citizen of Ukraine.

And?

Dod

[Lanark]

I'd rather pay in sterling and not lose on exchange rate/commission
I would have thought they would have more currencies available
I won't be the only one put off

The thing is the money has to be converted at some stage, the exchange rate you get on a credit card is not significantly different than if you donate to a UK charity in £ who then group the money together, exchange it and forward onto contacts in Ukraine.
By accepting payments in $ and € (major currencies) they at least guarantee you are likely to get a good exchange rate.

If you walk into a supermarket and buy a bag of potatoes, less than half the money you pay will go to the farmer who grew them, but thats life there are always overhead costs.

yes but as I said on the previous page usinf a UK based site
https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/u ... sis-appeal
means they get more by claiming Gift Aid (thru tax relief)

But there doesnt seem to be a way to donate on that page without going through DEC, which I'm not going to do.
I don't know why they have to make it so complicated.

[Bouleversee]

J8

I'd rather pay in sterling and not lose on exchange rate/commission
I would have thought they would have more currencies available
I won't be the only one put off

The thing is the money has to be converted at some stage, the exchange rate you get on a credit card is not significantly different than if you donate to a UK charity in £ who then group the money together, exchange it and forward onto contacts in Ukraine.
By accepting payments in $ and € (major currencies) they at least guarantee you are likely to get a good exchange rate.

If you walk into a supermarket and buy a bag of potatoes, less than half the money you pay will go to the farmer who grew them, but thats life there are always overhead costs.

yes but as I said on the previous page usinf a UK based site
https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/u ... sis-appeal
means they get more by claiming Gift Aid (thru tax relief)

But there doesnt seem to be a way to donate on that page without going through DEC, which I'm not going to do.
I don't know why they have to make it so complicated.

What is your objection to DEC? Gift Aid applies to donations to them as well.

[Lanark]

J8

I'd rather pay in sterling and not lose on exchange rate/commission
I would have thought they would have more currencies available
I won't be the only one put off

The thing is the money has to be converted at some stage, the exchange rate you get on a credit card is not significantly different than if you donate to a UK charity in £ who then group the money together, exchange it and forward onto contacts in Ukraine.
By accepting payments in $ and € (major currencies) they at least guarantee you are likely to get a good exchange rate.

If you walk into a supermarket and buy a bag of potatoes, less than half the money you pay will go to the farmer who grew them, but thats life there are always overhead costs.

yes but as I said on the previous page usinf a UK based site
https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/u ... sis-appeal
means they get more by claiming Gift Aid (thru tax relief)

But there doesnt seem to be a way to donate on that page without going through DEC, which I'm not going to do.
I don't know why they have to make it so complicated.

What is your objection to DEC? Gift Aid applies to donations to them as well.

Im very reluctant to give money to an organisation which drags people into court for the "crime" of loading URLs on their website. Also in their annual report (PDF), they manage to spend 12% on 'raising funds', given that all they do is accept donations and pass them over to other charities (who in turn take another cut) that seems like rather a lot of champagne fund-raising dinners.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect the DEC arrangement has been setup to make the big charities look as if they have low overheads on the charity comparison sites by offloading some of their admin costs onto DEC.

[Bouleversee]

I stopped donating to the Red Cross because I didn't approve of all the free gifts they sent out to encourage donations; they must have cost quite a lot and many people would not respond. I asked them to remove me from their mailing list. And wasn't it their workers who were involved with various sexual issues?

I hadn't heard of DEC before this year, firstly re Afghanistan. I agree that with that and Ukraine, the money must fall into their lap though I suppose it costs something to process and distribute it. I just hope that it all gets into the right hands. I think most charities seem to pay their officials far too much. There seems to be something fishy about the Captain Sir Tom Moore charity (accusation of large sums paid to family members) which I should think would have made the old boy unhappy.

Like Lootman, I make regular donations to various charities, mostly medical, and just hope that most of the money goes on research etc. but I suspect quite a chunk is spent on raising funds in all cases.

[PhaseThree]

J8

The thing is the money has to be converted at some stage, the exchange rate you get on a credit card is not significantly different than if you donate to a UK charity in £ who then group the money together, exchange it and forward onto contacts in Ukraine.
By accepting payments in $ and € (major currencies) they at least guarantee you are likely to get a good exchange rate.

If you walk into a supermarket and buy a bag of potatoes, less than half the money you pay will go to the farmer who grew them, but thats life there are always overhead costs.

yes but as I said on the previous page usinf a UK based site
https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/u ... sis-appeal
means they get more by claiming Gift Aid (thru tax relief)

But there doesnt seem to be a way to donate on that page without going through DEC, which I'm not going to do.
I don't know why they have to make it so complicated.

What is your objection to DEC? Gift Aid applies to donations to them as well.

Im very reluctant to give money to an organisation which drags people into court for the "crime" of loading URLs on their website. Also in their annual report (PDF), they manage to spend 12% on 'raising funds', given that all they do is accept donations and pass them over to other charities (who in turn take another cut) that seems like rather a lot of champagne fund-raising dinners.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect the DEC arrangement has been setup to make the big charities look as if they have low overheads on the charity comparison sites by offloading some of their admin costs onto DEC.

The DEC is not a prosecuting organisation. The Crown Prosecution Service "dragged" this individual to court - he was found guilty.
All big charitable organisation incur costs, I don't see DEC as being significantly different to others, Spending some amount of cash to raise £55million in 24 hours seems like a good investment to me.

[hiriskpaul]

You can list unwanted stuff on eBay and direct the sale proceeds to the the Red Cross (or other charities). eBay waive their selling fees for this and you can also register for Gift Aid. My wife has already sold a 1980s ski all-in-one for nearly £50!

[Clariman]

Moderator Message:
Please keep this on topic in terms of how we can best support the people of Ukraine. A reminder of this board's purpose ...

"The purpose of this board is to allow members to discuss 'Charitable Giving', which may include financial gifts, donations of items, or giving one's time for the benefit of others. Please refrain from discussing politics on this board. Furthermore, if the primary objective of your charitable giving is to reduce your tax bill, then there may be more appropriate places to discuss that. The focus of this board should be on the needs of others."

Some posts are beginning to drift. Thanks.

[BobbyD]

The fundraising page of the London embassy is https://withukraine.org/

Their official webpage is uk.mfa.gov.ua/en but it times out so you're probably better off on their Facebook & Twitter for updates :

https://www.facebook.com/ukraine.in.uk/
https://twitter.com/ukremblondon

An inability to reach it is a badge of authenticity for the webpage, apparently facebook and twitter are a little harder to bring down with DDoS attacks.

The people in the best position to know the most pressing uses for the money are probably the Ukrainians themselves.

[88V8]

As I posted elsewhere, if you prefer your aid to go directly into Ukraine, you can donate to their Red Cross here https://donate.redcrossredcrescent.org/ua/donate/~my-donation
Yes, it's $, not that it matters...

This afternoon we dropped off 382 tins of fish/meat that we bought at B&M, a local logistics Co is sending three 44 ton trucks of food & medical stuff.
Mainly we sent Spam Spam Spam Spam.
And corned beef.

V8

[stewamax]

For account holders, PayPal UK have implemented a simple 'donate now' to DEC taking no transaction commission and offering an equally simple Gift Aid form to go with it.