What Charitable Thing Would YOU Do?

[Lost 1,410]

So, the EuroMillions Jackpot was just sat at £121 million.

 

Like many people have, i have often thought of how i would spend such a life changing large amount of money and have spoken about it in other threads about lottery winnings.

 

This thread is not specifically about winning the lottery, this is to ask the question, If you had a life changing amount of money, through lottery, inheritance anything really, enough money that you would never have to work again and you would be able to buy anything you ever wanted without worrying about the cost, what charitable cause would you put money to?

 

To prevent anyone saying the noble "I would donate all my monies (as after-all it seems to be endless) to all the charities to cure everything" we shall assume a budget of around £20 million for your charity giving.

 

I will clarify that you should work under the assumption that any money you would give to your family and friends has been done so already therefor is not something you should factor into this charity donation.

 

 

 

 

 

What i would do -

A flat amount of £10million would be shared out evenly among a multitude of charities.

 

 

So, this is something i have thought about quite alot, the remaining £10million would be used to found my own charity, one that dealt with the homeless in cities, starting in my own.

 

I frequently give money to the homeless, which some would protest saying that maybe they deserve to be homeless, this is something that i too believed years ago, thinking that people who were homeless were there because of spending money on stuff like drugs, until i spoke to a homeless guy in my city, someone who had a respectable job, a house and a family, his wife left him, he lost his job and the resulting costs that he couldn't cover lost him his house, the debt bankrupted him and put him on the streets.

 

The reason homeless people cant just get a job is because of the perception of employers that they may not be educated enough or may be poor workers, therefor applications put in for work by homeless people often get rejected straight away.

 

 

My intention would be this -

Buy a few Apartments, personally hand-select homeless people living on the streets to live in them (1 per apartment) and make them live by strict rules, they would not be permitted to consume alcohol or drugs while living in the apartment else they would be kicked out, and they must attempt to quit smoking if they do, they would be given support by councilors to help them with this. They would not be permitted to let other homeless people live with them or visit them. (this may be harsh but it is far more effective to help one person at a time in one location than a group)

 

Next they would be cleaned up and bought one presentable set of clothes and some casual clothes, following the cleanup, after a week of living in the apartment, they would be assigned with a work-placement officer, someone to help them find a job that they can do, and should they require it, get them any education they could be missing out on.

 

Once they have a job, they would be charged minimal amounts of rent and expected to cover their own food bills (this would be to stop them getting used to having everything provided to them by the charity but should leave them enough money to buy the odd luxury item), after they have been in stable employment for a while they would be then assigned a residential councilor who would help them find a new home to live in.

 

Once they are in their new house a support worker would be sent to check up on them and every week for the next 6 months, following that they would be checked up on monthly until a year has passed, after that they would be checked up on every 3 months until they say they no longer need checkups.

 

The apartment they lived in would be put to use for another homeless person to repeat the process.

 

 

 

That is the first time i have fully explained my idea, and the first time i have put any of it into text, what are everypony's thoughts and what would you do with your 20million charity budget?

Edited April 2, 2013 by Lost

[Zygen 6,066]

I honestly have no idea what I'd do with the money myself anyways.

 

I feel like I'd donate it to a Cancer organization. Cancer Research or something. Just because Its one of the things I've had the most experience around I guess. My grandmother had cancer, although she survived it. My Grandfather had it for a bit to, along with other problems though.

 

My mom also use to help at a Cancer treatment place by driving patients around, so me and my brother sometimes stayed there and played stuff with the children cancer patients, or sometimes helped around the place.

 

So i'd probably donate my money to there. Atleast some organization related to cancer, problem is I don't know what organization specially, since I don't know what organizations to trust alot of times.

[Cupcake Ice Cream 436]

I've helped out on countless occasions at animal shelters, performed therapy for patients for free and traveled to Nepal to help build houses for the KRMEF

 

and I am going to keep helping every chance I get

[Scootalove 10,689]

I would donate probably millions of dollars to foundations that want to help people. Use some money and give it to scientists so they have enough money in the marketing to research more diseases. Basically, so I can help people.

[Titan Rising 2,156]

i would donate nothing, and instead get myself a degree in engineering and make an invention that made me billions. then id recreate hollow bastion, twilight town, and traverse town from kingdom hearts and many more awesome things

[Stratos 109]

EDIT:

 

I AM BAD AT READ!

 

So, considering you did say family and friends are taken care of (how did I miss the bolded text) and still had leftovers, I would mostly flood the local food banks/pantries with money so they could afford protein and fresh veg.  There is a reason the impoverished are overweight and malnourished at the same time: bad food is cheap.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Stratos

[Lost 1,410]

i would donate nothing, and instead get myself a degree in engineering and make an invention that made me billions. then id recreate hollow bastion, twilight town, and traverse town from kingdom hearts and many more awesome things

 

Your post made me pull this face

 

You could get a degree with the money that wasn't set aside for charity...

 

Not to mention, getting a degree wouldn't guarantee you could make billions...  

[Shawn Parks 1,798]

So I have $20 million that I want to use towards charitable causes.  I think I would divide it among four endeavors:

- Helping women to get out of abusive relationships, and training them to protect themselves.

- Saving girls who have become trapped in a life of child prostitution.

- Education and training for girls to avoid becoming involved in the first two situations.

- Research in the use of robots in education and mental health. 

[NeuroTypical 64]

It's fun to dream, but it dawned on me that sitting back and waiting for the lottery before I became charitable, was sort of a losing deal.

 

So I volunteer at soup kitchens.  And I shake the hand of the homeless guy and get to know him a little.  And I support my cool wife as she works with troubled youth.  And we donate money to larger organizations that do humanitarian aid, and fund college educations for people in poverty-stricken areas of the world.

 

And y'all can too.  Keep the cool dreams - but don't let them stop you from making a difference today.

 

(Oh, and I'd probably quit my job and start a foundation.)

[Guest]

Honestly I'm not sure what charity I'd give money to if given the chance. Instead I'd probably just give money out to my friends and buy them things whenever they wanted. Making my friends happy would be good enough for me.

[Domnopalus 19]

I think charities can sometimes be quite corrupt--sometimes the trickle down methods they use end up buying a sandwich for the cause by the time your million has trickled down. I think the most valuable thing you can donate is your time.  I currently volunteer at a Therapeutic Riding Center in NYC - you'll never believe it, it's called "Equestria" (it was created long before the new MLP though, lol). Anyway I help disabled children ride and grow. http://www.equestria.org/

[mycarhasaMoustache 449]

Just bought my tickets Im not too sure what I would do I think I would try to find the charity that was most deserving of the money or maybe put a poll on here where you could vote for some charitys then donate a load of cash to the top 3 or something. 

[Harmonic Revelations 8,835]

I would give money directly to the homeless, since giving money to charities is a waste. Hear me out, the reason it's a waste is because about two-thirds of money you give to charity is used by said charity to keep itself running. I'd rather give out the money to homeless people in person to ensure they get one hundred percent of what I give them.

 

Giving money to charities sounds like a nice thing but I'd much rather give money out in person to make sure I'm actually doing something that helps people instead of just making me feel better more/secure about my own moral values.

 

Whenever I make trips to Boston, I am sure to give out money out already. I'm not exactly rich, in fact, I often am on the edge of not having enough money myself, sometimes relying on family for support. However, I just generally love people. And helping people out is one of the best feelings there is. Plus, if I have the means to help someone, I have absolutely no excuse not to.

Edited May 3, 2013 by Harmonic Revelations

[Concord 1,982]

Hello!

 

Well... I'm definately not the most charitable person on the planet, so I guess I'd really have to think about it hard if I should donate anything... The max ammount I'd really give would be a Million from those 121 Millions... I'd live by the percentage these millions can make me at banks...

 

Honestly, I'd do the same thing as Harmonic Revelations just mentioned. Give it directly to the people you want to give, in this case, anyone suffering from major diseases, but not the homeless...

[Thrashy 2,800]

Definitely would put some to cancer research - breast cancer, in honor of my grandma, as well as prostate cancer because...well, I'm a man, and men's health is unfortunately glossed over while women's health is stressed to no end, which I don't think is particularly right. (I realize women generally have more things to worry about health-wise, but still.) Oh, and foundations that treat cancer in children is a must.

 

Otherwise, I'd probably put great deals of money into overseeing development projects to improve living conditions in third-world countries, especially African ones. Educational and medical facilities are probably what I'd spend the most time and money developing; educational programs would be focused on encouraging girls to enroll in schools (in areas where girls normally stay home and do chores), and medically, I would focus on snuffing out malnutrition in young children as well as make available vaccinations for malaria and other diseases children are likely to die from.

Edited May 3, 2013 by Lowline

[Broseph Stalin 103]

I would invest, then invest some more. Say there is $5 million left...

I'd give it to the homeless, and buy some neat things for school. Say, school sanctioned ipads. ( we were donated those at my school 2 years ago)

Then i'd do some cancer research funding, and help make science classes more enjoyable. Not any namby-pamby 'we can't do labs for buck' labs, like in most schools, I mean labs where you actually have fun. Chem reactions, van de graffs( actual, powerful ones) and the likes.

[Fridge 382]

Of the money I give to charity £13m would go to e charity I spend a lot of time raising money for and do fund raising events for. It's only a little charity and it has a turnover of less than £2000 a year. No one has a wage in it and no government takes a cut.

The other £7m would be split evenly between Greenpeace and Alzhiemers.

[Golurk 468]

I'd probably donate it to local hospitals, and to the people that go to them. Basically, help people who can't afford what they need. I've always thought money being a requirement to not die was bogus. Granted, more people have insurance nowadays, but it's not always GOOD insurance; might not cover what someone needs. Basically, I'd try to help out my local Oliver McHales.

 

 

 

enough money that you would never have to work again

Just throwing it out there, such a sum of money does not exist to me. Even if I don't have to, I'd still like to do something, and demonstrate to my kids the value of doing work so they don't just blow everything. Besides, as it's currently planned, I'll love my job.   

[Crispy 5,563]

So, according to the rules, I've already set myself/my fam up.  Alright.

 

20 million's quite a bit.  I honestly think I'd pull a Rolling Jubilee.  Buy up a bunch of medical debt and forgive it, saving a lot of people from crushing debt.

[~Master~ Button Mash 2,307]

I'd split it between a charity for childhood hunger, and a charity helping to stop diseases in 3rd world countries (insect nets, water filters, antibiotics, etc).

 

Lots of awesome ideas in this thread. Rarity would be proud.

Edited May 4, 2013 by AtomicBassCannon