OzBargain 2014 EoFY Charity Donation - Vote for Charities!

scotty on 13/06/2014 - 23:56
Last edited 21/06/2014 - 23:09

End of Financial Year is coming up, and like the previous two years, it is also the time for picking the charities to donate to. For this June, OzBargain has set aside $12,000 to donate to the top 3 charities in Australia that our community picked. Again, our preference is local charities with low administration cost (let's not get into the debate on the benefit of admin cost here). For this year we also want to donate to those who might have been affected by the Federal Budget the most.

So,

  • Maybe not ballerina schools nor school chaplaincy programs.
  • Maybe not Cancer Council this year, as the proposed Medicare co-payment would go to the proposed Medical Research Future fund.
  • Overseas relief? As that has been cut in the budget.

For me it would probably be something like Vinnies, Salvo or Swags — charities that do the ground work. However feel free to suggest any worthwhile causes, so even if they do not get to the top 3 voted here, the list can still be good a pointer for those who are thinking of doing their own EoFY donations.

I'll be using the new Take Suggestions from Commenters feature. So put in your suggestions when you comment, and I'll approve all reasonable ones when I get a chance. The poll will run for a week, so here's the time frame:

  • 14 June — start taking suggestions, and community can vote on approved suggestions.
  • 21 June — poll closed. Top 3 charities picked by the community.
  • 22-28 June — I'll arrange donations to those charities picked.

Let's keep the suggestions coming. Note that vote changing is allowed so feel free to change your preference when more options are available.

Edit: 18 June

We are half way through the poll and now have 30+ charities listed here and I think the list is long enough now. I'll stop approving new suggestions. Please vote from the existing options.

Edit: 21 June

The charities chosen by the communities and the donations to them are

  1. Swags for Homeless — $5,000
  2. Alzheimer's Australia — $4,000
  3. Westmead Children's Hospital — $3,000

Poll Options expired

Site Discussion

Comments

  • revacious on 17/06/2014 - 23:59
    +1

    The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too

  • wtsang on 18/06/2014 - 13:26
    Suggested Act for Peace

    Federal budget cuts to aid will have a big impact on charities working in international and humanitarian aid. I would like to suggest 'Act for Peace'. Act for Peace isn't as well-known as some of the other major charities in Australia but have been around for over 65 years. They work with local partners and communities around the world to build long term change and help those living in conflict affected and poverty stricken countries. I work for this organisation and believe in the work we do. You can find out more about the organisation here www.actforpeace.org.au

  • dhmadm on 18/06/2014 - 13:45
    Suggested The LBW Trust

    The Learning for a Better World (LBW) Trust is a Charity which supports the Tertiary Education of disadvantaged and underprivileged students, in developing countries.

    Tertiary & Vocational education is rarely free or heavily subsidised in these countries and The LBW Trust aids over 800 students in 7 countries, currently.

    The Trust offers scholarships which change the lives of extremely poor students and offers them hope and freedom from the poverty trap via the medium of education, in their own countries.

    The LBW Trust has as it's Patrons many eminent Australians : Sir William Deane, Sir Peter Cosgrove, Hon. Malcolm Fraser, Sen. John Faulkner, Adam Gilchrist, Greg Chappell etc.

    It is a totally volunteer run organisation - no administration charges are incurred. Everything raised goes to the intended recipients without any seepage. Unique.

  • neil on 19/06/2014 - 14:22
    +1
    Suggested Hepatitis QLD

    Given Donga posted a deal with Hepatitus QLD where they were giving out free t-shirts, I think it's best we give them a mention here.

  • RG on 20/06/2014 - 21:42

    I thought people here would try and find a 'bargain charity'. Saving as many lives as possible with each dollar could be considered a bargain. Givewell is an organisation that uses evidence to support recommendations for effective altruism. Perhaps a mod might add some of these charities to the poll and make note of them.

  • scotty on 21/06/2014 - 00:06

    Okay. Poll expired. Currently the top 3 are:

    • Swags for Homeless
    • Alzheimer's Australia
    • Westmead Children's Hospital

    I'll move the fund around in the next few days to make the donation to the above 3 charities.

    • GnarlyKnuckles on 21/06/2014 - 06:15

      Three very different areas being supported which is good… helping the homeless I'm wrapped about, and similarly I'm happy for anything that the Westmead children's hospital gets. I forgot the other one…

      • scotty on 21/06/2014 - 22:22

        I forgot the other one…

        It would be Alzheimer's Australia as suggested by brezzo. Obviously people didn't catch my post hinting trying not to give to medical research fund this EoFY…

        • GnarlyKnuckles on 23/06/2014 - 00:58
          +3

          You do realise my comment was a pun Scotty? Anyways, I don't think it's safe to assume that just because peeps evidently didn't vote in accordance with 'your hint', that they didn't read it, or didn't understand it. I think they read it, fully understood it, but disagreed with it.

          I dropped in a blatant request that all 'Lort Smith' voters change their vote to the RSPCA on the last day of voting, in accordance with the highly unusual methods employed to conduct this poll, but that suggestion was evidently not adopted. I don't assume it's because no one read my comment. They evidently just didn't agree with it, or didn't get around to it.
          Anyways, big hugs, hombre :P

    • foobar on 21/06/2014 - 16:46
      +4

      Looks to me that the entire list of charities to vote for needs to be locked down well before voting begins so the first few listed don't get the bulk of the votes. That should give all of them an equal chance instead of the latecomers having basically no chance at all.

      Also, was the sorting done during or after the poll? If it was sorted by votes during, that's also bad as it pushes the most voted to the top of the list which is only going to skew the results further. Many won't bother reading them all, they'll just see the most voted at the top of the list and join in the clickfest. If it was sorted after it closed, disregard :)

      • donga100 on 21/06/2014 - 17:22

        It was sorted during the poll with the highest votes always being at the top.

      • scotty on 21/06/2014 - 19:37

        The new poll code was designed to make the most voted option to float to the top to highlight the community's choice. Maybe not that suitable in this case.

      • GnarlyKnuckles on 21/06/2014 - 20:21

        All valid points foobar, I second the suggestions; particularly the one about locking down the list to be voted on before voting begins. Not doing that is extremely unusual, because it's flawed/bizarre methodology, for the reasons stated by foobar. There's also actually no reason at all to allow voting before the list is finalised. I wonder why it was structured like that? The fact that you can change your vote during the poll is essentially irrelevant, because no one would be bothered to do that; nor should they be expected to.

        • scotty on 21/06/2014 - 22:13

          Previously we have always requested the community to come up a list first (see previous donations here), where I have to manually create a list of poll options from scanning through people's comments, update the original post, calling everyone to come back again before the poll can start. In this case we run a 7 day poll where the poll options are automatically populated based on commenters' suggestions. Most suggestions are there within the first 2 days, and I am fine with the result.

        • GnarlyKnuckles on 22/06/2014 - 21:23

          They're all legit charities, so I'm also fine with the result. Do please note though that:

          '… I'll approve all reasonable ones when I get a chance'

          contradicts:

          '… where the poll options are automatically populated based on commenters suggestions'.

          No matter, three registered charities 'were the winners on the day', so that's the main thing. But it is pretty clear that next time voting should not be opened until the list is finalised / the list should be closed before voting is opened. Simple. The results were fairly predictable because as foobar alludes to above, it was a two-or-three horse race for the first couple of days of a 1 week poll (by design), so none of the subsequent additions had much of a chance.

        • scotty on 22/06/2014 - 22:02
          -1

          No it does not contracts. When the suggestion is made, it's in pending state. I receive an email and I'll approve as soon as I can. As far as I can see, only two suggestion got rejected (The Derek Zoolander Center and Amazon Smile).

  • 2ndeffort on 23/06/2014 - 14:18
    +1

    Oops, sorry guys didnt know the poll was already closed, just discovered the thread. I still think the below charity is a worthy cause thopugh.

    I would like to suggest 'Soldier On' a charity helping Australia's wounded returned servicemen and women. I know these guys do a lot to help some of the veteran's struggling with re-integration to society, particularly those dealing with physical and mental scars.

    http://soldieron.org.au/ Soldier On is about Australians coming together to show their support for our physically and psychologically wounded. We want to show the men and women of our Defence forces that we will always have their backs.

    Thanks to the support of the Australian public, we work to enhance recovery, inspire communities and empower Australia’s wounded, giving those who have served our country the dignity they deserve and the chance to do and be whatever they choose.

    • foobar on 23/06/2014 - 15:26
      +1

      Wouldn't have mattered if you got in before the poll closed anyways - unless it was there from day one, it never stood a chance.

      • donga100 on 23/06/2014 - 19:17

        At least it got a tiny amount of exposure here. I watched a doco on Australian soldiers with PTSD the other day and they witness some truly horrific stuff that would mess with the mind of anyone.

        It's on youtube for anyone interested:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dJNpieHIdc

      • sparkles on 28/06/2014 - 23:15
        +1

        Agree, unless the charity was posted very early it was futile voting for it. A flawed process I guess, as Swags was always going to "win" it was on the page since day one. Anyway, congrats to the charities that "won". Good job Scotty and co, it's very generous of you guys!

        • donga100 on 29/06/2014 - 21:24

          To be fair Fitzroy Legal Service and 300 blankets were both on the poll within the first 2 hours and were far from winning.

        • GnarlyKnuckles on 06/07/2014 - 00:24

          @donga100:

          Awww carn Donga, re the first one, surely you realise that that's because '300 blankets' was in direct competition with 'swags' from the outset (i.e. it became an odd loyalty contest of sorts between the two).
          Re the second one, again surely you realise that no one much is going to view a legal service as a 'charity'; even if it is one that someone tells them services the disadvantaged (like legal aid already does). Asking peeps which donation they thought was likely to avert more pain and suffering, a donation to a legal firm, or a donation to the RSPCA, had predictable results EVEN DESPITE the fact that the RSPCA was only added to the list of 'contenders' much, much later.

  • scotty on 30/06/2014 - 08:22
    +3

    From the directions here, for our next round of donation (just before Christmas), we would go back to two stages - taking suggestions and then allowing voting.

    • donga100 on 30/06/2014 - 09:19

      I would like it if the money was split between more charities too. Gives the smaller/niche charities more of a chance.

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