OzBargain 2020 Christmas Donations - $38,000 to Charities of Your Choice

Update 15 Dec 2020

We have more than 1,000 commenters in this post, which means an extra $10,000 will be donated to the charities, making the total of $38,000 to our Christmas donations this year. $5,429 each will be donated to the following charities voted by the OzBargain community:

  • Pets of the Homeless Australia
  • beyondblue
  • Cancer Council
  • The Smith Family
  • RSPCA Australia
  • Black Dog Institute
  • Aboriginal Literacy Foundation

Donations will be made before Christmas. Thanks to all who participated.


Original Post

Christmas time is the charity donation time here at OzBargain. For the last 9 years, every June and December we will set aside some fund and donate to charities that our community suggested and voted for. For the ozbargainers who have been with us for a few years you know how it works — use the "Suggestion" on the comment form to suggest new charities we need to consider, and vote up in the poll so the top charities will get our donations. Moreover, we are also doing the $10 bonus for every unique commenters this year. Here are the details:

  • Charity Fund: $28,000
  • Charities to be chosen: 7
  • Every unique commenter to this post: $10 extra to the fund, capped at $38,000
    Update: Cap has reached, and we'll be donating $38,000 ($5,429 each)
  • Poll closes at 14 December 2020 11:59PM AEDT

Copy & paste from previous years:

  1. Check whether your favourite charity has already been suggested (they should be alphabetically sorted under Poll Options). If it has, vote it up! Otherwise you can suggest it by posting a top-level comment (i.e. not replying existing comments)

    Suggest a poll option

    If you are suggesting a charity, please provide a link & 1 or 2 sentence telling us what the charity does. It would greatly help other OzBargainers making decisions.

    Update: We now have 50 charities in the poll, and no more can be suggested by the community.

  2. Even if your preferred charity has already been suggested, leave a comment and let us know! Remember every unique commenter on this thread will add an extra $10 to the donation.

  3. The poll will run until the 11:59PM on Monday 14 December 2020. After the poll expires, votes will be revealed and the top 7 charities will be sharing the pool of donation of AUD $28,000 + $10 x number of unique commenters. For example if 700 OzBargainers commented in this thread, we will evenly distribute $35,000 to the chosen charities, i.e. $5000 each. There is a cap of maximum 1,000 commenters, making the cap of the donation at $38,000.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Which charity should I suggest?

  • It must be a registered charity eligible for DGR (deductible gift recipient). That would unfortunately make NPOs like Wikipedia & Sea Shepherd & some international charities ineligible.

  • As we are OzBargain, it would be great if the charity is Australia based or benefits Australians.

  • There are many worthy charities. However as it's for Christmas this year, let's prioritise on charities working on social welfare.

  • I will also close the suggestion feature after we have reached 50 charities.

To get started, I have included top 20 most voted charities from last year's poll. Suggestion & commenting starts today (7 Dec) and will close at 12PM on Thursday 10 Dec, or when 50 charities have been suggested (Update: We have reached 50 suggestions at 10:46AM on 8 Dec). I will then work out the total amount of donation we will send to the charities, and hopefully get all the donations made by Christmas 2020.

Q: I made a suggestion in my comment but it did not show up in the poll?!

All new suggestions have to be manually approved by the moderators, and depending on the time of the day there might be some delay.

Poll Options expired

Comments

  • +11

    Great work

    • +1

      Great initiative.

    • +$10 This is great!

      • I'll do my part!

        +$10

    • +10 👍

    • Nice work Scotty

      • Agree. Good on you Scotty for sharing the love!

    • Amazing work!

  • +3

    +$10

    • +15

      Also +$10
      Anyone reading this please consider voting for the Smith family. They aren't about handouts, but rather making sure children get the most out of their education and break the cycle of poverty through their own dreams and hard work, and don't get held back by circumstances they can't control.

      By the way the wiki says ozbargain donated to Lineline - was that supposed to be Lifeline?

    • +1

      +$10

      • +$10 - go msf!

        • 10$

  • Fantastic initiative :-)

  • Just amazing

  • +3

    I'm adding a low quality comment in order to increase the contribution by $10.

    • +1

      But, you've put effort into your comment, complete with proper grammar and all!

  • +10

    Shouldn't anyone that withheld funds from the fund raising of the bush fires be removed?

    • i agree

    • wdym withheld funds ?

      • +3

        So I did a bit of google searching and found some articles in January that mentioned $30m of $115m donated to Australian Red Cross for the Aussie bushfires have been allocated for immediate distribution to victims and it might take up to three years for victims to receive funds. Plus, they might allocate it to other disasters/elsewhere. Note: St Vinnies and Salvation army have also been accused of 'drip-feeding' donations to victims (St Vinnies distributed 1.1m of 12.5m and Salvation distributed 11m of 43m). Something else that has also been seen as controversial, is the Red Cross spending up to 10% on administration costs despite promising to put 100% of all money raised directly to a cause. Not sure if that's what /u/Xistn was referring to, but happy for them to correct me.

        • Pretty much nailed it and good to see people use initiative and search for their own answers.

    • Who did that?

      • I replied to /u/forgotoldacc, but I think they're referring to Australian Red Cross, St Vinnies, and Salvation Army.

  • Awesome

  • +3
    Suggested OzHarvest

    Food rescue and education to vulnerable Aussies.

  • +2

    Remember every unique commenter on this thread will add an extra $10 to the donation.

    Can I post this as a bargain?

    • +5

      Bargains Without Borders, yes

  • +2

    +$10, thanks Scotty for doing this.

    Ozbargainers, if you want an alert for posts like this, then search for "user:1 charities type:forum" (without the quotation marks) in the search box (top right of screen on desktop PCs).

    When the search results appear, click on "! Create Alert".

    Also go to My Account->subscriptions->events and put a tick beside "email", and you'll get an email whenever Scotty makes a similar post.

    More details about search options here: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/wiki/help:search

  • Commenting for a good cause.

  • +2

    Very generous of you Scotty.

    You, you mods, and power users do a great job, love OzBargain!

  • +5
    Suggested Black Dog Insitiute

    Black Dog Insitiute

    • Yep. This mob.

    • Great to see the Black Dog Institute on there.

    • Great to see, well worth the inclusion.

  • Thanks mate.

  • $10!

  • +$10

  • +$10

  • +6

    Congrats on 9 years and more than $300,000 of charitable donations.

  • Thank you

  • +2

    I remember last bushfire season the fire services saying they have enough funding so I think I will vote towards one of the others.

    • That's rare - glad that they're honest! Though to be honest, enough funding is never really enough.

      • They were literally saying that the money donated wasn't going to be used for the bushfires as they had already enough from the government.

        • I mean they're good for one season not the next…

          • @OzCheapo: They're a government department. There's no shortage of funding.

  • Very nice to see the true OzB Christmas spirit in action. Well done.

  • +2

    Second Black Dog Institute, however good to see Lifeline and Beyond Blue on the list as well

  • +1

    r/wholesome

  • Thanks for supporting the successful charities

  • Thank you Ozb

  • $10

  • Awesome stuff!

  • great work!

  • +1

    This comment is really unique.

  • Great work, hard to choose from some good charities there.

  • let's make this go viral.

    • that term doesn't quite have the same ring to it at the end of 2020 as it did at the start!

  • +2

    wakawaka

  • Awesome. Wubba lubba.

  • Thanks Scotty & OzB!

  • +6

    Pay up scotty xx

    Pets of the Homeless Australia

    MRS Paint recently wrote a university research paper on this very topic. I helped proof read it. Saddest and happiest paper I've ever read.

  • +$10 great work mate.

  • +3
    Suggested Victoria State Emergency Service

    https://www.ses.vic.gov.au/support/fundraising-and-donations…

    Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES) is a volunteer-based organisation, providing emergency assistance to minimise the impact of emergencies and strengthen the community’s capacity to plan, respond and recover, when emergencies occur.Volunteers are the backbone of VICSES, serving the Victorian community 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for more than 40 years.
    VICSES are the control agency for flood, storm, tsunami, earthquake and landslide throughout Victoria, and provide the largest road rescue network in Australia.

  • +6
    Suggested Animal Rescue Collective

    ARC are fantastic - providing much needed support for all the animals decimated by the bush-fires that we, as a country, should have foreseen and prepared for. Billions of animals perished during the end of 2019/start of 2020 bushfire season. We owe it to the animals.

    • +1

      100% Agree, ARC is amazing, they publish how the money is being spent on the Facebook page. Also they are run by volunteers so all money goes to helping the animals, no admin fees

      • Yeah mate, dang skippy. I always recommend em in these Charity Drives. Fingers crossed they make it!

  • $10

  • +2

    Ten dollarydoos

    • Ten Simpson dollars. That must convert to at least $17?

      • Bluey dollars

  • +6
    Suggested MND Research Australia

    So many great causes to support. My suggestion is MND Research Australia, as it would be amazing to find a cure or at least better treatments.

    Great initiative! Thanks Scotty!

  • Thanks ozbargain. Great initiative.

  • not sure if there is a charity or organisation that would be helping people affected by Covid19.. that would be another one worth a look

    • Médecins Sans Frontières Australia does that directly. They have done some amazing work with COVID-19, especially with our pacific neighbours who don't have the same health system strength we do.

  • Thanks for doing this every year, it's great.

  • Fantastic job by OzBargin as always.

  • its always hard to pick just one charity

  • Well done!

  • Every unique commenter to this post: $10 extra to the fund, capped at $38,000

    Awesome to see this happening again this year :)

  • nice!

  • Fantastic!

  • Ten dollars

  • Thanks!

  • Great work as always.

  • Well Done!

  • +100

  • $10, great cause Scotty and OzB

  • Awesome work - so many deserving charities. :)

  • Thanks!

  • +$10, great work Scotty!

  • +10

  • +6
    Suggested Orange Sky Laundry Australia

    Orange Sky Laundry is a charity based in Brisbane, Australia that offers a free mobile laundry service for the homeless.

  • +4
    Suggested Crohn's and Colitis Australia

    Crohn's and Colitis Australia

    Collectively known as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), the conditions are an emerging global disease, with Australia having one of the highest prevalence in the world. More than 80,000 Australians live with these conditions, with numbers expected to increase to more than 100,000 by 2022.

    https://www.crohnsandcolitis.com.au/about-crohns-colitis/
    https://www.crohnsandcolitis.com.au/how-to-help/donate/

  • +12
    Suggested Aboriginal Literacy Foundation

    http://www.aboriginalliteracyfoundation.org/how-you-can-help…

    Organisations like BeyondBlue are well known and get lots of funding. Consider some of the smaller and lesser known charities as this donation can really make a difference to their work.

    • Great idea!

  • +$10

  • good initiative as always

  • Thanks Scotty

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