Who I'm Donating To In 2020

This post has taken me a little bit longer to write then intended and that's mainly due to the events that have been happening around the world right now.  The original plan was to go through the charities I have been donating to once I had returned to the UK and decide whether or not to change them, or to just keep giving money to the ones I had decided to donate to last year.  The hope was also to be able to increase the amount I had been donating, but with no earnings come in at the moment I haven't been able to do that.  I do want to keep donating though, which is another reason I'm looking for side hustles to draw a bit of income right now.

I'll start with the one charity that I won't be donating to this year and that is Plastic Oceans.  A couple of months ago my yearly donation ended and I have decided not to renew it.  It's absolutely nothing against Plastic Ocean, they are a great organisation that is doing a lot of good work,  I just wanted to put my money towards a more wider scoping organisation.  It also doesn't mean that I'll stop working towards reducing the amount of plastic out there in activities like reducing my own plastic consumption and campaigning for less packaging.  That will continue.

Out of the charities left in the group I donate to I am definitely going to carry on donating to the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT), just because it's....well it's bats!; Client Earth, because they do a lot of good work and I've seen the amount of progress my donations have help bring about; and Water Aid, again another organisation I feel has done a lot of good with the money I've donated and I really appreciate how they've stepped up during this Corona virus pandemic.

As with last year, I'm still on the fence about the RSPB.  I do really love the work they do and the fact that they protect the whole ecosystems and not just the birds (admittedly it would be slightly counter-initiative not to).  I also like the fact that they also work with communities all over the world to help protect habitats in other locations.  The only issue I have is where their money goes, with not as much of my donation actually going to these activities as I would like, and quite a bit going on things like administration etc.  I will keep donating whilst I try to decide on this but it is a decision I need to make.   I also have an issue with the fact that, whilst BCT and BTO (a charity my parents donate to on my behalf for my Christmas present) are able to send me their magazines digitally, RSPB does not seem to have that option.  It seems a small thing, but every bit of waste counts. 

I would like to donate to five charities again this year, so I've been having a look at what other environmental charities are out there.  I did think about some of the really big organisations to start with, such as organisations like Greenpeace, but there has been quite a few issues with transparency and the behaviour of some of these larger organisations' employees.  In then end I decided on 350.org.

Originally based in the US 350.org are an international organisation who are working towards a future that moves away from fossil fuels and towards community based renewable energies.  I like that the information they provide and the activities they do are based around scientific information and anything that gets us away from fossil fuels is good to me.  I also really like the idea of helping to support communities that are most affected by the changes of climate change and making them more independent with help that is tailored to their needs.  There's a lot of resources available on their website if you're needing to/ wanting to led some training on climate change and what we can do.  They put real enthusiast on being transparent (something that is really important to me), put their financial reports on their website for us to see, and work by collaborating with other organisations, ensuring that the changes are much more far reaching and long term.  Unfortunately I won't be able to add them as my fifth charity until I get some income coming in, but as soon as I do they'll be getting my support.

So that's my five charities for 2020.  It's always difficult making a decision as to where you're money should go, but I think I've picked a good mix that will hopefully help both people and the planet over the year.  This feels especially important with everything that's going on at the moment and these extra pressures on our communities and the environment as a whole.  

Just Water Challenge

As you might be aware from the blog I wrote at the beginning of last year, Water Aid is one of the charities that I had chosen to support in 2019 and have actually chosen to carry on supporting in 2020.  And, of course, part of the support involves receiving emails from them about their activities and the any additional things you can do to help out.  So when I got an email from them about taking the Just Water Challenge in January I thought why not, seems like a good way to start the year.  Start as you mean to go on and all that.

The challenge is to drink absolutely nothing but water for the whole month of January.  Obviously drinking only water is really good for your body in many, many ways, but this challenge is also about helping those in the world who have to travel long distances to collect dirty water which contains worms and other parasites in it.  The money raised by this challenge will go towards ensuring that fewer and fewer people each year have to face these very real challenges just to get a drink of water.  If you want to get a real look at how this affects someone directly then Water Aid have put together a blog about a grandmother called Juliette who lives in Madagascar.

I had already done Dryathalon for Cancer Research, where you drink no alcohol, a couple of years back and had actually found it pretty easy to do.  This seemed like it would be quite a bit more challenging and, therefore, warrant the request I'm making of people to hand over their money when sponsoring me.  If I'm honest water is already the main fluid that I drink on a day to day basis and it's not often that I drink much else.  The other drinks that I do tend to have is the dreaded Coca Cola (as you already know), chai and matcha lattes if a café does them (it would be rude not to), and tea.  But the truth of the matter is that I don't drink the lattes or the tea that often.  In fact, I have been known to go for days without having a single drop of tea.  However, it is still something I keep around, after all I am a Brit and who knows when the urge might strike.  The one positive for me is that this challenge is a much better incentive to give up Coke then just my health,  Lets face it, it rarely is a strong enough reason to do any thing.

So on New Year's Eve whilst everyone else was having alcohol I was enjoying two last cups of tea before the month of not having any at all started.  I didn't bother with the Coca Cola as I had already decided and started getting off that drink.

And, how's it going so far you might ask?  Actually a lot better than I was expecting.  At the beginning of the challenge I was still having the urge to drink Coca Cola, but this has now gone completely.  I still think 'that would be nice' if I see one in a shop but it's pretty easy for me now to just walk by and not think about it again.  Probably the weirdest moment was on the first day.  After not having tea for a good few days I suddenly had a strong urge to have a nice cup of tea.  I just ignored it though and carried on with my glass of water.  Since then I have wanted a cup of teas pretty regularly but I've found that a mug of hot water with fruit in it (after some experimentation raspberries and strawberries work particularly well) has been enough to hit that craving on the head.

And now I have just under two weeks left to go and I think I'm going to get through it.  I have come this far after all.  It'll be interesting to see, as the end comes into sight, if any of the cravings come back.  And it'll be interesting to see what I go back to once the challenge is completely over?  Or will I just carry on only drink water with a bit of fruit in it now and then?    

If you would like to support me (and I would really appreciate it if you do) and the great work that Water Aid does then you can go to my Just Giving page and donate by going to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/George-s-Just-Water-Challenge.  It would be amazing if you could.

Donating to Charity in 2019

Because I believe that it's always important to give to charity no matter my budget I have always done my best to give money to charity on a monthly basis.  It's not always been a lot (sometimes just a couple of pounds) because my budget has not ever been particularly large, but I have decided that next year I want to give more.  My budget hasn't particularly changed and is not likely to increase at all next year, but I do think that there are places that I can make changes to help give me the extra cash I need to be able to donate more.  No matter how careful I am there are definitely times where I have spend money on things I really don't need or necessarily want in the long run, and having this extra commitment should help me curb these unwanted purchases.

At the moment I already give to the Bat Conservation Trust (BCT) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and I'm intending on carrying on giving money to these two charities (possibly increasing the amounts I donate to both) as they are still very important to me.  However, I wanted to add some more charities and decided to do some research on what would best ones to go for.  These are the criteria I was looking for:

• I want them to be charities that work in the environmental sector, especially ones that are working to combat climate change.  As I believe that climate change is the greatest threat we will be facing and a factor that will affect a whole host of other things, including increases in poverty, warfare, and famine.
• I would like to be able to get a clear view of where all their money is going and to give money to groups to that give most of their money to what they are actually supposed to be fighting rather than predominantly administration and advertising.  I know that these departments are important to the running of an organisation, but it seems strange to be that these would be where the main focus is.
• I want them to be charities that are not as well known as Oxfam, Greenpeace, or Friends of the Earth.  Whilst these charities do do great work they already get a lot of support, and there are other charities out there that do great work but don't necessarily get the money or support they need and deserve.  I would like to put my money towards them.

The first charity I decided to add to the list is Water Aid.  Having lived somewhere where fresh, clean water wasn't available to all I know just how important it is and what affect this can have on all aspects of someone's life.  The affect dirty water they have to walk miles to get to has on someone's body isn't just a health issue, it affects their ability to go to school and learn, to grow the food they need, and to look after their family.  To me everyone should have safe water, it is the most basic of human rights and is usually pretty easy to achieve with the right equipment and knowledge.  I really like the look of Water Aid, they seem quite open about where their money goes and what the work is that they do.  They've also put out a Modern Slavery statement outlining the work they do to prevent slavery from occurring in any of the work they are doing.

The next organisation I want to add is ClientEarth.  I had never heard of them before but this organisation uses law to help protect people and the planet we live on.  In a statement about themselves they said that they believed that society needed to change it's relationship with the natural world (something I definitely agree with) and that they believed that law was an effective tool to use to do this.  Their aim is to empower people and NGOs with their legal rights allowing them to put forward environmental battles of their own, hopefully taking Governments to court, forcing polluting industries to stop, protecting irreplaceable ecosystems.  They are also using climate law and legislation to help with the fight against climate change.  What I like most about them is that they seem very honest about their finances (making it very easy to find on their website) and that they start with science.  To me the use of science is important as it is much harder to argue against someone who's using facts.  Whilst doing further research into ClientEarth I also found an article showing that they had been voted the organisation which accomplished the most based on the resources that were available to them.  This vote came from chief executives from other environmental organisations and helped me decided that they would definitely be an organisation I wanted to support. [Incidentally, the RSPB came second so I'm glad I'm sticking with them.]

The last charity was a bit more tricky.  I've been umming and ahing over different charities that fitted the bill.  Climate change is a big issue and I want to do as much work on it as possible, but it's also something that many people find overwhelming to begin with.  I wanted to look for a charity that carried out work that didn't look like it was directly dealing with climate change, but whose outcome actual did help with the fight against global warming.  In the end I've gone for Plastic Oceans.   

Despite that fact that they produced the movie that I've written about before I hadn't actually heard that much about Plastic Oceans and decided to do a little bit more research.  Their aim is to get people to reduce their plastic footprint and prevent anymore plastic from getting into our oceans.  This is something that people can easily get on board with and feel good about, and as oceans play a large part in helping us fight climate change, protecting this ecosystem is hugely important.  Plastic also release greenhouse gases as they degrade, so reduce the amount that we produce will also play it's part in the fight against global warming.  The thing that I likes most about Plastic Oceans is that all their work is backed by scientific research and they produce educational packs that can be used by anyone to help promote reducing the amount of plastic we produce and throw away.  In the future they are hoping to support more research into this issue and build on links with industries which have close ties to the ocean to help encourage best practises that will not only reduce the waste we are leaving in our waters, but also help reduce the cost to the industry.  The only issue I had was that is wasn't that easy to find out about where the money was actually going other than to look at the annual review they have to release on the UK Governments Charity Commission website, but I would still like to support this organisation non-the-less.

And so that's it.  Those are the charities I will be donating to next year and why.  Which charities do you support and why?  Let me know in the comments below as  I would be interested in knowing why people like to support the groups that they do.