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.
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