Inside The Dark World Of Scam Charities

[@f.-j.j.5738]

Scam charities... As a Haitian this topic hits so so close to home, it hurts. No other country has more charities working in them than us and no other country has had more "donated" to them than us. Billions, I heard. The average Haitian has never seen the color of that money. But hey, the Red Cross offices up in Petionville are pretty luxurious so I guess that's that 🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️ The whole world is like: we gave you so much money, how are you still looking like that? And we're like: "what money"?

[@kikiTHEalien]

All bog charities around the globe are scams- have no doubt about it.

[@jm2307]

The Red Cross’ Haiti earthquake relief where they built a whopping 11 houses with 10-figure donations. Never forgot about that! My family is currently building 6 houses in Haiti with less than 2% of that money.

[@hanaalexander2177]

Facts! This was such an understated issue.

[@alexc2265]

Wow, even the Red Cross can’t be trusted? Which Red Cross, I must ask? I know there’s the American one

[@solarmoth4628]

Either the UN or the red cross caused a cholera outbreak as well

[@lowwastehighmelanin]

Pretty sure Brad Pitt did more for the Katrina victims in NOLA than Red Cross does. They freaking suck.

[@kikiTHEalien]

The Red Cross is a tax write-off machine in every country at this point. They do not have any actual charitable activity other than redistributing the donations they do not have use for: food (expired or very close to expiration date), used clothes, etc.

[@codingiswhyicryatnight]

God, the Autism Speaks part. I am autistic myself and the charity has been SO regressive in terms of autistic people building their narratives. It's so frustrating for the face of something you deal with day to day to be run by people who have proximity to it, and who use their proximity as an excuse to infantilize you. Autism Speaks has basically been like if an PTA board was in charge of PR for an entire disorder. I was genuinely so frustrated because an impact fund for the "autism community" came out, and I was so excited for the idea that autistic people were going to be given funding because fundraising (both for for & non-profits) is really hard for us. It's mostly all relationship based, and the idea that there was an impact fund that would recognize that and work to create a more accessible path of funding was AMAZING. Well, no. It was a bunch of famous people who 'had autistic family' directing money on their behalf to companies and programs that autistic people have strictly spoken out against. They were partnered with Autism Speaks - I reached out asking for their stances on ABA / other things that the autistic community was interested in and how they were getting input from actual autistic people and I received no response. Even when I got diagnosed, it was put into my notes that I had "uncommon symptoms of ASD", and when I asked what that meant, my psych specified that it's rare to see autistic people who want relationships / family. That's how fucked the narrative around autism is - that us wanting to love & be loved is seen as an uncommon symptom that has been used to deny people a diagnosis. It is so. fucking. frustrating. that autism is basically just seen as this thing that makes you less than human - all because Autism Speaks refuses to actually center the voices of autistic people.

[@tinabean713]

My son is ASD and this shit will never fail to piss me off.

[@SimberPlays]

I was told by a therapist that I couldn't be autistic because i had friends. like at all :I

[@EmilyLadau0729]

Didn’t know about Kars 4 Kids’ origin story before this but I really appreciated learning about it, especially as a Jewish person. And as a disabled person, honestly very pleasantly surprised to hear the major call out of Autism Speaks within the broader topic of scam charities on a mainstream podcast. It’s something that absolutely needs to be shouted from the rooftops (and that Autistic people have been shouting from the rooftops for ages).

[@MarinaAli]

I took a class on the business of nonprofits during my masters program and I was shocked at how the American government allows charities to run like corporations but not have the oversight that corporations normally get. It’s wild how easy it is to hide money and how often wealthy people use a 501(3)(c) status to avoid wealth taxes.

[@solarmoth4628]

The College Board is such a scam nonprofit

[@tinabean713]

I want to say that I once found a book at the library explaining how to do it. It was a very long time ago and a vague memory now, so I might be misremembering how I learned about it, but it's sad to me that it's nothing new and it doesn't get fixed.

[@riunikii]

I work for Doctors Without Borders and have for the last 16 years. I think it is one of the most honest charities out there, very self-critical and truly committed to providing healthcare to communities in distress. We have out problems, like many organisations started in the post-colonial period, but when it comes to doing what it says on the label, 100%.

[@tiffany.Elizabeth.]

My parents gave their car to cars for kids (in southern Ontario). Pretty sure they, and I definitely, thought it was donating to lower income families that need cars. 🤦‍♀️. And it was a great car!

[@imberrysandy]

I love this topic!! I was scammed by the Susan G. Komem charity for breast cancer :( Super stoked to learn who else falls into this category

[@worldofcyn]

Damn sorry to hear that

[@ljohnson1908]

That commercial for Autism Speaks was beyond words. Just painful and repulsive. I know that wasn’t the intention but whew.

[@Alenasup]

Yea pure propaganda against autistic people just trying to live. :( Totally dehumanizing

[@fwizzybee42]

Regarding salaries for non-profits, I think there has to be a difference between paying your average worker a good wage/benefits and giving your C-suite massive bonuses. One is worth your time to keep good employees and the other is just greed.

[@bebel9]

Exactly!! If you are going to have a full-time staff to help operate your nonprofit, it makes sense to pay them enough so they can dedicate their more of their time to the nonprofit without needing another job to pay for their rent. But that’s very different from giving your executive big bonuses or salaries that are that astronomically high.

[@jaineas]

I do agree with you. Although I am not from the US, I wish we had a specific law regulating the salaries on non-profits to avoid such situations.

[@scarpfish]

The thing I can't stand with a lot of these "brand" charities is that they are more about promoting their brand than they are about doing their supposed mission. They create tons of dumb merch that only helps the shirt printing place. They sue smaller charities who use similar wording like "warrior" or color symbolism (pink ribbons anyone?). They also seem to have a lot of folks making six digit salaries on their form 990 for an "awareness" charity. PLEASE avoid these in favor of charities that are perhaps less known but more focused on doing their mission. As Ryan mentioned, sites like Charity Watch or Charity Navigator can help you through the soup.

[@wvu05]

Indeed. At a certain point, you have to ask yourself what the point is with "awareness." Everyone already knows about a lot of these, so quite frankly, it makes no sense to spend money on that instead of research.

[@TwirlGirl2197]

Thank you for mentioning Autism Speaks. They are a Hate Group! But I often feel like I’m screaming at a brick wall at how terrible they are as an autistic person because everyone is so gung ho on finding a cure, even some of my professors in college were and still are doing research on autism cures and that was a really really demeaning experience.

[@aliecatze4922]

Also recommend the Canadaland podcast "The White Saviors" about the WE charity, and a corollary of the controversies and criticisms around Red Nose Day in the UK and US. As a general rule, donations have a greater impact when they are given directly to local organizations with easily understood specific missions, eg. your local homeless shelter, local food bank, or local animal rescue.

[@welpppppppppppppp]

That podcast is excellent, what they were able to dig up about how deep the grift went was super shocking 😮

[@amandaconway1972]

Thank you so much for talking about Autism Speaks, my son is autistic (and I might be too, still figuring it out) and we were quickly pointed to way better resources by the autistic community. Our son is happy and thriving thanks to the support from other autistic people.

[@alexc2265]

Awesome that you’ve tuned into the autistic community ! As an autist, I’m glad about their coverage of Autism Speaks myself. Pardon me, but would you happen to be related to Dr. Paul Conway of FSU? I took a class and did research with him, in short.

[@lilianneweinhandl8493]

I'm happy you talked about Autism Speaks. As someone with autism who doesn't live in the USA and spends time on Instagram I've been wondering about what's wrong with that organisation but I never dared to ask or even search because I knew it would open many cans of worms. I did know about the part of them talking about us without ever talking with us, but I didn't know about all those other things.

[@lsmmoore1]

About charities distributing wages unfairly: My mom worked as a self-employed graphic designer (and before that an office-employed one with some of her own cultivated clients besides), and while some charities paid her fairly, there were other charities which refused to do anything other than try to pressure her to work for free because it's a "good cause" (offers my mom always refused but which I bet lots of other people were guilted into accepting). The Boy Scouts, incidentally, was one of those charities (and that's not surprising, considering the scandals that came out of them years later - they aren't exactly kosher to say the least). And besides that, I bet a lot of the other more dishonest charities and organizations similarly stiff their contract workers, guilt-tripping them into working for free or at rates as low as they can get away with paying "because it's a good cause". Never mind some of those workers might need whatever money they can get and several do not have hours of time to volunteer - and especially not for charities that already sell merch and get lots of $$$ in donations. And yes, the Boy Scouts definitely sells merch, and lots of it, and people have to pay dues to get in anyway.

[@Sarah-kb1ko]

Enjoying this series so much! As an autistic female, thank you so much for raising awareness about the harm ‘autism speaks’ perpetuates🙌🏼

[@middleagebrotips3454]

I recall all the kids performing the KARS4KIDS ad wore the Jewish hat (kippah, yarmulke, or koppel). Subtle.

[@Frinnnnn]

I don't understand how you can say that imparting 'education' of orthodox religion on any child is something good.

[@sara61696]

Wow, I knew Autism Speaks was bad, but didn’t realize the full and horrible extent of this. Thank you for sharing all this!

[@CordeliaWagner]

Thanks for bringing that topic up. Most people don't check to who they donate.

[@kiterafrey]

In middle school we had to do a run-a-thon for Susan G. The school was getting a % for working with them. If we couldn't find someone to pledge we got detention. I was low income and no one in my area that I could go door to door in, as no car and rural I couldn't just go some other place. I got detention for a week and they still forced me to run even though it wasn't making the charity money. My dentition assignment was to write a short essay on how my "lack of efforts to get funding" was damaging to the cause and to the school.

[@ashleybailey1631]

I just wanted to give a quick Kudos to Ryan and Julia. It takes a lot to get me invested in a podcast, but so far I have listened to every single episode all the way through. I hope these continue because I have enjoyed them thoroughly.

[@carywalski8179]

Thanks for doing this! I'm enjoying the new show. As someone who's worked in the sector for years, I think Ryan could have done a better job of distinguishing between people wanting a "luxury" lifestyle and those who want competitive wages for their work. Lumping those two groups together is insensitive and it would be good for him to make that distinction. It's like telling teachers who are underpaid and advocating for better pay that they should choose a different career because "their heart's just not in the right place". Yikes. I don't think you really mean that Ryan, and it would be good if you could clarify that. This is also an equity issue too -- a disproportionate amount of nonprofit work is done by white women in part because our careers are often subsidized by partners who have higher-paying jobs. This is troubling because we need more BIPOC people to be able to afford to choose careers in the nonprofit sector where they can be the leaders making decisions about where money goes in their too often marginalized communities. It's not great for any of us when a BIPOC person who's just graduated looks at their college debt and says "no" to a nonprofit career because it means a lifetime of being underpaid. That's my two cents, at least.

[@uhohspaghettios2391]

I hadn't thought of it that way, but I can absolutely see where you're coming from. There are a multitude of people who stay in a job because they love their work/the culture/the cause/etc. and there are lots of people who stay in a job because it pays well, even though they don't care about the work itself. Just because the first type of people exist and might allow themselves to be underpaid for their time and care doesn't mean we should do so. I think Ryan's point was that, similarly, just because the latter type exist doesn't mean we should cater to them for positions that are directly linked to a charitable cause- something that they *should* care about if they're to be leading an organization created around that cause.

[@emilycurtis4398]

Ooh, I need more of this. I try to donate more to local groups and mutual aid. Seems to be less bureaucratic. I also like the idea of "care work" and supporting those in healthcare and human services. I remember when I was burning out when I was in direct care, the best thing that my husband did was clean more and give me lots of love and support

[@sarahkokura6349]

Lung cancer… because it’s associated as it’s “your” fault and you have to live with the consequences. Rectal cancer has a similar stigma. When I know so many “clean living” people who have died from both. I don’t donate to breast cancer. The have the market cornered here in Canada.

[@deniseblanchard2156]

Wow, what an education about these organizations! I’ve never given to any of them, and I knew about some of the issues with Susan Komen, but I never knew how insidious these charitable organizations were and/or could be. Also, as a 20 year breast cancer survivor, you don’t want to get me started on pink washing!

[@ginny484]

I went to a summer camp owned by Oorah and Kars for Kids sponsored our field trips to six flags. The whole camp had to wear Kars for Kids tshirts to advertise it lol

[@madelinemiller3209]

Fantastic discussion! I learned a lot from this. I think you guys picked excellent examples and talked through them really well. I'm glad the take away was "ask people in these communities which charities help them" instead of just "be suspicious of charities".

[@CaraMarie13]

Definitely having a mission of "detecting" autism early bus completely wrong. That money could be used for early intervention. A lot of people with mild or severe autism would benefit greatly from having those early intervention services. Autism is a spectrum like you said. Am a social worker. I've seen people with autism who are completely independent in their day to day life. Now am working primarily with kids where this spectrum is very obvious. Since am a social worker, i mostly see the most severe cases of autism and it's extremely sad to see teenagers with autism deal with aggressive behavior that's often triggered by not been able to communicate or be understood by those around them. There are practically no support available for these kids and you do see very often that parents become overwhelmed by the behaviors of their kids and seek to have the child placed out of the home. And i work in NYC where there are more social services available then most other states and i can only make six organizations that provide services for kids autism and out of these six, there is not one that i can think off right now that doesn't have an extremely long wait-list. That's where money should go. Early intervention is great but there are too many kids that missed that window and still need services for themselves and their families.

[@realMacMadame]

To be fair, when Susan Komen was founded, breast cancer was a taboo subject just like prostate cancer is now. But those days are long gone and lots of these organizations need to move beyond that and focus more on research.

[@benjohnson9224]

I was waiting to see if y'all mentioned the Komen Foundation. I watched an enlightening documentary about the organization in college, and like Ryan's mother, the film left me disillusioned with cancer charity as a whole.

[@TomMoore-ny5qn]

I hope this comment doesn't blocked of deleted. I am just trying offer a different perspective. Look I really really despise Autism Speaks (which shouldn't exist and can burn for all I care). Our one brief interaction with them many years ago left me in tears. Yes ABA is terrible and a form of torture before u ask. However it also sucks that almost all the conversation related to autism is controlled by people who can pretty much do things on their own and revolves around how they have to deal with public learning to deal their autistic behaviors. As a carer for someone who can't speak or wash hands by themselves etc, it feels like these people who can communicate are almost offended by the ones who can't. They tend crowd out their needs as if they don't exist. They also do a lot of online bullying of carers from what I have experienced. Meanwhile, carers are too busy doing the caring while also fighting for services from insurers/government who are constantly trying/threatening to reduce services or will not approve them in the first place. We ARE exhausted and statistically die before the people we are carers for. But as some who has spent most of my life and will spend the rest of my life as carer, it feels like all these people (both autism speaks and the autistic who can pretty live on their own without assistance and the public at large) seem to pretend my person and I don't exist or are not worthy of having a voice or a nuisance. Because only a very few of those who can communicate even acknowledge us when speaking about autism issues. I have seen only a couple of YT put a note to that effect. NO offense but even this conversation was based on viewpoint focused on only autistic friends who can communicate and don't really need any help. NO, being a person living with significant needs and being their carer is Not the end of your life or make life meaningless or that everything is related to the condition. However it does mean you live a very different life than most other people. It means dealing a large portion of the world wishing you just not bother them and stay out of sight. The more significant the needs of the person, the more isolated and lonely those lives become over time unless you work hard to not let it happen. The effort it takes to keep reaching out does become harder and you want to be around people who already understand. When the shut down happened and people felt so isolated, we could barely notice the difference in the feelings of isolation because that's what it's like all the time for us. It's like looking at the world through a dirty window. A true story - In our early years, we were at a cafe/bookstore chilling for several hours. After an hour of glancing over at us off and on, an elderly couple gets up to leave. Elderly women walks up to our table as they heading towards exit and says "I know what you are doing but you shouldn't bring people like that out in public."

[@stephb7960]

You have spoken with eloquence and compassion about your experience. I also thought the commentators glanced over the fact that some people are non-verbal and that those people and their families are going to need a different set of help and supports than people who are verbal. Thank you.

[@maggiescarlet]

Thank you for sharing your perspective, I thought about this whole they were speaking on the topic. I'm seeing more discourse on "who cares for the carers?", honesty on topics like post-partum depression, and the realities of caring for/being someone who can't just go out and do the things many people take for granted. This is both online discourse, and knowing people in my family or neighbourhood. The same acceptance should absolutely go for those with challenging forms of autism, you are the one who is most able to give your person a voice, and your own voice deserves to be heard too, without shame for how you feel. I hear you 💛 I'm sorry about how that couple treated you as well, that is so backwards of them

[@TomMoore-ny5qn]

@@stephb7960 Thanks, that's exactly what I was trying to share. That while I am happy that people who are able to communicate on their own do just that but their needs are different than people in my person's situation. I almost feel like a interpretor for my person, the same way people at UN need translators and/oor interpretors to communicate with people who communicate in a different manner than they do. Even some comments in this chat by people with autistism want carers to stay completely out the conversation, which means that people like who can't use devices and can't communicate without assistance have no right to advocate for their needs. It's dismissing the people who needs the most help as not worthy and create feelings who being a nuisance. That's where the bullying of carers comes in. I don't discount their personal lived experiences but I wish they wouldn't discount both our lived experiences and refuse to reconogize that my person's needs are not same as theirs.

[@TomMoore-ny5qn]

@@maggiescarlet Thank you. But I don't really care how people treat me too much but that people think its okay to dismiss my person and their needs, wants, and hopes because the only way she has to communicate it is through me. Also I do find it distress sometimes, because we have been with this for a long time. people tend to act like people with significant needs either die when they grow up or are magically independent. my person is an older persons who born at a time when the official theory for what caused autism was that mom's withheld affection from their babies in their formation years. actually doctors with medical degrees decided this was the cause. so you can imagine what that was like to deal with. Also many people assume that all carers are parents and that is not true because parents eventually die but the people still need care.

[@maggiescarlet]

@@TomMoore-ny5qn thanks for replying. I read your other reply too, and the comparison of being your person's interpreter seems very apt. Just because someone isn't able to advocate for themselves doesnt mean their views and wellbeing don't matter, and the idea that everyone with significant needs basically "grows out of it" or disappears eventually is wishful thinking at best, and incredibly ableist at worst... Good point, the parents can't be around forever, and group homes don't work for everyone. I know it's not the same thing, but my mum worked at a dementia care home for a few years, and it opened our eyes to how broken the whole professional caring system is, even the incredibly expensive homes are understaffed and therefore everyone there is neglected. Sorry for tangenting, the point is just that I agree with you!

[@KatrinaEames]

This is a great topic! I'm always cautious when checking out new charities that I might want to volunteer with or give money to - and working in the nonprofit space I usually check with the people doing the work everyday to make sure they're making a living wage before donating - because if the Executive Director (like the head of Susan G. Komen) is making hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the organizers aren't making a living wage then this is not an organization that actually cares about people.

[@alexc2265]

OMG THANK YOU from the bottom of my autistic heart for calling out Autism Speaks! Many of us see it as a hate group. They support applied behavioral analysis (ABA), which many call gay conversion therapy for autistics and was created by the same behaviorist. They really are about changing us and not accepting us as we are and helping society do the same. Please donate to organizations like those he mentioned that give us and those who support us *real* help and don’t promote abusive, invalidating practices.

[@amandagrogan4536]

In Australia, if you get a grant (government money) you need to pay employees of the NFP by fair work standards which means CEOS aren't able to take the kind of pay cuts you mention. Of course they can not take more and that is a huge indicator of their values!

[@kikitauer]

Thank you for speaking about Autism Speaks. They made so many things to make the life of us autists worse. I am also very glad the White House stopped "lighthing it blue", I was not aware of that.

[@Hollyberrystreats]

I was gonna say it's really sad that Kars for Kids knows that anti-Semitism runs so deep that they can't just say this is for underprivileged Jewish children or for Orthodox Jewish education....but what you described sounds like a chop shop in New Jersey gets most of the profit and the rest of the money just goes to a very conservative summer camp?

[@SybilNix]

As soon as you said “catchy jingle” I knew it would be the cars one 😭

[@wandat7275]

Same. I hear them in California all the time.

[@justinedraus2010]

This episode suggests that people interested in helping the autistic community only seek organizations led by people with autism; however, the experience of someone with autism who is able to lead an organization vs someone with autism who is non-verbal and/or requires a caregiver is going to be very different. They are going to have different ideas regarding what resources will most benefit the community, and if the organization is only led by people within a certain section of the spectrum, others are likely to be left out. This creates the same problem of not addressing the full spectrum (which is one of the issues with Autism Speaks). People with autism should absolutely be part of any organizations intending to help those with autism...but so should people who are close contacts/family of people with autism. For example, while early detection may not help everyone with autism, it can actually be really helpful for someone with autism who is non-verbal and requires early intervention so that they can learn alternative methods of communication (which can help them to gain more independence). I think the hosts could have done a better job of clarifying this point and I did not love how they scoffed at the idea of early detection potentially being something helpful.

[@Alenasup]

I find that autistic people prioritise the use of the communication devices more than many autism parents. I dont think its that important that autism parents are included. Many high needs kids grow up and are able to communicate their needs as adults.

[@alexc2265]

@@Alenasup At the same time, learning to communicate one’s needs is a process, something many neurotypical people struggle with as well. Everyone and especially autists can use help here imo.

[@Alenasup]

@@alexc2265 very true. I am adamant though that autistic people know what autistic people need best. Edit: what i mean is that an autistic adult can better advocate for an autistic child's needs than a neurotypical parent of an autistic child can. An autitistic parent of an autistic child would have very valuebale first hand experience to pull from.

[@justbob822]

You do understand that when organisations like autism speaks say 'early detection', they're talking about foetuses, right? As in, invasive, in-womb testing to determine

[@wvu05]

Not sure how active it is, but a _horrible_ charity is Livestrong. Even ignoring how distasteful its founder is, literally none of the money goes to cancer research, and at one point, over 90% of their money went to things like swag at high-profile celebrity events. The charity is just as bad as he is.

[@MichiruEll]

Not a scam, but I'm so tired of St Jude's children hospital. While it's great they treat difficult cases and sometimes pro Bono, no hospital needs thismuch money. Even if they do research. In general, I don't think donations should go to research,because that's just too expensive. And charity boards are not the best at picking sound research projects to encourage. Research should always be public funding. Charities would do way more good by focusing on areas where small amounts of money can make lot of difference.

[@jeanne-marie8196]

Just an FYI. The federal government provides less than 10% of Research and Developement funding. (Less than one percent at .73 of GDP). Most is provided by the R&D department’s of businesses themselves. (The vast majority of R&D federal funding goes to universities, the military, and energy/fuel) I don’t know if St Jude receives federal grants or not, but I would guess they do in some form. Government grants for prescription drug research and health used to be a larger proportion, above 2% of GDP, but that has been steadily declining for private entities for many decades. I know NIH got a big raise, but I’m not sure if it went to grants for individual entities. My guess would be it went to universities, military, etc.

[@DianaWanMa]

I'm not getting your point of view. Research is necessary to know more about the diseases and treatments, and because it's expensive I guess it's ok to receive donations. Is up to the donators to decide if they want to fund a research or a patient hospitalization.

[@MichiruEll]

@@DianaWanMa I'm a scientist myself and did research in the biomedical field, although not directly on drug development. Of course people can choose where they donate, but I find that it's not always effectively distributed. And as I mention, in my opinions, boards of charities are often not so good at evaluating what is actually promising research and what is just smoke and mirrors. And then millions of donated dollars are wasted. I think national funding agencies are generally better at picking "good research". They are also better at funding research that does not sell well. As mentioned in this episode breast cancer (and in the case of St Jude, children with cancer) are easy causes to "sell to donors". But why not colon cancer? Funding agencies are much better at treating diseases equally. I don't actually think St Jude is doing anything wrong by raising money, I'm just a bit tired of it being the only charity a lot of youtube donation events are centered around. Actually, I think the same with the Trevor Project (and I'm queer myself). There are charities that do some good work, but just get too much attention relative to their scope, and maybe too much money. So they end up wasting money, because they don't know what to make of it anymore.

[@vanaharris4437]

I feel like early detection and caregiver relief are important for autism. I think there is value there.

[@SteveTheDog115]

I gotta stop watching these the day they come out! i need to save them for a trip across the state i need to do in a week

[@TomMoore-ny5qn]

...finally, i understand this a financial education channel focused on the younger generation. I am tune in becuase you delve into interesting topics and seem like fun people who try hard to do things on the up and up. I do learn new things. Disabilities is not your thing but at least you try to do a good job when it comes up. I wish you do a follow up to conversation with the disability rights advocate. (although the one with divorce laywers was very entertaining, I though he was an excellent guest.) I do hope and encourage you to do more around financial planning around disabilities and aging. I grew in this community so we have a saying that the majority of people (at some point in their lives) will either be a carer and/or need care. For instance, as the person whom I am a carer and I both age, I have absolutely nobody as a family member to care for me if myself become disabled and/or aged and couldn't live on my own. I have to plan and save to eventually have strangers care for me. My mortgage costs me about $20K to 25K per year but a nursing in my area cost a minimum of $80K per year. 24/7 in home care cost roughly $8K per month not including doctors and medicine or any other living costs like food and utilities and insurance. that's just the carers alone.

[@alexandrawenzig8704]

Wow, you outdid yourself with this series. Learned so much! Great speakers.

[@brgulker]

Is this podcast available as an actual podcast, not on KZbin? I can’t find it on overcast. Thanks!

[@paillette2010]

Car donations yield so little to the charities. Ine lady said they had a volunteer who fixed ip the cars to sell bc the contractors who auction off the cars gave them < $50.

[@lily-de5qp]

The "free class" isn't available to folks who don't have a social media account. Boo!!!

[@mortviolette284]

GoveWell is another great place to do research!

[@vadams4067]

I donated a van to a DV 501c3 they auctioned the car. No breakdown

[@tinabean713]

I donated 2 or 3 cars to Habitat for Humanity. One was basically scrap but the other one was the church van, still very driveable, and I didn't own it - I just facilitated it at about the same time I was donating my own. At one point I mentioned it to the lady who runs our local chapter and she asked me to give her the specific details so hopefully she managed to get whatever they got from it redirected to our local branch. My impression of that convo was that it should have come to our branch. I wasn't really aware of that and didn't ask questions or make specific requests at the time since I know that the national organization puts on big builds and I support that as well as my local stuff. Actually typing this it has occurred to me that I now just make donations to the national org and I haven't contributed to my local chapter in any way in an embarrassingly long time.

[@LauraSomeNumber]

I really want to like this podcast but they just seem like they don't have a clear format or goal

[@sarahissom260]

Autism Speaks is meant to help people who feel inconvenienced by autistic people, rather than actually helping autistic people. Full stop.

[@rhy8336]

Can you do an episode in the show Loot?

[@kiterafrey]

So many non-profits are religious manipulation. Like Union Gospel Mission does do amazing work feeding the homeless. They made a big difference in my sister's life when she was homeless. When I was homeless I lived in a different city and a different charity helped me. HOWEVER I do think requiring the people to come, listen to a sermon that always ends in the sinners prayer just to get the hot lunch is pretty manipulative. I don't mind churches helping people, in fact Jesus legit requires it. He says doing unto the least of these you do unto me. But he also says that man looks at the outside and God looks at the heart and to do things with pure intentions. Conversation manipulation from the least of these is NOT a pure intention. Jesus wouldn't be happy at people only helping those in need to get something out of it themselves (like getting a new church member paying into tithes who can't afford it.) You're supposed to live the life of a good person and lead by example, and that example will bring people into your testimony. And manipulation, mega church scams, & hypocrites in my church was why I left the Pentecostal Christian faith. So seeing the Cars for Kids just boiled my blood.

[@spirituallysafe]

To the Jewish male podcaster - read Isaiah 53 🛐