Charity:- Volunteers?

[love machine]

Following another topic, a thought just struck me, money is not the only form of help which can be offered in the time of crisis.

How about actual manpower and skill?

I was just watching the rotbox with a feature on the earthquake crisis and thought "How can I help?" I figured that there must be a lot of people like me, ready to go and muck in and do something in person. Since I have little planned/obligations/cash, it struck me as a useful alternative. Since I can donate cash NOW, I wonder how I can donate myself NOW.

Any ideas, put them down. I am at the moment googling for an answer.

Edited:-From what I have gathered so far, charities want your money and that's it.

>>> Edited by love machine on Tuesday 28th December 17:21

[Davel]

Personally, I have always found it very difficult to donate anything other than funds.

Several times I have offered free warehouse space, free container loading facilities, with my own staff and equipment.

These charities have their own warehouses, staff and seemingly everything else, unless you're prepared to fly yourself out their and help - and even then, they may not want more people on the ground there.

[Big_M]

My cousin does this for a living. He is a civil engineer and is usually one of the first out to a disaster area to ensure clean water supply. He works for a UK based charity.

I am just thankful that there are people out there like him.

[chrisgr31]

Davel said:

Personally, I have always found it very difficult to donate anything other than funds. Several times I have offered free warehouse space, free container loading facilities, with my own staff and equipment. These charities have their own warehouses, staff and seemingly everything else, unless you're prepared to fly yourself out their and help - and even then, they may not want more people on the ground there.

I wonder how much it costs to carry all their own warewhouse space, staff etc. No wonder they all need money all the time, just running the charities with their fixed overheads must cost a fortune.

Personally I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I will not support any charity that runs charity shops in High Street premises. In my experience they pay ridiculously high rents, and if they have so much money to burn do they need my money?

[Davel]

It does make you wonder how they can turn away free offers of space and facilities yet pay full prices to rent warehouses and pay full time staff to operate them.

I'm all for helping these poor people, but would like to feel that almost every penny actually goes to those in need rather than the charity's running costs.