All Island charities

Cant go wrong with the RNLI or seeing as so many of us are doggy people , Dogs Trust who are marvellous.

My suggestion would be SOSAD in the Republic and PIPS in the North. They are both suicide support groups that are worthy of support.

I’m opting out of this, out of 100 people you will most likely end up with 80-90 charities. Like jjf I do things locally, and personally if at all possible. At least you can see what good it is doing.

Don't opt out, it doesn't have to be island wide.

the only charity i donate to is The Capuchin Day Care Centre. No wages and everything raised goes direct to feeding, clothing and looking after homeless and down on their luck families and individuals. Enormous undertaking since I was a kid.

I belong to a local knitting group, anything we make is sold through local tea room , or hats/Scarves to homeless and including our weekly coffee money.... as a group we are surprised just how much money we raise and every month or so when we have €500 we decide which charity we are going to support with preference for lesser known ones run by volunteers rather than those with paid fundraisers and TV adverts.

Approx 2012 myself and SWMBO volunteered for Oxfams Trailtrekker, 100 km's walkathon.

We done backup in the Motorhome at various venues over a few days, making tea, supporting people etc. In the final day as they crossed the finishing line in Carlingford the volunteers were cast aside and the bigwigs came down for photoshoot and to shake hands.

We never volunteered for Oxfam again.

We both won "star volunteers" - we never even turned up for the award, they posted it to us though.

All the good ones were too busy in Wexford, sure.

Beware the chuggers! You know the ones I’m talking about? The charity huggers. They stand in the street in their high-viz charity branded jackets, trying to get your eye contact. And when they do they reel you in, become your best friend and get you to sign up to a monthly donation. These people usually work for a marketing company contracted by the charities. For each person who signs up, it can take about 6 months of making donations before the marketing company is paid and the charity starts to see anything.

Just be aware anyway. I’m not saying all charities hire these third party firms. I know the likes of Madra, Guide dogs for the Blind etc. all rely on volunteers to fund raise which is all above board. But when you see some young student type trying to be your best friend, you can check the ID badage to see what company they work for.