Would this be a bad time to pitch my “Beer for the homeless” charity 
Yes, and I dont charge for virus cleanups, I just charge for having a storefront where you can drop off your computer and staff trained to handle such problems.
Just your expenses? No profit, eh?:dubious:
I think you missed the point. There is no ‘profit’. There is nothing left over after he pays himself, his employees and business expenses. The virus removal itself is completely free. All a customer has to do is pay for the consulting time plus any incidental expenses like anti-virus software upgrades to prevent future infections but there is no surcharge for removing any particular virus. It is just a straight consulting rate no matter what.
A lot of business accounting, even for non-profits is like that. That was his point. The Red Cross can itemize costs in many different ways but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t charging for blood (there is also nothing wrong with it if they are as long as they do it in an efficient and cost effective manner).
Bolding mine. I disagree that it’t not educational for the girls, at least the young ones. Learning how to talk to people in a pseudo-business arrangement really helped several of the girls in my group overcome social anxiety. Learning how to make change, say thank you, accept rejection and not take it personally… these are all good skills that come from selling cookies.
I agree with that. My 12 year old daughter is a Girl Scout and has sold the cookies for a few years. She is a little awkward and fairly shy but I really think it has helped her learn many social and business skills. She loves selling Girl Scout cookies and has gotten much better at it over the years.
I never really asked or even considered how much money they were actually making from them because her troop is very small but in an affluent town. The parents end up paying for most everything anyway and I certainly don’t have a problem with that. The good thing about Girl Scout cookies is that a whole lot of people seem to really like them and are happy to buy them year after year.
There are a few people that close the door in her face but that is a good lesson too. The success rate for sales is high enough to boost a young girl’s confidence but it is still possible to fail enough times to get experience with that too. It isn’t the same with some of the fundraiser crap her school tries to get her to sell. Most people just buy that stuff reluctantly and often don’t seem happy about it.
Look, they had an anti-gay policy. And"sexual orientation is not something that ever comes up on the local level or at Scout activities" would have been ample reason to have no policy at all.
They didn’t get “caught in the crossfire.” They took a side, and it got them into trouble. Then they tried to get off that side, and it caused them even more trouble.
I was a Scout once myself, a long time ago, and have good memories of the experience. So I’m glad they’re cleaning up their act because, who knows, maybe the Firebug will want to join the Cub Scouts one of these years. But let’s be honest about what happened here.
I see both sides of this one, but there’s also the factor that donated food and clothing requires a whole bunch of volunteers just to sort through the stuff, separate good from bad, and sort the good into different categories of useful stuff.
I think my attitude is: have the food/clothing drive if you must. But use it for visibility while reminding people that giving money will save them the hassle of finding time to go through their pantries/closets, and will be way more useful too.
Depends on the council - ours make .$60
And it depends on what the council does with their share - if the council is supporting a lot of economically disadvantaged young girls in pursuing STEM activities or camping - maybe that’s worthwhile. (A LOT of our council proceeds keep camps functional - those things are expensive).
And it depends on the troop. If you make .30 a box so a bunch of fairly well off third graders can go to Build a Bear or if you make .30 a box so they can buy the flowers for the Alzheimers home, making sure the troop has the supplies that they need to pursue their badges, etc, and spend six years saving money for a trip. (Our troop did the second - we did save so they could do some of the first as well, but most of what they did with their money was spend it helping others). I always tell people to ask the girls what their plans for the money are.
As others have said, it can be educational. Making change, making a business plan, choosing what to do with what you have earned. Learning that its a lot of work to make a lot of money. The delayed gratification of years and years of work before we took our trip.
No, there’s no “business accounting” that’s like that. If you pay yourself as the owner of a business- that’s PROFIT. That’s what GAAP sez. A “non-profit” is where profits are not distributed.
The Red Cross cant afford to lose money on every pint. Expecting them to do so is crazy.
But who is “they”? See many Troops had no such policy. Many Councils also were uninterested. It was just the The Boy Scouts of America’s national governing body, which really isnt all that popular down in the front lines.
Only about 20% of the Scouts and Leaders supported the policy. Many openly defied it.
How fortunate that no-one has claimed individual troops are bigoted, only the organization as a whole. We agree then.
This. The employees (not the volunteers) of Red Cross all draw a salary, but Red Cross is not a publicly traded company; there are no shareholders receiving dividends. They don’t sell blood for “HUGE” profits, they sell it at a price that covers the costs incurred during its collection/processing/storage. If you’ve ever donated blood, then you know there’s a lot going on. It’s a good 45 minutes of attention by a paid professional nurse, and considerable medical supplies get used (collection bag, needles,sterilization, testing for iron, etc.), and there’s a lot of work that goes into record keeping. And the cost of transportation. And the snacks the donors get to eat. And the cost of utilities and maintenance at the donation center. There’s probably some insurance premiums in there somewhere. Overall, it’s not surprising that a pint of whole blood goes for a few hundred bucks.
NOT the organization as a whole. The National Leadership was- likely more conservative than bigoted but still out of touch with the times.
I can’t read this without hearing this instead: “Charity is about making me feel good. When the direct connection is removed, I’m not interested anymore. I don’t care that giving money is better for the recipient, what matters is how I feel.” In other words, this doesn’t reflect very well on your church. I’m not a Christian, but I’m pretty sure this is all very contrary to the message around charity in the Bible.
Heh. It might not be such a bad idea!
Years ago, I was the manager of a small pub in a downtown area with a lot of homeless folks. I became acquainted with a couple of guys one afternoon when someone assaulted Juan* and I called for emergency help. Juan and the Captain were in a population that is badly under-served by many charities: one schizophrenic and unwilling to remain medicated, the other with a substance abuse problem and no apparent desire to address that problem. These were older men - above 50, but I couldn’t say how much above - and seemed particularly vulnerable to me. I asked the Captain if he’d drop by now and again, so I wouldn’t worry about them, or so that I could help them find resources that they needed.
We worked out a pretty good arrangement. Any time I was working (always evenings/late nights,) J & C would wave at me through the plate glass window at the front, and I’d meet them at the back door**. They’d take my garbage to the bins - which were about a hundred feet away, and then come back to get a couple of meals to go (we always had at least enough to feed them a decent meal when we closed the kitchen, and I preferred to feed it to someone who needed it, rather than just toss it in the garbage,) and a couple of draught beers. The arrangement probably wouldn’t have lasted without the enticement of beer, but at least I could make sure the guys were okay, and had a decent meal 5 or 6 days a week. (Plus things like adequate clothing and such - a couple of the musicians who played regularly brought in clothes for me to keep in the office, in case someone needed a jacket or socks or such. I’d trade J&C - have them put on a clean coat or socks, and bag up their dirty clothes to take home and wash. And I know that on several occasions, one of the musicians took the guys home with him to sleep out of the cold, get showers, etc.)
To the original question: I do see some benefit to donating goods and services versus money. To me, right now, it’s a teaching tool. Last weekend, my little girls helped me choose items to donate to a local drive. As pre-schoolers, my girls have very little notion of the value of money, but they understand food. They wanted to play Marie Antoinette*** and donate a vat of cake mixes, so we also discussed nutrition. Between us, we managed to put together a couple of bags of food that could provide 2-3 people with a balanced diet for at least a week - proteins, fruits, vegetables, rice, pasta, flour, cooking oil, etc. Then, the 4-year-old realized that someone who couldn’t buy food might not have a toothbrush, so we added toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, etc. It was a natural and excellent teaching moment.
That said, I know that money is usually a better donation. But right now, I have three extra folks living with me, who would otherwise be homeless and hungry, so I don’t have any “spare” money!
*Not his real name, I suspect. He was non-verbal, and that’s what the Captain called him. I never knew the Captain’s name, either.
**The business owner wouldn’t allow them inside the pub, but was fine with my back door arrangement. The trash had to go out anyway, the food would have been wasted, and a couple of small beers was no big deal in his opinion.
***Yeah, I know, probably apocryphal.
My bolding.
“just the The Boy Scouts of America’s national governing body”? I guess everyone should have known that what the governing body said, didn’t actually mean anything.
Look, if it only spoke for about 20% of Scouting as a whole, it’s the fault of the other 80% for leaving them in place and letting them govern them on this, and speak for them too. They were the voice of the 80% as well as the 20%.
The 80% let bigots speak for them. Either they fucked up incredibly big time, or maybe it was a good deal less than 80% that didn’t support this policy.
Anything to keep them from drinking gin.
Yes, but without the governing body the individual troop policy is at the whim of the local council. I served for years as a Boy Scout leader without ever signing the declaration of religious principle. I simply left it blank and the district leader agreed to ignore it. When a new district leader associated with one of the more fundamentalist churches took over she reviewed all prior applications and threw me out as leader, which dissolved the troop since there was no other leader available.
Technically she didn’t throw me out, she actually suggested I lie on the document since as an atheist the oath didn’t mean anything to me anyway. I guess she didn’t get irony.
Ten years ago my aunt decided everyone in my extended family should “adopt a family” in lieu of giving presents to each other at Christmas. She said she found a family in need, and that we should give gifts to them. A few month after Christmas she discovered the family were con artists.
So… the following year she signed up with an organization wherein you could adopt a family, and the organization supposedly checked out the family to ensure they’re truly “in need.” Everyone gave presents to them. A few month after Christmas she discovered the organization was no longer in business, and the family had disappeared. :dubious:
Suffice to say, we no longer participate in the adopt-a-family programs.
Fast forward to the present. Our teenage daughter said teachers at her school are accepting donations for a local “family in need” they’ve adopted. I asked her questions about the family. She said she didn’t know much about them, except that there’s a mother, father, and two children. I told her to tell her teachers that their time and energy would be much better spent helping the parents find steady work than giving them stuff.