If someone tries to guilt me into donating, they will never get anything from me. I refuse to let sociopaths in the guise of non-profits try to manipulate me. That pretty much covers all organized charities with their “annual appeal letters” this time of year. I am not saying that all charities are scams or that all fundraising letters are manipulative. But most of them feel that way, don’t they? How do I know who is real and who is a grifter? How do I make sure that my limited funds are helping people who actually need help and not lining the pocket of some executive director or, worse, being used in ways that actively harm people in need? I donate to people who I know. I donate locally and in person whenever I can. I try to always have some cash on me, not because I pay for much of anything with cash nowadays, but to ensure that when I meet an unhoused or otherwise needy person on the street who is asking for help, I can help them directly. And I try to share more than just a bill thrown at them. I try to share some humanity with them if they are looking for connection. I am autistic and interacting with people in person is hard for me. I know that many of the neediest people share similar challenges, whether from neurodiversity or from trauma. So I look to them. If they ask my name, I share it and delay myself a few minutes to listen and to connect. Public charities are great, and they help meet the needs of many people. But direct mutual aid from me to someone else is always going to be a bigger help to them than whatever benefits might remain after a charity has paid its executive director and its office space rent. And benefits from charities always come with strings attached. So a fair amount of my giving is mutual aid in cash from me to other human beings. And I try to do the same on-line with people whom I know are real people. To share what I can with other individuals by kofi or paypal or whatever. Of course there are far more people in need than I can help, and far more scammers pretending to be people in need than I can possibly vet. So I limit my online mutual aid to people whom I get to know. I wish I didn’t have to do this, but I didn’t create the horrors of this world that make it necessary to be careful. I support local artists and farmers and workers. I am a member of our cooperative grocery. I make donations to local charities that I know are volunteer run with essentially zero overhead (I have volunteered for them before). I donate cash to our local food pantry because so many people only donate canned goods and every food pantry says that cash donations let them buy more food for the same donation. And lets them buy the food that their clients need and want, not the random cans that someone had lying around their pantry. Some may choose to help people in other ways. For most of my adult life I helped my neighbors with my labor. I was a civil servant working for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and had what amounted to a second full-time job volunteering as a firefighter, as an EMT, scout leader, environmental educator, conservation commission, planning board, building a municipal fiber to the premises network, town moderator, you get the idea. Then I got long covid, and now I do not have the energy to help in any of those ways. All of this is a long-winded way to say that charity is being destroyed by capitalism, and I refuse to let the oligarchs win by pitting the rest of us against each other. #Solidarity #HelpPeople #BeGenerous #EatTheRich