h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I give money to two charities on a regular basis. Both of them meet my criteria of working in the UK, not being exclusively devoted to any minority group, providing valuable work, and not being one of the "big" charities with a huge advertising budget.

I don't go in for fundraising, and I generally won't give money to others who are particiapting. I also emphatically will not give money to anyone knocking at the door, and point out that I find it offensive when someone knocks at the door to ask for money.

I'm also a member of a couple of more politically oriented groups whose aim's I support: The Association of British Drivers (http://www.abd.org.uk), GLASS (http://www.glass-uk.org) and CAMRA (http://www.camra.org.uk).

My decision was to fund one "animal" charity and one "human" one. The animal one is the NCDL (http://www.ncl.org.uk) and the human one is Ataxia research - a cousin of mine suffered from the rare and untreatable Friedrich's Ataxia.

I also provide some stuff to a local animal rescue centre from time to time.

I do care about how the donation is spent - but more in terms of the general aims of the charity. For example, I give to the NCDL rather than the RSPCA because the NCDL will never let a healthy animal be put to sleep - a rule the RSPCA doesn't follow.

If I won a significant sum on the lottery I would not donate any of the money initially to charity. The fact that I would no longer have a mortgage would mean I could increase my regular donations, and if I no longer needed to work I would like to do some volunteer work, ideally keeping my skills up-to-date in the process.

So long as you don't combine the activities of your "political" groups

For myself, I have a regular direct debit to Amnesty International and, while my blood count will tolerate it, I give blood plasma on a regular basis. I buy the Big Issue as and when I encounter a vendor, and have been known to hand change over to people who ask for it.

The area of charitable activity that concerns me the most tends to be the Children in Need and Red Nose Day syndrome, particularly when activities are brought into the workplace and a distinct air of compulsion makes itself felt: people who never do anything unselfish for all the rest of the year feel justified in using anything up to outright harrassment to part others from their cash....