A Boomer and GenXer Walk into a Bar
Wit and wisdom, some smart assery, and a Mother and Daughter questioning “Are we even related?”
A Boomer and GenXer Walk into a Bar
No, I Will Not Donate At Checkout, I'm Not Rounding Up S:02E:31
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The cashier asks one tiny question and suddenly you are on the spot: “Do you want to round up for charity?” We get why people freeze, why it can feel like a guilt trap, and why “sure, it’s just pennies” is not always the simple, feel-good move it seems.
We get practical about charity transparency and nonprofit overhead. We talk about red flags like vague spending, glossy fundraising events, and leadership pay that feels wildly out of step with the mission, using the Wounded Warrior Project controversy as a cautionary example. We also share how we personally vet organizations by checking annual reports and financial disclosures, plus why scams and lookalike charity names make quick register donations even riskier.
We wrap with better options that keep you in control: giving locally, donate directly to a family or a verified program and support local groups . Subscribe, share this with a friend who always feels pressured at checkout, and leave a review with your take: do you round up or hit “no” and why?
email: boomerandgenxer@gmail.com
Welcome And Concussion Update
SPEAKER_00Welcome, welcome, welcome everyone to today's show. Boomer and a Gen X are walking to a bar coming to you from the Rabbit Run studio, where you, as our listeners, will experience some wit and wisdom, some smart assery. And this mother and that daughter questioning, are we even related? My name is Jane. My co-host is my daughter, Bobby. And for the next, I don't know, 20-25 minutes, we're here to entertain you. Hey, Bobby, what's going on? Hey, girl, what's going on today?
SPEAKER_04Uh, not a whole lot. I got some good news that I'm not going to be permanently retarded, so there's that.
SPEAKER_00That is, you know, I've been worried about you all these years. All these years. And now someone has said they have diagnosed you as not permanently retarded. So I am that great. It's wonderful. It'll be easier for all of us, that's for sure.
SPEAKER_02I think the politically correct term is dork.
SPEAKER_00She is dork. That doesn't change anything. She's a nerd. She's a dork. There's no way that changes. So uh, those of you who have not listened to our previous podcast, Bobby works in an environment where uh she can get hurt, and she did get hurt, and she had one of the uh residents of the facility that she works at come at her and she got hurt and she had a head injury. And so for the longest time now, we have been worried, worried, worried. Thank you for your prayers if you gave us some, because uh you got some good news, so that's great.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely. Dr. Domain's got a uh helmet on his uh head on it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I see.
SPEAKER_04Honestly, I think I need a helmet working there anymore, but yeah, no, it's it's good news. It's it's a been a long three months.
SPEAKER_00You've had so many headaches. You know, that I mean, that's hard to deal with when you've got headaches every single day. Dr. Domain knows what's up.
SPEAKER_02I can relate. Absolutely.
Round Up Requests At The Register
SPEAKER_00Because I always say, you know, I don't get headaches, I give them.
SPEAKER_04Anyway, uh yeah, speaking of uh disabilities here, and you know, I got a few, but you know, hey, let's talk about, you know, you go into like let's say a gas station here in Iowa, you know, Casey's are big, and you go to the counter and you're buying a uh well for you it'd be like a water, and they say, Hey, do you want to round up to such and such charity? Uh what what do you say when they do that?
The Truth About Tax Deductions
SPEAKER_00I always say no, and here's why. Because I always thought that the tax laws, and I had to investigate this a little bit because I'm gonna tell our listeners I was wrong. I have been wrong. And Bobby is shaking her head at me right now because I do always say no, and here's why. Um, I would rather give direct and I would rather eye track it. But if you if you do say yeah, go ahead and round it up. My perception or my thought process was always that if you do tell them to round up, that particular corporation, let's say it's Walmart, they get the benefit of saying, oh, hey, we donated, you know, 60 million dollars this year to whatever, let's say it's cancer. And it was really on the backs of their customers. And so I always said no, because I always felt like, you know what, you're you're getting the benefit, the tax break on this, uh, on the backs of your customers. But the truth of the matter is, is the U.S. tax law does not allow them to do that, right, Bobby? I see you just smiling, and I know that you read the tax law, and I did too. I had to go in and look at it, and that is not true. Now, here's what they do get though. They get the PR, they get the public relations off of it. So that they can say that they helped to raise$30 million for cancer. So they can say that, that they were they were a um contributor to raising, you know, this X amount of dollars for whatever the the charity is. Let's say it's kids with a wish. I don't know what it is, whatever it is. And so they do get the PR for that, which is really more valuable to these corporations than it is to get the tax write-off.
SPEAKER_04I would say so, because I mean, PR is everything, especially to larger corporations, you know, they they do get that publicity, they do get that partnership, you know, with these charitable organizations. And even with just like, let's say it, you know, it is for cancer research. And so during the cancer walks or the cancer events, they now have their logo on the back of those t-shirts. It's not our names, it's not the people who rounded up and donated names, it's that large corporation who collected that money who's now on the back of that t-shirt, who gets the publicity.
SPEAKER_00That's exactly right. And I think that's where I have an issue. That's where I have an issue. And so I will say to our listeners, I was, I don't like to say I was wrong. I will say I was not right.
SPEAKER_04I and I gotta tell you, I am glad that you researched. Well, I'm kind of glad, but I was gonna call you out and just drag you all over the place if you were like, they get the tax, you know, breaks and everything. I was gonna do that. You were gonna drag well.
SPEAKER_00You were gonna drag me through the mud on that whole thing, weren't you?
SPEAKER_04You know.
SPEAKER_00So I just have to tell our listeners what kind of a day this is. I have in front of me a very, very dirty martini that I'm drinking, and Dr. Domain has what do you have? Dr. Domain over there, an old-fashioned old fashioned, and Bobby's drinking her monster drinks, and so it's just been one of those days. I'm just gonna say it's been one of those days.
SPEAKER_04But you know, you you didn't like the fact that you thought that they got the tax break.
SPEAKER_00I didn't because I felt like it was off of the backs of their customers.
Social Pressure And Tracking Donations
SPEAKER_04Right. And I I'm kind of the I'm twofold on why I don't do that. So, number one is you basically, you know, you're at the register, you're trying to get in, you're trying to get out, you're trying to pay for your food or your items or whatever it is. You're basically trapped. You're trapped there until you, you know, say, Yeah, I'd like to round up or no, and then you know, you everybody around you hears that you don't want to donate to this charity, now you're the asshole type of thing. That's exactly right.
SPEAKER_00Especially if it's for dogs, you know, or some cats, you know, do you want to do you want to uh round up for you know, save the whales or you know, save the dogs that don't have tails or whatever the hell it is.
SPEAKER_04You hate dogs that don't have tails? Like how dare you!
SPEAKER_00How dare you?
Wounded Warrior And Overhead Red Flags
SPEAKER_04But my my second fold on this is the lack of transparency. Um, you know, they can say, let's say, and I I I'm gonna bring this up because I I want to bring this this company up later. A lot of them years ago would ask you to donate to the wounded warrior project. Okay. Huge years ago, you know, they they did all of this advertising, all of this campaigning, all of this fundraising through corporations, um, you know, saying that they were helping the wounded warriors. Okay, let we won't go further on that, but you know, you say, okay, I'd like to round up my 90 cents to donate to the wounded warriors. Where's it going? Yeah, where's it going? Yeah you know, when when you make direct donations, you can actually specify I would like this to go towards housing for veterans, right? I would like this to go towards service dogs for veterans, I would like this to go towards a water bill for a veteran who has fallen on hard times. When you round up at the register, you have no idea where that money is going. And, you know, speaking of wounded warriors, uh, they got into a lot, a lot of trouble um a few years ago because allegedly, right?
SPEAKER_00Allegedly, they got into the oh, they definitely did.
SPEAKER_04They did. So you're gonna bring them down. Even on their website, they admit that only like 40, what was it? No, 40% of the donations went towards overhead, which included expensive conferences and staff parties and things like that. Um, so you're looking at like, you know, for every hundred dollars that they raised, only$74 of it went towards, or you know,$80, no,$60 of it. Sorry, my math is on the other side.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna say carry the nine. Okay.
SPEAKER_04So like six only sixty dollars of it actually went towards programs. The other$40 went towards people who worked for that project. And so, you know, that that's my twofold on it is there are a lot of publicity stunts, things like that. And a lot of these people who are charities who are raising this money that are not exactly transparent or have gotten in trouble in the past on where this money is going. And sometimes it's not easy to suss that out. You know, you've got some charities that sound like other charities.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_04So you have, you know, the American Cancer Association. We all know that one. Right. But the associate, the Association for Cancer Prevention, that kind of sounds like the American Cancer Association, right? You're gonna think, hey, you know, I I I think I've heard that before. You know, you're in a hurry, you're in line, there's 20 people waiting behind you, and grandma with the lottery tickets, you want to get the hell out of there.
SPEAKER_03Right.
Local Fundraisers With Clear Impact
SPEAKER_04And so you're you can't always know exactly where this money's going. Now, on the other hand, here where I live, I live in kind of a small town. It's not exactly a tiny town, but it is a small town. We have our um local businesses who do raise money and they raise it for things in the community. So if there is an event that happens, like a house fire, we have, you know, like our hardware stores and our grocery stores and our gas stations will put up our canisters asking for donations. Right. We know where that money's going to because it says right there. They're not getting a cut of it. There's no CEO for the donations of the house fire on Fifth Street. Because it's literally going to the family.
How To Vet Charities Quickly
SPEAKER_00Right, because those people who are collecting that money um are picking it up, and and uh we've been a part of this because I've talked about motorcycle charities, uh, charity events quite a bit. And we're we're all we're a motorcycle family, and we've been on plenty of charity rides. And I have been with the people who have bought these things, like we had Toys for Tots, right? And so there was there was a lot of money that was collected for Toys for Tots. I mean, we were picking up uh containers of quarters, and we were can picking up can and we had to count all that money out, and then you know, we we had to use that money. And we went out, I remember shopping for these families. I helped shop for those families, and so I know that money was being spent and then giving them to. Now, here's what was really sad is at one point I remember this one group of bikers decided to buy cards, gift cards, and give them to the schools and said, Hey, hand them out to the kids whose families need it. And unfortunately, these schools, what they did is they handed them out to kids who got good grades, or they were good sport in sports, or they were good academically, and that really wasn't the intent. And so I think today what we really want to focus on is know what you're giving to. And I have always said I'm a big proponent for give, you know, for local businesses, absolutely, and I am a big proponent for you knowing where your money's going. If you can give that money directly to a family, that's what you need to do. And there, you know, I looked at several of these up, and it's interesting because I did look up like St. Jude's, they're a big one, man. And they do pretty well. I mean, they they give a lot of 82 cents out of every dollar goes to support their patients. So, you know, kudos to to them. And then I also looked up um Ronald McDonald House.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and your sister wanted my heart.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, because your sister used to work at the Ronald McDonald House here in Iowa, and and I remember going over and helping her one day to cook for everybody. And uh my grandson used to collect because I traveled all the time. And every time I traveled, I'd tell all my whole group, I'd go, hey, if you're not gonna use those sample products that are provided by the hotel, please bring them to me. And these guys would bring bunches of this stuff to me, and we would drop it all off at the Ronald McDonald house. Kudos to Ronald McDonald because we used them. We used them. We did use them.
SPEAKER_04When I was when Corey was in the hospital, when Russia was in the hospital.
SPEAKER_00So 80 to 86 percent or excuse me, 80 to 86 cents of every dollar goes to the Ronald McDonald House. And um, so you know, I didn't look up every single one, Dr. Domain, but I would encourage you that if you are going to donate money, we didn't just look this up on Wikipedia. We went in and I did anyway, I looked at their annual reports, and you can see what their CEO makes. You can see what their advertisement costs are, you can see what their promotion that's advertisement for the rest of our audience that doesn't understand. It's advertisement, it's advertisement. That's total slang.
SPEAKER_01Okay, potato, patata, tomato, tomato, zebra, whatever. Do you see aunt or aunt?
SPEAKER_00Oh my god.
SPEAKER_04You say aluminium or aluminum?
SPEAKER_00Aluminum. Anyway, let's okay. This train just derailed. Anyway, I would ask you that if you're gonna give money, and I don't even care if it's ten dollars, if you're gonna give money, go in and just take a look at their annual report and see where that money's going to. Because what's unfortunate, this is the biggest and this is the most unfortunate thing to me, is they do hold charitable events. Those charitable events are not free. You're not getting that ballroom for free, you're not getting that food for free. The way that that's all paid for is through your charitable donations. And so the CEO, and don't get me wrong, I know you have to pay people to run the operation, right? It doesn't run You should. Right. Yeah, you should it doesn't run on, you know, coke and and beer, it runs off of salaries. Oh, I know you your eyes just lit up. It's like, well, if it was if it was bourbon or something, then maybe I would. But nevertheless, it doesn't run off of minimal things. You have to pay these people to operate these businesses, and I get that. But when you're paying somebody, uh a CEO,$30 million to run a charity, something's wrong. Something is terribly, terribly wrong.
SPEAKER_02So where do you give your money?
SPEAKER_00So, what do you mean? Where do you get your money?
SPEAKER_02Where do you give your money?
SPEAKER_00Where do I give my money?
SPEAKER_02Well, I mean people. I'm speaking to everybody. Everybody, yeah.
Scam Calls And Similar Sounding Names
SPEAKER_00Not do your research. Yeah, do your research. That's all we're saying today. Is really just make sure that you do your research. And here's the other thing: just be aware of a lot of scams. Now, Bobby, you had mentioned wounded warriors. Now, the police departments locally will call around to people and say, Hey, you know, I'm with such and such police department. We're collecting for whatever. Please be aware, folks. They do that. They used to do it and we used to give. Now everybody is scamming. And so they'll call and they'll go, hey, you know, whatever town you're in, uh, we are collecting for your local police department or your local fire department, whatever. You know, would you be willing to give$20, whatever? And these people are giving their money. Now, I'm not saying that they're all a scam, I'm saying that you really need to focus on that because a lot of them are scams. And the other thing, you mentioned it, Bobby. There's a lot of names of companies or charities, charities that sound like others, like kids with a wish, uh uh kid wishes. There's another one, you know, and you have to look at them and go, wait a minute, you know, that sounds familiar, but is it really? I mean, you know, even like uh what is the one where they sing the arms of an angel for the dogs?
SPEAKER_04ASPCA, which is garbage.
SPEAKER_00ASPCA. I mean, I can take a picture of my own dogs and sing that song in the background. My dogs look like they need help.
SPEAKER_04It just well, and if you're standing in line, let's be honest, they have the signage everywhere. You know you got your damn phone in your hand. Google it.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_04Google it right there.
SPEAKER_00And I I think that you know, if you feel pressured to give, it's unfortunate that you do. But if you look it up and you find out that the majority of the money is either going to, I gotta give kids with a wish uh uh foundation. I mean, they're a lot of their money goes to the families and they do help the kids.
SPEAKER_04Are we talking about make a wish?
SPEAKER_00Uh kids make a wish. Well, what's the one with um what's her name? Marlo Thomas? That's make a wish. Oh, that's St. Jude. No, that's St. Jude's I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I was way off there, folks. St. Jude. They give a lot of the money to the families and they help the families out a lot. And I know, you know, when my dad um was put in the soldiers' home here in Iowa, um, he was a Marine and uh he needed care. And he was he we put him in the soldiers' home up in Marshalltown, Iowa. And I will say that those folks did a heck of a job taking care of my dad. They did a really great job. The other thing was was when my dad was dying, they have like hotels on the property, not hotels, but like hotel rooms. And so the family was able to stay there for free. You know, some of those things you kind of go, wow, you know, it really did help the actual families. And I'm just asking people that before you give, please research because there's so many scammers out there, and there's so many that sound great, and they have all these big hairy events, and then you look at it and you go, wait a minute, it's not going to research, it's not going to development, it's not going to education, it's not going to screening for these people. It's really just paying the CEO and paying for parties.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. And you know, you had said something about like the firefighters association or the police association. Um, around here, we actually have the firefighters actually hold their own fundraisers. So don't fall for the scams, you know, the calls and the the mailings. Go to the fundraiser, buy a hot dog, put some money in that little bucket because it goes directly to them. I mean, there's nothing simpler than actually walking up and and handing it to a firefighter if that's who you want to support.
SPEAKER_00Right. And if you're able, and not everybody's able, but you know, a lot of times people buy 50-50 tickets or they'll win money, you know, at an event like that. And yeah, if you're able, donate it back. I mean, I I've always and Dr. Domain and I talked about this here recently because we went to a church function and we bought some 50-50 tickets, and the dollar amount was pretty high in that pot. And I just looked at him and I said, We donate back. And he goes, absolutely. And we just we'd never take the money because thank God God's blessed us. And we're very fortunate. And if you're fortunate like that and you don't need the money, just understand there's people out there that do, and just research where that money's going to. We have so much fraud, not only in our government, um, but we have it in all of these charities and all of these people trying to get your money. Folks, please just know where your money's going.
SPEAKER_04What's that, Dr. Dummy?
SPEAKER_02I was saying I think that's why you find the Christian organizations are the highest.
SPEAKER_00They are the highest. That's interesting. Yeah. They are the highest where that money goes.
SPEAKER_02The largest charitable organization in the world's the church.
Giving Time When Cash Is Tight
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And you know, a lot of people can say, I can't give money. And that's okay. That's that's okay, but you can give time and you can give energy. And you know, um you can donate clothing. You can donate clothing, you can donate blankets.
SPEAKER_04Right. Yeah, you can do a lot of things. You can stand out there and and hand out food.
SPEAKER_00I remember being on site for Habitat for Humanity. You know, I swung a hammer, I helped with anything I could. Can I help move materials? Can I help you guys? You know, can I go get your materials for you? Can I help you with your tools? Whatever. You know, sometimes we just don't have the money because not everybody has that kind of finance to do that. But you got time, you got time.
SPEAKER_04And even like if you see an event that you know is is legit, share it on Facebook.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_04That makes nothing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Because you could potentially reach somebody who either needs help or can help.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. No, I I totally agree with you. Um, that's probably all I have today.
Trusted Groups And Closing Notes
SPEAKER_04Well, I will say that uh I'm gonna give I'm gonna shout out three of the uh local charities that I know we help with, um, and that are legit because the money doesn't go to anybody other than those in need. Um, the first one is the abate of Iowa. Uh a lot of a lot of chapters around the nation of abate motorcycle. If you can help them with their charities, do it. A second one is the um the VFWs. Yes, the VFWs, when they collect money, you know it's going directly to what they say they're collecting. Right.
SPEAKER_00And that's whether whether it's the VFW or the Legion Halls, the Legion Halls. Right. They I mean you can walk into their meetings and see them helping people directly every time. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04So and the third one, the third one I have is uh specific to Des Moines, Iowa area, and that is um the Solid Ones Motorcycle Club. You know, a lot of people they bash on motorcycle clubs because you know they're these big scary guys. I've watched them take bikes and hand them to the children that need them. I've watched them pick the toys up, drive to their house, and give them directly to the kids. There, there's no in-between, they're not getting anything out of this other than helping people. That's all they want to do.
SPEAKER_00That's that's it. They don't want anything in in return. And if you haven't listened to our podcast regarding A-Bait of Iowa, we had uh Ozzie, uh, who was on our show, and he talked about A-Bait of Iowa and what they do for charitable events. And I would encourage you to just go back and listen to that again, just do your research, folks.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely, absolutely. But hey, listen, I think that that is all the insanity for charities that we have today. Uh, we do appreciate you joining us here at the Rabbit Run Studio. Maybe someday soon mom will come home, but it's not right now. Not right now. I gotta learn. But be sure to follow us because we look forward to spending time with you each and every week. Like us. And if you have positive feedback or if there's a topic you want us to talk about, if there's a question you have, drop us a short email at boomer and gen X or at gmail.com. And if you have hate mail, well, I'm sure that there's a charity out there that can use the paper, so save it for them.
SPEAKER_00So until next week, I'm Bobby Joy. And I'm James Burt. And you're stuck with us. Peace out.
SPEAKER_04Later.