Who would you more likely leave inheritance to when you die, given THESE choices?

Redwingfan9 said:

I can't imagine a Christian leaving their fortune behind to a dog catcher when there are unsaved people in the world.

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It's not just local dog pounds, there are non-profit 'transport companies' like individuals who will coordinate with others to transport unwanted animals in the direction of a new home. So if the dog is in Tulsa and someone in Wichita wants it, and Sue can get the dog part way, and Mary can drive the next leg, etc. they'll collectively find a way to get them there. I didn't know all this until I saw it play out on FB. They say dogs are man's best friend, but if you look at competitive breeders at dog shows, agility trial participants, and 'no kill shelter' activists and transport volunteers, they are truly WOMAN'S best friend. If I knew a young man who wanted a hobby that would put him in a position to meet women, I'd tell him to get into dog agility. The ratio is 1000:1 and they stand or sit around between 'runs' where women have nothing else to do but talk, and conversations are super easy to strike up with their dog nearby. But it's an expensive, time consuming hobby that you don't just get into easily. But that's another topic.

Redwingfan9 said:

When my dog dies that's it for him. He doesn't have a soul, he's not going to heaven or hell. He'll simply cease to exist just like every other animal.

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How do you know? You mean there's no "rainbow bridge?" Didn't Hollywood make a movie once titled "All Dogs Go To Heaven?" So it must be true since Hollywood wouldn't lie to anyone about anything. *cough*

Seriously, there are going to be a whole lot of very disappointed people, myself included, if dogs I've owned who were like family aren't there. There's even a website where you can pay money to have your pet memorized as part of their 'Rainbow Bridge' theme. I've even thought that they are the first things I want to see when I get to heaven....them running up to me, glad to see me after waiting so long, just like they would do on earth. If I had to choose between seeing my dogs vs. former sinners it would be a tough choice. The dogs have always been nicer to me. And they were dependent on me, even if it was just for food and water, similar to children being dependent on adults. People like to say 'they are members of the family' and it's true in the case of a house dog that stays inside most of the time.

Redwingfan9 said:

if you have a lot of money to donate to a nonprofit why wouldn't you donate to a church or christian organization?

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"A lot" is all relative. For example, I contacted the business manager of a church who told me how much they budgeted just to renovate the youth wing of the building which included a new basketball court. When I thought about how my comparatively paltry amount would only represent a drop in the bucket for such a cause after being added to the general budget, instantly represented by bricks and mortar, that seemed like a dead asset, especially if the space isn't used much, or comes crashing down due to the whims of the deacons who decide to put something else there.
Another issue is general trust and accountability. I like certain things about the "Calvary Chapel movement" which started as southern California beach ministries in the 1960s, but their bylaws (if there even are any) don't afford financial disclosure (transparency). Stuff gets approved by a mysterious absentee group of 'board' members who don't even live in the city, much less attend the church in question. It's like a circle of insider leaders who help each other out, similar to the Board of Directors of a corporation, where the CEO of company A is on the board of company B, except there's never going to be an annual report printed or filed with the SEC. Yet there are still stories of people giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to a pastor based solely on trust. To me, it disappears into a black hole. How does the donor have a clue what happened to that money? Did it go into the pastor's offshore account? On shore account? Pay off their Cadillac loan balance? No one knows.

I think local people who are members of, or at least attend the church long term should be in control, giving them more autonomy. As for Christian organizations, they're a dime a dozen, and you could spend years investigating their finances in advance to see if they're paying the director more than you think they should. Or traveling to seminars in Greece and other junkets like it's a vacation. Think of the American taxpayer. Trillions get wasted and no one holds the politicians accountable. They get away with murder because they can. Founders of Christian organizations can't do the same thing? Again, it comes down to trust, what they'll spend the money on, and how quickly it will be gone with little if anything to show for it. What reason do I have to trust them? I hear many radio ministries and each has a foundation that funds it, with ads every day to support their ministries. How much money do they already have? Do they even need mine? Not if they already have millions they haven't spent yet. Do they provide you with numbers when they send you solicitations? Of course not. We're suppose to trust them the same way people trust crooked televangelists.

I'd sooner advise a beneficiary that I know to buy a dividend stock with the money, like utilities, telecom, etc and use the income for whatever they want. Or just put it in a diversified index fund and save for their own retirement. The principal stays there unless the company goes defunct (will Verizon or Consolidated Edison go belly up? I don't think so, since 5G and utility monopolies should stick around awhile. Will XYZ church go belly up when they start doing stupid stuff such as adopting liberal policies or mismanaging staff or money? I've seen it happen multiple times in my town alone, and it's not pretty. One particular Baptist church is well-known nationally, been around for well over 100 years, went off the liberal deep end, lost members, but at least they still hold business meetings and publish annual reports for the few remaining die hards who love their country club and friends more than they love God. It's the Baptist way to put out the numbers for all to see, like them or not. (Staff salaries are combined into a total...few insiders know how much any individual makes, and they're not talking and people don't dare question.) What if the pastor's salary is twice what you think it should be? Do you want to give that church your money to funnel to them?

I've been doing research on the Internet and larger non-profit ministries must file a 990 with the IRS, and it's public information, though it can be a hassle to find the most recent tax years. I looked into a couple of well known ministries and found how they are padding their pockets with huge salaries that may be fine for a corporate CEO, but I think ministry should be different. One man gave $100,000 to his wife as an independent contractor for interior decorating services for some building. Another well known ministry had the CEO getting over $680,000 per year. Ministries that rake in money can have assets of many millions of dollars unspent, yet the people sending in a little here and a little there when they can, don't realize how well off the ministries and their leaders are. In short, they don't need my money.
I can understand that when people are amongst the best in the world at what they do, whether it's surgeon, musician, actor, athlete, they're going to be paid such, sometimes tens of millions per year. But I just feel like ministry should be different. I don't feel that the best preachers should earn half million dollar salaries. Some of them aren't even that good at preaching, but their organizations have been around for years, and may be doing good works, so they're popular and people want to give. That doesn't mean the CEO should get rich off of it any faster than others who save and invest their entire lives in order to be able to retire and perhaps leave something to their kids, but not tens of millions of dollars. Bottom line, I don't want to designate funds to a ministry non-profit. They have all the money they need to 'reach the world' with their disaster relief, radio ministry, or whatever, and to make the leader megarich. They don't need my money.

As for a church, you never know how that church will turn out, possibly wasting it all. Or the pastor quits or dies, membership slacks off, and they close their doors. Not likely with a megachurch where the megapastor can easily be replaced by a host of candidates who would love the job, but churches of that size don't need my money either. The pastor's family is already set for life, for generations to come. Once financially secure with a couple million, they should be satisfied doing God's work, not become billionaires. At the same time, they get up in the pulpit and tell everyone else how they should volunteer. That irks me to no end. There was even a pastor who this weekend told the congregation that the PAID custodian can't manage all the work by himself anymore, so they want people to volunteer to help him.
So he still gets paid to mop the floor, but I don't get paid to scrub the toilets? What's up with that? Perhaps the custodian should save a few sinks and toilets for the pastor himself.

I once heard a story of a seminary professor who very emotionally said to his students, "some of you in this very room will cut your missions budget to build a Family Life Center." (gym, work out facility, etc.) I suppose he thinks church folk should buy a membership to Planet Fitness instead.