Donating my winnings, but need to keep a bankroll

[bostondave]

As a New Year's Resolution, I've decided to donate my poker winnings to charity. I play poker for fun, not for the money, and there's enough other people out there who need help. So my plan is that every month, I pick a charity, and whatever I made that month goes to the charity. I figure, though, that I should keep some for bankroll-management purposes. How much should I keep? Details:

I play online in .25/.50 NL games, sometimes going up to .50/1 NL, and low (5+1 or 10+1) NL Hold 'em tournaments. I also play a weekly home-game with a $10 single-table tourney followed by a .25/.50 NL cash game. Over the past 3 months, I've averaged about $15/week in the home game. I have only been keeping track of my online winnings since 11/1, but I've turned $50 into $900 in that time, counting bonuses and winning a $5+1 MTT last night (first time in the money in a MTT!!). I realize that I've been running very (and unsustainably) good online, but I think it's fair to say I'm a winning player (at least at those limits). Ideally, I'd like to to move up in limits eventually, but I don't want to be limiting myself to giving $5/month to charity.

So my question is: Does anybody have any ideas of how much I should keep? I was thinking of either keeping x% of my winnings, and donating the rest, keeping $y, and donating everything over that, or setting my bankroll at $z, and donating anything that I have over that...if I have a losing month, then there would be no donations until I get back above my "floor". I don't know if any of these ideas are reasonable, or what x/y/z should be, but I'd be very interested in any and all ideas. If someone else has done something like this, how has it worked out? I'm going to cross-post this in the Poker Theory forum...moderators, if that's a bad thing, please remove the post.

Thanks in advance for your help!

-Dave

[cbfair]

Way to go! this is a very laudable goal. You might try giving half of the proceeds every time you double-up or $50 every time you make $100.

What are your favorite charities?

[AncientPC]

Set a $1,000 BR mark.

At the end of each month, if you are up net donate half of all profits. If you are down, add half as a negative credit towards your donation amount.

You want to keep your bankroll growing to weather those bad streaks and to still be able to climb up in stakes.

[AKQJ10]

That sounds like an idea that i would try if (1) I were playing at high enough limits often enough to have substantial winnings and (2) if i weren't taking time off from the workforce to figure out what i want to do with my life. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

I'm curious, have you thought about the opposite: making a living off poker and "donating" the discretional time that you used to spend on poker via volunteer work? Probably too radical a step for most of us, me included, but i say this because (1) often orgs need good manpower more than they need financial resources, and (2) volunteering gives you the chance to get to know an organization up-close. Ah well, it's just a thought....

If you're interested in tiny faith-based nonprofits co-led by 2+2 members, i'd be happy to get you our info.... /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[flapgreen]

We need more people like this in the world. It definitely feels better to give than receive.

[bostondave]

Thanks for all the replies...I'll try to cover them all here:

I've done a lot of fundraising/volunteering with The ALS Family Charitable Foundation (http://www.alsfamily.org). Two of my family members died from ALS, so I've seen the effects first-hand. I also started my donations a month early, and sent a donation to the Red Cross today to try to help w/the tsunami victims in Asia. I think I'm going to keep ALS as my "base" organization, but if something happens (like the earthquake/tsunamis), I'll divert for a month or two. Who knows...I'm playing it by ear...others I'm interested in are St. Jude's, various homeless shelters around Boston, and I'm looking for a "back to work" type program - something like a shelter, but instead of just being a stopgap, helps homeless people get back on their feet.

AK, I gave brief thought to your idea, but there's two things preventing it: (1) my fiancee would kill me, and (2) I don't have the attention span...3-4 hrs is about my limit...not enough to "go pro". Poker's a hobby/challenge for me, not a big source of income. As for your nonprofit, I'd definitely be interested in learning more...PM me. Tiny orgs often do the best work because they're run by people who actually care...I've done too much work with orgs run by people just interested in boosting their resumes...

Flap, thanks for the kind words /images/graemlins/grin.gif

I think my plan is going to be (if this is a dumb idea, please tell me....I'd hate to run out of bankroll and not be able to give any money to the charities): Start with my $900. Every month, 70% of the winnings go to charity. If I dip below $750, then it becomes 50% until I get back over $900. I think this gives the best combination of getting-money-to-the-organizations-immediately and building-a-bankroll-for-bigger-contributions-later (assuming I win more as I move up in levels.

Again, all thoughts/ideas are welcome and very much appreciated. I'm pretty new at this /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Deathbear]

[ QUOTE ]
We need more people like this in the world. It definitely feels better to give than receive.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe he's doing it to get a tax return instead of owing /images/graemlins/grin.gif