What particle do I use for the one who received the favour in -てくれる?

Question

In sentences with ～てくれる the one that do us a favour goes with は・が particle. Which particle do I have to use for the one who receives the favour? Can I use both に and を or only に? I've seen both. Is it wrong to use を?

• あなたはわたしを二度も救ってくれた。
  anata wa watashi o nido mo sukutte kureta.
  You saved me twice.  

• 父が僕を育ててくれた。
  chichi ga boku o sodatete kureta.
  I was raised by my dad.  

• 彼はいつでも僕たちにすばらしいアドバイスをしてくれた。
  kare wa itsudemo bokutachi ni subarashii adobaisu o shite kureta.
  He’s always given us great advice.

Why is に not used in the first two examples?

Answer 1

1) あなたはわたしを二度も救ってくれた。
2) 父が僕を育ててくれた。
3) 彼はいつでも僕たちにすばらしいアドバイスをしてくれた。

As for ～してくれる, the following explanation written in 道理百遍義理一遍's answer is correct.

The choice of particles has no relation with the fact that ～てくれる is used.

I'm going to answer the question about particles.

If you omit してくれる in the sentence 1), 2) and 3) and adjust the conjugation of them, they'd become like:

4) あなたはわたしを二度も救った。
5) 父が僕を育てた。
6) 彼はいつでも僕たちにすばらしいアドバイスをした。

Next, if you omit all the modifiers in the sentence 4), 5) and 6) and make them to the present tense, they'd become like:

7) あなたはわたしを救う。
8) 父が僕を育てる。
9) 彼は僕たちにアドバイスをする。

Among them, the sentence 9) is different from 7) and 8) in regard to their sentence structures. Let me call 7) and 8) type I, and 9) type II.

There are two types of verb. Each type of verb constructs its peculiar sentence structure like:

Type I : A(subject)は/が B(object)を C(type I verb)する。
Type Ⅱ : A(subject)は/が B(indirect object)に C(direct object)を D(type Ⅱ verb)する。

As for the sentence 7), 8) and 9), the verbs 救う and 育てる belong to type I, and する belongs to type Ⅱ.

In type Ⅱ sentence, it needs two objects and the indirect object needs a particle に, so に is inevitable in the sentence 9), while it is not used in 7) and 8).

I think you understand the reason of the existence of に only in the sentence 3).

Other than the verbs used in the given sentences, I'll show you some type I verbs and type Ⅱ verbs as follows:

type I verb: 愛｛あい｝す(love)、叱｛しか｝る(scold)、手伝｛てつだ｝う(help)、諦｛あきら｝める(give up)
type Ⅱ verb: 教｛おし｝える(teach)、あげる(give)、勧｛すす｝める(recommend)

Answer 2

The choice of particles has no relation with the fact that ～てくれる is used. More precisely, the sentence with the てくれる part have to make sense on its own. You can even see that if you drop the part with てくれる in all your example sentences the English translation remains the same.

Answer 3

I think that since くれる implies the action was done for you, or your group or whatever, it would be apparent in from context, and you don't typically need to say who it was done for. But if there were a reason that you wanted to specify, I think I would go with に. Or even ために

僕のためにやってくれた

...but then again, you could say

僕を助けてくれた

So, I don't know this to specifically be true, but I would say probably there is no stipulation as to which particle can or cannot be used with くれる. And, that it just has to do with the verb you're using.