View Full Version : Favorite Charities?
Just wanted to run this out--thought it might be interesting. Personally, I really like Habitat for Humanity and Heifer International. My only issue with Habitat is that the fairly aggressively spam their contributors with junk mail.
Both of these also seem consistent with the FI framework--helping people cover the basics and develop a framework so that they can continue to cover their needs into the future.
I support my local Community Foundation, libraries, park-and-recreation departments, schools, early childhood education, the local medical centers, 4H, local environmental groups, direct action "eco-terrorist" groups, the Seattle PAL, and so on. I'm also very fond of Heifer and Nothing But Nets.
I too support many local charities and efforts with both time and money. I'm no longer a big believer in Habitat. My main non-local charity is Kiva.org; I have two or three dozen loans outstanding at any given time, and have never had anyone default.
iris lily
1-31-11, 10:00pm
My mom died and left some money and I"m enjoying giving some of it away. I gave 10% to my local park conservancy for restoration of one of the statues in our neighborhood park.
Also on my list are:
public library's building fund
Dance St. Louis
Art Museum's building fund
this web site
Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee
local bulldog rescue
I'm not very interested in national organizations or do gooder organizations that benefithumans, that's just not my thing. Arts and animals, that's what I like.
Don't like people. grrrr, frown. Need valium.
Thanks, this thread reminded me to send email to NPR and our local affiliate station to tell them I won't be donating this year due to their CEO's action last fall with Juan Williams. I'm boycotting NPR giving for 12 months and it's too bad for them, they won't get any of my mom's windfall money. Just more for Elephant Sanctuary.
I like animal charities, too, Iris Lily, and those that preserve nature. We also give to our church (which supports the local food pantry, some international orphanges, and community members who have fallen on hard times) and send care packages to the troops via Any Soldier. We try help local people directly, too, if they have a need that we can fulfill. Lately I've been considering sponsoring a child through Compassion. I guess I strive for a mix between local charities within the community and those that are on a more national/international scale. I see value in both.
I give to local animal rescues like MEOW and NOAH, and a Portland group that builds fences to liberate chained dogs (what is wrong with people?!) called Fences for Fido. Also to Operation Helmet, Planned Parenthood, and occasionally Doctors Without Borders and Nature Conservancy.
IshbelRobertson
2-1-11, 5:33pm
I give to Save the Children, Oxfam and a number of local cancer charities. I use a debit payment each month to 6 different charities.
Bulk of donation to local branch of the Salvation Army who are amazing in their work, church, TVO (public tv), and small amounts to local charities like the Humane Society. Little Theatre and Community Foundation.
I make an effort to attend productions of the theatres around southern Ontario to support drama, ballet, etc and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Sometimes longtime subscribers like me are the base of support or I like to believe that anyway. The cost of travel to attend is what I might donate though.
My favorites are my church, a privately run Philadelphia homeless shelter, the SPCA, Kitty Cottage (a no-kill shelter), the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Salvation Army, Goodwill, and RBC, an organization that publishes and mails out a daily devotional at no charge and doesn't bug the daylights out of anyone for donations.
I've dropped charities for sending lots of junk mail, Heifer among them. I got really annoyed with their frequent mailing of catalogs.
Locally I support St. Vincient de Paul, the Catholic charity. They are very active with the homeless, affordable housing, food boxes, etc.
Our church (LDS) has Humanitarian Services http://lds.org/service/humanitarian/church?lang=eng that helps people all over the whole world (members & nonmembers alike). The often team up with other churches so work will not be duplicated.
One charity that I like which I didn't see mentioned above is the Environmental Working Group. They have published some very useful consumer product guides, to personal care products and sunscreen; they also regularly update the "dirty dozen" produce list, data on tap water, cell phone radiation, etc.
http://www.ewg.org/
Salvation Army, SPCA, Wildlife Federation, WarAmps, local school fundraisers, local Museum.
One charity that I've conistently helped is my college library electonics fund. I suppose these days most students have computers, but friends who use the library say that folks line up to use the library computers. Second would be PBS. I like these on the teach a man to fish vs give a man a fish theory. I have several outstanding loans to Kiva.org and since these always (so far) get paid back I'm not sure if it qualifies as a charity, but it is a really fun way to lend money. The National Federation for the Blind has helped a family member and they are on the list. The Nature Conservancy is my pick for environmental contributions. Rather than focus on one certain aspect, animal group, or area, they seem to be mostly involved in preserving species diversity around the globe. Oh, and I buy a state hunting license and federal duck stamps annually even though I rarely hunt these days. State divisions of wildlife are involved in all sorts of non-game species conservation these days and seem to struggle a little with the decline in younger generation hunters.
Thanks, this thread reminded me to send email to NPR and our local affiliate station to tell them I won't be donating this year due to their CEO's action last fall with Juan Williams. I'm boycotting NPR giving for 12 months and it's too bad for them, they won't get any of my mom's windfall money. Just more for Elephant Sanctuary.
Iris, you can give to your local affiliate station with the specification of where the $$ is to go - like local programming - if you still want to give to public radio.
I support the local rescue mission on a monthly basis as well as a golden retriever rescue. I wish I had more money to give; there are lots of worthy charities out there.
World Vision ( I have 2 little boys there) KIVA, and my local church.
Iris, you can give to your local affiliate station with the specification of where the $$ is to go - like local programming - if you still want to give to public radio.
nope, sorry, the local affiliates need to put pressure on Schiller to resign because she is bad for their bottom line.
For ten years I funded a scholarship at my alma mater for single parent nursing students.
For past ten years or so I give anonymous cash donation to single parent that I personally know that is in need.(different individuals)
In past, have given to Habitat for Humanity (and worked on houses) United Way, Red Cross, Amnesty International, Heifer International,PBS, Catholic Charities, Goodwill, Friends International (Quaker) and others, but have become disillusioned with the junk mail/spam/hounding of givers, plus not having control on how the money is spent...there is so much waste....
About 10% of my charity budget goes to things for my hospice patients and their families. Whatever I perceive is needed. Anything from diapers for the baby to worm medication for the dog, to cigarettes for a homeless patient. (Yeah, flame me...it was his last pleasure left.)
early morning
2-13-11, 7:36pm
PBS, NPR, World-Vision, Doctors w/o Borders, local causes, museums and shelters, Planned Parenthood until they spammed me to death.
Gardenarian
2-24-11, 6:48pm
Unicef, Audubon, Doctors without Borders, Red Cross, Greenpeace, and my local environmental group.
Planned Parenthood just moved to the top of my list. Doctors without Borders, Unicef. I don't have a lot of cash to hand out so I try to volunteer.
ACLU
Amnesty International
Southern Poverty Law Center
Center for Ethical Leadership
Washington Ceasefire
Women's Funding Alliance
Planned Parenthood
Stephens College
2 local animal shelters, a human rights group I used to run and the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA)/Veterans group. I avoid all national charities except ALBA.
rodeosweetheart
2-25-11, 11:40pm
We give to church, Self Realization Fellowship, and sponsor a child's schooling in South America via achurch school. Just gave money to Smile Train that can do a cleft palate surgery for 250 dollars.
Smile Train. They offer free cleft repair to millions of children in developing countries. My son was born with cleft lip/palate, and we are lucky that he has had the best of care from Seattle Children's Hospital. Many people around the world are not so lucky, and have to live as outcasts in their community because they haven't been able to get this simple, yet life altering surgery.
Iris, you can give to your local affiliate station with the specification of where the $$ is to go - like local programming - if you still want to give to public radio.
Oh good show, Shiller is gone. Now I can write a check to NPR for some of my mom's money. Recently I had written to both NPR and my local affiliate to tell them that I was not donating for one year or until Virginial Shiller is gone and it was too bad that they'd be missing out on mom money.
It would be nice if the brass there would pull their heads out of their collective *sses.
And now William Shiller is saying that all of the clap trap he was sprewing at the lunch that was caught on tape was neither reflective of NPR values or his own views. One word for him: Liar.
Someone needs to kick some sense into NPR leadership or they will doom the thing.
The Storyteller
3-11-11, 11:12am
Friends of the Library
The local food bank
http://www.ikat.org/
My two favorites are PLAN International (a non-denominational charity for children in poor communities throughout the world) and the Human Kindness Foundation (www.humankindness.org), which primarily assists incarcerated persons use their time in prison as an opportunity for spiritual growth and the eradication of selfishness and meanness.
iris lily
3-17-11, 11:13pm
This is a small rant.
Today I had my check written and in an envelope ready to mail to my local NPR affiliate. I needed their address. You would not believe the number of places I had to look to find it:
Looked 2 places in phone book white pages
looked in the yellow pages
They are not listed in the phone book at all.
So, I went to their website, the donor page of their website. There is no address on their donor page, it's full of ways to donate except for the way I want to donate: send a check. You'd think they'd have a small box saying Send your Check to xxx address.
Finally I found their mailing address on their "contact us" page.
I remember having similar problems in finding Wampler's address on his old web site. I am a simple woman, I just want to mail a check. I don't want to fill out an online form, I don't want to choose premiums, I just want to put it in the mail.
Please do not make it so hard to send the money.
rosarugosa
3-19-11, 9:23pm
Smile Train. They offer free cleft repair to millions of children in developing countries. My son was born with cleft lip/palate, and we are lucky that he has had the best of care from Seattle Children's Hospital. Many people around the world are not so lucky, and have to live as outcasts in their community because they haven't been able to get this simple, yet life altering surgery.
Anne, That's definitely one of my favorites too. My baby sister was born with a cleft palate (she is 48 now), and she had such a brilliant surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital, that I didn't really even get what the big deal was, until I met a young man about 15 years ago who did not have benefit of such a brilliant surgeon. They are running a lot of magazines ads these days, and those pictures get me right where I live. My employer matches us at 50% for human service related charitable contributions (with no upper limit I might add), so this organization is at the top of my list for my employer-sponsored charitable giving. My sister is a beautiful woman, and I shudder to think of what her fate might have been given a different set of circumstances.
flowerseverywhere
3-28-11, 4:21pm
I was asked to give a donation today to a non profit that my neighbor works at. I decided to research it and found out that the CEO is making over $600,000 a year, and there are multiple officers making over $250,000. I declined and told the asker why. I have started to research charities and if this is the case I don't give. My top line is that anyone in the company can't make more than twice as much as DH and I did in our top earning years when we were both working overtime as professionals.
I have been buying extra groceries when I have good coupons and drop them off at the local volunteer food bank- I don't use many prepared foods but when the chips are down a nice can of ravioli or soup can be very helpful. so many people are out of work or underemployed I hope it helps someone get through a tough time. My favorite charity is my local library. I give money with the instructions it must be used for books or magazines. I don't care which ones.
My favorite charity is World Vision and I am a Child Ambassador for them. We sponsor three girls through WV (1 from Ethiopia, 1 from Zambia, and 1 from Guatemala). As a Child Ambassador I carry around child sponsorship folders and tell people about all the benefits of being a child sponsor. I absolutely love it. I can't afford to sponsor more than 3 kids at this time, so being a Child Ambassador allows me to help out more children without going broke. WV spent 85% of their income last year on the programs, only 5% went to management expenses. They also support other areas of need such as micro-financing, emergency aid relief, World Food Program, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, protection for trafficked children, and much more.
I also have just started contributing to Kiva.org, which is an amazing organization that facilitates donors lending very small amounts of money (in $25 increments) to people in developing nations to start businesses. You go on the website and search for profiles of people who want to establish or expand their small businesses. The entrepreneur posts how much of a loan they need (anywhere from $150 to $5,000) and donors from all over the world pitch in whatever they want towards the loan. When enough donors have contributed to the entrepreneur, a local microlending body issues the loan and the entrepreneur is then on the hook to invest the money in his/her business and pay the loan back over time. When the loan is repaid, you can choose to get your money back or simply loan it to another entrepreneur, or to the same entrepreneur again if he or she wishes to continue to expand the business.
I learned of this organization from a show broadcast on the Halogen network (on cable) called "Penny Revolution," which shows how a very small amount of money can make an incredible difference in the life of one person and their family/community. In my case, I contributed towards a loan of about $1500 to a woman in Azerbaijan who wanted to expand her retail shop to the point where she could sell things besides the tea sets she was limited to, due to a lack of money to invest in more diverse inventory. About twenty different people from all over the world contributed to her loan, and it felt SO great to get an update from Kiva when her loan had been funded! I can't wait to see further progress updates about her business...she was displaced in the '90s during the Nagorno-Karabakh (sp?) civil war, and has been struggling for some time to support her husband and children.
I find Kiva.org to be a great method of really helping people connect in real-life, real-time ways. Sometimes I can't grasp issues that are so massive, like world hunger, clean water, refugees, epidemics, and so on...they are so big they are almost paralyzing, and it is hard to feel one person can do anything at all. But with things like Kiva.org and child sponsorship, you develop a relationship with a person and know how your money is actually serving a purpose. And spending time in local volunteer capacities is also extremely rewarding...in those cases, you get to meet the people yourself!
janharker
8-12-11, 12:59pm
Ditto on Kiva.
dado potato
8-12-11, 6:05pm
I include Heifer International in my giving (generally once a year in December). I believe what they say about what they do with donations.
And Salvation Army... there but for fortune go you or I. "Blood and Fire!"
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