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Geek Charities?
Space Rogue writes: "Now that the holiday season is here and tax season is just around the corner, I am looking for worthy charities to donate some money to. I am specifically looking for 'geek' related charities. I know about the EFF but are there other worthy organizations that could put a few dollars to good use?
"
Try the helping.org charity search, you can search by interest area and location.
Without arguing the 'stupid' comment, I do strongly believe in 'efficient' charities. When 90% of the donations to an organization go towards advertising and administrative costs, I have to ask if I can do more good with my money.
On the other hand, precise quantification can be hard. AIDSride is often decried as inefficient, but often by folks who miss the benefit of the awareness raising that group has done. We could debate how important that is today, but it's certainly a factor in any discussion of efficiency.
Moreover, if you pushed for absolute highest efficiency, you'd probably end up only dontating to very small grass-roots organizations. While I don't think there's anything wrong with that, certain types of chartitable organizations, such as medical research organizations, aren't very effective unless they reach a critical mass. That doesn't a priori make them a bad choice.
That having been said, the vast majority of my charitable giving currently goes to BAMM: Bay Area Model Mugging, which is an excellent example of an efficient and effective small organization. Ignoring the inevitable jokes about mugging models, I've seen BAMM make a significant, positive difference in the lives of several folks around me, and believe that the difference it's made on those people have had a positive effect on my own life as well.
Which brings us back to why I do it, why I give. I give becaue it makes me feel good. I'm not religous, I don't expect repayment, I simply do it because, in the end, it feels good.
--Joe
I'm a nature photographer.
Jesus, what's wrong with Ethiopians and stuff?
KTB:Lover, Poet, Artiste, Aesthete, Programmer.
KTB:Lover, Poet, Artiste, Aesthete, Programmer.
There is no
You can also sign up for apply for a Charity Card - which allows you to donate online.
In my experience, it's the easiest and most tax-efficient way of giving to charity in the UK.
ooooooh! What does this button do? - DeeDee, Dexters Lab.
Sally Struthers Asks You to Save the Dot-Coms
How 'bout SUHDCB (Support for Unemployed Homeless Dot Com Burnouts).
Only six months ago they were living in luxury accommodation, driving Ferraris and eating and drinking in the finest restaurants and nightclubs. This Christmas many of them will be living in a cardboard 25" monitor box (if they are lucky...). While we can't offer the millions that the venture capitalists used to fund them with, we can help to make a difference to their lives.
Please give generously. (Any 25" monitor boxes welcome).
Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated up.
Obviously it depends on your personal preferences, but you could try:
the FSF: donate here
KDE: contacts here
other projects as you use them; e.g., netbsd, openbsd, Apache, XFree86.
Or just donate computers to Africa or somewhere.
Free Anne Tomlinson!!
Find a nearby ham radio club that actually does something like teach classes, visit schools, work with scouts, do disaster work, etc. They can always put money to good use like buying electronic kits for kids to build.
By your logic Microsoft is owned by NSI.
/.
Domain Name: MICROSOFT.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET
Name Server: DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET
Name Server: DNS7.CP.MSFT.NET
Name Server: DNS6.CP.MSFT.NET
Updated Date: 29-sep-2000
as are Red Hat and
Domain Name: REDHAT.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: NS2.REDHAT.COM
Name Server: NS1.REDHAT.COM
Updated Date: 13-nov-2000
Domain Name: SLASHDOT.ORG
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: NS1.ANDOVER.NET
Name Server: NS2.ANDOVER.NET
Updated Date: 08-feb-2000
All that the Registrar line says is who got paid to register that domain name. The information you posted only indicated to me that AOL registered their domain name and hosts the site. Now, as it happens they are affiliated with AOL as can be seen here.
_____________
I don't want free as in beer. I just want free beer.
(disclaimer - I am Computerbank's publicity officer :)
Computerbank is an Australian charity which recycles second hand computers, installs Debian on them, and gives them to people who would otherwise be unable to afford one.
We also provide a lot of training, covering both introductory system usage and more in-depth material for people hoping to get a shot at an IT career.
Computerbank has been existence for a couple of years, and is beginning to get some serious organisational momentum.
(see .sig for more info :)
Fixing copyright
The ethics of giving is a rarely considered subject. Generally, most donations are made irrationally, and often to satisfy the ego or personal preference of the donor.
Consider real ethical questions - if you were to donate $100, and if it were to save a life, would you instead give it to a school charity to buy a 17 inch monitor to replace a 15 inch one? Then comes the question of how you know you're really saving lives, or making a difference.
The sad thing is, people are pretty stupid. They give donations to charities which advertise on TV or which seem hip or trendy (thereby paying for the salaries of marketing execs who make a living off starving kids).
If you REALLY want to make a difference, why not spend a few minutes researching the subject (like you do with technical FAQs) and find out for yourself some tiny third world grass-roots organization that does genuine work, instead of the huge charities that are already well known and command millions in input revenue?
w/m
All in all I think it's a decent charity. I have a few others that I give to, but they don't accept computers as far as I know.
Mas vale cholo, que mal acompañado.
If you want to do something for an organization that is not a policy-based group (like EFF), may I suggest Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic? RFBD is a group in the United States which - using volunteer labor - records books and other written material so that blind and dyslexic people can have access to the same information. There are only 34 recording studios across the nation, usually in urban areas, and it requires a screening test and a weekly commitment to be a volunteer. However, RFBD is in desperate need of readers who can handle scientific and technical material. If you can't volunteer physically, they take cash too; they are starting to convert hundreds of thousands of audio tapes to CD-ROM and need to raise $35 million to do so and to upgrade the recording facilities. RFDB is the only organization that does this in the US. It is non-governmental and community based. If you care about giving back to the geek community in more than just a policy way, here's a way to help students and adults learn about technical subjects (as well as every other subject under the sun).