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What Organizations Do You Contribute To?
Cymage asks: "I usually do my charitable contributions in December, and so I am looking at organizations to give to. I try to give to organizations with different areas of focus. Here are some of the ones I have given to in the past/am considering: Basic Needs (Atlanta) - Food Bank and St Vincent, Promoting Self-Sufficiency - Habitat and Heifer, and Digital Rights/Software - EFF, Mozilla, SourceForge, and BitTorrent. What other organizations, especially technical ones, do you give to and why?"
The Parents Television Counsel, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Business Software Alliance, Microsoft, Clear Channel, and several other groups.
I save my money.
why? because I care.
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
The Ronald McDonald House in particular is amazing. I followed another young girl with terminal cancer that, when she was discharged from the hospital with a week or two to live, said she'd rather live at the Ronald McDonald House for her last few weeks since she'd spent so much time there.
i don't really have much cash to give, being a college student.. but i do donate a lot of programmer time to projects. my current favorite is opendarwin. i try and port things whenever i get the time (which isn't often lately).
- tristan
I'd also recommend Spirit of America: whether or not you support the process by which we got involved in Afghanistan and Iraq, this is a terrific way of trying to get it to work out for the better.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
When my grandmother's brother passed away earlier this year, his immediate family started a scholarship fund at the local high school in Bolivar, NY that he had attended as a kid. They set the terms, and decided it would be an anonymous nomination process among the teachers based on a few criteria (work ethic, morals, etc) and would be handed out at graduation, unbeknownst to the recipient. The area isn't what I would call depressed, but it's no booming economy where everyone can afford to go off to college. The fund is small right now ($500/year handed out), but I'm hoping my whole family will contribute a little to it each year.
I'm willing to bet that a lot of high schools have similar funds for seniors. If not, starting one would be an excellent project and use of your charitable contributions. I think it's a great way to give something that helps locally (you'll see the results of your money) and will help further someone's education. As a side (and somewhat selfish) benefit, my grandmother, who is in her late 70's, doesn't really need more trinkets or useless crap laying around her house, so instead of presents some of us are contributing extra to the fund in her name.
--trb
No, not that BSA. The Boy Scouts of America.
CMDRTACO CHECK YOUR EMAIL!
The first thing I thought of when I saw the topic was "Microsoft -- the licensing comes due in December" but I missed on getting this tid-bit in first... I need to stop paying so much attention to my job and pay closer attention to /. so I don't miss such opportunities to post. Oh well...
I donate to the human fund, and I also skip gifts and instead donate to the human fund!
They help people, I think....
Even though I'm a libertarian, I still like to help people.
Here is the list of charities I've settled on. They are not 100% Pure Libertarian, but I think they honor the spirit of small-l libertarianism. These links are ALL tax-deductible.
cpeterso
I contribute to Debian because I enjoy backstabbing, political flamefests, being held up by the oversized rusty buttplugs worn by the managers and having patches rejected because they don't contain the term "GNU" frequently enough.
Oh, wait, no, that's why I stopped.
I usually drop in the coin change from when I buy something this time of year. Other than that, nothing.
I'm also looking to make my charitable contribution, but I'm not sure on the specifics (this is the first year I've had money enough to give). How do I know how much of a tax break I'm getting? What determines how much I can give? All the web resources I've checked out pretty much say "Talk to CPA", and I don't know any CPAs that will have that discussion for free. Any Slashdotters have any tips?
El riesgo vive siempre!
I only do things in my locality (due to travel time)
I refuse to give a penny to or have anything to do with abrahamics (judaism, christianity, & islam) as they cause enough misery without my help.
I only work about 20 hours a week and this keeps me really busy, I've become quite the handyman and good with filling out various forms for the local government.
You don't have to look far before you find something worthy your time and money and if you are the one spending the money you can be sure to it's going to good works... This week I swung by the local homeless shelter/kitchen & fixed some stuff, it cost me about 60 euros and about 8 hours work. No big deal... but makes an impact where I live and that gets me out of bed early in the mornings.
Oh... and because this is /. I should add that I fix a bunch of PC's for schools and temples around town... again no big deal but the recipients are appreciative.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
In my life, I've needed the help of a few organizations over the years, especially during those lean "underemployed" periods. Here in the New York metro area, a few standouts:
ChaiLifeline, which helps critically-ill Jewish children and their families. Truly a God-sent organization.
Tomchei Shabbos of Queens: Simply put, they give food to families that need it. Without questions.
Rather than focus on the techie organizations that get discussed here so often, look to your own community, and find those groups and organizations that truly help the needy. {Anonymous}
Humane society
If you're a gamer (or even if you're not) you should check out Child's Play. It's a charity set up by the Penny Arcade guys to give games and toys to kids in hospitals who need them.
Last year (the first year) they raised something like $250k and really did a lot of good for the hospitals.
It's a chance for gamers to show the community what we're really about instead of being stereotyped as violent misfits living in basements.
Search first, ask questions later.
If you appreciate noncommercial media, you may want to support them. If you live in the US, you are likely near a PBS television station and an NPR radio affiliate. If you're really lucky, you may have some excellent college radio stations or a Pacifica affiliate. I particularly enjoy KFJC and support them every year. Some broadcasters may not be actively soliciting funds during this period (KFJC for example has its yearly fund drive in October), but I'm sure they'd be willing to accept donations at any time.
-- $SIGNATURE
I try to run as many cost-free programs as possible on a day to day basis. I do try to donate some money when I can to them, as I know they put out a considerable amount of effort. I have no problem sending some money in for a program I find useful and is quality work.
Haven't put at my list together yet this year, but typically the guys at putty, Mozilla Foundation, OpenOffice.Org and a few others.
Even just a few extra dollars helps these and other projects out! Give what you can--or wait until the summer when you have more cash to spare. Donations work year round!
-m
http://www.invisik.com
The Salvation Army
The Goodwill Computer Store (semi-technical?)
The Ronald McDonald House
Some kids who don't have a dad around
Our church always helps 1-3 needy families (it's a small church)
A local veterans organization
The NRA
Blue or Brown Santa, or Toys for Tots
sometimes a local homeless group
You might consider having the homeless in for a meal
local boy, girl, cub, etc. scouts
pretty much any kid who shows up at our door selling something 8^/
groups that help those laid off (often high tech)
In the spirit of the original St. Nick, just helping anonymously with specific needs (layoffs, sick, dadless or momless, etc) is near the top of my list
-Evyl Abrahamic Type, apparently
... when you're a member of both the NRA and the ACLU.
Seriously. I think my junk mail gets in fights in my mail box.
First of all, giving should be year round. Odds are family obligations this time of year take a lot of your free cash. Even if you could give, it is sometimes a good idea to put a little extra into retirement accounts if you are not up to the yearly max. (See a professional for advice, and you need to consider your own situation) I'm not saying give to yourself first, but there are many reasons this should be a month where you might give less than normal. But only if there is a normal.
First of all, give blood if you can. The restrictions are so tough that most of you cannot, but for those who can, please give often! In the same note, make sure you have an organ donor card filled out with the state.
Next, check your charities. I refuse to give to the United Way because they spend so much on promotion. (nearly half the money you give them isn't spent on good causes) Unfortunately they do know the small causes that you should be giving to, so I can't say they are evil, just I don't like them. Don't give to them unless you are at a loss for anything else to give to.
I give to Ducks Unlimited every spring when their fund raiser comes up.
Every time I get groceries give $3 to the local food shelf. (my local store will add that onto my bill, or they have a collection point at the exit for foods I buy) It isn't much, but it adds up. (disclaimer, I just started this, my goal is to make this last though)
My local electric co-op rounds all my bills up to the nearest dollar. That $6/year all goes to charity, and I don't even notice. Suggest your utilities do the same.
I'm not going to cover what others have said. The important part is to find what works for you, and then do it.
To err is human. To really foul things up requires the root password.
How much will you save on taxes? Roughly your tax percentage times your donations. For instance, if you are buying a home, have kids and give a fair amount to charity, your real tax rate might be around 10% (taxes owed / gross income / 100). In this case, your tax benefit is 10% of whatever you give. IOW, if you donate $5,000, you will pay roughly $500 less in taxes. If your real tax rate is 33%, you'd pay almost $1,700 less in taxes. If you're poor enough that you don't owe any tax, you obviously don't have any tax savings (the government won't give you money for helping other people).
userfriendly.org
;-)).
They have the BEST premiums...plus it's a good thing to do. How many comic strip artists publish with O'Reilly?
Illiad is awesome. (I am in no way affiliated with User Friendly, I'm just a fangirl
~
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." -Emerson
Article
For instance, in its fiscal year ending on June 30, 2002, the American National Red Cross spent $1.16 billion on employee salaries. Spending on actual disaster relief assistance for individuals was only $608 million. Of that, $479 million was for Sept. 11 assistance. This spending occurred only after the media put loads of heat on the organization. During the preceding fiscal year (the one ending on June 30, 2001), the Red Cross spent $1.04 billion on employee salaries and only $149 million on actual assistance for individuals.
Despite all this seemingly damning evidence, Charity Navigators gives the Red Cross a four-star rating, largely because of the organization's financial strength (which after a point, becomes more of a negative than a positive in my view). This is why I think doing your own research is highly advisable, especially if you're contemplating major gifts.
Personally, if you wanted to help through the Red Cross, I'd suggest giving blood instead.
The sending of this message pretty much inconveniences everyone involved.
If I get a phone call during normal supper time, I won't give to that charity unless it is one I REALLY care about. Especially if they are rude to me. A couple months ago I got a call from a Firefighters charity at 6:00pm, just as I was sitting down to dinner. I politely told the individual I was not interested but before I could finish, they hung up on me. They won't be seeing any of my money.
Recently the news reported that the local police were hiring a private group to collect donations door to door for their TIPS program (get cash rewards for helping to catch criminals). The company was taking 70% of what was donated, leaving a measly 30% for the actual fund. They won't be seeing my money either.
When a charity comes to the door, I'll usually ask for documentation on how much of my donation will actually go to the cause. If they can't provide, or tell me where to get it, I won't donate.
Charity begins at home, so most of my monetary donations go to Austin First United Methodist Church. I also volunteer in their homeless ministries, and in renovating houses around the Austin area.
It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.
I don't agree with the war, but support the folks fighting it.
I give to my church (the local Christian & Missionary Alliance) and I give to the Salvation Army.
You are attempting to read sigs. Cancel or Allow?
Once upon a time, the NRA received dues from me, it took only one major election cycle to notice that they are merely shills for the Republican and Democrat parties. Libertarians are, how can I put this politely..., a freaking thorn in their side. What's the one thing that would bankrupt the NRA? Actual enforcement of the Bill of Rights! Then the NRA would have to go back to being a marksmanship club. Boo Hoo!
So I went looking for a more focused rights-oriented, rather than money oriented, organization and found Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership who didn't care a bit about my Jewishness. Their _Grandpa Jack_ book series is excellent.
And, of course, money to Debian for the best Linux distribution on earth.
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
Doctor's Without Borders. Can't go wrong with a Nobel Prize winner.
Make sure you know your state's rules on organ donation too! In New York State, that little card means nothing. Your next-of-kin gets to make the final say, and usually they have to make this decision at a very difficult time, so make sure they know your choice!
As for other states or countries, it's up to you to find out the procedure.
A few years ago I decided to only give to organizations that deal with people in need. So out went the WWF and Greenpeace. I now give to Amnesty International, the salvation Army, The Dutch heart Foundation (I have a heart desease myself so I feel I get the mony back when I go to hospital again), MSF and a Dutch foundation that helps people who are mentally handicapped.
-- Cheers!
Most of my money goes to the Feed Kano Foundation. Food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and the various other needs of myself take so much of my money that I don't have enough for anything else.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
No one else mentioned this fine organization which also has an entertaining newsletter: The Freedom from Religion Foundation http://www.ffrf.org/ is committed to keeping the boundaries between church and state.
I will reiterate aboout Heifer International; they do good work.
Because I'm a cold hearted, selfish bastard.
[joking!]
[sort of...]
I'm of the opinion that most Americans are far too indebted to even consider charitable donation. They should take care of that first, and then donate later when they don't have interest charges knocking down their door.
They then have more money for themselves, meaning they're less likely to need philanthopy, and more able to give it.
Hey, you asked...
Doctors Without Borders.
Our family tithes to our home congregation, and I support the local Pregnancy Care Center, which offers alternatives to abortion and counseling for sufferers of Post Abortion Trauma.
We also support a little girl in Ecuador, who happens to be the same age as our youngest son. This is through an organization called Compassion.
LMAO! It's posts like this that make me wish I had mod points. Might I wager you're a libertarian?
Being vegan, I have a few problems with Heifer. Sending livestock to people in 3rd world countries is really dumb. You need to grow a significant amount of grains to feed livestock, which can be just as easily used for human consumption. Livestock is just not ideal for these kinds of economies.
Success is as dangerous as failure, hope as hollow as fear.
This year I gave to:
TightVNC
Vim
Jpilot
Mozilla
KDE
I've used these products for years (at work too) and realized I really needed to pay them back for the tremendous functionality they've given me to do my job.
I even sent money to dpreview since the content is so excellent I really wanted to pay for it (haven't bought yet, so couldn't use their linked retailers).
Several I would've liked to give to but giving money wasn't available or wasn't easy (paypal): fedora, pine, jpluck, xawtv, mplayer, xmms, grip, lame, EFF, Perl...
Besides supporting your favorite projects, you sometimes also get a hotline into the developer, and/or priority feature requests!
Money is nice... but if you can do it, donate your time. This is something that I wish I did more of. Its easy to give money, but your time is more valuable to many charaties.
As for money gifts, ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), Big Brother, Big Sister.
If the tax deductions ended today, would you still give? Many wouldn't. And if they don't end, do you give completely anonymously? Why not?
This group is not about evangelizing. It's about getting down and dirty in the political process to effect real change. I am working on securing dedicated funding for public transportation in Minnesota. I have been amazed by what this group does. Immigration reform, brownfields cleanup, affordable housing, domestic violence -- the list just goes on. The Gamaliel Foundation has affiliates all over the country. Consider donating money, or even better, time to their work.
Seriously! Where do you think the DVD-CCA gets their funding? From that LOTR box set you had to have! If you think what happened to Jon was wrong, stop throwing money at the machine that made it happen. Is hollywood's entertainment worth the society it creates?
This is why I've never purchased a DVD with CCS or region coding, and don't plan to ever do so. (They're a great way to store data.) If you can't kick the DVD habit, at least give a few bucks to the EFF each time you indulge.
How about the RIAA? Find some indie bands who don't feed the monster. I've discovered that small concerts (under 500 people are so) are not only more fun than 10,000 idiots in a sports arena, but the small venues generally have better acoustics.
Maybe your niece really wants the latest teen pop CD for x-mas. Fine, but bundle it with some weird cool music. You never know what might happen.
As for Clear Channel, what radio stations do you listen to? They sell your ear-time. Stop buying from their advertisers if you can help it. Discover the kickass late-night program on the local station.
As for the BSA and Microsoft, I'm sure we all understand the basics here, but seriously consider it. Are you supporting the noncommercial projects you value? Have your contributions this year outweighed that XP license your uncle bought?
Taking this logic to its natural conclusion would seem to imply that all of us (individuals, businesses, charities, universities, Catholic Church, etc.) should immediately divest ourselves of all material wealth and donate all our assets to less advantaged people. After all, feeding 100 hungry africans for a year on my salary surely deserves a higher priority than feeding me alone for a year, right?
The problem here is that of the age old parable about giving a man a fish vs. teaching him how to fish. As an extreme example, in the above hypothetical situation it would be far better for me to keep at least (say) half my salary to feed myself and use the other half to support 50 starving people for a year, since this way I get to survive for the year and earn income next year and over the long run do more good than if I just die from starvation. I'm not saying I actually do this, but the point is that, even if your goal is poverty eradication, it is perfectly rational to prioritize wealth-generating activities above direct relief activities on the grounds that the former will relieve more poverty in the long run.
I will grant that many people do donate to special interest organizations purely out of self interest, but that's no reason to tar all donors with the same brush. There are many who genuinely believe that digital free speech rights, for example, would lead to an economic boom in the first world rivalling that of the industrial revolution. If this really is true, then donating to the EFF is really a no brainer, even from a save-the-world point of view: by supporting such an agenda, you are hoping to bring about more increase in world prosperity than can ever be achieved by the direct relief route.
Now, you may not agree with this logic in this particular case, but over the global sweep of time, the chances are very good that one or another of these unforseen ideas (not necessarily this specific one) really will bring about another economic revolution, and so it is probably in your interest to support such diversity of opinion, because no individual person can possibly be expected to judge accurately where the next such wellspring of economic wealth is likely to originate.
Luckily, the IRS agrees with my viewpoint that diversity of opinion as to what constitutes a public charity is a good thing: the legal eligibility rules for 501(c)3 public charities do not restrict membership solely to organizations that specialize in direct relief activities. Some amount of special interest activities are allowed, although excessively special interests (such as political action committees) are excluded.
At my (public school) campus, religious groups get only $300 a year from the University and the rest has to be made in donations. Because of the students' lack of money, it is hard to ask them for donations.
I suggest going to your almamater and donating a few hundred dollars to your campus ministry, Chabad, or Hillel. With tight budgets, religious organizations provide cost effective and selfless support to many students.
I give to Hospice as much as I can during the year. Hospice provides support and compassionate care for the terminally ill and their families.
"Eat drywall, demon!" Alice - Dilbert
Simple, lightweight organization, mostly locally run and administered.
Sean Ellis
Follow OfQuack's antics on Twitter.
And you'd be correct there.
Nice thing about working for my company (Juniper Networks) is that they'll match (most) any charitable donation up to $1000/yr. A lot of companies do this, so be sure to find out if yours does too.
Anyways, each year I give to the EFF (should be obvious why) and Ducks Unlimited (www.ducks.org) who help protect America's wetlands.
There are a few recycling-refurbishing programs here in the bay area who could use the support of a few extra geekbucks.... besides mine... including:
I happen to be the director of the project....but I would still say it was a fabulous project to support! We recently guided 47 5th grade students through the program and sent them home with 7xxx or beige G3 level computers that had been slated to be scrapped. The kids are elated and their teachers are now able to ask for their typing, written work, spelling and math reinforcement to be practiced at home.
What about the FSF or GNU project. Seem opbvious to me.
1. The Libertarian Party
I donate money to these guys... yearly dues + the occassional one-off donation to help a particular project.
2. Civietown Volunteer Fire Department.
I was an active member of this VFD from about 1989 through 2000, during which time I held every position from "probie" to acting fire chief, and led the department in "calls answered" in 1999 while serving as assistant chief. I spent more hours than I care to recall conducting training meetings, working on equipment, filling out paperwork, answering calls, helping with fundraisers, going to county comissioners meetings to beg for money, etc, etc.
I have sinced moved out of their area, but I am still on the roster, and keep a set of turnout gear in my car, and answer calls when I'm down in the area visiting or on vacation or whatever. I miss being active in the fire service, but I don't miss getting up at 3:00 in the morning, when it's 10 degrees outside, to drive to the fire station to answer yet another false activation of some automatic alarm.
3. I intend to start giving more to groups like the EFF and FSF, when I get out of debt.
// TODO: Insert Cool Sig
The cool part, is that Computerbank use open source software to do their work.
They are running an auction over at eBay for a "warm fuzzy feeling."