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?"

Comments

I give to

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

OpenBSD

[nocomment]

why? because I care.

Charities

[Ratbert42]

After a friend of my daughter went through surgery and radiation for a brain tumor, I donate to:

• Ronald McDonald House
• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
• Caringbridge

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.

Re:Charities

[Neon Spiral Injector]

Of course Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity.

time == money?

[OmniVector]

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).

A few

[Otter]

I was a Sierra Club member for a while, before getting disgusted with the way they exploit general political divisions to fire up their base -- whipping a hysterical jihad against Republicans probably is lucrative for them, but I have no interest in supporting their fairy tales about arsenic. Instead, I've shifted my donations to focused environmental groups: things like the National Coalition for Marine Conservation or SPNI's endangered species restoration.

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.

Family scholarship

[(trb001)]

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

libertarian-friendly charities?

[cpeterso]

Even though I'm a libertarian, I still like to help people. ;-) But where are the libertarian-friendly, tax-deductible charity organizations? Libertarians talk about how private charities would be more beneficial and efficient than bloated gub'mint bureaucracies, but many of the libertarians don't put their money where their mouth is.

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.

• The ACLU Foundation is the arm of the American Civil Liberties Union that conducts its litigation and communication efforts. ACLU Foundation is tax-deductible, but the ACLU is NOT tax-deductible.
  
  
• The American Red Cross offers domestic disaster relief; community services that help the needy; support and comfort for military members and their families; the collection, processing and distribution of lifesaving blood and blood products; educational programs that promote health and safety; and international relief and development programs.
  
  
• The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) provides effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals through national programs in humane education, public awareness, government advocacy, shelter support, and animal medical services and placement.
  
  
• Amnesty International undertakes research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination.
  
  
• The Cato Institute seeks to broaden public policy debate to include the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets, and peace.
  
  
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation works to protect fundamental rights regardless of technology; to educate the press, policymakers and the general public about civil liberties issues related to technology; and to act as a defender of those liberties.
  
  
• The Nature Conservancy preserves the plants, animals, and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive through land acquisition and conservation easements.
  
  
• The Rainforest Action Network campaigns for the forests, their inhabitants, and the natural systems that sustain life by transforming the global marketplace through grassroots organizing, education, and non-violent direct action.
  
  
• Trickle Up helps the lowest income people worldwide take the first step up out of poverty, by providing conditional seed capital and business training essential to the launch of a microenterprise.
  

Debian

[keesh]

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.

Noncommercial Broadcasters

[antizeus]

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.

You get the *strangest* combination of junk mail

[jkujawa]

... 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.

Year round

[bluGill]

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.

before you donate to the Red Cross...

[snooo53]

There's an article in Smart Money about the Red Cross that doesn't paint a pretty picture. Here is an excerpt...

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.

Re:before you donate to the Red Cross...

[cpeterso]

The Better Business Bureau's give.org charity reports web site says Red Cross CEO Marsha Johnson Evans' base salary is $450,000 and former American Red Cross CEO Dr. Bernadine Healy received total compensation of $1,921,913 (which includes a $1,569,630 severance)!! I know some charities offer high salaries because "executive-quality" people can find high paying jobs elsewhere, paying THAT much for a charity does not project a good image. >:\

Re:before you donate to the Red Cross...

[Joe5678]

I would have to guess that the billion dollars isn't spent on people sitting around counting money, but on people out doing charitable work.

charitynavigator lists Program Expenses at 91.1% of their budget, this amount includes both material costs of doing their work, as well as labor. Administration Expenses is 5.2%, which isn't great considering their budget, it's probably justified.

What you have found is merely sensational journalism (probably not even journalism) that is expressing the statistics in a way they need to make their story.

The Red Cross isn't made up of volunteers, so they do in fact need to pay the people doing the work.

USO

[jhines]

I don't agree with the war, but support the folks fighting it.

Re:Who I give money to

[superyooser]

These are NOT charities! What you listed are highly partisan political organizations.

I'm seeing people list a lot of special interest, activist organizations pushing political agendas. Instead of relief organizations like Samaritan's Purse and Operation Blessing, I'm seeing Mozilla and Pacifica Radio?? (I just reloaded the comments, and there are more real charities listed now.) Look, I'm a member of SpreadFirefox.com, and I'm glad there is alternative media, but give me a break! What about the sick, the poor, the hungry? What about the oppressed, the persecuted, the abused? How about some priorities? There are a lot of people in the world who need your donations more than the lawyers at the ACLU and Stallman's cronies at the EFF.