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

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.

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.
  

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...

[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.