Season's Givings?

DevanJedi asks: "Many people around the world plan their charitable giving around this time of the year, for religious, tax or other similarly benevolent reasons. As a geek who spends an inordinate amount of time around his computer, I have compiled a list of entities that have made my geek life easier, in the past year. Which other projects does Slashdot believe to be worthy of praise, money, recognition, developer time or general applause?"

Comments

Food banks

[Barkley44]

I find food banks are the best place to donate, especially in food form (instead of cash). Canned foods last well into the new year and many people benefit from the meals they provide - either peopel directly getting the food, or food banks preparing the food. We try to run such events every few months around our area. One time we went to make a large donation and the food bank had just 1 can of food left (for a city of 18,000 people). A lot of people don't realize how much a few $$ worth of food can go towards helping other people out.

Re:Food banks

[Anonymous Coward]

I know in my area, most people forget the food bank collects money. There's always a lot of "Free with food donation" concerts and such, or food drives at the gorcery stores, even on busses, but it never gets mentioned that the food banks need money too.

In addition to the reasons for cash you mentioned above, food banks are often needting to by perishables , such as milk, eggs, bread, meat, cheese and so on, in addition to whatever it's short of at any given time. Money is often invaluable to a food bank.

My annual donation to the food bank is always in cash.

Be unselfish

[ishmalius]

Maybe you address this in your article, but the server has turned to molten metal. So ignore this if I have it wrong, but: They made your life better? Whatever happened to altruism?

I, for one, am giving to the Salvation Army. During the hurricanes, they did an enormous amount of thankless work. They did not receive the publicity of the Red Cross, but as is typical, they are the first to arrive and the last to leave. They work endless hours, seemingly tirelessly, and never lose their smiles. They shun self-promotion. These are truly wonderful people.

Re:Be unselfish

[Caspian]

A lot of people who would never knowingly help a church are unaware that the SA is, in fact, one.

Re:Be unselfish

[inkey string]

And I don't give a damn. If more churches acted like the SA (shunning promotion, attempting to illustrate the benefit of religion through selfless acts rather than shameless guilting) I would be a lot less leery of organized religion in general.

Don't hate religion. There isn't anything terribly wrong with believing in a power beyond one's self and brotherhood with your fellow man. Hate the corruption and human fallibility that has wound tight over the millenia with the threads of innocent belief.

Re:Charitable giving

[ucblockhead]

Agreed! In fact, I'd say that giving money is the worst option. When you give time, you help directly, with nothing skimmed off the top.

Instead of stuff, give time!

[PurifyYourMind]

Why not volunteer at a school in a low income neighborhood? I'm sure young people would love to have an expert computer resource at their disposal. And what better audience for free/open source ideas?

faces...

[YesIAmAScript]

So the faces you see get money, eh?

The guy who makes sure the traffic lights on the way to work don't go green both ways and gets you killed gets nothing?

I don't mean to sound like Mr. Pink here, but this is a great example of how baffling the rules for who gets a gratuity are.

Perhaps you could ask yourself, if I'm only giving it to people I see and not the most deserving regardless, who am I really doing it for?