Ask Slashdot: Where Should a Geek's Charitable Donations Go?

An anonymous reader writes "I'm in the position to direct (or at least suggest the direction of) a fairly large amount of charitable donation on behalf of a foundation interested in promoting education. As a lifelong geek, I'd like to see some of this money directed toward organizations involved in things geeks-like (e.g. spreading technology in education to those without it, improving the use of technology for those who have it, etc.). If it was up to you, what charitable organizations would you support and why?"

Comments

Altruism...

[wermske]

Education is a broad category... geek-ish is equally broad depending on application.

Prime Directive... LOCAL...LOCAL...LOCAL. Your operative or key word is impact. You want to insure that as much as your dollar achieves its intended objective and that you have the ability to (if you choose) to verify the impact. Avoid a national or international blunderbuss -- such an approach scatters your money, creates too much dilution and generally includes excessive overhead.

Out-of-the-Box Brainstorm Suggestions:

Crisis Hotline, Woman's Center (or an similar support system for domestic abuse), Big Brothers Big Sisters, Homeless Shelters, Addiction and Rehabilitation Groups

You can also use Charity Navigator to assist you in researching specific organizations.

Each of these can be geeked-up to provide uplift and outreach were normal "geek enablement" or "geek opportunity" might otherwise simply be unavailable due to lack of funding. KEEP IN MIND -- Educational opportunities and technical services are very low priority when safety, food, and shelter are priority one!

Just a thought...

Re:Altruism...

[Anonymous Coward]

Does not meet 1st spec.

Find out if local hackerspaces are non-profits. If not, get that fixed.

With a big enough figure, find out if you local library would build one in an unused conference room.

Find out if local schools will run free tech training with (perhaps with loaner raspi's for checkout).

Re:Altruism...

[PolygamousRanchKid]

You want to insure that as much as your dollar achieves its intended objective and that you have the ability to (if you choose) to verify the impact. Avoid a national or international blunderbuss -- such an approach scatters your money, creates too much dilution and generally includes excessive overhead.

I'd just like to second that, and stress an important point. Many of these Big Charities spend about half their money on their own administration activities, like expensive lawyer fees. There was an article in The Economist a couple years ago about this. Even reputable charities like the United Way and a Lady Diana Foundation have run afoul of this.

Donating to something where you know the people spending the money personally, will avoid this. And you will have the personal satisfaction of seeing the money put to good use.

Re:Altruism...

[HanzoSpam]

Education is a broad category...

Indeed it is. If you're looking for a broad, you can't beat the local community college!

Re:Altruism...

[sapphire wyvern]

There's a website that focuses on exactly this point:

Give Well

They analyse charities for cost/benefit of their activities and what percentage of the charity's funding goes on ancillaries vs the charity's stated purpose.

Also, they look for evidence that the charity actually does what they say they do.

Another resource for evaluating charities is the BBB, apparently.

Re:Altruism...

[sapphire wyvern]

If you're trying to maximise the impact of your donation, you might be interested to know that a bunch of eggheads have already considered this exact point and written a report on their conclusions. It gets updated every few years.

On the upside, a fair bit of thought and research has gone into their publication. On the downside, most of the experts are economists, and I'm not actually sure if one should take an economist's word on whether the sky is blue.

Here's the website, anyway: The Copenhagen Consensus.

Re:Altruism...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is the title of your post "altruism", as if you are some kind of authority?

Here's a suggestion to the original poster: stay biased towards the little guy. The ones you've never heard of until you start researching it. They are the ones who put the biggest percentage of your money towards actual charity, rather than "administration". (FYI, many of the biggest name charities, the ones people think of first, have CEOs raking in $500k+ per year. Does that sound like "altruism" to you?)

Re:Altruism...

[ifiwereasculptor]

I'd just like to second that, and stress an important point. Many of these Big Charities spend about half their money on their own administration activities, like expensive lawyer fees.

That's true. So you might as well donate to institutions that have those expensive lawyer fees as their main focus, like the EFF or, depending on your moral leanings, even The Piratebay. You can, by the way, donate to the EFF via the Humble Bundle VI, right now, and still get a few cool games in the process.

Re:Altruism...

[Count Fenring]

Oh no! Large organizations that do charity work have overhead, just like any real organization!

Overhead costs are a very bad measure of charity effectiveness - especially for large, long-term charities that offer services like high-quality legal aid, which is where a lot of the "expensive lawyer fees" come from.

I do think effectiveness is an important thing to determine, and a hard one - but "low admin costs" aren't actually a way to determine it, and it's not actually shameful to have your donation to the women's shelter go to the salary of their childcare provider or other employees.

Re:Altruism...

[Anonymous Coward]

50% overhead is a bit much don't you think?

Re:Altruism...

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

That's a good start. However, as some one who has worked at a charitable non-for-profit, those percentages can get messy. If you spend $100,00 on a fund rasing event like charity ball that generates a total of $400,000 ( for a net gain to the charity of $300,000), You have to report that $100,000 that was spent on putting the event together as a non charitable expense. Even if the $300,000 goes directly to building a school in Africa, it looks like you as a charity only spend %75 of all funds on your charitable cause.

Re:Altruism...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't give money. Anytime you hand an organization cash, a good percentage of that cash disappears into someone's pockets. You're better off purchasing the needed items and donating them directly, that way you know what the cash is being spent on and that it's going to the purpose you set it for, not to line some morally corrupt asshole's pockets.

The local maker groups and high schools are always in need of industrial class hardware. Many local schools, especially in states that are bankrupt, are in need of computer hardware, tablets, etc., those items will be largely used for education.

I'd also look into purchasing unique items for charity auctions, like PAX holds every year. Charity auctions normally sell for more than the price of the item itself meaning there is decent return on the initial investment for the charity.

Re:Altruism...

[Anonymous Coward]

The salary of a childcare provider or other employees is not considered administrative cost, as long as the employees directly provide services. I have worked in non-profits for many years, and I believe an administrative overhead of <9% is indeed to good indicator of the effectiveness of an organization. It's also required by many secondary fundraisers (e.g. United Way).

Re:Altruism...

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

To esoteric. How about something closer to home?

Society for the
Advancement of
Nerd
Social
Anxiety
Geek
Issues
Related to
Loserhood?

Re:Altruism...

[Anonymous Coward]

Definition of ALTRUISM: 1. unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others, 2. behavior by an animal that is not beneficial to or may be harmful to itself but that benefits others of its species

This is where Anonymous Coward receives stage direction to stare into the camera and look at the sixth-grade audience with that stupid "duh" look! [rimshot]

Re:Altruism...

[Anonymous Coward]

Education is a broad category... geek-ish is equally broad depending on application.

Prime Directive... LOCAL...LOCAL...LOCAL. Your operative or key word is impact. You want to insure that as much as your dollar achieves its intended objective and that you have the ability to (if you choose) to verify the impact. Avoid a national or international blunderbuss -- such an approach scatters your money, creates too much dilution and generally includes excessive overhead.

Out-of-the-Box Brainstorm Suggestions:

Crisis Hotline, Woman's Center (or an similar support system for domestic abuse), Big Brothers Big Sisters, Homeless Shelters, Addiction and Rehabilitation Groups

You can also use Charity Navigator
to assist you in researching specific organizations.

Each of these can be geeked-up to provide uplift and outreach were normal "geek enablement" or "geek opportunity" might otherwise simply be unavailable due to lack of funding. KEEP IN MIND -- Educational opportunities and technical services are very low priority when safety, food, and shelter are priority one!

Just a thought...

As the man said. LOCAL LOCAL LOCAL. Forget international organizations, even Red Cross, United way et al. Any charitable organization that pays it's board members and senior management 250k+ doesn't deserve our donations.

Best bang for your buck is anybody that feeds the poor. Downtown missions, Hare Krishna's and most non-denomination churches.

Re:Altruism...

[CCarrot]

That's a good start. However, as some one who has worked at a charitable non-for-profit, those percentages can get messy. If you spend $100,00 on a fund rasing event like charity ball that generates a total of $400,000 ( for a net gain to the charity of $300,000), You have to report that $100,000 that was spent on putting the event together as a non charitable expense. Even if the $300,000 goes directly to building a school in Africa, it looks like you as a charity only spend %75 of all funds on your charitable cause.

...but that's kinda exactly what happened in your hypothetical scenario, isn't it?

That's why charities have to separate charitable and non-charitable (administrative) expenses for reporting. Any money spent for the sole purpose of raising more money, such as salaries for envelope stuffers or cold callers, and yes, costs for charitable fundraising events *should* be reported as administrative overhead, because that's exactly what it is. If you want to see a better ROI from the fundraising event, you'll just have to find some way to bring in more cash with less expenditure, just like any other business.

A fundraiser event that brings in $2 million is great! One that brings in $2 million but costs $1.5 million is just rich people throwing themselves an expensive party to pat themselves on the back before they go back to Tahiti to play with their yachts. (Okay, that would be some party, I'll admit :) Not to mention being a huge risk to the charity: what if they don't recoup the initial expenses? Sure, they can brag that their party brought in 'over $1 million in donations', but in the end, the contributions are simply wasted on champagne and caviar instead of going to the people who need them.

I agree, sometimes it can be a bit tricky figuring out if something should be classified as a charitable or administrative expense, but in the end, as a potential contributor to the cause, that admin overhead percentage is exactly what I want to see before I lend my support. I don't want to give money to organizations that simply turn around and spend it primarily on making more money. If I wanted that, I'd just give it to the bank instead.

Re:Altruism...

[davidannis]

Just checking total overhead is not very useful but the overhead is broken out, showing things like which officers got how much in salary, on the form 990 that the charity files with the IRS to maintain its tax exempt status. They also show what the non-overhead money funded (I frown on foundations that spend lots of their program money making grants to other foundations). You can look at the past few years of 990s for free at http://guidestar.org/ We've used it to guide our families charitable giving.

it's not actually shameful to have your donation to the women's shelter go to the salary of their childcare provider or other employees.

but it is shameful if 90% of the money goes to the CEO and board of the shelter. Looking at the 990 lets you know what the money has paid for in the past.

Re:Altruism...

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

I don't think its as useful as it could be. There are other charities that simply give money to other charities. The charities that raise the money are the ones that take the hit on the administrative costs, where as the recipient gets all of the reporting benefit. Its kind of odd explaining why your charity's administrative costs are higher with a donor at one of these fund-raisers that actually end up giving the money to one with a higher rate due to this phenomenon.

Depending on your theory of giving, it might seem to be a better idea to just give the money without the fund-raising activity and the money it costs to put it on. Some of them are very educational as well, and that educational role about the charity's work, its importance and the donor's role in it ( volunteers are awesome because they don't add to that administrative overhead ) is pretty valuable as well. The right kind of a charity will improve the lives of the donors as well as the recipients.

Re:Altruism...

[CCarrot]

I don't think its as useful as it could be. There are other charities that simply give money to other charities. The charities that raise the money are the ones that take the hit on the administrative costs, where as the recipient gets all of the reporting benefit. Its kind of odd explaining why your charity's administrative costs are higher with a donor at one of these fund-raisers that actually end up giving the money to one with a higher rate due to this phenomenon.

True...but then it is up to that charity to explain why it is better for people to give them the money to give to the other charity, rather than just giving the money to the other charity directly. As I said, I prefer not to give money to organizations for whom a large part of their primary goal is to be able to ask me or my friends for more money later on.

Depending on your theory of giving, it might seem to be a better idea to just give the money without the fund-raising activity and the money it costs to put it on. Some of them are very educational as well, and that educational role about the charity's work, its importance and the donor's role in it ( volunteers are awesome because they don't add to that administrative overhead ) is pretty valuable as well. The right kind of a charity will improve the lives of the donors as well as the recipients.

Ah, you see where I am coming from...kinda. While I appreciate the value of getting the word out there, I don't really see an organization that does that while soliciting donations for another as a 'charitable' institution. I'd consider it more of a not-for-profit organization with worthy goals and ideals.

Re:Altruism...

[Magius_AR]

Prime Directive... LOCAL...LOCAL...LOCAL. Your operative or key word is impact. You want to insure that as much as your dollar achieves its intended objective and that you have the ability to (if you choose) to verify the impact. Avoid a national or international blunderbuss -- such an approach scatters your money, creates too much dilution and generally includes excessive overhead.

Strangely applicable to government as well...

I heard about this teacher...

[symbolset]

He's trying to teach typing to 500 students in India. I think he could use some help with some tablets, keyboards and solar panels.

Re:I heard about this teacher...

[Taco Cowboy]

It's better if the students can learn how to write, and spell, and using correct grammar, before learning how to type

Re:I heard about this teacher...

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this racist?
Your language could be English, Chinese, or Hindi. Either way, knowing how to input characters without knowing how to actually string a sentence together ends up with people sending text message looking garbage around the internet. We have too much of that already.

Re:I heard about this teacher...

[Taco Cowboy]

I always suspect racism.

If you always suspect racism in everything that happened, in everything other people do or say, I sincerely suggest that you pay your local friendly psychologist a visit.

Re:I heard about this teacher...

[reboot246]

Why couldn't your 5 year old read? Mine did at that age. I did at that age. My brother could at that age.Lots of kids are reading by age 5, IF their parents care enough to spend time with them.

Re:I heard about this teacher...

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

You quoted the GP as "I always suspect racism", when the full context was "For things like that, I always suspect racism"

The GP sounded like a dick, and now so do you.

Re:I heard about this teacher...

[Joce640k]

Haters gonna hate.

He didn't say his 5 year old couldn't read. He said his currently-5-years-old child learned to type before he learned to read, ie. He could have been pounding keyboards when he was 2 (I don't think 'typing' was really what was going on).

Re:I heard about this teacher...

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

There is a twinge of classisim, not racism in the grandparents statement. (There is often a double standard that people set up to protect themselves from actually doing anything to help people by insisting that they live up to a higher standard than what they themselves would meet.)

However, what do you mean by typing? Can you really call it typing if they can't read what they just wrote? Or are you just talking about a kind whaling away on a keyboard?

Re:I heard about this teacher...

[AK Marc]

"My 5 year old was typing before he could read" Now tell me at what age that statement indicates he learned to read, or type. The only thing it implies is that he is 5 now and can read and type.

Re:I heard about this teacher...

[AK Marc]

If you are going to quote segments of sentences selectively, try:

I sincerely [...] pay your local friendly psychologist a visit.

If you routinely go to my local psychologist, what is your ailment?

Re:I heard about this teacher...

[AK Marc]

What's the practical difference between xenophobic classism and racism? I understand your point and agree with you (all the AARP members who complain about the welfare class, but if you talk about cutting SS, they will hunt you down and wack you with their canes), but I find that people use their inborn superiority complex in various ways, and xenophobic classism is not functionally different than racism, even if one has evolved phrasing to hide the racism in the comments to not look as elitist and exclusionary in socially unacceptable manners.

However, what do you mean by typing? Can you really call it typing if they can't read what they just wrote? Or are you just talking about a kind whaling away on a keyboard?

I got him a few games that were letter and number matching games and he'd have to hit the letter or number on the keyboard. He wanted to play the computer because he saw daddy on it all the time. So I set it up so he could. And that required mouse and keyboarding skills, even before he could read. He moved on to some games that had shortcut keys he learned. He couldn't spell home, but he knew that "h" was the shortcut key to move his camera to he home position in his RTS. It wasn't touch typing, nor even typing whole words (except when the games directed him to that end, and he wouldn't understand the word unless it was spoken back to him), but he was identifying letters on the keyboard and deliberately hitting what he wanted. Now that he can read and write, it's easier on him to do such things, but it also means he's comfortable with computers and typing earlier than waiting until long after the have a firm grasp on grammar to introduce them to computers.

The EFF and TIA

[subreality]

https://eff.org/ - Doesn't need an explanation really.
https://archive.org/ - The librarians of the internet

Re:The EFF and TIA

[Anonymous Coward]

These are both excellent choices. I was going to mention the EFF because it is, forsooth, the only organization that comes to mind as being worthy of donation. And I do contribute monthly.

Actually, I suppose I knew this, but wasn't actively conscious of the fact that the Internet Archive also takes donations. I really should contribute to them as well. I notice I currently have a couple of tabs open to archive.org. In case anyone's interested these are the texts I have in the queue for later perusing:

Porgy (1928)
http://archive.org/details/porgy031341mbp

The Universe In The Light Of Modern Physics (1931/00/00)
http://archive.org/details/universeinthelig032967mbp

Re:The EFF and TIA

[KiloByte]

I second EFF, but you may want to give some money to The Pirate Bay as well. They're another front of the war against MAFIAA.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[TapeCutter]

Copyright may be a "crime against humanity" in your world, but I think the technological gift of a functioning water pump/bore for a dry village would have far more impact on people lives. It's not that these people don't have, or are not allowed to use, modern drilling techniques for fear of trespassing on someone's intellectual property, it's that they don't have the cash to make use of it. In a similar vein I have a good idea of how to build a Saturn V rocket, however it's almost a certainty I will never have the means to do so.

As for TFA, I won't offer a suggestion since the thread is full of charities far more worthy than the pirate bay. Instead I will offer a rough algorithm by which to compare the many excellent suggestions you will receive.
Rate 1 - 5 the following.
1. The "fit" of the charity's work to your charitable aims. Obviously the hard part is defining your aims and separating charitable talk from charitable work.
2. The transparency of the charity's accounts.
3. The charity's track record, which of their past projects worked, which one's failed and why.

Speaking of charity, I recently watched John Stewart interviewing Bill Clinton on his charitable organization, which among other things is supporting clever technology such as bamboo bicycles. I'm not suggesting you do or don't donate to Clinton's organization, but I did find it interesting from the POV of how large charities operate and the problems they face. Regardless of your politics, listening to people who have "been there and done that" is always a wise move.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[Anonymous Coward]

I support all of the above and would like to add the Free Software Foundation and the Richard Dawkins Foundation.
(Mind you, there are plenty of other good causes like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or Médecins Sans Frontières, but I'm assuming we're looking for a way to give money to geek-y causes rather than causes a geek wouldn't mind sending his money to.)

Re:The EFF and TIA

[KiloByte]

good causes like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

They not only have ties with Monsanto, but also support male genital mutilation instead of fighting it.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[KiloByte]

Drilling techniques typically not, but drugs to cure widespread diseases tend to massively suffer from "intellectual property".

Also, while saving a life is good in the short term, the war on culture causes damage that will last for thousands of years.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[RaceProUK]

[citation needed]

Re:The EFF and TIA

[fatphil]

Sheesh. Try reading the news. Once you've mastered that, try also remembering what you read. If that's too much - horror of horrors - try satisfying your curiousity through the medium of a search engine.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/hivaids/Pages/reducing-hiv-risk-through-circumcision.aspx

Re:The EFF and TIA

[icebraining]

They're hardly difficult to find out:

First part:

Bill Gates initiated holdings in Monsanto Company. (...) His holdings were 500,000 shares as of 06/30/2010.

http://www.gurufocus.com/news/104835/gates-foundation-buys-ecolab-inc-goldman-sachs-monsanto-company-exxon-mobil-corp-sells-mt-bank

The second part, from their website:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/hivaids/Pages/reducing-hiv-risk-through-circumcision.aspx

Re:The EFF and TIA

[RaceProUK]

Read the news! Of course, it's all so obvious now! All those reports that don't exist must have escaped my mind temporarily.

And circumcision? The Jewish practise that so far has proven to be safe with no long-term effects? You need to try harder.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[RaceProUK]

As here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3127627&cid=41385329

Re:The EFF and TIA

[Radak]

No long term effects? Amputation of healthy tissue isn't a long term effect?

Re:The EFF and TIA

[RaceProUK]

Given that those who have been circumcised live long lives and have children, I'd say no.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[Radak]

Given that those who have been circumcised live long lives and have children, I'd say no.

So do quadriplegics. Hardly means there were no effects of whatever caused the condition.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[RaceProUK]

Don't play your 'I'm desperate to win this argument, so I'll say something ridiculous' card so early next time.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[Radak]

Meh. Not trying to win any argument. I know this argument. It's played out. Nobody wins. Ever.

Just noting that perhaps we have different definitions of "effect".

Re:The EFF and TIA

[icebraining]

Owning 500 000 shares is a tie. Nobody said Bill Gates and Hugh Grant were having dinner every night or something like that.

And circumcision? The Jewish practise that so far has proven to be safe with no long-term effects? You need to try harder.

No long-term effects? Does the foreskin regrow? Oh, you mean no long-term effects that you find important.

And other complications, while rare, exist. According to the AAFP, "mortality risk has been estimated to be 1/500,000 procedures," which would be reasonable if we were talking about an important procedure, but it's completely unacceptable for circumcision.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[RaceProUK]

Just noting that perhaps we have different definitions of "effect".

I think we can agree on that :)

Re:The EFF and TIA

[RaceProUK]

1/500,000 procedures

0.0002%. There's a higher mortality risk from simply existing.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[neghvar1]

Another +1 for EFF

Re:The EFF and TIA

[fatphil]

God, I'm not surprised you've forgotten things in the news if you've forgotten already that I offerend the final option of actually just fucking googling it to satisfy your curiosity.

I'm less surprised that you think foreskins regrow now I know you're a bit feeble in the brain department.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[RaceProUK]

Looks like you need a new sarcasm detector.

think foreskins regrow

Can you point me to where I said this?

Then again, I fear you're just trolling - your reply will either confirm or deny that.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[TapeCutter]

I'm not saying that IP is a godsend but I do think "crime against humanity" is overstating the problem relative to the other shit that goes on around the world. On the flip side of the IP/medicine thing, Africa is overrun with fake medicine usually manufactured in India, a lot of people die because the fake stuff has no active ingredient. In some places hospitals even have problems getting saline solutions made to appropriate standards, again because of fakes.

Besides, you didn't say "donate to someone fighting the unintended consequences of patents in a capitalist system", you suggested donating to TPB. How does donating to TPB do anything to fight pharmaceutical companies gouging prices via medical patents? - The battle that TPB are waging is against copyright and has nothing to do with patents, medical or otherwise.

Also, while saving a life is good in the short term, the war on culture causes damage that will last for thousands of years.

Right, so ignoring the fact that it's a false dichotomy, you're saying you would personally choose physical death over cultural death?

Re:The EFF and TIA

[fatphil]

You said it had "no long-term effects". Removal of tissue that does not grow back is not just a long term effect, it's a permanent effect. Therefore you seem to think that the tissue grows back. Either that or you simply don't know what the words you are using mean. Either way makes you an idiot.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[RaceProUK]

As I thought, no allowance for ambiguity. Therefore, I bid adieu, and wish you well on your crusade against surgical procedures with proven health benefits.

Re:The EFF and TIA

[Anonymous Coward]

I second EFF, but you may want to give some money to The Pirate Bay as well. They're another front of the war against MAFIAA.

Third for the EFF

Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

[Anonymous Coward]

Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

Re:Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

[Anonymous Coward]

You'd be better off taking a tip from Steve Jobs - don't support any of them!

Re:Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

[Askmum]

Bill has more than enough money himself. Donate to the needy, not the greedy.

Re:Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

[tehcyder]

You'd be better off taking a tip from Steve Jobs - don't support any of them!

Why not just donate to an action group of libertarian billionaires calling for a ban on evil government interference in the free parking market, i.e. disabled parking spaces.

Mitt Romney

[Anonymous Coward]

Help the numerically challenged, give Mitt your money.

Soemthing you care about

[Anonymous Coward]

Way too many good causes out there, inside and outside of the geek world..

Personally I think a persons "donation money" or better yet volunteer hours should go to something they personally feel strongly about or are directly interested in. Even if it's not the largest, most effective, or has a goal that seems small in comparison to the larger problems in the world. We can't focus soley on the "big" issues.. some money needs to go to the silly stuff.

Also while not really charity, I like to throw my money into things like buying indie music direct from artists and commissioning artwork (I buy a lot of ponies!). I think this kinda stuff helps make the world a better place.

Global or local

[AHuxley]

Thinking as a global option consider tropical worms, water quality and simple drugs that can change a community.
The drugs are cheap, no patent anymore and dont need fancy electrical power for cooling or vast amounts of cash.
A health worker can get a community back to school or work and keep tracking the needs over years.
If your thinking locally:
Vast amounts of nearly new or less new quality hardware is donated by people doing good, wanting to be seen to be doing good or for tax reasons.
The problem is the old pay per seat software is hard to work out on each computer.
So help people who put Linux on older computers, getting free math, writing, coding, web, video editing software running on free operating systems.

The Humble Bundle is a good start.

[pecosdave]

You walk away with some good games to boot.

Hey what do you know? A new one just started!

Re:The Humble Bundle is a good start.

[tehcyder]

You walk away with some good games to boot.

Hey what do you know? A new one just started!

Yes, what the world needs more than anything is for people to finance computer hobbyists making games that wouldn't sell otherwise.

It's lucky we've found a cure for cancer, solved world poverty and disease so on.

Re:The Humble Bundle is a good start.

[Canazza]

You do know you can choose not to give *any* money to the developers and make it all go to the charities if you desire?

also, Lol @ "wouldn't sell anyway" considering Torchlight's one of them.

Re:The Humble Bundle is a good start.

[Anonymous Coward]

Humble Bundles are a great way to get people who normally wouldn't give to charity, to start thinking about it. It also directly raises money for charity and helps the production of some really great indie games. So what if the people that pay for it get some enjoyment out of it too?

Re:The Humble Bundle is a good start.

[icebraining]

Lack of money is not the most important reasons of why we haven't accomplished those things.

charity for life

[Anonymous Coward]

what about here?
http://theotakukid.com/2012/08/breast-squeeze-as-a-charity-event-in-japan/

The Raspberry Pi foundation

[psergiu]

Give-it to The Raspberry Pi foundation.
In a world that is becoming increasely dependent on computers, they strive so today's and tomorrow's children won't become mindless consumers, regarding any electronic device as magic.

Re:The Raspberry Pi foundation

[Trogre]

I would, if their hardware didn't rely on closed third-party drivers which, to all intents and purposes, may as well be magic.

I agree with your second sentence entirely, and applaud you for its elegance. You just failed to name a foundation to which that principle applies.

Re:The Raspberry Pi foundation

[psergiu]

Had the Foundation received a generous donation at the planing stage, a year or two ago, maybe they could have done better in regard to the GPU (the only closed-source item on that board).

For the current price and given that the only major investment was a mortage on Eben & Liz's house, the Raspberry Pi is the only device fitting the bill right now, as i haven't seen anyone else trying to bring to the masses a simmilar hardware platform at a simmilar price point that is 100% Open Source.

Re:The Raspberry Pi foundation

[MetalliQaZ]

I must strongly disagree with this. Not only is this a closed platform, but (arguably) the biggest target application for the Pi is the consumption of digital media, which isn't particularly productive.
Also they sell the hardware through RS which is a unfriendly, greedy company.

Elementary education

[FrankSchwab]

As someone who's kids are currently in Elementary school -
Find someone who's writing public domain textbooks for elementary education, especially those aimed at technological implementations (tablet based, etc). Why in god's name does my school district have to pay $60 for a fifth-grade math textbook - revised last year? What has changed in "3x=24" in the last, oh, 1000 years that requires a new revision of a textbook?

There's so much that could be done with technology and education that hasn't been. Why can't learning Multiplication tables be phrased as a game - come up with the answers to jump and capture a coin; take too long and you miss it? Why can't Spelling, and Grammar, be a game; Why can't the broad sweep of history be presented as a graph, with hyperlinks from points on the graph to an overview and details of that point in time? Why can't the out-of-copyright classics be available in a learning-reader format, with hyperlinks for all difficult words to pronunciation and definition?

Hell, give me the money and I'll get started!

Re:Elementary education

[arogier]

This. There are open source textbook projects that float around somewhere, but the one I've seen seem to focus on collegiate level general education texts. Writing for younger learners isn't as simple as putting the information together. There's a big component in using information from studies of childhood development and learning theory that shapes the presentation in quality elementary school texts. This is something that takes resources, but if a group can be found it would probably be one of the causes with the potential to have a broad impact.

Re:Elementary education

[Anonymous Coward]

I would believe you, but having personal, recent experience I would suggest that none of the elementary level math textbook writers could even read a study of childhood development or learning theory, much less apply the lessons contained within.

Re:Elementary education

[Anonymous Coward]

Take at look at what AoPS has been doing - ArtOfProblemSolving.com for math enrichment - it started at the high school and middle school level and has branched down to elementary lately.

Re:Elementary education

[ShanghaiBill]

What has changed in "3x=24" in the last, oh, 1000 years that requires a new revision of a textbook?

The introduction of Arabic Numerals (replacing Roman Numerals), around the year 1200, definitely required new textbooks.

Re:Elementary education

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algebra#History

Not that you can trust everything on wikipedia but according to the history of algebra our current mathematical notation wasn't invented until the 1600s. It is a naive assumption to think that the math taught to you in school has been around for over a thousand years.

Truly Open Textbooks

[Bruce Perens]

The textbook publishers have managed to emasculate most of the "open textbook" projects so far. We need truly open textbooks that anyone can republish, and modify as time goes on and the art changes. These will be a gift to society that continues for decades.

Re:Truly Open Textbooks

[Anonymous Coward]

I love the Idea, I really do, the problem with open source textbooks is that I dont think a school would ever teach with an open source textbook. It would be just like teaching out of Wikipedia (Which I think would be a great Idea because it is just as accurate if not more than old encyclopedias http://news.cnet.com/2100-1038_3-5997332.html) and we all know that Wikipedia is still frowned upon in the academic world as a legitimate source for knowledge because it can be written by anyone.

Another problem would be lesson plan development. People could make edits from the time that the lesson was made to the time it was taught. "Turn to page 72... er 75.. wait look at the first paragraph on 68 and then turn to page 75 to finish the thought."

Open source books as something personal, I can get behind that. I would be fun re-reading a book as it becomes more and more detailed and accurate.

2 more points:
1. A professor could endorse the book as accurate? therefore raising its legitimacy maybe? ( But would not want to because then he would not get paid every year for his own revisions.)

2. This could help inner city schools cut cost. God knows that they already have the worst resources. If they would be willing to set the trend and if there was an increase in the test scores after this was implemented it could catch on.

Fist time post.. Dont hate.

tl;dr open source books will never be accepted because they were not written by a random Doctor.

EFF + Your favorite open-source project(s)

[Anonymous Coward]

Title says all.

Re:EFF + Your favorite open-source project(s)

[Z34107]

Surprised I had to scroll so far to see this. Ever notice how in every court case worth caring about, they've at least filed an amicus?

Not only technology

[Saija]

Technology is cool and all but life is more than that, i think some children's, women or homeless program, even animal shelters could use that money, maybe there's no tablets, linux or solar panels involved but you might help save lifes.

Re:Not only technology

[Anonymous Coward]

I should have specified that my input in this foundation's distribution of donations is but a small fraction of the total. I can assure you that a wide range of deserving charities will be supported, but I'm probably the only representative in a position to forward some of the more geek-centric or techno-centric ideas. Don't worry. The others won't get left out!

The Ada Initiative

[rusty]

One of my favourite geek charities is the Ada Initiative which provides resources and training for women in open source and open culture.

Needless to say, you should speak directly to any charity you're seriously considering; they'll often have good suggestions for how they money could be used.

Good luck!
Rusty.

Re:The Ada Initiative

[Anonymous Coward]

So it's a sexist charity. What about all the men who need that training?

setup you computer for computational help

[Anonymous Coward]

setup boinc and allow computation time for projects who needs it.

If you want to continue being a geek...

[vga_init]

I'd recommend the EFF.

National Science Olympiad

[loimprevisto]

The National Science Olympiad gets a good chunk of my charitable donations. They do a lot to promote science education and I had a great time competing when I was in high school.

Re:National Science Olympiad

[Anonymous Coward]

Similar direction - MathCounts is a Professional Society of Engineers sponsored middle school math program that helps expose young students to what's out there beyond the standard curriculum.

OSU Open Source Lab

[gchaix]

The OSU Open Source Lab is a donation-funded organization that supports the open source software community by providing project hosting, development, and mirrors for many open source projects. Apache, the Linux Foundation, Drupal, Busybox, Plone, PHPbb, Sahana, OpenMRS, and many others rely on the OSL for some or all of their infrastructure. http://osuosl.org/donate Full disclosure: I work for the OSL.

F.I.R.S.T. Robotics

[SydShamino]

I participated in high school back in 1995. It and its younger cousins are still going strong, introducing hundreds of thousands of elementary, junior high, and high school students to robotics and by extension programming, engineering, and science.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIRST_Robotics_Competition

Re:F.I.R.S.T. Robotics

[Anonymous Coward]

I second this suggestion. I coach a FIRST Tech Challenge team, and I think it's one of the best ways to make a difference for a young geek.

ACLU

[Rijnzael]

The ACLU has done a lot for various freedoms, including internet freedoms. One instance, where the ACLU represented an ISP that was served with National Security Letters, serves to illustrate the kinds of high profile and essential litigation they perform.

Re:ACLU

[KiloByte]

ACLU does some good work, but it's tied in a ridiculous degree to the populist branch of the neocon party.

EFF doesn't have that problem.

Charity starts at home...

[Anonymous Coward]

So pay your mom the rent that you owe her for living in her basement.

Rock-It Science

[dbc]

http://www.rockitscience.com/
Watch the videos.

OK, we're small. And local. But we're trying to change that. We have 200+ lessons that we are trying to document with teacher training materials and materials lists so that these lessons can be used in elementary schools everywhere. But it costs money: for video taping, transcription, documentation. Basically all the work it takes to turn a tested lesson that has been run many times into enough documentation that it can be replicated by a teacher anywhere.

Our philosophy is different from the way most science education is done. We start very young. We ban pencils and data collection. Its all about developing an intuition for the science that is happening, and developing a mind that can ask questions and explore. I call it "teaching physics through the belly button." When the kids get into high school the equations will make sense because they have an intuition for what will happen.

Unfortunately, what we do is almost never measurable in any meaningful way. That makes most grant giving agencies look at us like we are from another planet. But it does work. When my daughter was five, a typical post-class interview would be something like: "What did you do?" -- "We made some stuff." -- "What did you learn?" -- "I don't know." -- "Did you have fun?" -- "YEEESSSS!". Then a few days later we would be doing some project or another and she would say something like: "We need some popsicle sticks, string, a pulley, and some hot melt glue!!" A lot of learning was going on inside, but she wasn't able to articulate it at the time. Totally not measurable, but totally great. That's when I started contributing as a volunteer.

We need money :) Did I mention that?

national rifle association

[breman]

NRA.org, They have a really good program and you can usually get a lifetime membership for $500 or $1000.

Re:national rifle association

[Genda]

He said Geek... Unless the NRA is opening up a specialty group for rail guns... I think you're missing the gist of the conversation... but good try.

Re:national rifle association

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't like much of the National Rifle Association's broader political activity that escapes the more focused causes it purports to advocate for. I however am a huge supporter of the National Railgun Association.

Re:national rifle association

[AHuxley]

Gun Owners of America (GOA) - to preserve and defend your Second Amendment.

Re:national rifle association

[Anonymous Coward]

NRA.org, They have a really good program and you can usually get a lifetime membership for $500 or $1000.

How about the like-minded GNAA as well? Best of all lifetime membership is free!

Re:national rifle association

[dargaud]

The NRA is a charity ?!? Mind blown.

Re:national rifle association

[Anonymous Coward]

I find the Second Amendment Foundation (http://www.saf.org/) to be far more worthy an organization to donate to if you are interested in gun rights and actual action towards preserving them.

Re:national rifle association

[Anonymous Coward]

NRA is not a charity, but they have a non profit arm that is

EFF

[Anonymous Coward]

Next question.

MIT Open Courseware and the Wikimedia Foundation

[FoolishOwl]

MIT Open Courseware is a good project.

And everyone knows the Wikimedia Foundation, but they can use more help.

Universities

[Anonymous Coward]

University programs that promote a greater understanding of Science and Technology in Society (STS).
Example: http://www.sts.vt.edu/

One DVM per child

[Okian Warrior]

How about giving away a free voltmeter to any student from a 3rd world nation who passes the edX course "Circuits and Electronics"?

6002x "Circuits and Electronics", an online version of the MIT introductory electronics course. This was an exact copy of the MIT course, taught by an MIT professor, and was just as hard as the original course. Same material, same difficulty, online format.

Some of the 7,000 graduates were from 3rd world nations. For example, this article talks about a class of high-school students in Mongolia:

I'm reminded of William Kamkwamba, who built a wind-powered generator and was able to bring electricity to his village. His Ted talk is pretty interesting.

Mr. Kamkwamba had nothing. He built his windmill from scratch after learning the principles of electricity from books in the local library. He built his own circuit breaker by winding wire onto nails driven into wood.

His task would have been so much easier if he could have measured continuity, or the output voltage of his generator.

Most of the modern world is based on electronics - measurements, actions, communications, and so on. Having the tools and understanding would allow people to repair broken equipment and machinery, to take pieces from ewaste and hook them together in new ways, and generally have better life opportunities.

Supplying 5,000 students (a generous estimate) would cost only $10,000.

Here is the contact page for edX.

Trisquel - free software distribution /w education

[Anonymous Coward]

Send the money Trisquel's way. It is a distribution which could really use the funds.

The project is actively engaged in supporting education. Not only as a no-cost platform to run proprietary software- but also as a learning environment. Every program is 100% free.

The distribution is at it's core compliant with free software principles and upholds the essential freedoms:

The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

The lead developer is also involved in the one laptop per child program which is doing a lot of good despite the criticisms. The Trisquel project even has a version targeted at educational institutions. It's called Trisquel Edu.

CHILDS PLAY

[Anonymous Coward]

Childs Play, and also really any charity you agree with. Just because your a geek doesn't mean your going to revoke your geek card if you donate blood and donate to something like the Red Cross instead of something more "geeky".

Re:CHILDS PLAY

[Anonymous Coward]

Childs Play

Providing luxury goods to people in the richest first-world country. Probably not exactly the first address for charitable donations; or any of the first 100 addresses really.

Re:CHILDS PLAY

[eepok]

I'm a Childs Play fan myself. I choose the gift. I choose the children's hospital. Penny Arcade runs it, but they take ZERO overhead.

It's easy, trustworthy, and reflective of me.

Re:CHILDS PLAY

[eepok]

The children who receive access to these donations did not choose to live in America over other places. Do not condemn them for something they couldn't control. Also, when a kid has to spend the greater portion of his/her childhood in a bed due to leukemia, I have no problem throwin' down a couple bucks to make sure he/she isn't just staring at walls and monitoring machines that go beep.

If you find it better to give your money to a major multinational organization with tons of overhead that may or not actually be able to put your donation to use, do it. But don't go hating on kids just because they have a severe illness in one country instead of another.

Congrats

[Mr. Underbridge]

First off. Congrats to you and the larger slashdot community that we are asking such questions. Man have we come a long way in a decade or so.

Beyond that, I strongly echo EFF. Really important. Another that I've recently seen is A World in Motion which is supported by the society of automotive engineers among others. Great way to introduce engineering to school kids.

Beyond that - good luck, and thanks for making a difference.

An idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Use the money to purchase a neckbeard trimmer for each Linux sysadmin in the United States. This will increase their chances of getting laid from 0% to 0.1%, thus helping to ensure the survival of the obese and hirsute.

Center For Applied Rationality

[Jimmy_B]

Consider giving it to the Center For Applied Rationality. Their goal is to make people more rational, by teaching about cognitive biases and scientific decision making, and studying how to do so effectively. They're doing great things, on relatively little resources; your marginal dollars would go a long way.

Age of Photonics! (and free teaching apparatus)

[Anonymous Coward]

If the 20th C was the electronics age then the 21st is the age Photonics - the study of light and its applications.

Schools have been slow to uptake photonics equipment because of the complexities in setting up experiments. Myself and a colleague have developed a simple all in one kit for schools - and we're not interested in profit - we would just like to see better equipment available to school kids. With the minilab you can run spectroscopy experiments, diffraction, fiber optics, digital and analogue signals, interference patterns and heaps of other cool experiments that really engage the kids.

If youre interested I can pass on all of the details - PCB's and component designs to build the kits locally. Weve exported these around the globe - Poland, Singapore, UK and lots here in Australia at schools and universities. they're robust - relatively cheap to build - come with instructions for over 50 photonics experiments...

Get in touch for more info! martin.raynor@anu.edu.au

Here.....

[andrewa]

http://s349909351.websitehome.co.uk/blog/?p=305

One of the most unique and truly talented developers I know.

Bangladesdh

[Frankie70]

The first line says he is Bangladesh - not in India. I think you should at least read the first line of stuff you link to.

Alternatives to money

[Anonymous Coward]

We have some spare bandwidth and old servers. Good/best ideas on what to host 'as a charity'?

A fool and his money...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're dumb enough to be giving away your money to "worthy causes" that mostly encourage parasitism at best, or line the pockets of their administrators at worst, why don't you just send it to me? Believe me, I'll be certain to do my best to keep unfortunate hookers and bartenders off the streets and out of trouble...

Where Should a Geek's Charitable Donations Go?

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft ?

Education + Technology

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned either Project Gutenberg or the Khan Academy. Both of which are using technology to inexpensively give people more access to information & education. You might also consider the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) organization. Another possibility would be specific educational software projects. Unfortunately, I don't think that donations to Gcompris would be tax deductible or they might be a good choice.

Re:Education + Technology

[Surt]

I came to mention Khan Academy, and AC beat me to it. Tragedy. But here's the donate link:
http://www.khanacademy.org/donate

Nick's Marathon!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nick's Marathon!

Every year, my friends and I have an all-weekend video game marathon, streamed live on the net, to raise money for charity. We do this in memory of our friend Nick who died of Leukemia a few years ago, and one of his dying wishes was that his friends continued to hang out and spend time together like we used to. So every year, we get together, play some games, talk about Nick, and have a great time. We raise money for Child's Play (As a pediatrics resident physician, I can attest to how much these gifts help out), Ronald McDonald House (helped Nick a lot when he was a kid) and Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (research).

This year, Nick's Marathon will be shortly after the WiiU launch and it will be the centerpiece of the fund raiser. Hope everyone can support us!

Your Local Community College

[chub_mackerel]

Consider your local community college when deciding where to put your money. You can probably connect with someone in the college's foundation and get a great tour. Community colleges provide cheap education for geeks and non-geeks alike. They've seen enrollment skyrocket as the economy (and state funding) has tanked.

Connect up with the college's foundation for options. Depending on how much you're talking about, you can do endowments or 1-time gifts, etc. You can set it up to go to one or more departments if you like what the faculty members are doing (CS, math, science, applied tech programs of different kinds), or to student clubs if you like what they're up to, or just set up scholarships for students in technical fields. You could target basic skills (math literacy), specific sciences, computing, even the library.

Free Software in Education

[Martin S.]

Free Software in Education

BSD

[Anonymous Coward]

The FreeBSD Foundation. They descend directly from CSRG who brought you TCP/IP, among other things. And their licensing leaves no room for any hippie preachers.

Pirate Party

[ArsenneLupin]

The pirate parties of all countries need lots of donations to organize the upcoming elections...

Re:Pirate Party

[durdur]

Most charitable organizations such as foundations cannot donate to political parties. (That's essential to retain their status as charities).

Re:Pirate Party

[ArsenneLupin]

But the questions was "Where Should a Geek's Charitable Donations Go?" rather than "Where Should a Foundation's Charitable Donations Go?"

So, there are plenty of entities that cannot give to political parties (businesses too are restricted to give to political parties in many countries, and for a good reason!), but that doesn't mean that as a private citizen (natural person) you can't give to parties.

Re:Pirate Party

[ArsenneLupin]

Ooops indeed. I just read the headline, not the summary. My bad, this is about a foundation...

A Worthy Cause

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're looking to support an organization looking to better the country with an ongoing outreach and education program, I strongly recommend these guys.

Wikileaks?

[L4t3r4lu5]

Education isn't just for children.

Don't just give money

[randomsearch]

I just happened to mention this to my Mum, who works with several charities in the UK.

She says - "Don't just give money. Most local charities are in dire need of help with their IT."

RS

Re:Don't just give money

[petes_PoV]

A good point. Far too high a proportion of charity money goes on running (any) charity, rather than bringing benefits to it's intended recipients. Anything that can streamline a charity, reduce the number of people it employs and improve efficiency will do more good than simply adding to their income.

Re:Don't just give money

[Anonymous Coward]

This, this this. Anyone else use catchafire.org or a similar service?

The one consistent need is ANYONE with experience in the technology field. It's usually pretty easy stuff, but relatively few people in non-profits have the know-how to do that stuff.

Local Educational: Hackerspace

[Bob9113]

Find out if there's a hackerspace near you. The one I go to (not nearly often enough) has worked with schools before -- you might be able to get some community involvement going on. Ask if they'd be interested in hosting a class field trip, or developing extracurricular activities or class projects. Think Stirling engines, robots, 3D printers, arduino gadgets, laser cutters, all kinds of cool hands-on stuff. Obviously YMMV pretty significantly from one space to the next, and they're not all charities, but it could be really cool if there's a good one near you.

You can look for a hackerspace near you at hackerspaces.org or just use your favorite search engine with your region and "hackerspace". If not, maybe look for other local clubs that are into hands-on activities; rocketry, halloween, stagecraft, burners, whatever.

Re:Local Educational: Hackerspace

[joshdont]

Agreed! Organizations like:
GEMSI http://www.gemsi.org/
Mt Elliott http://www.mtelliottmakerspace.com/
All Hands Active http://www.allhandsactive.com/ are just a few hackerspace/makerspaces that do amazing things to help spread technology, education, understanding, etc. (I am a little biased, as I work for All Hands Active )

Libraries are also starting to get more involved in providing access to tools, perhaps you could help spearhead something in that area?

charitable donation

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.raspberrypi.org

35 dollar Linux devices to teach coding on.
Check it it!

Geek Health and Safety

[Anonymous Coward]

This outfit is dedicated to educating geeks (and everyone else) about one of the greatest threats to their health, safety and property:

http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com/

This website will serve to educate the general public on Black people and the Stuff That Black People Don't Like. Black people have many interesting eccentricities, which include disliking a litany of everyday events, places, household objects and other aspects of their everyday life. Black people are an interesting subject matter and this website will chronicle the many problems in life that agitate this group of people.

Your local library

[OnePumpChump]

Friends of the Library. Your local library probably has one. You might become active with them if you want to promote technology access for those without...your local library is probably the only internet access for a substantial portion of the people who use it.

DonorsChose

[Registered Coward v2]

It's a bit of work because of the nature of their model (lots of small projects around the US); but you could fund a number of science / math / technology needs for classrooms across the US.

Local technical museums, hackerspaces or similar

[Rastloser]

As a volunteer for the club that restored Germany's first radio telescope (see http://astropeiler.de/ ), I am certainly quite biased, but I think that technical, hands-on museums would also be a good target. Check your area for volunteer-run astronomical observatories, open electronics labs, private physics labs... essentially places that are open to everyone interested in science, give people a hands-on experience with old (or current) technology and where everyone can repeat important experiments that shape our world-view. For example, we offer everyone the chance to repeat the measurements by Oort et al. from 1958 that show that the Milky Way has a spiral structure, and hope to support and promote an evidence-based world view by doing so. (And, besides, it's just great fun to operate your own radio telescope!)

Kiva

[Anonymous Coward]

Mine go to Kiva, although technically it's a loan not a donation. You can keep re-loaning the amount once you've been repaid. There's a lot of choice available in terms of where you consider loaning, both sectorwise and geographically.

EFF

[Anonymous Coward]

EFF

FMAFE

[Anonymous Coward]

The FMAFE provides scholarships to disadvantaged students.

MOOC: Coursera and edX

[AchilleTalon]

Donate to MOOC like Coursera and edX and request the money be spend on technology to facilitate access to disabled students. It is well proven education spent on disabled people is having a great ROI and enable them to avoid living in poverty.

same place as any other stereotype

[Anonymous Coward]

Being a geek doesn't absolve you of social responsibility. Technology is useless in a corrupt centralised world.

local after school clubs

[fantomas]

Help fund local after school clubs: activities run in your local schools that further education local kids in a more informal environment. Get in contact with a local school and ask them what would help them run a technology / computing after school club. Perhaps they could do with some electronics tools (soldering irons etc) or some raspberry pi's, or basic robot kits.

  These activities really help both academically struggling kids to find something they enjoy and catch up with their peers, reduces the chances of them dropping out, and also give gifted pupils the opportunity to push on further. The teachers can be more laid back as these activities are outside the core curriculum and not strictly evaluated so they often encourage the children to try out more experimental activities and emphasise fun and individual learning more than exam passing. And it's a good place for kids to be after school, they also learn a lot of positive social skills.

To be totally selfish, helping local kids to become inspired and enjoy education is better for your neighbourhood as well, and builds future social capacity as well as economic capacity in the area!

Re:MIT Open Courseware and the Wikimedia Foundatio

[tehcyder]

Don't MIT have enough money already?

I thought US colleges did pretty well out of alumni?

Health...

[AlienIntelligence]

You must be one lucky individual to have never had a health
care, scare or had a friend or family member that has had one.

Breast Cancer
Alzheimer's
Cystic Fibrosis

the list goes on, but gets more depressing.

I have Alzheimer's in my family. 95% my donations go to that,
5% goes to dog specific non-profits.

And on top of that, I run a non-profit for disadvantaged families.

-AI

Re:Health...

[Anonymous Coward]

I have Alzheimer's in my family.

Well! We never would have guessed!

My personal votes for educational are:

[tlambert]

http://www.imm.org/
http://www.foresight.org/
http://www.khanacademy.org/

Obvious

[udachny]

Geeks' charitable donations need to go towards building companies.

Geeks shouldn't be charitable, they should be smart. Pool your money together, set up your own VC fund and use it to grow new ideas.

Ask Petter Reinholdtsen (DebianEdu/Skolelinux)

[lowieken]

Petter Reinholdtsen of Debian Edu/Skolelinux fame will have a lot of useful no-nonsense suggestions. Contact information at http://www.hungry.com/~pere/ .

Where should it go?

[Brett.Eden]

I don't agree with a lot of the suggestions posted here, particularly those supporting the provision of funds to larger internet-based organizations. Many of these organizations won't put the money to effective use and there's a good chance that it will simply be gobbled up by operating costs or other miscellaneous expenditures. Ideally you want a lasting return on your investment, so considering education is definitely a priority. Many families who live on either low or no income are not able to afford a decent computer, printer and internet connection and since education begins in the home, this is another area where the money would be well invested. Schools are generally well looked after (in most countries) in terms of their I.T., but schools in smaller countries (such as Samoa and other Island nations), some of which do not enjoy many of the basic schooling supplies-- let alone computers-- would definitely benefit. Making use of solar in countries which are fortunate enough to have year-round or near year-round sunshine should definitely be considered. Recent advances in IC technology have brought a range of different products to market which are capable of running on very little power. Some examples are VIA's range of small form-factor systems and mobile solutions from companies such as Nvidia (which incorporate a CUDA-powered GPU). Samoa is one such country which would be an excellent candidate for this sort of setup. Of course, there's no use supplying the technology without having the right people to educate others in how to use it effectively. Funds should be devoted to providing not just training, but the _right_ training to the teachers and other educators who will be assisting students to use this technology. Students need to be able to get the most out of the equipment and software, without having to be put through extensive training and with minimal supervision. The whole experience should place an emphasis on fun, to the point where the students don't even realize they're learning. Lastly, local investment is key -- create jobs locally, source as much as possible from the local economy and wherever possible, use Open Source operating system and applications... don't throw any more money at Microsoft or any of the other 'Big 3'.

Internet for everyone!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hands down, these guys: http://ahumanright.org

They're working hard to ensure every person has access to the Internet. They tried to crowdfund the purchase of a satellite to move over the middle east during the Arab Spring, now they are working on moving a transatlantic cable 50 km south to connect an island that only has satellite (crappy) internet access.

They're also building "The Bandwidth Bank" which will take the worlds unused Internet capacity and put it to work for humanitarian and social causes.

Awesome org, please support.

Sigh

[ledow]

What's more important:

People eating? People having access to the Internet?
People not being shot? People having a laptop each?
People not dying from diarrhoea? People offering lessons on the Internet?
People going to school? People going to a school which has Wifi tablets or OLPC's?

I work in education. Computers, and technology, do not make that much of a difference over plain, ordinary education. In fact, in some cases it's quite plainly DETRIMENTAL to the quality of education given (the kids know how to google an image, paste it into word, and print it out but can't do simple sums without a calculator).

Sure, in a good school, with decent funding, and teachers who know how to use it effectively and do so all the time (the last of which is very rare and the only people you ever see demonstrating their results improvements!), IT can make a difference. But it's not that much.

But out in the African deserts, Indian slums or wherever you wish to focus your efforts, it's not going to make a jot of difference. For the price of such junk you could just train a decent teacher who doesn't NEED instant, fingertip access to the works of Shakespeare to teach any subject you want them to. All you're doing is putting a technology burden on charities and people who can't afford to eat.

I don't "get" tech charities at all. In any country. If you want to make a difference, give a kid some manky horrible porridge that will keep him alive this month, or work to get them out of the slums through basic, normal education (i.e. funding a school building and a teacher is MORE than enough to get him going and any IT crap is just getting in the way after that), or give them an injection to make them immune to some killer disease, or support efforts to make their home countries safer from rebels killing and raping them.

Don't give them a hand-me-down gadget that you think is "cool". Just don't. Give them a life, instead.

And, take it from someone who works in schools: Don't donate your old crap to your local school. Hell, don't even encourage them to have "one PC per child" or whatever. It hurts basic education in your average school compared to just employing a slightly better teacher.

Re:Sigh

[fatphil]

+1 Insightful

I have a particular dislike for some IT-related charities. I remember when I left the UK I decided to ditch several of the computers I was using (I was dabbling with different OSes, and networking, so needed several rather than multi-booting). And by "ditch" I meant "find a charity that would take them to more needy places than fancy English suburbia". The local internet cafe had a poster requesting just this - computers for an orphanage in Romania. One drawback - the minimum requirements for the computers' specs were higher than *any* computer that I had, including the ones I was taking with me (running slackware/debian they were good workhorse computers). Fuck that charity. I was a charity case according to their standards. That's broken.

I do disagree with your "For the price of such junk you could just train a decent teacher..." because you can't train a decent teacher for 0 UKP, which is the price of donated junk.

I do like the idea of bringing telecommunications to remote villages, for example - but that doesn't mean I think every *individual* needs that kind of resource. I didn't have it for the first 20 years of my life, there's no goddamn way that anyone can claim it's in some ways a necessity. However, I had access to a library. It's that common shared resource that's the useful and valuable thing. The internet is the new library.

Re:Sigh

[Radak]

The original poster made is clear in a response near the beginning of the thread that he/she's only talking about a small portion of the funds to be allocated, and that the more "traditional" bases are already covered and he/she's looking to present something a little different.

Re:Sigh

[Goobermunch]

What the parent said. Also, this: http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/category/heifer-international/

Pat's a big geek, and he's an author with a big geeky fan base. So giving to Worldbuilders is a geeky pursuit.

--AC

Re:Sigh

[Anonymous Coward]

What's more important:

People eating? People having access to the Internet?

Thankfully, the world contains no such dichotomy, and we don't have to choose between dedicating all of our resources to feeding starving kids in Indian slums and dedicating all of our resources to improving the education of children in developed nations. Sure, dumping a pallet of iPads in a village with no running water is a poor choice, but there are plenty of places with running water, reliable electricity, internet access, and really crappy educational systems. Some of those are even in the US, UK, and Germany.

I don't "get" tech charities at all. In any country. If you want to make a difference, give a kid some manky horrible porridge that will keep him alive this month, or work to get them out of the slums through basic, normal education (i.e. funding a school building and a teacher is MORE than enough to get him going and any IT crap is just getting in the way after that),

In the US, the national high school graduation rate is about 75%, and everyone has access to school buildings and teachers, so clearly it is not sufficient just to provide a building and manpower. What I don't get is people who think that, because they can find a sorrier story, [group x] is not entitled to any sympathy or aid.

Re:Sigh

[xclr8r]

Your heart is in the right place but some things can be attacked on multiple fronts - allowing some geographic areas to leap frog technological barriers. What is more powerful 2 years supply of porridge or one year of porridge and a solar powered tablet with localized language that has a pre-loaded wiki on medicine/first aid/farming and a whole slew of other topics. You can literally have a library in a laptop.

Re:Sigh

[Brett.Eden]

Whilst these points are true, read the original post again and then ask yourself whether your reply is actually relevant or not. "As a lifelong geek, I'd like to see some of this money directed toward organizations involved in things geeks-like (e.g. spreading technology in education to those without it, improving the use of technology for those who have it, etc.)." Remember that education is the starting point to preventing and dealing with hunger, violence, illness. When used CORRECTLY, technology such as the Internet plays a key role in that educational process, particularly in areas where schooling consists of little more than chalk and blackboard. There are areas of the world that would greatly benefit from technology, internet access and so on. It would broaden their possibilities and accelerate the learning process exponentially.

Re:Sigh

[Anonymous Coward]

The notion that beggars can't be choosers is antiquated.

They didn't want your computers. Seriously... boo hoo? Are you going to cry now?

They have donors who are willing to part ways with brand-new equipment. Do you really think they're going to waste their valuable time, and overhead, trying to figure out where to send your 5-year-old computers?

Romania ain't exactly third-world. People have computers. And the internet. Giving them a decrepit machine that was "made for XP" but runs Ubuntu fine is not exactly doing them a favor.

Education for Rural Children in India

[rojer_31]

Isha Vidhya - Definitely making a difference in Tamil Nadu (southern state in India) running 8 schools in rural areas with full scholarship for the children requiring it, primarily through donations. They're also now getting into adopting Govt. schools where the quality of education is very questionable - Government School adoption program

Disclaimer: I do some web support for this non-profit (I know the site is bad, we're on a plan to overhaul it). But I can personally vouch for the guys running it.

A few suggestions.

[Darth Muffin]

Geeks Without Borders is one I like (geekswithoutborders.org) which sounds like it may be a good match for your wants. I know many of the people involved in it and it's legit. However, usually we (the organizations I'm in) go for local children's literacy programs instead. If you can't find one then buy and donate a pile of geeky books to the city or school library. We have also supported a local group that goes out and fixes up/repairs schools.

Re:A few suggestions.

[Anonymous Coward]

No Status update since 2011?

Helios / Reglue

[munwin99]

They're in Texas. They take donated PCs, install Linux on them and give them to needy kids. They always need a hand and you may even have read about their founders struggle with cancer. Doesn't stop him from continuing his awesome work.

http://reglue.org/index.html

Wikipedia

[Fished]

I would seriously consider the Wikimedia Foundation, publishers of wikipedia. Particularly in the third world, this sort of freely available information is vital.

Re:Wikipedia

[Anonymous Coward]

+1

Uwingu a space education & research start-up

[Anonymous Coward]

Uwingu is a start-up planning to create cool new ways for space exploration, research, and education to be funded!
http://www.indiegogo.com/p/180221
Not much detail on project just yet but as Pamela Gay involved i trust it will be good

The Chicago teacher's union

[Anonymous Coward]

They're all about the kids and education, you know.

Create a merit-based scholarship

[bendytendril]

I would create a merit based scholarship for a local high school senior or a local university for a student or student entering a STEM or even a CS program.

Why merit based? The geek culture is one of self-starters and self-motivation. You want to target someone who has worked hard and whose grades are important to them. So many scholarships are need-based, and having personally had my first child enter college and searching for scholarships, I can personally attest that the quantity of need-based far exceed merit based.

The other benefit is your organization gets the publicity of having a scholarship named after them.

Unsung Geek Heroes

[flyneye]

Survival Research Laboratories, or S.R.L., have been operating for a couple decades on little more than obtainium.
These Robo-Geeks have been part of the Robotics, Research, Art scene worldwide, providing demonstrations for the public wherever they are allowed to. This takes money, which they don't usually have. In order to keep them out of jail, won't you please fund them so as to keep them from a life of crime? They really aren't above it and SRL should continue for the sake of humanity. http://srl.org/

folding at home

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't mean money.. buy, run, and maintain the hardware and have it do protein folding till it don't fold any more!

Free Software Foundation

[YoungHack]

Becoming an associate member of the Free Software Foundation is probably worthwhile, and not very expensive. It's true that RMS is an unlikely spokesman, but the GPL has had a profound effect on software freedom.

Please consider free software in education

[Freed]

See a reminder of the role of free software in education. You can focus your donation on a particular concern, too.

Duh...

[Anonymous Coward]

TO ME!

The human fund. yeah. that's it.

Groups promoting Science Education

[StatureOfLiberty]

Currently, there is a war on science, scientific method, evolution and facts in general. As a geek, I'd like to contribute to charities that work to counter this very disturbing effort.

We are wasting way too much time fighting battles that in reality have already been decided in the factual world. So, to counter those whose battle cry is (insert fingers in ears) 'LA LA LA LA LA LA LA', we need to back those who believe that scientific method works (because it does). We need well funded advocates for rational thought. The nuts are clearly outspending us.

I'd have to research to find organizations to which I would donate. This organization came up in a brief search NCSE (National Center for Science Education). But, I'd have to do more investigating before I would donate.

Telecoms sans frontieres

[Anonymous Coward]

I gotta know it here on slashdot few years ago, they bring telecommunication infrastructure in countries affected by crisis and work to reduce the digital divide in poor countries.

their website is here wit lot more information about their activity.

Donor's Choose

[Anonymous Coward]

Donor's Choose is amazing, although it may take some time to donate a large sum. The group allows teachers to apply for specifics needed for their classroom. Computer, calculators, etc... It's a great way to make small donations, but there are some big projects up there also. It's very well run and projects may be picked based on location, educational subject, etc...

Support the poorer

[SpaghettiPattern]

Support the poorer among us. Give money to east European women! Many geek men do, sometimes out of necessity. At least consider their example.

Onda Technology

[joaommp]

I'm definitely partial to this one, since I'm one of the founders. However, I strongly believe in our goals and our projects are very interesting. Almost all of us are teachers and we are hoping to grow to a point where we can provide internships for kids that take professional courses instead of college degrees. Also, all of us that work there are purely volunteers.

No!

[Culture20]

Education does need any [more] technology. It needs good teachers. Find ways for your money to supplement worthy teachers' incomes, or increase all teachers' incomes. Make news geeks through proper education, not by shoveling technology at kids.

Re:No!

[Culture20]

Err, education does not need etc.

Re:No!

[Anonymous Coward]

I take it you're a product of public schools.

Me

[Charliemopps]

Me

Give it local, for learning, not material goods

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree, random companies or .org's that deal with handing out laptops etc around the world are a dime a dozen. We need help here, in the states.
That's one thing that aggrivates me. So much money going over seas to people who are fine with living amongst communism or the gangsters in Africa etc.. They could all easily rise up and take those people out, but they don't.
Sure, abunch of people would die, but no more than any other war or revolution. And it's a better situation. (off topic)

Give it local, and give it for stuff that means something.
I know a lot of people in my town, would just LOVE to have a good full meal and some music.

Childrens' Foundations

[MatrixCubed]

Kids don't want for technology when they are in need of things like blood donations, medical attention, and food.

Lose the "geeks only" attitude, and give your hard earned $$ to preserving life for the less fortunate who truly have no choice about the situation they are in.

Re:Childrens' Foundations

[Anonymous Coward]

My contribution suggestions represent only a small part of the foundation's grants. The standard stuff is already covered. I'm trying to come up with ideas that aren't on the foundation's radar, and this thread is definitely helping.

There's no "geeks only" attitude here, just a "let's look at some additional ideas beyond what people expect of a foundation" attitude.

Re:Childrens' Foundations

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah... survival of the fittest's a real bitch, ain't it?

I would recommend...

[ctrl-alt-canc]

The institute of momentum. As you probably know, current legislation requires momentum to be carefully preserved. Your money will help achieving this goal.

Child's Play

[Anonymous Coward]

Not necessarily a "tech" charity, but still a good and geeky cause.

www.childsplaycharity.org

They buy video games, consoles, etc and donate them to children's wards in hospitals. You can even specifically purchase something for a local hospital.

WRONG ANSWER

[Anonymous Coward]

Come on, roman_mir. You were supposed to tell us to give to the ron paul for supreme ruler of the universe campaign. Did you forget to have your morning kool-aid or what?

To the NRA

[Anonymous Coward]

Nuff said.

Open source, DIY environmental science nonprofit

[jywarren]

I work with Public Lab which is an open community creating cheap DIY tools to investigate pollution. Our work ends up being educational because people need to learn about science (how to build a spectrometer, how to measure infrared light, etc) in order to use it towards important goals like proving the presence of contaminated soil or water near your home, or catching polluters dumping concrete into a nearby river. I work with the (small) staff of the nonprofit which helps coordinate between community members, organize events and run the web infrastructure. We could definitely use help!

Dollars for scholars

[Anonymous Coward]

This group might be right up your alley. I volunteer for the organization where I live. I recommend donating to you local chapter(s).

  "Dollars for Scholars division—nearly 1,100 locally based, volunteer-driven chapters serving students in nearly 3,500 communities across the country. With support from our national office and six regional offices, Dollars for Scholars chapters help hometown students achieve their educational goals by raising scholarship funds, establishing endowments, providing assistance with college readiness and the financial aid process, and distributing scholarships each year."

http://scholarshipamerica.org/dfs.php

Re:F.I.R.S.T. Robotics - LOCAL SCHOOL

[Anonymous Coward]

Join F.I.R.S.T. with the Local imperitive. Then you can go see your donations doing cool stuff.
Magnet schools or schools in economically depressed areas are great.
Just because the parents have no money, does not mean the kids have no brains.
They just need a chance.
FYI: my daughter is on the Robotics club and it needs money.

Sugar Labs learning platform

[fritsd]

This is a charity which is definitely geeky: Sugar Labs http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Main_Page

It is a software project, a spin-off of the "One Laptop per Child" XO computer project, but they develop not just for the special-purpose green XO laptops but also Asus EEE, Intel Classmate, and your PC: USB memory stick ("Sugar on a Stick"). I think it's basically a Linux distro derived from Fedora, with oodles of child friendly software: http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities

IANATeacher, but they seem to focus especially on what is pedagogically OK for the kids, helping them to teach each other.

"Measure" activity Re:Sugar Labs learning platform

[fritsd]

(replying to my own post)
Check out the "Measure" activity: it doesn't get much geekier than this!
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Measure.

Easy choice for me....

[3seas]

.....only problem is there is not an official tax deductible organization yet existing.
But its be to change the foundation on which software programming is done.
In analogy, the roman numeral system of mathematics was limited in in mathematical ability. Then came along the hindu-arabic decimal system with its nothing can have value placeholder, the zero. Everything changed an today we have much that would not have been possible without the change in our numbering system.
Todays software development process is quite excluding of the users but math far in advanced of roman numeral mathematics is available to all via calculators.
So can and should software creation and development be just as easy and in doing so, make much software obvious that is otherwise considered patentable due the software development complexity currently existing. As was it the complexity of roman numerals limiting mathematics.

So, where I'd donate money to would be in the development of the core functionality and engineering of the knowledge/function bases and education of Abstraction Physics http:abstractionphysics.net

Khanacademy

[Anonymous Coward]

khanacademy.org

Greetings
Jim Oksvold

Saving forests is my priority

[concealment]

Humanity has grown so large that nature is now endangered.

My solution? Buy local-ish land in the country, and preserve it from development.

It's all for the lizards, birds, snakes, bats, bugs, turtles, rodents, deer and fish now.

Re:Saving forests is my priority

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, what makes you think that humans are not a part of nature? Why is what humans do to the forests less natural than what lizards, birds, snakes, etc. do to the forests? Did some big angel in the sky say that humans are more specialler than what you call "nature"? "Given up on humans - help everything else, signed God"

EasyTomato - better Internet for schools, globally

[Anonymous Coward]

Geeky? How about EasyTomato? These folks are making router firmware (Tomato, DD-WRT, OpenWRT style) to help schools in the developing world better manage low bandwidth internet connections. The catch is they are making it SUPER easy to use, graphical interface, lots of documentation, etc. so local teachers with no IT background can run the whole thing on their own.

So it’s geeky technology for non-geeky projects. Their video makes a good case for supporting the project to make a big difference.

SENS Foundation

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd say it's worth it.

EFF

[MetalliQaZ]

EFF. That is all. Okay, Public Knowledge is good too.

Teaching English

[wellsdm]

I volunteer for a group that is building technology labs in third world countries to teach English. The impact of learning English is enormous on kids around the world. A very small tax deductible donation to this group would go a very long way towards empowering people around the world. Don't just give them fish, also teach them to fish. http://iwanttolearnenglish.org/?page_id=60

The answer to this question

[Anonymous Coward]

is Child's Play.

Problems with the Question

[Stormy Dragon]

Does anyone else have problems with the phrasing of the question, as though there is one right answer?

Local Local Local

[Anonymous Coward]

Local Food Bank to feed the poor and Homeless in YOUR area
Local Charities that provide for the Local HomeLess
Habitat for Humanity
Look in your phone book for Local HomeLess Shelters

DO NOT use United Way, Head of united way has a 2.5 million mansion, and had at one time a private jet
Many National Charities have the Same problems the heads of teh charities have a salary and staff that is on par with many midsize corporations

AAAS

[NumenMaster]

AAAS - American Association for the Advancement of Science.

solve the problem not the symptom

[Anonymous Coward]

I donate to two causes every year

both of the causes address the 'problem' not the symptoms.

I feel that with the current world you cannot band aid support...sure it might help 1 person
or provide a short term boost but ultimately donations to food shelters etc will always be futile

Instead I recommend

1) the methusala mouse project ( http://mprize.org ) which will provide longer healthier lives to everyone

and

2) http://singularity.org/ the singualrity institute -- the ONLY real organization concerned with the existential risk
of the coming singularity and actually doing something about it. Again something which will benefit everyone

ACLU

[schlachter]

http://www.aclu.org/
Protecting our freedoms at a time when religious and gov forces are trying to take it away...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

World University and School

[Scott_WUaS]

I'd support World University and School, which is like Wikipedia with MIT OpenCourseWare, with free, online, MIT-centric, bachelor's, Ph.D., law and M.D. degrees planned in many countries and languages, and for people-to-people, wiki teaching and learning, in all 3,000-8,000 languages and in http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/The_College_at_World_University_and_School Ph.D. Degrees at World University and School: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Ph.D._Degrees_at_World_University_and_School World University Law School: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Law_School World University Medical School: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Medical_School World University Music School: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Music_School WUaS International Baccalaureate Diploma and Programme: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/WUaS_International_Baccalaureate_Diploma_and_Programme (probably in United Nations' languages only - Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Russian, Spanish) (WUaS incorporated in April 2010 as an educational non-profit in California, and received 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in 2011. WUaS is Creative Commons' licensed - http://scottmacleod.com/worlduniversityandschool.html).

Sign language literacy in the Deaf communities

[Anonymous Coward]

The Center for Sutton Movement Writing is a 501c3 education non-profit founded in 1974. They have been doing amazing work in a very open way. The have released their font software under SIL's open font license. They have released their server software under the GPL. They have released their standards documents under Creative Commons by-sa. They have even started working with the MeidaWiki foundation to develop the software needed for the first encyclopedia in a sign language, available online: ase.wikipedia.wmflabs.org. They've been operating on a shoestring budget and deserve support. A really impressive organization with a bright future.

Singularity Institute

[beberly37]

You can't get anymore geeky than preventing artificial intelligence from deeming humans to be an obsolete waste of molecules. http://singularity.org/

Tesla

[pellik]

Theoatmeal's charity drive for funding a Tesla museum is still running (for 11 more days). It has passed it's goal but any extra money will just be used for building the actual museum. Not a bad idea for a geek charitable donation.

NASA!

[darkwing_bmf]

I can't believe no one has mentioned it yet but space exploration is still pretty awesome. Donate the money to NASA!

Colbert's PSA

NASA Policy on Donations

The Hutter Prize

[Anonymous Coward]

The Hutter Prize for Lossless Compression of Human Knowledge, if sufficiently funded, will get adolescent competitive hormones kicking in to teach them about programming, artificial intelligence and the nature of knowledge itself.

Definitely check overhead

[Quila]

I'm not talking about expenses used to run the charity. And a childcare provider at a woman's shelter isn't really overhead, but part of the charitable work if they're watching the children of the women being helped.

As far as admin expenses, I'm not talking regular admin, or even a CEO making a million a year. It can cost that much to hire someone competent enough to run a large multi-national charity.

However, there are charities around that basically look like money funnels. Small charities where the admin expense and CEO pay is a significant portion of the intake. Even worse, where fundraising expenses are half or more of the total. To me, these look like the CEO has buddies who run fundraising companies and is using the charity simply as a way to funnel business to them, probably with kickbacks. It's also a way to funnel money to family and friends by hiring them for various do-nothing admin positions.

The Long Now

[Anonymous Coward]

>> http://longnow.org/

Big time charity

[Quila]

They run firearms safety courses and hunter safety courses all over the country, plus put out public education campaigns about safety and general firearms knowledge. They also sponsor shooting competitions and help local shooting and hunting clubs get started, which is why most of them want you to be an NRA member to join.

Remember, the NRA was originally founded to improve the marksmanship of the general public. The political arm is only relatively recent, a necessary response to efforts to restrict gun ownership by the "Bill of Rights -1" crowd.

for Breast Cancer

[Anonymous Coward]

A friend of mine did a project while she was in medical school to evaluate many of the different companies that support women with breast cancerI don't know what criterion shed used exactly, but she concluded that SHARE is the best one (though I admit this was back in 2007). They fund research as well as create a community for women to support one-another.

http://www.sharecancersupport.org/

My favorite charities...

[lythander]

I am a huge fan of the Heifer Project. Feeds people and provides sustainable lifestyles for them. Geeky in a maker-type, back to basics sort of way.

And Johnny deserves a plug, too, though he's a fairly small-scale charity. But he sets the standard for going and doing for others: Hackers for Charity.

Pushing technology maybe isn't the best way

[IronChef]

If you want to support "geeky" things then working directly with technology projects might not be the best use of the money. If you want to advance the geek agenda, find a way to help people THINK better. Support literacy causes, or science education for kids.

The Computer History Museum

[Anonymous Coward]

Which just won a STEM award for one of its education programs.
http://www.computerhistory.org/education/getinvested/

Re:Altruism...outstanding

[sgt_doom]

wermske, you have truly made the most outstanding suggestions --- good show!!!!

Do not, puuuuhlease do not, make the flagrant mistake of shipping to those professional scammers like M.A.D.D. or Susan G. Komen Foundation (MADD was founded by a woman whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver -- ostensibly to change drunk driving laws, but the founder's salary increased dramatically, as did her net worth, while contributions were poorly disbursed --- eventually, after doing as much fund raising as possible, that mother who exploited her daughter's death, then once again dramatically increased her salary by becoming a lobbyist for the liquor retail industry). The founder of that foundation, whose sister died from breast cancer, was a neocon, supporter of Geo. W. Bush's campaigns for both governor and president, and that foundation followed a similar, albeit more convoluted, structure as MADD: they steered some of those donations to pharmaceutical companies which would be sure their research never implicated their own products, etc.

Then again, there's always this alternative...

[sgt_doom]

Say, I know some Nigerian princes who are looking to escape their predicament and have a great deal for ya......

The Pearson Foundation

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want your money to actually do something, you have to pick an organization that already has a proven track record. Consider The Pearson Foundation, the non-profit arm of the largest education company in the world.

http://www.pearsonfoundation.org/

Funny

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it the money from selling /.?

How about me?

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

I suggest the Capt.DrumkenBum needs new computers and tech toys fund.
At least this way you know the funds are going to a noble purpose. You will even be sent a photo, and review of each computer and tech toy purchased.

Geeks with guns contribute to...

[Anonymous Coward]

The NRA Foundation.

Why not direct it to a corruption exposing team

[Anonymous Coward]

For years NoAgendaShow have been providing an unbiased education for the people interested to see behind the curtain.
Twice a week they are opening the eyes of tens of thousands of people around the world.
To avoid conflict of interest they do not have commercials, underwriters and government subsidiaries. The [podcast] show is supported entirely by their audience.
As they say "If you don't pay for the product - you are the product.
You can find them at NoAgendaShow.com. Please donate if you like what they are doing.

trust deed

[DaveGod]

Foundations and charities are typically bound by a trust deed or similar which dictates the charitable aims and other restrictions.

It is your primary point of guidance and must be followed, for both legal and moral reasons. Money in a trust is never "yours" in any sense, a trustee or whomever basically is there to administer the wishes of those who formed the trust and put money in it.

That said, the deed may have some fairly broad terms such as "promotion of education", but it may also be much more narrow in scope and in defining beneficiaries.

Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence

[RobinReborn]

An organization that exists to ensure that future Artificial Intelligences are friendly towards humanity, http://singularity.org/ Prominent donors include Peter Thiel and Jaan Tallinn

Scholarship at local college

[alexschmidt]

If you have a favorite local college or university, set up a scholarship for one or more students in a department of your choice. Set something up that pays some modest interest or dividends and pay this out as a yearly scholarship to deserving students. Given the student loan situation, you would be doing something really meaningful.

Support GNU/free SW porting to Android

[Anonymous Coward]

There was a Kickstarter campaign that I supported that didn't make it. It would bring Octave+gnuplot (like Matlab but free as in speech) to Android. It could be used as a graphing calculator or so much more - you can learn about it on the kickstarter page. The developer said he is targeting getting this working largely to support students and professionals in developing countries, but I would use it here in the US. He said they had been contacted by the Indian Ministry of Education because they were interested in their students using the end product as they are using Android tablets in education now. The FSF (Free Software Foundation) handles donations to Octave development and should be able/willing to fund this. The developer has continued on without funding, but I imagine one reasonably large donation could make a huge difference for the users. I think you can just contact the developer through Kickstarter.

Where is your local?

[Anonymous Coward]

In my area (Portland, OR) we have FreeGeek (http://www.freegeek.org/) a great place for helping people get geeky. I know there are similar organizations in many cities.

Khan Academy is doing cool stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.khanacademy.org/

They were recently profiled on 60 Minutes, highlighting the innovative methods they've developed for teaching math and science. They provide all their educational services for free because they are foundation-funded.

NORML

[SirLars]

help end the stupid drug war...

Lots!

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.donorschoose.org/ for donations to help out schools, you can even search by zip so you can make it local.
http://www.childsplaycharity.org/ for donating consul games for children in hospitals.
http://www.rockethub.com/projects/scifund for donations to scientific research projects.
http://www.angelflight.com/ if you are aeronautically inclined to help get patients to the treatments they need.
http://ecpatusa.org/ if you would like to help stop human trafficking.

Really if you want to focus on a particular issue, you should just do some web research.

Direct donation is the only way to go!

[codepunk]

When I want to donate money I will just walk up and hand whomever I wish to donate cash bills. I know exactly where my cash gets donated and to whom. No paying middlemen, no administration costs just a flat out you need this, take it.

Give it to ISKCON

[Anonymous Coward]

You call yourself Soulskill, you are rich and intelligent, so try to think how to best engage your skills to please your soul. If you want to support education, you should donate the money to the International Society for Krishna Consiousness to print books. If you please God, everyone will benefit. If you try to help humankind but not God, you will temporarily relief a little bit of suffering, but in fact you will not help anyone, as people are destined to suffer for a reason due their past misdeeds and you cannot change that by your monetary support. Teaching people why they actually suffer - so they can in effect avoid it in future, and so how to get that happiness that is never exahausted, is superior and the foremost target of charitable donations and the best possible improvement in usage of technology is in engaging it in this mission. There is limitless technology that can be engaged - cars, computers, ... Contrary to that having all the education and the technology but not knowing who you are will not help anyone to relieve the problems of material existence.

Hunger

[EdmundSS]

As a few others have commented, the biggest "bang for your buck" is probably to support outfits who help people in the developing world. Bootstrapping poverty-stricken but eager folk into the productive economy enables them to send their children to school. See Seeds for Development as an example of this type of organisation.

Disclaimer: I've met some of the founders of SFD.

Local School Computer Lab

[Naso540]

This has to be in the top 5

A charity to consider

[Anonymous Coward]

ComicBookProject.org is a great charity focused on children's literacy, and they only receive (and share, with other projects under the center for educational pathways) about 77k a year. Any significant amount of money earmarked specifically for this program would be a huge help. Comic books are an amazing literacy tool, and introducing kids to geek culture at young ages, you would imagine, will inspire some to turn to the sciences and mathematics down the road.

My website, http://www.fandomcomics.com is currently hosting a charity giveaway partnered with Comic Book Project, so naturally, feel free to donate there too! Registration for the giveaway is at http://www.fandomcomics.com/2012giveaway/, and our prizes include costume prop helmets autographed by the Star Wars stars who wore them, as well as some other autographed swag!

you want "intelligent development"

[Anonymous Coward]

Historically, most development (heck, most charity) efforts have been "heart driven". Not a bad thing, but not great for the refinement and optimization of the approach/results. Projects that don't work are repeated. Projects that DO work aren't "sexy" enough, marketable enough, emotional enough to fund. Well...the geek shall inherit the earth.

Check out http://www.ewb.ca/intelligent ... almost looks like a scientific process, doesn't it? In development. Sort of geeky. Crazy I know.

Further proof of geek cred:
1. EWB publishes a failure report in the interest of transparency, but also learning - while the scientific community learns from each other's failures, the development/charity sector hides failures to protect funding. It's backwards, and entirely counterproductive. Failing forward? smart, proven idea.

2. Root cause identification, analysis and emphasis. Yes, there's a water problem in some African countries. No, drilling a well isn't going to solve it. The well will break. It won't be repaired. People will be thirsty again. EWB has focused on why the wells aren't there in the first place. Oh, and it's succeeding. Check the site for the lastest on the work in Malawi.

3. Education - EWB is working to change engineering education. It's working to incubate young social change leaders around the world (through schools, chapters, etc). Multiple ventures are focused on similar goals. It's all about helping people build the skills to not just create change, but instead to create MEANINGFUL, systemic change. You can't fight poverty, but you can fix the systems that allow it to exist.

There's more, but I'm looking at my "to do" list and thinking it's time to move on to what I get paid to do. And on that note, I should say that I'm a gekk who left the geek world (tech startups) to wade into the "good" world. And yeah, I landed at EWB Canada. I did a lot of research to find an organization that was actually having an impact as opposed rehashing (and reimplementing) ideas that just don't work.

EWB is the real deal. I wholeheartedly suggest you check it out.

Computer scientists without borders

[While1Smile]

Hello, in Italy I recommend support to Informatici Senza Frontiere (ISF, acronym for "computer scientists without borders") an NGO which has several volunteer projects active in Africa and not only. Focus is on FOSS solutions. You can help founding ISF (Computer Scientist without Borders www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org ) with OpenHospital (open source project hosted at SourceForge http://sourceforge.net/projects/angal/ ) and leave for a period in some African hospital to support installations, startup and training there. I am ISF member in Italy, can assure you about group seriousness and professionalism: see also http://www.mjota.org/mjota2009/vol3no3.html Here you can find some info on ISF projects: English: http://www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org/en/ Spanish: http://www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org/es/ Italian: http://www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org/ In case you'd like either to send specific questions or suggest ways to participate, please, do it: contact us http://www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org/en/contattaci/ escribe nos http://www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org/es/contattaci/ contattaci http://www.informaticisenzafrontiere.org/contattaci/ thanks++/gracias++/grazie++ Warmest regards

MOUSE Squad

[Taed]

MOUSE Squad is a nationwide organization which teaches computer skills by organizing a school helpdesk which is able to handle most day-to-day problems with the school's computer equipment. They've been around for 10+ years and hundreds of schools participate. I've just become involved with it at my son's middle school, so I'll be working with them for the next few years.

Bag O' Coins

[tmjva]

I keep $5 or $10 in coins in a small pull string bag in my car.

Whenever I pass one of my favorite beggars* I toss it out the passenger side window at slow speed. Or if lucky to be at a red light I'll chat with one.

* I have two where I live, one that plays music on a corner and another Desert Storm veteran with mental illness. A grocery store clerk in the area once told me he's a math whiz.

G3 for donations

[Anonymous Coward]

Gaming and giving for good or G3