fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2625 ]

[ SECRET POST #2625 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2625 ⌋

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So I finally have a steady job and have my finances worked out. I want to start donating to some charities but I have no idea where to start! I don't want to end up donating to a charity that uses most of its proceeds for publicity and paying the CEO.

I don't really know what I want to donate money towards (probably animals and children).

Also, do you think it is better to do 2-3 small donations to different organizations or one big donation to one?

I donate to Amnesty International. I don't know how they rank in terms of where their money goes (I know they've been guilty of wasting quite a bit on marketing) but they are one organization I think is really amazing, stands for good causes, and has the power and influence to make a difference on a wider scale.

Other than that, I donate to my local animal shelter. I volunteer my time to play with the cats. I'd say if you want your money to make the biggest difference per cent, go local.

I don't know how accurate this is, but take a look at this list? http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html I feel like I once saw a ranking system, and I think it was this Charity Watch, that graded various big name charities on that sort of criteria (money not going to rich CEOs, efficient spending, etc.)

sa

actually I think the website I had looked at before was this: http://www.charitynavigator.org/

Not the Charity Watch one.

I still have no idea if it's accurate.

All registered non-profits in the US have CEOs and by law their salaries are comparable to their same position in private sector companies of the same size. If you do anything to help a charity, you are in some way helping that CEO. Nowhere near as much as you would be helping the people or animals that charity helps in most cases, but you're still helping the CEO.

DA

Huh? I don't recall a law mandating a minimum salary for directors and officers... many officers in nonprofits are payed significantly less than they could be making in the private sector. Additionally, not every nonprofit has a CEO-- many operate on slightly different hierarchical structures.

I mean, I agree with your general point-- and I don't begrudge people making a living off doing charity work, but I'm not so sure about some of your specifics...

I could be wrong, though; do you have sources for those points?

Well there's always PACER, which helps children who are being bullied and educated about bullying. Other charities that may interest you that I know off the Survey Monkey site: The Humane Society, Petfinder, and Red Rover (helps abused animals).

For children: Save the Children (feeds children), UNICEF, Onehearted (helps children with HIV/AIDS, Half the Sky (helps orphaned children in China), Girls For A Change (empowering girls), Boys & Girls Clubs, Breakthrough New York (helps underprivileged middle schoolers in New York).

I don't know the best but these were graded the worst. http://www.tampabay.com/americas-worst-charities/

Wow, I heard the biggest Breast Cancer charity groups were bad, but that really is bad. Argh...

Can't help you on the question of whether to donate to 2 or 3, or just one, but I can recommend you look into your local food bank. They usually only have one or two employees who make very little money.

Seconded. Bonus, you'll undoubtedly help children and family pets as well as needy adults!

Re: Charities

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-11 23:40 (UTC) - Expand

ayrt

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-11 23:57 (UTC) - Expand

Re: ayrt

iceyred - 2014-03-12 00:35 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Charities

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-12 00:30 (UTC) - Expand

I sponsor a child through Compassion: about $45 a month goes toward her health, education, etc...I also exchange regular letters with her which is great. It IS a blatantly Christian organization, so if you don't like that it won't work for you (like, the Compassion centers will teach bible study alongside other lessons), but they do have more specific funds as well if you prefer that(donate x amount of money to the clean water fund, to the emergency medical care fund, to the fund for training of new mothers, to buy a family a goat or some chickens....)

I've been satisfied with their practices and I haven't heard anything about abuse of resources, although I assume that any organization eats up some funds in bureaucracy.

You should donate to me. I am a charity. I promise to use your money wisely on worthwhile things like food and clothing and maybe a doctors visit or two.

Re: Charities

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-11 23:35 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Charities

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-11 23:35 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Charities

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-12 00:19 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Charities

vethica - 2014-03-12 00:24 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Charities

greenvelvetcake - 2014-03-12 01:21 (UTC) - Expand

This might be controversial given who started it, but I pretty much donate all my money to Child's Play. Anyone who's spent time in a hospital as a kid knows how scary it is (I sure do) and Child's Play is absolutely doing a much needed service.

(for the record Gabe and Tycho have distanced themselves from Child's Play for the charity's sake.)

I also sometimes throw a few bucks towards the Electronic Frontier Foundation or the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

ayrt

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-11 23:56 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Charities

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-12 00:37 (UTC) - Expand

I'm mostly involved in homelessness work, but there are some great organizations there that do work for children, among other things. The National Alliance to End Homelessness does incredible work, some of which is focused on children and families.

These two are more local, but the Ounce of Prevention Fund is an absolutely amazing group in Chicago that also contributes to national research and program development, and they work to provide high quality care and education for underserved young children. The Heartland Alliance also does great things.

I feel extremely strongly about bile farms, and I think donating money to help rescue bears is really important. There are several sites, but I don't want to overwhelm you by posting too many links -- but lemme know if you do want more! -- so here are just two for now:

http://www.freethebears.org.au (100% of donations go directly to helping bears, so it's exactly what you want in that aspect)

https://www.animalsasia.org/intl/index.html

And hey, thanks for being a good person :)

ayrt

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-12 00:02 (UTC) - Expand

Re: ayrt

galerian-ash.livejournal.com - 2014-03-12 00:28 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Charities

diet_poison - 2014-03-12 00:18 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Charities

galerian-ash.livejournal.com - 2014-03-12 00:30 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Charities

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-12 00:42 (UTC) - Expand

I used to donate to World Food Program (specifically the school lunches one), I did that because I couldn't remember any drama around them.

I feel people should donate to a cause where you can actually see their budgets*, and also just do something that will make a lasting impact instead of what is just "in" right now. Be it for the environment, children or communities. There is the obvious exception of local donations here, but I am not that familiar with such charities so I can't help you there.

Other than that, don't sponsor just one child, because as a sadly Norwegian charity or I would tell you to give money to them, say on the issue: Donating to one child will make that child dependent on it and not make as huge a difference as doing something for a whole family or community.

*They should put them up on their webpages

Perhaps local children's hospitals?

Try organizations that are local. I've volunteered for the Women's Fund in my area that gives grants to projects that provide social change for women and girls.

There are likely other works in your area for providing for schools, kids, and the pet shelters that you can donate to.

I generally donate locally before sending money elsewhere, though when I'm working regularly, I donate to Doctors Without Borders.

My local animal shelter/rescues are always taking animals in from other counties/states, as I live in one of the largest cities around for more miles than I want to think, so I donate money to as many of the local groups as I can. I also donate to the local food bank (when I didn't have a food bank to donate to, I found out which church offered food, and gave food to them).

If you have pets, or like animals, veterinarians also are thrilled to accept donations for people who can't afford to have their pets operated on. If there's an E.R. vet in your area, they might be the one to contact for it.

You can also check online for some great animal rescue sites - I donate to a rescue that takes in wolves and wolf dogs, a friend of mine donates to a big cat rescue.

There may be a local child assistant program to look into, too; if you don't know who to call, I'd suggest contacting your nearest school; they'd probably know.

Hope that helps, and thank you so much for wanting to do this.

Seconding what the first anon said about charitynavigator.org.

And then I'm not sure where this counts as pimping or what not, but I used to volunteer with Jolkona (I kind of prefer their old website, but don't tell them I said that). It's a micro-donation/crowd-source focused organization, and it tries its best to collect and deliver impact reports from the areas it helps so that each donor can see exactly what their money went to. (Sometimes the impact reports take several months to a year based on the length of the campaign, scope of the project, etc, so it's not perfect.)

It only has about three or four fulltime employees; the rest are volunteers like I was. And even those salaries are largely covered by separate local fundraisers, not specific donations, so I can vouch personally that the majority of the funds goes directly to its partner organizations, which are small, local non-profits directly based in the country of whatever cause you choose to donate to.

I agree with the advice to give locally - that way it's easier to know how your money is going to be spent.

But I also thoroughly recommend Kiva: http://www.kiva.org/. If you haven't heard of it, basically many people from many different countries have profiles up about the loan they want - it might be for sending their kids to school, or buying supplies for their shop, or upgrading the water system for their village, or a wide range of other things. You can even search by gender, type of loan needed and/or country if that's your thing. And then you contribute towards their loan - minimum $25, with an option to donate to Kiva itself (which is non-profit). The person will get their loan, and will then slowly pay it back (no interest of course). Which means that eventually you will get your $25 back and then can donate that to someone else. And you get updates on the people you've lent to, so you can know how it all went.

I support Kiva because during my undergrad I did some research on a paper about what works and what doesn't in terms of funding development, and it turns out micro-lending does work really well. The way it's set up also means that I'm encouraged to go back to the site to see if I have enough to relend to someone else yet. Also, there are groups/teams you can join and choose to dedicate your loans to, including a Fandom team, so that's fun!

To give you an overview, in the last 4 years or so i have deposited $192 into my Kiva account - but with that $192 I have been able to lend $675 in 27 different loans. And that's while being a poor student. Sounds pretty good, right? /Kiva stanning

Re: Charities

nyxelestia - 2014-03-12 02:54 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Charities

(Anonymous) - 2014-03-12 23:11 (UTC) - Expand

Thirding/whatevering the advice to donate locally (shelters, food banks, etc.) - these places are often very short on funds, and are often staffed either by low-paid employees or volunteers.

As for bigger organizations...my rule of thumb is that if they promise things like sending you a mug or calendar if you donate a certain amount? Don't donate, because that is way too much money spent on advertising (possible exceptions being awareness-centered organizations like Humans Rights Watch, because in those cases half the cause/work is advertising and spreading the word).

If you're looking at the websites of organizations, see if you can find specific projects or situations they are working/focusing on - that usually indicates that they have more specific plans for any money they get, rather than money going towards the charity in general and getting used to pay for advertising and management more than anything else. There's a big difference between "we are helping the people of This Drought-ridden Area" and "we are funding a well and irrigation in This Drought-ridden Area" - because the website is publicity, this doesn't always work, but it's a sure helpful indicator.

If/when sifting through larger organizations and charities:

www.charitynavigator.org

As for what kind of donation to do, it would depend a lot on who or what you donate to. If you go for big organizations, I'd do a lot of smaller donations, but if you are trying to help out local charities, I'd go for fewer but larger donations.

I have one big one (child education in Africa. Basically putting one kid through school) and then I donate to minor ones on a whim. ie. RSPCA. Local vet. Local immune disorder foundation. Change to random ppl in the street.

These guys have a really good track record, and I admit I kinda like them because they prove the exact opposite of what jerks say about aid to the poor: http://www.givedirectly.org/

I give to a local charity for Moscow homeless, which also has build a hospice in Kiev and does some other work. They don't have Eng option on their site doctorliza.ru Strangely I always feel discouraged after donating money because there's so much more that should be done. -/ However OP should feel awesome! Donating to one charity is easier, imho. Less time spend pondering the poor state of some places/people.

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