Charities?

[badmoviescript]

I'm interested in donating money to various charities this holiday season in lieu of gifts and to have people donate money for me for my Christmas list. What are all of your favorite charities? I think of human rights as a vegan issue as well, so please include humanitarian organizations (especially for me to give to people who aren't vegan because

Comments

[bitspike]

I asked a similar question a while ago. Though you may be after something a little different, the discussions in my three posts may be helpful. I heard about a few great organisations for the first time from people who responded.

Post 1
Post 2
Post 3

Hope this helps!

*adds a few tags to your entry*

Edit: I really should give you more information and actually reply to your entry. These are the organisations I told my family I'd appreciate donations for:

VegFam
Animals Australia
Voiceless
Poultry Place (local chicken sanctuary)
Sea Shepherd
Oxfam

Some are more vegan oriented than others because I, like you, wanted to give them the opportunity to donate to somewhere they could get behind as well. I think that's a great way to go. Also, my suggestions are a little Australian oriented.

[badmoviescript]

Awesome! Thank you so much! I just thought to look at the gift giving tag and didn't realize there's so much great stuff already out there. Maybe people will have even more suggestions this time around :)

[bitspike]

Looks like they already do!

[mirmurs]

Oxfam had a campaign in the Netherlands in which they donated animals (goats, chickens, pigs, cows) to people. They described all the things the animals were good for, including their meat in the end.

[kero734]

[badmoviescript]

Awesome. I've never heard of FFL and it might just be my favorite find ever. My aunt (a teacher) will LOVE donorschoose.org and my Starbucks-addict dad should probably learn something from coffeekids :) Thanks so much!

[kero734]

[traciebee]

I second Farm Sanctuary. :)

http://farmsanctuary.org/

[styrofoamkisses]

WWF :)!

[badmoviescript]

I love it :) That's definitely already on my list! Thanks!

[bitspike]

I haven't done a lot of reading into it myself to form my own opinion, but there are many alegations of cruelty against the WWF. You can check out wickedwildlifefund.com for more information.

(Sorry, I don't mean to suggest that you're misinformed or that your suggestion is bad.)

[badmoviescript]

No, please do. I think all of us want to be sure that we're giving money to the most ethical organizations available because there are so many seemingly great ones out there. Thanks for this, I'll have to do some digging!

[hihoplastic]

Defenders of Wildlife. They're working on a campaign right now to stop the aerial hunting of wolves in Alaska, as well as as a campaign against hunting Canadian polar bears and bringing back furs to sell in the US, supporting the PAW act, etc. You can adopt animals from them for various prices, and get a stuffed animal/certificate in return. Makes really good holiday presents, I think :)

Someone already said Farm Sanctuary, which I second! As well as Best Friends Animal Society and Wildlife Aid UK.

I also really like Botshabelo, a community in South Africa that cares for orphaned children, and Bead for Life.

♥

[badmoviescript]

Awesome. I remember watching a DoW video about Sarah Palin's support for the aerial hunting of wolves and it almost made me cry. They seem like a great organization.

Best Friends Animal Society sounds like a great animal rights group that wouldn't come across as pushing veganism on anyone and Bead for Life would be PERFECT for my friend who makes jewelry! Thanks so much for the ideas.

[hihoplastic]

I made the horrible mistake of watching the Defenders video at work and had to excuse myself for ten minutes while I burst into tears in the bathroom. Even with all politics aside, I can't stand that woman for her cruelty to animals.

Defenders is a really wonderful, and have some really awesome/simple gift stuff (I just found out!) including holiday cards and stamps and the like. And Best Friends is amazing. I really, really want to visit their sanctuary someday. It sounds like such a beautiful place.

Glad I could help! Thank YOU for posing the question - I'm following the threads and learning about lots of awesome new places!

[Edit for non-sequitur FAIL]

[pureandpoised]

That is an excellent idea, i am sure the recipients will be very pleased.
Here are some of my favorites:

Charity:Water- provides clean drinking water to people in need
http://www.charitywater.org/

Unicef- http://www.unicef.org/

Finca- they do micro loans and you can give someone an honor gift
http://www.villagebanking.org/site/c.erKPI2PCIoE/b.2394109/k.BEA3/Home.htm

Environmental Working Group
http://www.ewg.org/

[badmoviescript]

Even if they aren't pleased, they really can't complain without seeming like terrible people :) And besides, I think it's way better to buy them one thoughtful gift and give the other money that I otherwise would have spent on crap that they don't need (or necessarily want) to charities that I think they would like.

The EWG will be absolutely PERFECT for one of my (vegan for sustainability reasons) friends. It looks like a really cool organization. Finca will also be great for my capitalist father :) Charity:Water also sounds amazing. It is so disheartening that so many people die from not being able to get clean water. Water shouldn't be scarce, it's everywhere!