What's an effective charity?

[zestyping]

Thinking about charities to support? Perhaps you have opinions? I think it's good to talk about this stuff openly, so we can learn from and encourage each other.
If you're curious or looking for ideas, these were my top picks in 2010:

• Partners in Health
• Second Harvest
• charity:water
• CAMFED
• Doctors Without Borders
• Project Respite 2.0
• Oxfam
• UNICEF

Comments

Another charity to consider

[anonymous]

I think what you're doing is fantastic. And inspiring!

Would you consider Women For Women International? www.womenforwomen.org? It's a wonderful organization and I think it fits really nicely into your already impressive group of non-profit organizations.

[islandmomma]

I presume you checked out the charities you decided on via Charity Navigator or somewhere similar? There are some on your list I don't know, but the ones I do recognize are excellent. The only one I would question is IRC. Although they unquestionably do some great work, their links to government have been questioned, and if a charity isn't neutral then I can't support it, just on principal.

[zestyping]

Can you tell me more about your concerns? I'm not aware of the issue, and would like to learn.

thanks for posting this list

[anemone]

I like to split my charitable giving between direct help--like feeding people who are starving (Doctors Without Borders)--and giving help to people so that long term they won't be starving (Grameen foundation, Heifer International, etc).

When I was in Berkeley, I did this by donating to BOSS (long-term help) and to Dorothy Day House of Berkeley (short-term help), which feeds the homeless breakfast in People's Park.

I also like to do a conscious split between global concerns and local concerns, because as you say dollars seem to go farther over seas, but it doesn't seem right to ignore the local situation entirely.

Thanks for posting this list.

[paulschreiber]

Here's where my money went last year:

Small, recurring monthly donations:
* ACLU (civil liberties)
* EFF (online civil liberties)
* KQED (San Francisco NPR Station)
* Creative Commons (copyright reform)
* Courage Campaign (california mariage equality and general progressive activism)
* Long Now Foundation

One-off donations:
* Engineers Without Borders Canada*
* Donors Choose
* Doctors Without Borders
* Oxfam America
* EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center)
* firedoglake writers foundation
* Idealist (job search site)
* Ten Oaks Project (camp for gay kids)

* Note to Americans: if you want something more local, go for Engineers for a Sustainable World, not EWB-USA.

Post Comment

[anonymous]

decided to help and sent out a post in the social services. bookmarks. I hope to rise in popularity.