We try to stay local. We’ve done Goodwill in the past but we donate goods and money to a local outreach, especially around the holidays. There are many local food banks that need food along with volunteers. The number of people needing food keeps growing.
We love our pets so the Humane Society gets some money and love too although I’m banned because I’d bring them all home. I also participate in our township’s deer management program. The venison goes to the food bank and the hearts go to the high school biology class. The biggest gift is time and effort. Volunteers are a welcome sight.
Love all the organizations mentioned here - Completely agreed with the local donations. Local organizations even though they don’t get a lot of visibility nation wide but i think they get A LOT of support from the locals, rightfully so. For me it’s just too many local organizations to count. DH always teased me that I am like a squirrel who see nuts. Tell me a sob story and I am in, and my friends know it.
@Lindagaf, loved everything you wrote. Being a refugee/immigrant I tend to think/see /care a little bit more about the state of the world beside the locals.
“My husband’s family has been doing charity donations for one another for decades, so the one we contribute to for his family is Kiva, which is gives microloans to people in developing countries. That’s a great charity because the money goes on the help someone else. It’s literally a gift that keeps giving. His family donates a lot to Oxfam. My kids used to be unimpressed when their aunt would send them a birthday card saying “you’ve purchased mosquito nets for a family…or…your donation has helped a family buy a goat!” Now, they think it’s cool.”
I love love love Kiva - it’s an amazing idea - I forgot about it, thanks for the reminder. I had helped someone in Vietnam a couple of years ago. It felt so personal because you actually helped change someone’s life.
@chmmom “We love our pets so the Humane Society gets some money and love too although I’m banned because I’d bring them all home”.
This makes me laugh I can relate to this on so many levels.
Doctors Without Borders
USO
St Jude’s
Audubon
Nature conservatory
Sierra club
National wildlife foundation
Defenders of wildlife
Arbor Day foundation
SPLC
Habitat for humanity
American Indian college
Hillel, Weizmann center, etc
These are all sitting in my box, and I need tocheck their current ratings. Just too many
We used to give to St. Jude. This year, my friend works for a hospice that is building a separate building on their property for children. We made a pledge last week.
We also donate:
Local child and family counseling/group home center
Our kid’s college study abroad scholarship fund
Local food pantry adopted by our church
Our kids donate to:
NPR
ACLU
their college alumni fund
a trap/spay/neuter release program in Grenada
Make-a-Wish and the Ronald McDonald House for the support they provided my sister and niece, and our local animal shelter, source of all of our pets (except the fish…)
UNICEF including for specific projects/needs
St. Jude’s
Blue Card non profit that cares for impoverished Holocaust survivors
employer’s giving tree fund
local scholarship organization
other miscellaneous local projects
We give mainly to local charities - a local food bank, an addiction treatment center with housing for both men and women, a few environmental groups, some animal rescue groups (both pet and wildlife), and a place that funds innovative projects in all areas.
For larger organizations, I like SPLC and World Central Kitchen. Also, the Union of Concerned Scientists.
I’m big on local. But not the groups where plenty of wealthy do make big donations and/or they throw expensive fundraisers with huge ticket costs. That’s valid, sure. But not my way. Or where their staff and execs are well paid. And where corporations make regular grants. So I’ll admit a number of the recognizable names aren’t on my list.
Local soup kitchen (shoestring budget, wonderful efforts. We vol’d for years.) Local rescue mission. And some others.
Two small organizations that seem very grateful for donations have been my happiest contributions. Friendship with Cambodia and an orphanage in Guatemala, Semillas de Amor. Our local food bank. Raices, who are working to provide legal defense for families at the southern border. Our local food bank. NRDC, and Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund. . Mercy Corps. The charitable arm of the hospital where I work. International Refugee Committee.
Years ago I heard a lecture discussing charitable giving. . The person said to choose a direction you feel most passionately about and then choose your organizations. My choice at that time was environmental organizations and it still is, however the degree of human need both in my community and elsewhere has me straying quite a bit from that stated goal. It does feel good to have a narrow focus to my donations and to be able to state that when my heart is bigger than my purse.
For anyone still shopping for Christmas, consider using Amazon Smile. It’s the same as regular Amazon/Amazon Prime but it diverts a tiny percentage of the cost of many items to a charity of your choice. As long as your organization has signed up to receive Amazon Smile donations you can make them your preferred charity no matter how small or particular the organization is. As I said, the donations are tiny, but they add up if a lot of people use AS. There’s no cost to donors or charities and your shopping cart will be shared with your regular Amazon account, so if you forget to use Smile until you’re halfway through your shopping trip you can still switch over without losing the items in your cart.
Does anyone’s company match or double match your donation? Mine does, for every hundred dollars I give, my company gives 2 hundred more. It’s sooo wonderful!, too good not to give. Although they do have a limit of 10K total per year per employees (but you can choose as many organizations as you want).
Another Kiva fan here…it makes a great gift, because the recipient can choose who they want to loan to based on what’s important to them, and it’s not a one-off. When the loan gets repaid, you can reinvest so it’s like a continual charity give with just one investment. It also does feel personal, because in many cases you are giving to an individual (such as an African farmer to buy some new hybrid seeds) and when your loan gets paid back, you get some confirmation that your gift did some good.
We also like to make our larger donations to local charities. We identified a local health clinic that provides healthcare services to people who have no health insurance (Imagine that!). So they have no elderly clients (Medicare or Medicaid eligible), not too many very young clients (Medicaid eligible), no veterans (VA eligible), but they have plenty of clients.
We also support a local charity that brings children from Afghanistan to the U.S. (typically for 6 weeks during the summer) to receive medical treatment.
And we also support a local charity that runs a wheelchair basketball program with several teams for all ages, little children to adults.
(Fwiw, I am “The poster formerly known as atomom”–hoping to recover my identity soon…)
In addition to supporting local charities/volunteering, for 25+ years I have sponsored students in developing countries through an organization called “Unbound.” (which used to be called CFCA–Christian Foundation for Children and Aging.)
They are a legitimate non profit (3/4 stars from charity navigator) that helps many people get a well deserved “break”, but if you have not already done so, I’d encourage you to do some research to make sure you are still on board with their business model.
Almost all of the borrowers featured in KIVA profiles have already had their loans approved and disbursed BEFORE their profiles are posted. Your repayment IS tied to the borrower you select, BUT your donation is not actually going to that applicant. Instead you donation is aggregated with other donors and used to fund the loan of a borrower whose profile also has not yet been posted on the KIVA website. The small print for each profile does indicate that that borrower’s loan has already been disbursed.
On top of that, more than half of borrowers are charged effective interest rates over 30%, and many are paying 40% or 50%, or higher, interest.
I can relate to this on so many levels.