Consistent donations go to:
Thanks I have to look into this again. I did help someone like over 2 years ago, probably didn’t read much other than the person’s profile and their business plan proposal, more like what they want to use the money for. I did not follow up afterward to be completely honest and had forgotten about it until @lindagaf mentioned it.
Why would a non profit organization charge someone 30, 40, 50 % interest rate, this is troublesome to me.
KIVA is the non profit, but they are not the lender. Instead, they use a network of for-profit microlenders to make the actual loans.
We do mostly local donations, mainly to groups that feed people (have also cooked for a couple shelters over the years). Interfaith Works gets clothing donations and is the beneficiary of our quilting project for their women’s shelter.
We also donate to our synagogue, RAICES, the rescue from which we adopted our dogs, colleges, the HS programs DH, S1 and S2 attended, and a few projects/causes that friends support (mental health, rare medical conditions).
Both guys support causes important to them, both financially and with their time. It has been really gratifying to see that they take this seriously. Our parents didn’t do charity except to their religious organization, and I admit when DH and I were our sons’ age, tzedakah was not high on our list of priorities. Glad we changed that.
Our donations are almost totally local preferring smaller or more direct to larger. We do support some international ones, but they tend to be specific.
We lean toward education, health, poverty, and Christian, but many are in one category- not all four . We support many fundraisers at school too.
Our local radio station, Hope International, Russian Missions, direct donations to cancer research (direct to the project), food bank, Church World Services (helping immigrants of all faiths), church missionaries or projects, and school field trips all come to mind as places we give significant (to us) amounts to. It’s not our entire list. One time things happen too.
My undergraduate and graduate schools.
DW’s grad school
Local soccer club
HRC
SPLC
American’s United for the Separation of Church and State
Our church
Central Virginia Battlefield Trust
American Battlefield Trust
These last two organizations buy historical battlefield land and preseve it.
Most of our donations are local. I like to support local food banks and organizations which supply weekend meals for students who are food insecure.
Forgot to mention the school nurses fund—-remembered because I got a thank you from them today. Contributors since 2012 when the schools stopped funding them and they entered a partnership with our local hospital. One of my patients who is a school-based nurse told me about the difficulties of keeping a nurse in each school. For too many kids that is the only medical care available. Happy to contribute to that charity.
Thanks to those that mentioned the library. That’s now on our list for this year.
And I forgot to mention both our local library and our local volunteer fire department. Like @dentmom, I received a thank you in the mail yesterday bringing them back to mind. I’m adding this in case anyone is reading this thread looking for ideas. 
Many of you probably live where fire/emergency services are paid. That’s not the case in a lot of rural areas. I’m very thankful to those who volunteer their time and lives for those. We haven’t personally needed them, but some day we might - and I know many who have needed them.
This thread has reminded me with the amount in our budget that we donate we’ll never be rich financially, but I’m quite ok with that. We’re doing fine. Others aren’t so fortunate and there are “things” (like libraries) that I like and want others to have access to.
We donate locally. I run an education nonprofit and so I can see directly where donations go. We also support an arts/theatre program in our town, medical clinic, literacy program and the library. That’s off the top of my head.
There are also opportunities to help organizations with Dine and Donate nights at restaurants or breweries, or other events and so forth.
I always say if I won the lottery I would love to play “Oprah” and give big checks to these agencies!
We have a family charitable trust we set up after my “Scrooge Mc Duck” aunt passed away leaving a rather large amount to me and my sibling. She never gave any charitable contributions and we felt we needed to put some of what we got back into the world. My sibling and I usually run things by each other but are on the same page. This years big donations were to immigrants rights organizations (RAICES, among others) and reproductive freedom organizations especially those catering to poor women (such as Yellowhammer Fund). Other donations were to the school wear my nephew attends ( set up a small scholarship fund) and our local food bank and library.
@scubasue thank you for the additional info on Kiva. I did see that they now list the interest rates, which is good, but did not know about the recipient shuffle that you describe! That seems quite misleading…can you PM me more info or links? Thanks!
Public TV and radio
Am heart, cancer- the legit medical organizations
Colleges
Local Public school charity
Assorted other secular charities.
Avoid anything to do with religions. I admit to dropping off items I would otherwise have to throw away at the convenient Salvation Army truck. I hate that so much is tied to belief systems I would campaign against. Would donate IF could say donated by an atheist to the recipients. If only they could separate being good from mythologies I dislike. There, my rant and why I won’t be more charitable.
btw- it can be more useful to make a few large donations than many small ones.
And- I wish organizations would not send so many mailings- such a waste. We give a big amount once a year, sending repeated mail won’t change anything. And- I feel no guilt about saving coins, notepads et al without giving to them- better than the trash.
St. Jude. Also considering adding Shriner’s Hospital.
Our church, which in turn contributes to local, national and international groups.
Local food bank and local homeless shelters.
Salvation Army.
The student and graduate artists of the graduate art school where I used to work (through purchases of their artworks & donations to their Kickstarters).
If I were ever to win the lottery, I would want to set up a foundation to assist truly needy students in affording higher education.
If we were ever to win the big lottery our whole family would be involved in a family foundation assisting needs we care about. H is a civil engineer and can handle various water projects. I have a soft spot for education. Then we have med school lad, permaculture farming lad and his wife who works finding reputable needs in underdeveloped countries already for a company dealing with aid, and a lad who’s good at investing to keep it all going for us.
We might have a wee problem that we rarely play any lottery, but it’s still a fun dream. I’m not sure the odds are statistically all that different anyway. 