Mercy Corps
American Lung Association
World Wildlife Fund
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Mercy Corps
American Lung Association
World Wildlife Fund
Wow, I was thinking this would be a good idea for a thread as we were discussing our hypothetical lottery winnings. And here it is.
My list:
Head Start - I can't stress enough how wonderful and effective this program is. IMO, the most effective of all the federal social service programs in terms of making lasting changes for children and families, and in turn, society as a whole. All HS programs rely on their communities for volunteers and donations for their mandatory 20% matching funds.
Hospice - This one is personal. The nurses that took care of Dad became like family. They were such a blessing to us.
MS Society - It is such a shame that so many insurances won't pay for the interferon injections. It is too expensive to pay for it out of pocket for so many.
Cancer/Breast Cancer Foundations - This for both Dad and Mom. Dad has passed, but Mom is a 7-year breast cancer survivor.
Autism Society of America (ASA)
Cure Autism Now (CAN)
Anything dedicated to understanding autistics (or any developmentally disabled persons) and helping their families
Anything dedicated to caring for sick children
My husband and I used to give money to World Vision, but they would send so many mailings with glossy pages we ended up feeling like more of our money went to that stuff than actually helping the kids we were trying to help. We ended up finding this incredible small Christian organization called His Hands for Haiti. For $80/yr. you feed and send a child to school. Because we are yet to have kids of our own we also send a lot of stuff to our sponsored children, like clothing, shoes, school supplies and yes, toys. In many cases I would worry that the stuff we send is really getting to the children, but my mother recently went on a missions trip with HHFH and got to go to Danda, Haiti, where out sponsored children live. She not only met our kids, but got photos and met their parents, saw their school. She actually recognized one of her girls right off the bat because she was wearing the pink dress my mom sent her! It was awesome, and while we don't get as much from this organization, we feel like our money is really going where it should.
Locally, we also support our church and give to the Humane Society.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gutmutter;2331541;
Gut I don't know that I had ever heard of Heifer Project until you mentioned that here in this thread but I just wanted you to know that a syndicated radio show I listen to (Ace & TJ) have started airing a commercial advertising Heifer Project recently.
The first time I heard it the other day I said out loud (by myself in my car! :teeth )"That's Gutmutters cause!" :nod
I use this website to check out how charities spend their money.Quote:
Originally Posted by tickerrose;2337187;
Charity Navigator - America's Largest Charity Evaluator
I didn't know where to put this but it made me a bit upset and it is about charitym, at least :)
Right now (here in Sweden, but elsewhere also, perhaps?) it's the Blue Ribbon month, i.e. prostate cancer awareness month (compared with the Pink Ribbon for Breast cancer). What the Swedish Cancer Society (a non-profit organisation that collects money for cancer research) has done is given everyone the option of starting their own fund raising to collect money. For example I could start femme fatale's fund raising and encourage all of you to donate (I haven't so you don't need to look for it, donate to the charity of your choice in stead)
I really don't like the idea that charity should be a contest, when I visited the foundation's web site, they had a top ten list of the highest money collected. Every donation helps, no matter the size. And if someone makes less money than anyone else, they've still made money and that's good. I don't think charity should be made into a contest.
With these drive you can also put up your name for which drive you contributed to, as for me I prefer to give anonymously. When I donate to a charity it should be because I want to, not to show everyone else how good I am.
I think that these cancer awareness months are good and I know that they will raise a lot of money for cancer research. I'm just not comfortable with the way they're doing it.
Now after I vented I can get back on topic, my favourite charitable causes. I do like foundations like this, for disease research (plus I would love to do more radiotherapy research so it could benefit me:)). I also like the ones that are based on the "give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a life-time"-philosophy.
Seems like this is fairly common here in the US. I know that March of Dimes and the Amer. Heart Association have done similar "contests". Often awarding the biggest money maker for them with something.
I'm not sure how I feel about it. I know some people are really competitive and that can help the charity when they compete to really raise a lot of money in their own name. But then again, money is being spent on "prizes" that could go to the research.
For years, my husbands sister always got her name and picture in the paper as being the one that raised the most money for the March of Dimes walkathon. She raised quite a bit, but her job and position within our community exposed her to a lot of people and she was not shy about asking for sponsors which is how she always got so much.
So in a way, I guess its good as the organization may get more money, but on the other hand, I also agree with you that people should just donate.
I dunno, I don't have a clear opinion on this one. I can see the value of making it a competition, but on the other hand, I can see that some people that are not competitive would not be comfortable doing things this way.
And I like the anonymous factor too. Most of the time when we donate, I make the donation in someone else's name. Like for Relay for Life, I make it in my mom's and my friends names. I feel better doing that as it means more to me to think I am doing something to honor their memory and help others.
That brings to mind an experience I had working on a fundraising event: I was in charge of publishing the program that was handed out at the event. I was told that among the wealthier people in my community, there is some competition to be listed in with the big donors and I needed to be very scrupulous and not miss anyone. I also had to hold off taking it to the printer until the last possible minute in case someone came in with a late donation. It was made very clear to me that these people would be very unhappy at not being listed and would make a fuss. My feeling was (and is) those donations were more about them than the cause. But when it comes right down to it, I needed to remove my feelings from the equation. I can't teach egomaniacs the true meaning of charity and the money was spent just the same as if it had been donated anonymously.:up
I guess that acknowledgements aren't that bad but it shouldn't be the reason why one chooses to donate.
But what I really didn't like about that web site was that they had a top ten score of who had collected the most money. Anyone who brings in money is just a valuable as the next one, and even if you don't meet your pre-set goal, you've probably raised a lot of money anyway. That should be all that matters.