# $100. for a charity Which one? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 17, 2011, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494 "2011-12-17T02:45:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/21 "2011-12-17T16:59:42Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Best wishes for your cause and your daughter’s health. I sent a little money to the foundation by paypal. Thank you! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/22 "2011-12-17T19:15:15Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Yep. Local foodbanks are a good idea, especially considering how many families they’re serving as of late. Our local foodbank is the first on our list for giving. Second is our local library which is suffering budget cuts. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/23 "2011-12-17T20:08:25Z")
I’ll drop a good word in here for the [Shriners](http://www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org/). ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/24 "2011-12-17T22:15:51Z")
Smile Train. It’s an organization that does surgery which repairs cleft palates and cleft lips on children. It changes lives, and, as I understand it, one hundred percent of donations go to help these children. ---
**Author:** ![Waxwinged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@Waxwinged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waxwinged)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/25 "2011-12-17T22:22:23Z")
One of the two local animal rescue organizations. :\> For the kittens! ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/26 "2011-12-17T22:30:36Z")
A lot of worthy causes already listed, but I’ll add [USO](http://www.uso.org/). ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2011, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/27 "2011-12-17T22:35:32Z")
Phoenix Children’s Crisis center. [http://www.crisisnurseryphx.org/index.htm](http://www.crisisnurseryphx.org/index.htm) They have an Amazon wish list so if you end up splitting your contribution among different charities, you can buy some needy children diapers. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/28 "2011-12-18T15:53:33Z")
My job takes me out to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation quite often, and every time I visit I am distressed at the sheer number of stray dogs and cats (most with with visible mange and other illnesses) that are scavenging around stores and gas stations, or hit by cars along side the road. There are no vets on the reservation, and animal life is not valued very highly. Spaying and neutering is rare, and most animals are left to run free outdoors. Fortunately, there is a program, [Lakota Animal Care program](http://lakotaanimalcare.org/), that is hoping to change attitudes towards animals via education. Please consider making a small donation to this group. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/29 "2011-12-18T16:15:49Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > Best wishes for your cause and your daughter’s health. I sent a little money to the foundation by paypal. Me, too! [$18](http://judaism.about.com/od/judaismbasics/g/chai.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/30 "2011-12-18T17:05:32Z")
> [@CitizenPained](#): > > Me, too! [$18](http://judaism.about.com/od/judaismbasics/g/chai.htm). Thank you! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@The\_Man\_In\_Black](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_In_Black)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/31 "2011-12-18T17:14:00Z")
I’d say if you don;t know of a local children’s charity, give to St. Jude’s. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/32 "2011-12-18T17:45:12Z")
I’m a fan of the [Peace Corps Partnership](http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate). This program funds individual community level projects designed by Peace Corps volunteers. After a rigorous proposal process, which incudes accounting for sustainability, the projects are posted on the website. You can look at the projects and choose anything from helping to fund a reading program in Benin to a water system in Vanuatu. Some projects are big, some are very micro-level. As a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, I used this program to fund a summer camp for at-risk youth that used creative arts to teach HIV/AIDS prevention and life skills. A complete stranger anonymously funded this project. I find the advantages for the Peace Corps partnership to be this: [ul] [li]100% of the money goes directly to the prject you fund. There is no overhead and extremely little opportunity for corruption. All of the funds are relseased to the Peace Corps volunteer, and that volunteer is responsible for documenting how those funds are used. This means very little chance for money to disappear or get into the wrong hands. [/li][li]You know that the project is wanted and needed by the community. Typically, Peace Corps volunteers live at least a year as a member of the communty before implimenting a project, and they use various methods to figure out what the community’s biggest needs are. The community is also required to chip in at least 10% of the budget- which may be given in land or labor. This shows that they are also committed to the project. Most charities design projects based on one or two weeks of “needs assessment,” but Peace Corps volunteers know their communities up and down. [/li][/ul] It’s just a really neat way to fund something concrete. I think you also get a project report when the project is done, so you can really see how your contribution worked out. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/33 "2011-12-18T18:01:22Z")
> [@Strinka](#): > > [GiveWell](http://givewell.org/) researches charities to determine which ones get the most bang for your buck, so to speak. > > [Here](http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities)’s their list of top rated charities. There is also [http://charitynavigator.org/](http://charitynavigator.org/) Though there are a lot of unrated charities, and the site mostly (only?) rates economic efficiency, whcih is a good thing, but not everything. I plan on giving to one international org (probably Direct Relief Intl), and one local (probably a food bank) Brian ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/34 "2011-12-18T18:11:49Z")
Amnesty International MSF (Doctors without Borders) Getty Owl Foundation (d’oh) Planned Parenthood [Outreach Moldova](http://www.outreachmoldova.org/) is an Irish charity that was founded by a former classmate of mine. She went to Moldova on an elective in medical school to work in an orphanage. Horrified by the appalling treatment of the kids, and the high mortality rates, she couldn’t leave without doing something, and so set up this charity which works to improve the lives of these kids and give them a future. She’s now married a Moldovan and continues to live there with him and the 2 beautiful children they have adopted, working in an orphanage as their medical director. This charity has literally worked miracles. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/35 "2011-12-18T18:34:05Z")
[Scleroderma Foundation.](http://www.scleroderma.org/) [Systemic scleroderma](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemic_scleroderma) is an incurable autoimmune disease that kills 50% of patients within five years. It causes unimaginable pain and disfigurement before death, but because so few people have it, pharmaceutical companies won’t fund research into drugs to cure it, and insurance companies won’t pay for experimental treatments. I get very discouraged when corporate charities suck up hundreds of millions of donor dollars a year for high visibility diseases, but scleroderma research limps by on a million a year. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/36 "2011-12-19T02:58:13Z")
[UMCOR](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Methodist_Committee_on_Relief) … the United Methodist Committee on Relief. 100% of donations go directly to the project or emergency. Administrative costs are paid from a different fund, so Every Dollar Works. And we don’t try to convert anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494/37 "2011-12-22T01:28:05Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > I usually give to [Heifer International](http://www.heifer.org/). This organization provides farm animals and training to care for the animals to families in need. Recipients are required to pass on the gift, that is, they are required to give one of the offspring to another family. > > What I like about this charity is that it’s not a hand out, it’s a hand up. If a family gets a flock of poultry, for instance, they can eat the eggs themselves (which they might desperately need to do), or sell them. And they can use the droppings for fertilizer. They can increase the flock, and pass on a flock to another family. It’s not a one-time gift, it keeps on helping that family, and other families, and it allows the recipients to keep their dignity, and develop more pride as they become more able to provide for themselves and others. If you like Heifer International (and I do too, for all the reasons you mention) then you should check out [Worldbuilders](http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2011/12/worldbuilders-2011/) every holiday season. Worldbuilders is run by author Patrick Rothfuss (whose books are great, IMHO), and he basically collects donations, matches them 50% (i.e., your $10 donation becomes $15), donates that to Heifer, and, for every $10 you donate, enters you into a raffle for some wonderful prizes (mostly autographed SF/F books). Other than Heifer/Worldbuilders, I also love Kiva and [DonorsChoose.org](http://DonorsChoose.org). And others, of course, like the Red Cross and City of Hope, but those are the big three. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/100-for-a-charity-which-one/606494.md?page=1)