Speaking of the devil, Salon ran an interesting article (well, mostly it’s a summary of other papers, with links) about microfinance yesterday. I’m still poking around to see what data is available, but I like the general idea.
google.org has some links to worthy causes, especially the Acumen Fund , which looks for “market-based solutions to global poverty.”
One of my friends works for Heifer Intl. What’s nice about them is that they don’t just drop a cow at a poor person’s door and say “See-ya!”, they actually send over vet techs to teach the family (or villiage) how to take care of it. So even if their overhead is a bit higher I think they’re worth a second look.
You can send it to me.
I am teaching computer literacy to technical high school students in Guider, Cameroon with the Peace Corps. I teach classes of 100+ kids each, and we have six computers. Basically I bring the kids in twelve at a time to use the computers for fifteen minutes. They are bright kids and computers are playing an increasingly important role here, but they start out not even knowing how to move a mouse and there is only so much I can teach in fifteen minute streches. $1000 would double nearly double the numbers of computers we have and could give the kids at least half an hour on a computer each week.
There is an organization in Doula that sells computers to school for $200. If this was something you really were interested in, there are official channels we’d have to move through. I’d be personally administrating things, with Peace Corps oversight.
And uh note to Quartz- Africa is a big ass contintent. Some countries suck. Some arn’t so bad. Some charities are good. Some are corrupt. I don’t even know any warlords and the chief here is different only in that he has a big house and gets invited to the best parties. There are literally thousands of hardworking people here who have devoted their lives to making their country a better place. It’s absolutly insulting to write off a whole continent based off what you’ve seen in new reports.
When I did Americorps*VISTA one of the charities we worked with was Reading Is Fundamental. I think it’s a great program, because they give kids of all ages free books, and I think most dopers can agree how important that is. RIF You wouldn’t believe how excited little kids get about picking out there very own book to keep.
Back during the 2000 election I was nastily questioned by democrats on how I could vote republican but believe in community service re: America Reads. The joke was on them: what better way to foster self-suffiency in someone than giving them good experiences with reading as little kids? Kids who learn to like to read tend to grow up more successful. It’s a Republican’s dream!
A well-rated by Charity Navigator microloan charity is FINCA International. Only 10% of expenses go to administrative costs, and 4% to fundraising costs, which is quite good.
Why don’t you give your money to individual poor people, one at a time? You can do it anonymously so that folks will never know. This will not only save the money that inevitably gets funneled to CEOs and other non-poor people when you donate to charity, but it will also require you to in some way locate poor people to give the money to. I think you can find nothing but spiritual development through meeting and listening to people whose circumstances are harder than yours. You can then make a very independent decision about the people whom your dollars benefit, and cut out the middleman. Believe me, even $10 to someone who’s got it hard in the world right now will be $1000 worth of good to them.
Oh. I just re-read your OP, so I doubt you’ll be giving money to individuals. What a depressing attitude! 
I have personally worked/coordinated with a number of prominent charities, NGOs, and public service organizations. The ones I would most recommend, from my experience, are:
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Habitat for Humanity. You can help sponsor a house in some areas of the world for only several hundred dollars. Habitat is really a fabulous organization in my opinion (I’ve been a crew-leader for them twice, one in Hartford CT and again in Kingston NY).
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Doctors Without Borders. They are fantastic at what they do. They received a Nobel Peace Prize for a reason!
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Global Polio Eradication Iniative. Created by WHO in partnership with the UN Foundation, they work to eradicate polio around the world by 2008.
Some other organizations that I have worked with and fully support are KaBOOM! andOperation Give.
I just wanted to say that this is one of the reasons I love this board.
Carry on.
You’d have to look into it and see what it costs, but you could sponsor a young athlete (or several) at the YMCA, for instance.
They usually don’t charge much to be on the swim team or the gymnastics team or whatever other teams they may have but there are poor kids (like I was) who can’t afford the annual dues. I learned to swim at the Y as a Tadpole or whatever they’re called, quickly made it onto the swim team and eventually ended up competing at the State Finals. Would certainly have made it to the Nationals if I hadn’t had to quit and get a job, etc. Most of those years I relied on my anonymous sponsor and whoever he or she was, I’ll always be very grateful. My years on the swim team are some of my best memories from childhood.
You don’t necessarily need a pre-organized charity. When my mom got an unexpected windfall a few years back, she looked around for a worthy university, and contacted them to set up a one-time-only scholarship. Prospective students sent applications to her, and she picked which one she thought could best use it, and paid that student’s tuition. Overhead costs were zero percent, since she herself was the overhead, and she got to be personally involved with the person she was helping.
On the tax benefits issue, every year, you can choose to either take a standard deduction, or you can itemize everything. The standard deduction is the same no matter how much you give, so to gain any advantage from a large charitable contribution, you’d want to itemize. This also means that you should be keeping track of any other tax-deductible donations you usually give out (money you contribute to your church, for instance, if you attend one), as well as any expenses that are a part of doing your job (I’m not exactly clear on what does and does not count here; check with a tax professional). And, of course, it’s more work to itemize your taxes than to take the standard. So it’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth it.
Another thing about platelets is that babies can only use about roughly half of the platelet supply in the U.S. There’s a virus whose name escapes me at this point that mimics the symptoms of a very mild cold in adults and children, but can be deadly in babies. Once you’ve had it, your platelets are useless for babies, and roughly half the adult population in the U.S. has it. So whereas most adults and most children can use platelets from anyone, babies can only use platelets from those who don’t have the disease. The first time you give blood they test you for this, so it should already be on record whether or not you have the disease.
I know exactly where I can find poor people. I have a depressing attitude because it’s a depressing problem. Like I said, I lived in Berkeley. When the weather’s anything approaching decent, half the buildings in downtown Berkeley have someone camped out in front, shaking a cup with some nickels in it. They tend to stay away when it rains.
It’s not a matter of “having it hard in the world right now.” It’s the long haul. Some of these guys have been out there for a decade or more; some of the younger professors remember some of them from when they were undergrads. Berkeley has plenty of light work available, and if you have a roomie and watch your money you can get by OK on minimum wage (I did just fine on $38/day take-home, 5 days a week, one summer, though I couldn’t save much), but it’s apparently easier to grift off generations of students. Most people run cold by the end of junior year, but that’s OK; there’s always a new crop of Freshmen come August.
I could give $10, $20, $50, $100 and it wouldn’t make a meaningful difference. It’d be gone in a few days, a week at most, and all I’d be to them is a sucker, a soft mark who didn’t actually make a difference (I tried $20 once; for my trouble he called me a “motherfucking Chi-nese” the next day when I didn’t have any more for him). With some oversight I can at least try to do something more meaningful and longer-lasting than that.
I’m jaded, I know. There are a lot of people out there who really are just genuinely on a hard run of luck. Most of them won’t act entitled to a cut every time someone buys a paperback or a $20 pair of jeans or even a candybar. A little bit of good can mean a lot there, and I’d like to thank you for reminding me. The world isn’t Berkeley. Probably when my counter gets higher, I’ll go out and listen. But right now I’m sick of it.
even sven, how helpful are computers to you, individually? It seems like, at 15 minutes a week right now, an incremental change like that wouldn’t be so useful (the difference between 15 minutes and 30 minutes is a lot, but the difference between 15 minutes and 18 minutes gets eaten in load times), but I could be wrong.
I’m with Lissa about liking to keep my charity local. I don’t have a lot but when I have it I donate it to local programs, or I do things like what my sister did when she was a senior in high school. Basically, she gave a poor family an awsome Christmas by getting local stores and businesses to donate, and when that wasn’t enough she spent a good chunk of her paychecks (my local paper, where I work now, did a story on it, here ). The family, who were mostly victims of circumstance (although the girl REALLY needed to learn what the words “birth control” meant) had little kids. I could care less about the adult age people, but the baby and two little girls deserved a nice Christmas, and they got stuff they wanted and needed, as well as a full Christmas dinner. And so not only do you help out a family or two, but you get to see the results, firsthand, and there’s no overhead except maybe gas on your end.
~Tasha
I think you’re thinking of RSV? I don’t remember being asked about it the last time I was at the blood donor room though 
I think I do remember that a platelet donation from an adult can help more than one baby though, which is cool.
Yeah, RSV. I knew I’d recognize the name when I heard it.
And they don’t ask you about it, because most people have no idea if they have it or not unless they’ve been told, but everytime a new person gives blood, the blood services screen for it.
I didn’t even know it existed until I gave platelets the first time and they were very low in supply at the time, so they were happy to see someone who was RSV free donating.
Got it, I was thinking screen as in ask about it, not screen as in lab test for it.
Living in rural Nevada, I’ve had first hand experience with the devastating expense of having to stay in a strange city while a loved one is receiving specialized care in a larger hospital. My wife had back surgery w/life threatening complications resulting in an extended stay. Hotel bill ran to $1092.00 in just 14 days.
I can only imagine the devastating costs associated with having a child fighting a disease that keeps them hospitalized for weeks on end, or has recurring visits for treatment over several months.
So, whenever we’ve got a little extra, I have momma send a check to these folks
I hate (no, make that loathe) the food/service/advertising…
But how can you not love what they’re doing for kids and their families with this.
Lucy
Charity Navigator gives the Ronald McDonald Houses in Boston, Denver, Louisville KY, St. Louis MO, and Pasadena CA four star ratings.
But Dr. Paul Farmer’s charity, Partners in Health, has been receiving a lot of good press recently. I just read Tracy Kidder’s book “Mountains Beyond Mountains” about Dr. Farmer’s work and Charity and was impressed by their organization and dedication.
You should give them a serious looking into.
I was so impressed I made an account to suggest them. Maybe this is all a scheme to domesticate the lurkers…
We don’t house-train well.