I want to find a charity (non-animal or rain forest) to give my measly dinero to this holiday season.
I believe very strongly in helping out locally first. Then globally. I am a sucker for orphans or organizations that helped handicapped people but I am all for well run smaller outfits somewhere out there.
If anyone out there has a charity that is outstanding or really tugs at your heartstrings for the job they do, put it here. Maybe one of the moneybags here might decide donate a few bucks.
I give to a local women’s shelter. These are people who have taken the brave step to move away from an abusive partner. They frequently have kids and no real job skills, so money is tight. They need everything to build a new household, clothe themselves for job hunting, etc. I feel that this donation helps the mom, the kids, and society in general – your dollar will bring good returns down the road.
<B>Shirley</b> - In my department at work, we’ve either called the local Dept. of Human Services or a local nursing home and asked for the name of people who otherwise wouldn’t receive anything at Christmas. Generally, we’d do about 6 nursing home folks or two families. We’d get sizes, dietary requirements (for the elderly folks) and any other info they’d give. With the elderly people we had to be careful that the things we bought weren’t too valuable or desireable, because the staff would rob these folks blind. If your kids are of an age to go to the nursing home and visit the residents, that would be good for both the kids and the residents. Our group tended to do some special event for the nursing home every couple months, even if it was just buying ice cream and giving them an ice cream social, or bringing fried chicken and serving them lunch.
I do alot of volunteer work here in the area. I used to do quite a bit with the St. Louis Literacy Council. It’s hard to believe that even in our country there are people who cannot read. I worked with the St. Louis Art Museam to turn over and refurbish 25 Compaq computers to this organization 2 years ago.
If you’re looking for a name to give to, I USED to do the United Way. They to lots of things on the town level. They support many shelters and groups in your local community. But after Bill O’Riley exposed them for 9/11 I’ve been having my doubts.
In all honesty, time is more valuable than money. Why not volunteer at your local soup kitchen or some such.
There are too many illnesses to choose from . . . I usually donate to various veterans’ groups—Disabled Vets, Vietnam Vets, etc. Money, also books and clothing for resale.
Oh, and I always donate brand-new books to my local public library!
Shirley, first let me say good for you for your desire to do something positive on a local level. Also, let me second the idea of giving some volunteer time for a local organization or cause you care about. It could be anything from a local soup kitchen to the local arts coucil.
We do a lot of community outreach at my church throughout the year, but especially during the holiday season. We will be making up and distributing Thanksgiving baskets to 35 families, cooking and serving Thanksgiving dinner to 40 persons from a local shelter for alcoholics, buying and distributing Christmas gifts to 50 families as well as buying and distributing gifts at a local soup kitchen serving Christmas dinner. In addition, throughout the year, outreach consists of such things as buying school supplies and uniforms for kids who need them, a once a month volunteer day at the soup kitchen, giving nonperishable foods and household products to the local food pantry and/or soup kitchen, doing general maintenance, repairs and painting at a local shelter for persons with AIDS, planting and harvesting a vegetable garden and taking the produce to the soup kitchen, donating needed supplies to the Humane Society, providing snacks and dinner for a bunch of college kids who worked on a Habitat for Humanity build during their Spring break (I’m still all impressed these students would use their break to do something like this!), and on and on.
Guess the point of all this is, there’s a lot of local stuff out there everywhere. Pick something and do something personal. You’ll be giving something valuable (i.e. you) to the organization or cause and you’ll receive a whole lot of satisfaction in knowing you did something to make someone’s life a little better at least for a little while.
We contact the local Salvation Army and adopt a family. They give you ages, sizes, interests and you buy them gifts. It’s pretty fulfilling and not that expensive. They seem be mostly single moms with a few kids and seniors that are alone. It’s nice knowing the gifts go right to them, and they usually want practical things like gloves, socks, coats and gin (okay, I made up the last one).
Some friends donate their time at a soup kitchen, but they ask the soup kitchen when they need the help. These places are overflowing with good-deed-doers during the holidays, but are empty at other times of the year.
I believe in the work Habitat for Humanity does. Not only do they provide housing for folks who might otherwise not have the opportunity, they require that those folks invest themselves in the project by putting their own “sweat equity” into it. IMHO, the world needs more projects like this.
I donate to my local Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization. I’ll be honest, and say a lot of it is because my sister-in-law is the director of the local program. That said, I wouldn’t donate unless I thought it was a great program, and one that doesn’t always come to mind as a charity. I also see what a shoestring the program is running on; in our area, at least, it’s a labor of love. My S-i-L works her ass off, for very little money, as do the people she hires.
There’s a lot of kids around who really benefit by the attention that a Big Brother/Big Sister gives them. Some have parents who don’t give a damn about them; others just need a little extra help. BB/BS helps kids of all ages, from very young kids through the teenage years. I don’t see a lot of places out there who really actively try to help those muddled teenagers who just need a little extra push to do well at school, go to college, etc. BB/BS gives that.
Another reason I like the program is that they’ve decided to defend their policy of accepting gays in the program (both as Big Brothers/Sisters and as Little Brothers/Sisters). Their policy has always been not to discriminate based on sexuality, and they’ve upheld that even though they’re getting a lot of pressure to disallow gays from the program.
(For the record, they do ask sexuality on the application, and parents are given the opportunity to say “I don’t want my child matched with a person of x sexuality”. IE, parents are allowed to discriminate based on their own ethics and beliefs, but the organization itself does not.)
I’m big on kid’s stuff. Toys for Tots, the Angel Tree at the mall and my parents’ church has Santa Sacks that I try to pick up (I missed it last year, because I didn’t know what days they were having sign ups).
If I can afford it, I’d like to sign up for a family (the church has “Gift of Love” and my town has “Family Sponsorship”) where you buy gifts and Christmas dinner for an entire family.
I give every year (anonymously, because I believe that’s real charity) to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital here in Memphis; they do amazing, wonderful, Nobel-prize-winning work. I also give to my local National Public Radio station, and starting tomorrow (starting in about eight hours, actually) I’m helping out at their Fall pledge drive by answering phones.
I’ve also been giving regularly to the Memphis firefighters for several years, but honestly I think I’ll stop, just because since 9/11 they’ve got major donations coming in and the Policemen’s Benevolence Association needs me worse these days.
Find something local you care about, and even if you aren’t rolling in dough, call them up and say, “How can I help?” You could walk dogs at the Humane Society, or ladle soup at a soup kitchen, or make sandwiches for emergency workers, or collate flyers for your local Republican party; there is in this world an infinite amount of work to be done, and some of it will strike you as worthwhile enough to do for free.
I have an automatic monthly payment to Amnesty International and am always encouraging people to do the same.
I consider AI wrong on some domestic matters (eg I am vociferously against granting political asylum to people already in France or Germany or other safe haven), and you might too, but such disagreements pale into insignificance next to the sterling work they do on behalf of those suffering terrible injustice abroad. It’s money well spent.
I also give to the local women’s shelter. I don’t have much money so I donate all of my children’s clothes and the things they no longer need. At Christmas I’m going to go buy toys and give them too. I love to help people who are helping themselves. It takes so much courage to get away from abusive spouses and it’s so hard to make a big change like that.
I guess its because of the fact that one of the best friends I have is blind. He’s never thought of his disability as an obstacle and is a great guy.
I chose sightsavers as, aside from their great work restoring sight in third world countries, they also work on clean water projects and retraining for those who cannot be operated on so that they will be able to work.
I completely forgot the one thing that I started doing about two years ago. Borders does Gift Tree with kids at a shelter and people can donate books to them. I found this immensely fun to pick out books for a child and very affordable.
**Lost4Life ** I really like the idea of adopting a family. Did you deal directly with the family or give it to the SA and they forward it along?
<B>Shirley</b> - When my company adopts a family, they will often call the local Dept of Human Services for a name. Often these are people who are new to the area and didn’t get a chance to get in on the Salvation Army’s gig. We took the gifts directly to the family, including food donations to fill their cupboards. Our company also gives the employees turkeys at Thanksgiving, so I’d donate mine and we’d include all the fixings for a big Christmas dinner.
Last year, in lieu of buying presents for non-immediate family members, I bought a bunch of children’s books and donated them to a local bookstore’s Angel Tree. Then at the big family gift exchange, I read aloud How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I’d like to do something similar this year, but I haven’t figured out what yet.
These are all great ideas. I also vote for Habitat for Humanity, although I usually donate my time (and aching back) to them rather than money. What financial charity I give goes to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. I know it’s not “local”, but my 35 yr old sister in law has been wheelchair bound for 4 years now with MS. That’s pretty local to me.