What charities, from a humanist perspective, are the most straightforwardly honest and effective?
I can offer opinions, but I really am not sure what you are looking for. Maybe UNICEF, but again it depends on what you are looking to do. Are you looking to help children in the developing world, fight stigma against mental illness, combat chronic diseases, combat diseases of poverty, promote education, etc?
If at all possible, if you can find a charity that has a matching donation program that would be good. Sometimes project hope would tell me they had matching donation programs.
I like Heifer. When I have money, I send them some of it.
The American Friends Service Committee (Quakers).
Of course, Peace Corps has a sort of soft-diplomacy agenda, but they do some very good work. There is an excellent program called Peace Corps Partnership.
Basically, after living in a community and working with local people to assess the community’s most pressing needs, a volunteer working with a local organization can apply for Peace Corps Partnership funding. There is a fairly rigorous application process to make sure the projects will really help the community and will be sustainable in the future. If approved their project goes up on the website, where you can choose a project to donate to. Typical projects are things like building classrooms, repairing wells, youth camps, etc.
100% of the money you send them go directly to the volunteer under the supervision of that Peace Corps country’s staff. The volunteer then carries out the project, carefully documenting where that money goes.
There is minimal opportunity for corruption or loss. None of your donated money goes towards administration. Because the volunteer has spent a long time living with the community, you can be sure that the project is actually needed and is the best use of that money. Because volunteer’s are required to work with local organizations, you can be sure the project will continue and be sustainable after the volunteer leaves.
Overall, I think it your best “bang for your buck”. charity wise. If you donate to build a well, that well will get built. It’s awesome!
I like Heifer Project and Doctors Without Borders, myself. I feel they do a lot of good in a very effective and efficient manner.
I’m a Methodist, so take this with that bias in mind: UMCOR-United Methodist Committee on Relief has a sterling reputation for disaster relief work, and I have not heard anybody complain about them.
Well there are a few ways to look at it.
First and most importantly how much of your money gets used for charity as opposed to admin costs
Second, is the charity doing what its charter sets out to do? For instance, if it sets out to “end AIDS” and only helps people cope with HIV this is wrong. Oh it’s good work to help HIV+ cope, no question about that, but the charter makes the donor think he’s giving money to develop something, a vaccine or pill or whatever to end AIDS.
Third, is the money used being used effectively. This is a judgement call. For instance, food banks that offer food could also offer advice how to register for food stamps, thus the people who are qualified for food stamps are not going to be at the food bank taking away food from those who can’t qualify for food stamps but still need help
Fourth, does the money get to the donor? This is important for int’l charites, such as the Tsunami Relief or the Ethopian Starvation of the 80s, where not a lot of the money was getting to the people, 'cause the governments were using it for their own purposes.
Fifth, are there “strings” attached to it? Again this is a matter of judgement. Religious groups that may require you to listen to a sermon before giving you a free meal are an example.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
A lot of this is judgement. The Charity Navigator (as previously mentioned) is a good place to start but it isn’t an end all.
You need long term and short term help effectively co-ordinated to actually help people
When I volunteered to work with the homeless, I personally have seen the Salvation Army do more good than all other combined. Yes they will have propaganda, but I feel the structure and the amount of results they get is worth it. I literally have seen the Salvos change life after life and I always put donations to them, even though I’m not religious at all. The reason being, I’ve seen the results they get with just a shoestring budget, it’s amazing compared to every other charity I’ve worked with. They get more results, then all the others combined.