NY Times Neediest Cases Fund (Funding for NY City social services to provide for the worst off citizens)
Oxfam (Fights poverty and injustice worldwide)
Lawyers Without Borders (supports the rule of law and provides legal representation to those without access to it)
Doctors Without Borders (provides medical care in poverty stricken and war torn areas)
One (Lobbies the US government to increase foreign aid particularly to fight AIDS and poverty)
Amnesty International (Reports and protests human rights violations)
I’m too lazy to put up links, for the most part, but:
Planned Parenthood
NARAL
RAINN
Men Can Stop Rape
Bigger gifts for birthdays or Christmas go to heifer.org. Also The Catholic Worker in New York.
Locally, I support CareNet (abortion alternative/perinatal support), and 10 Bricks which provides shelter. United Way gets earmarked for Good Beginnings abortion alternative/perinatal support.
I try to buy gifts from The Hunger Site since it pays for food donations. Or 10,000 Villages since the money goes back to the craftspeople.
I don’t support my church because it’s already wealthy, but I give to Catholic Charities and the collections for poorer churches and international Catholic relief and development services.
I make donations of anywhere from $0 to $25 per year to the following depending on my financial situation:
Planetary Society - The society’s mission is “To inspire and involve the world’s public in space exploration through advocacy, projects, and education.”
ACLU - The ACLU’s stated mission is “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.” I particularly like that the ACLU defends constitutional law no matter which side of an issue a particular case favors - both for and against the interests of religious groups for example.
Immigration Equality - “Advancing equal immigration rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and HIV-positive community.”
Amnesty International - “To conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated.”
CCA Kids - “Children’s Craniofacial Association is […] dedicated to empower and give hope to facially disfigured individuals and their families. CCA addresses the medical, financial, psychosocial, emotional, and educational concerns relating to craniofacial conditions.”
Wikimedia Foundation - “The Wikimedia Foundation’s stated goal is to develop and maintain open content, wiki-based projects and to provide the full contents of those projects to the public free of charge.”
EFF - “The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit advocacy and legal organization based in the United States with the stated purpose of being dedicated to preserving free speech rights such as those protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution in the context of today’s digital age. Its stated main goal is to educate the press, policymakers and the general public about civil liberties issues related to technology; and to act as a defender of those liberties.”
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund - “The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund […] protect[s] the First Amendment rights of comics creators, publishers, and retailers covering legal expenses.”
Cognitive Liberty - “The Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE) is a network of scholars elaborating the law, policy and ethics of freedom of thought. Our mission is to develop social policies that will preserve and enhance freedom of thought into the 21st century. The CCLE is dedicated to protecting and advancing freedom of thought in the modern world of accelerating neurotechnologies. Our paramount concern is to foster the unlimited potential of the human mind and to protect freedom of thought.The CCLE supports technological advances, and believes that the application and regulation of new drugs and neurotechnologies are best channeled by a renewed allegiance to the fundamental right to freedom of thought.”
Paul Laffoley Archive Project - Website archive for visionary artist - “Visionary Art & Engineering of the Present-Future: The goal of our present endeavor is to roduce a transdisciplinary world-view which will sustain human existence into a continuous future.”
Straight Dope Message Boards! - Interestingly, I could not find anywhere an SDMB “About us” or “Our mission” type statement to cut and paste… are we so famous now that we need no introduction?
I’m also a member of CERT - the local Community Emergency Response Team which trains community members in disaster readiness.
Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
This is about as poor as it gets. Many of the houses don’t have electricity or fuel to keep warm. The winters are harsh. Some of my friends go there each year. I provide mittens, scarves, hats and fuel or the money for that or for other needs.
Amnesty International
I support other charities through a civil club and individually as the need arrises.
The Natural Resources Defense Council is money well spent, although I have let my membership lapse.