We’re trying to figure out a nice tradition to do at Christmas for the baby, and I was thinking maybe we should get him an ornament every year and also donate to a charity in his name. (Maybe have the ornament be of a theme with the charity. So if we do Heifer Project get him a cow ornament, etc.) Anyway, he was a bit premature and it was all a bit of an emergency, so I was thinking it would be nice to donate to somebody who helps premature or sick babies, maybe in poorer countries. It’s struck me more than once that if I’d been in a lot of places instead of here it’s very likely that neither the baby nor I would have survived the experience.
Of course I know about the March of Dimes, but they seem so big and impersonal. Any ideas for something that’s well rated, does really good work, and fits those parameters?
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Charity Navigator has a decent search mechanism. I was able to search for words like “baby” or “premature”, and filter for international.
Individual recommendations can be better, of course. But it’s a decent way to find a charity for any specific cause.
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Nice idea. I work at Food For The Poor and would be happy to answer questions if it looks like a contender. We’re a non-denominational Christian organization that serves 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
I don’t donate specifically for babies, but I do send a couple hundred dollars every year to Wings of Hope, and they receive a donation when I purchase things from amazon.
Jhpiego, pronounced juh-pie-go. It’s an organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins that promotes maternal and child health around the world. It partners effectively with local institutions and searches for low-cost, scalable interventions.
Ronald McDonald House is also big and could seem impersonal, but I know a family who used their services and it made an enormous difference for them while treating a serious illness for their baby, so I always think fondly of them. Their overall rating is quite good, in terms of how much money goes directly to services as opposed to overhead.
Planned Parenthood does a lot for prenatal care, esp for poor women in this country. Good prenatal care can prevent a lot of problems in newborn babies.
We like a local charity, boxes of food are given to the poor, they can ask for a turkey or decline. We like to give new toys, for the younger kids and babies, as well as food. A couple of the local store get involved and reduce prices for certain items to be given to the charity. Makes it really easy to toss in a couple of items every shopping day usually during December.
We have a local charity here called St Kilda Mums- they take gently used baby gear, clothes, prams and toys and fix them up and donate them to families with babies in crisis - homeless, teens, international students. They also take financial donations to buy new things that families need like car seats and nappies. Might there be something like that near you?
Other than that, I’m going to donate to a Stillborn/SIDS cause this year, and also Heifer will get an annual bee donation, for my 2 bees.
In St. Louis, there’s Crisis Nursery, which is a place kids can go in an emergency situation- like if the parents are homeless or someone is in the hospital or even just if the parents are overwhelmed and feel like they can’t take care of the kids for a couple days. There might be something similar in your area.
There’s also Project Linus, which gives blankets so sick children.
and Parents as Teachers, which does free parent education for babies and little kids.
and Help a Mother Out, which helps provide diapers for needy families