I am sponsoring neighbor children to visiting local museum events.
Ask HN: What charities do you contribute to?
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Re: Ask HN: What charities do you contribute to?
#22I found a few rating organizations, because my biggest fear was the money was being wasted. They all listed unbound, as the top 3 for effective use of money. Basically sponsoring a child. I auto send money on a monthly basis, so I consider it like a bill / expense and do not fail to provide.
Re: Ask HN: What charities do you contribute to?
#23I found a few rating organizations, because my biggest fear was the money was being wasted. They all listed unbound, as the top 3 for effective use of money. Basically sponsoring a child. I auto send money on a monthly basis, so I consider it like a bill / expense and do not fail to provide.
Here are a few sites I used:
The tried and true: https://www.consumerreports.org/charities/best-charities-for...
https://give.org/ Report reminded me of various tech were they validate you have good practices. But did not investigate the actual money trail.
https://www.charitynavigator.org
Now Forbes does not list it in the top 100 which surprised me.
I did my research about 4 years ago.
Re: Ask HN: What charities do you contribute to?
#24I donate to a children's home that is a couple of blocks from my business.
They help troubled kids, lots of pregnant teenagers there, things like that.
I don't try to min max my donations. The organization is doing work that nobody else is doing, that I want to see funded. I don't particularly care if they're maximally efficient.
Re: Ask HN: What charities do you contribute to?
#25Personally: Planned Parenthood, RAINN, SPLC, ALCU, AICF, DWB, Albuquerque healthcare for the homeless, road runner food bank, Albuquerque meals on wheels, Albuquerque heading home. But generally I would recommend your local food bank as a good default charity.
Food charities, yes!
I DO think it's worth understanding the structure of food/hunger charities, at least in the US. In many places, there's a central food bank and then lots of smaller food pantries. Typically, food banks get the big bucks, have the big events, and give/sell food to pantries, etc. The pantries are run by houses of faith, service organizations, etc. and are open a few hours a week.
I was surprised to learn that a number of people in my area rabidly oppose the regional food bank, saying that pantries must buy their food from them, arguing that the food should be given. Having worked with a food bank in DC, I understand that food banks have the power of the purse to buy food at a discount no pantry could dream of getting. And because food banks have a distribution network, they can also handle large donations of soon-to-expire food, etc.
I've tried to explain to food bank opponents that it's a better deal for the pantry to buy food from the food bank; the pantry will receive more for their money. But there's no convincing them. Which is fine.
Anyway, the point is to understand the system and make an informed decision about where you want to donate.
Re: Ask HN: What charities do you contribute to?
#26Planned Parenthood, PTAs, other local orgs as things come up.
Have throttled back for the past three months because we are supporting a single grandmother with custody of three grandsons (1, 4, and 12) with the middle one in the hospital with cancer. Have been paying their bills on and off and cooking dinner and snacks for them. With food costs as high as they are, something had to give and so charity took the hit. I do, however, donate handmade quilts and table runners to most orgs when they're doing fundraisers locally.
Re: Ask HN: What charities do you contribute to?
#27Givewell is the correct answer. They spend a fixed percentage researching the most impact-per-dollar in reduction of human suffering, then they put the other 97% or whatever each year toward that one thing. Give to Givewell. https://www.givewell.org/
Love their mistakes page- https://www.givewell.org/about/our-mistakes
Most startups could learn to maintain a page like this.
Re: Ask HN: What charities do you contribute to?
#28As a teacher I used to tithe to my classroom. It drove my coworkers and bosses nuts that I had everything I could want and they were fighting over whiteboard markers. I could tell who the crooked administrators were because they would say "Give me the 10% and I'll spend it better than you can" or "We'll deduct 10% from your pay check and use that for the district; same thing."
Now that I am between jobs and interviewing, I am tithing to my local church.
I may go back to tithing to my classroom soon.
Re: Ask HN: What charities do you contribute to?
#29Planned Parenthood, EFF, and the NRDC
Re: Ask HN: What charities do you contribute to?
#30I'm donating to my workplace. More specifically to the hospital fund that aims to support the needy.