nada's favorite charities
Since the holidays are coming up, and since someone is coming by in an hour to fix the hot water heater, for which I feel particularly thankful, I decided to list out my favorite charities for my own record-keeping and for your inspiration. Giving to charities has traditionally been pretty agonizing for me, because along with the perennial question, "Am I really giving as much as I can afford?" there's also the question of, "Am I giving to an organization that will ultimately do more harm than good? Am I just throwing money at a problem, without sufficient thought, in either an inefficient way or in an ultimately self-defeating way?" So slowly, over the years, I've built up a list of charities that I feel really confident about giving to. I'm listing them below, with links to the Forbes guide and the organization's annual reports, in addition to my own reasons for picking them. The main ones are:
If you know of any great charities that I missed, please comment and tell me about them. Well, I already know about the United Way and Red Cross and Salvation Army (a really efficient charity - I regret not donating to them) and St. Jude's and so forth - but I'm really interested in hearing your opinions. I'm trying to put together a reasonable portfolio of giving, and in order to do that, I'd like to hear your opinions. (Hmmm, I should give to PBS, too, I think.)
- Habitat for Humanity International
- ACORN, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now
- Grameen Foundation USA
- Heifer International
- ACLU
- America's Second Harvest
- Amnesty International
- Rails to Trails Conservancy
- Union of Concerned Scientists
- Doctors without Borders (Médecins sans Frontières)
- Habitat for Humanity International [ annual report | Forbes ]
See, what I like about Habitat for Humanity is that it helps give people homes by building them houses. See, that seems like a pretty simple idea, but actually, not everyone has thought of that. Some people, for example, think that you sole poverty by lecturing people on their lack of morals and denying them access to birth control. And even though the houses are small and sometimes utilitarian, they are actually good houses. They're energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, and very neat and nice-looking. (And secretly, I have a crush on Jimmy Carter.) You can give to HHI, or you can give to a local chapter. I somewhat prefer giving locally, just because local groups tend to have really innovative plans, and I like to throw money in a celebratory way at innovation. In Butte, MT, for example, I saw some really amazing houses. It gets incredibly cold in the winter there, and the houses were so energy efficient that the winter gas/electric bills were barely higher than those in the summer. That's a huge bonus, not just for the environment, but for the people in the houses, so they don't have to choose between heating and eating. And the East Bay HH has recently committed to making "green" houses that use solar power and grey-water - again, making the housing more sustainable both economically and ecologically. HHI's motto is "real solutions to real problems". Amen.
- ACORN, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now [ annual report | no Forbes Guide ]
If you've never heard of them, and you look at their website, you may think they're a bunch of hacks. But no, they've been remarkably effective in lobbying and protesting. I don't know if you heard about the LIHEAP scandal in 1993, when the Bush administration cut off almost all Federal cold weather heating assistance to poor families, but the outrageous ACORN protests actually pushed Congress to increase funding to near-humane levels. My non-California friends will know that many, especially the elderly, freeze to death in their apartments each year, and that even those who are strong enough to survive the cold directly are weakened enough to be much more susceptible to complications from disease and malnutrition. In the north, heat is as basic a necessity as food. (Read about Acorn's work on heating here and here, and even here, where a conservative complains about ACORN. Woo!) Right now, as you'll see on the main page, ACORN is doing a lot of work on those pre-payday check cashing places, which I HATE with a passion. Go ACORN! Another nice thing about ACORN is that you join a local chapter and get involved in your own community. Finally, ACORN is great because they get political, they get real, and they don't take shit. They're about real community activity, information, and empowerment.
- Grameen Foundation USA [ annual report | no Forbes Guide ]
The Grammeen Bank was founded in Bangladesh to provide micro-loans for impoverished women. It has astounded the world by being incredibly successful and self-sustaining. But of course, they could do more if they had more cash. You can make a tax-deductible donation at the Grameen Foundation USA, or you can invest in the bank at the main (international) site. You're a winner either way.
- Heifer International [ annual report | forbes ] (I should note, this was a Forbes gold star charity in 2003.)
How many times have I rattled on and on about Heifer International? Too many times? Hardly. God, I love this organization. It takes such great, informed, intelligent, thoughtful care to be socially, environmentally, and economically ethical and sustainable. If I only had to give to one charity, I would be tempted to make it this one. Fuck people, even Forbes sings the praises of this organization. Forbes! Open your damn wallets.
Also, something I maybe haven't emphasized: at the moment, this is fulfilling the function of those Sponsor-A-Child organizations. I always rend my heart to pieces in trying to decide whether to donate to those, because in the long run, I don't know whether they help or hurt the children. Are they going to end up pushing the population beyond the levels that the local environment can support? Are they indoctrinating them with Western, especially Christian, values? What is going to happen when the charities pull out? Does the organization help the families and villages to improve too, or does it just throw money at the children? Etc. Heifer International has thoughtfully addressed these questions in their methodology.
- ACLU [ didn't find annual report | forbes ]
Is any explanation necessary here? Btw, there's a difference between the ACLU, which is a lobbying organization of which you can become a militant card-carrying member, and the Foundation, to which you can make a tax-deductible donation.
- America's Second Harvest [ AR pdf | Forbes ] (fundraising efficiency is 98%, bitches!)
OK, you know how tons of food goes to waste every year? Farmers are paid to burn off their excess harvest to keep grain prices up? But still, people go hungry, die of diseases related to malnutrition, here in the United States? Doesn't that seem stupid? Don't you think it would be cool if we, like, gave the excess food to hungry people for free? Wouldn't it just be a matter of shipping that food to the food shelves and shelters.
OK - get this - believe it or not - that is exactly what America's Second Harvest does. So it means that by donating $100, you can help provide 400 pounds of food. (The exact equation varies depends on the time of year and the markets, the price of gas, etc.) Isn't that incredibly awesome? It's such a simple, basic idea. Dude. I donate to them like 4 times a year because every time I get a solicitation from them in the mail, I just think, "Like zow, man."
- Amnesty International [ annual report | no forbes :P ]
I think it's possible that I just support this organization because I'm an old softie. Sure, we're born alone and we die alone and all that Existential stuff, but I want to reach out to people in horrendous surreal 1984 circumstances. It just seems like a basic human duty. Maybe it's too much Star Trek. Sometimes, we express our humanity by recognizing that the moral health of the species demands that we must occasionally let the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many, by pouring our resources into helping them.
- Rails to Trails Conservancy [ annual report ]
They take defunct regional rail corridors and turn them into multi-use regional trails. One example of where an idea like this was implemented successfully before the RTTC was formed is the Iron Horse Trail in Contra Costa County, which basically allowed me to survive while I lived in Walnut Creek. So awesome to live out in the distant suburbs, a stroll away from beautiful nature trails, and still be able to walk to bike everywhere - cheap shopping, groceries, movies, bookstores, etc. So I had a good personal experience with this sort of idea. But I also like it on a theoretical level, taking existing infrastructure and converting it to a contemporarily relevant use. I guess this is kinda an environmental organizations.
- Union of Concerned Scientists [ annual report ]
Oh yeah, this is an environmental organization too. It thinks about the environment using science. It proposes policy and solutions using science. They let you give them money even if you're not currently a scientist (we all know computer science doesn't count), and then they turn it into applied science for the betterment of mankind. Science.
- Doctors without Borders [ AR pdf | forbes ]
I can't believe I almost forgot these guys. I would just like to point out that donating to them would be significantly less necessary if the US gave a more reasonable amount of foreign aid, was willing to subsidize drug companies to donate badly needed medicines to the third-world, took infectious diseases more seriously generally (remember the presidential debates? KILL KILL KILL), AND/OR started fewer wars for fun and instead used its bloated military for more peacekeeping missions like Kosovo - which toppled, if you remember, a totalitarian regime and brought Milo to international court, prevented a genoide, and caused no American casualities. (Not that Kosovo was an unmitigated success, but it was pretty damn effective.) But at the moment, it's pretty important for Americans to support this organization.
Btw, I linked the US site, to make it easier for you to donate. But the REAL name of the org is Médecins sans Frontières, and the International site is msf.org.
If you know of any great charities that I missed, please comment and tell me about them. Well, I already know about the United Way and Red Cross and Salvation Army (a really efficient charity - I regret not donating to them) and St. Jude's and so forth - but I'm really interested in hearing your opinions. I'm trying to put together a reasonable portfolio of giving, and in order to do that, I'd like to hear your opinions. (Hmmm, I should give to PBS, too, I think.)