on charitable donations

[aquitone]

I’m not sure if it’s liberal guilt, or the fact that I consider my job to have almost no socially redemptive qualities, or a combination of the two, but I’m considering making it a policy to donate a certain percentage of my gross income to various charities. I have a feeling that the rich Europeans that are funding our company are not doing

Comments

[thrownoverbored]

erm...this is a good shortlist, but perhaps you'd like to donate to a charity that serves local communities as well? As in, grassroots organizations not controlled by a large international body.

also, while i understand your point #2, you do realize that some of the orgs you listed do have political agendas (i'm cringing at the U.S. Committee for HR in N. Korea here).

If you're going to be donating to orgs like the ones you listed above, may I suggest Oxfam...they do some pretty incredible work that also doesn't have the taint of scandal on it(UN World Food Programme, cough cough).

Sorry if i'm butting in here...but non-profits are my life right now, and I thought I'd add my two cents.

[aquitone]

Ah, my most well-informed lj friend on this topic, I was hoping you would comment! I hope my post wasn't overly ignorant.

You're right, I have been meaning to do some research on local organizations. One that comes up is Hawaiian Community Health Centers, but I haven't really done any in depth reading on any of the groups above.

Oh, I guess what I was trying to say about political organizations is that I would avoid explicitly political groups, such as, let's say, the ACLU or the NRA or pro-life/pro-choice groups.

Thanks for pointing out Oxfam, I'll definitely add it to the reading list...

[csn]

Action Against Hunger is another good one.

Um, I would NOT donate to the UN. I don't have much faith in them considering they had THEIR OWN PEOPLE INVOLVED IN RAPES and oil scandals, among other things.

Nothing against local action...but I don't think Hawaii needs much help compared to most of the rest of the world, much less many parts of the rest of the US which deal with numerous problems in a miniature 3rd world like drug-abused, violent children with abandoned parents, gangs, etc..I don't think those kinds of things are too much of a problem in Hawaii compared to say...California.

[jenly]

poooooooooo
update more
or at least
email me
cuz all that really matters is
me
after all

... haha

i'm really turning around, coming out of the ditch, enjoying Kenya a lot more. And the culture. I will do something touristy eventually, though, and be able to talk about animals other than donkeys and chickens (for a brief half-conscious moment this morning I had resolved to make a slingshot - yes, a slingshot! - so that I could shoot stones at the roosters that don't even belong to my homestead yet feel the need to come to our house and crow at us every morning. well actually, whoever started the myth that roosters crow at dawn was on crack because they crow all freaking day. all freaking day.

i'm not gonna kill any roosters though cuz they're probably valuable, who knows.
stupid chickens.
i wrote you a letter. i dunno if i'll mail it anytime soon, maybe i'll mail it tomorrow... i need to come back to this town tomorrow to meet w/ a lady so i might come by the posta.
miss you, hope you're well,
lee