What are your favorite charities?

[monarch64]

These days, we are all about giving locally and making sure whatever we give stays in our community. In the past, however, I have been a big fan of the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer (so whatever their foundation is), American Cancer Society, and the Red Cross.

If I had thousands of dollars or even more than that to donate to charities, I would give it all to animal-related ones. My dad always says he is leaving every cent he has to the Humane Society when he dies. Good, nothing for family members to fight over!

Kribbie, I have no issue with deserving people working for a non-profit and earning handsome salaries. I do admit, though, it burns my a$$ a bit when I see the director of the company my husband last worked for (a non-profit, and in the education field, no less) tooling around town in a Hummer when she won't even leave her house if there's two inches of snow on the ground. That is a pathetic waste of money, imo.

 

[Missy]

We give to our favorite animal charities including Peace Plantation Animal Sanctuary and Best Friends Animal Society. Both are awesome charities that really help animals and provide them with better quality lives.

http://www.animalshelter.org/shelters/Peace_Plantation_Animal_Shelter_rId3539_rS_pC.html

http://www.bestfriends.org/index.htm

We also give to local animal rescues and I also donate my time to working with a local animal rescue. Also our 4 cats are all rescue cats and any future animals we may adopt (way down the road but I would love to adopt a dog one day) will be rescue animals for sure.

There are many worthy charities out there and we give as much as we can but I always wish we could give more. One of the hardest things dealing with the recession has been our decrease in income and subsequently how much we can give. It is important to my dh and me to give as much as we can to worthy charities whether it be time, money or both.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

One that I don't think has been mentioned yet is "Donors Choose". You give money toward specific classroom projects submitted by the teachers. Pretty cool way to give to local education!

http://www.donorschoose.org/

ETA: 95% of their donations go toward the actual programs, which is awesome!

Thank you!!! This is a really nice one!

 

[Arkteia]

Agree, I shall look into this program, too! I do not donate to charities, but directly to schools, and to an organization supporting teachers in our state (this one is not deductible, and there is minimal accountability, but at least they lobby for teachers). (Not a charity at all, and not deductible), but I donate to a certain political campaign, and will be donating more.

 

[aviastar]

I donate to my church regularly and always send what I can to friends and family who are rasing for their charity of choice; some have become an annual tradition (Relay for Life) and some are not, mostly humanitarian aid trips, medical missions, that sort of thing. I also give to my local arts center (which I was the director of for a while) and cook for the cold weather shelter every few weeks during the winter.

About salaries and non-profits; having worked for several and having a masters in arts management- basically a non profit management degree- there is SO MUCH that goes into determining salaries. Many granting organizations see "good" salaries as a sign of a healthy organization and are more likely to grant them more money; attracting talent requires money- talent is key is raising more money; almost no matter what you are paid you give more time than you are paid for, it's just the nature of non-profit. On the flip side, when money was tight at my center, I simply couldn't see paying myself first and my teachers second; I was always the one waiting for the next donation to catch up on paychecks. And you know what? That's not sustainable either and I eventually had to leave beacuse of it.

There are certainly abuses in the system and there are organizations who manage their money in a way I don't agree with- so I don't give to them. But, truly, the finacial picture of an organization is much much more than the CEO's salary. I try and not make the general statement of X dollars is too much for a salary, but to look at what % of the company's income that is, how the lower tiers are compensated, other benefits, % of donations that makes it back into services, cost of their programing for participants, and how much control I have over where my donation is used, locally or for specific programming.

I want my donations to do the most good they can do, of course, but in a pretty existential way I feel that if you give in good faith, even if you don't do all the research into an organization and maybe they could be managing it better, you have put good karma out there in the world and in your own life and we could all use a little more of that kind of positivity

 

[Amys Bling]

I contribute monthly to North Shore Animal League- where we adopted our pup. They rescue thousands upon thousands- they have their own animal hospital on premises, it's one of the biggest. I found them to be super nice, caring and friendly. They are a no kill shelter and adopt out hundreds a week.

I also donate all clothes and home items to LUPUS pick-ups, as well as donating to St Judes (unfortunately, at this point in time I have two students battling cancer )