Scantlings

Rob got me thinking about this in the politico section.

Ann and I make charity gifts this time of year and are looking to expand our reach. I'm hoping to get some favorite charities from you guys for us to consider. We tend toward providing basic needs: water, food, health care, globally, in addition to funding our local shelters and soup kitchens.

Some of our favorites are Partners in Health, UNICEF, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Doctors Without Borders, Heifer International.

Not global but local to the Tampa Bay Area but I'll throw out this onehttp://www.metromin.org.

My daughter is their director of HR and the need is significant and they do good things focused on homeless, women requiring shelter, children in poverty and training in life skills. Although "faith based", not preachy. They currently have a benefactor applying matching contributions through the end of the year so donations are doubled.

Lynne and I tend to focus our giving on local homeless and hungry. Our region has a dual economy with well off high tech and often near subsistence farming and watermen. Easy for folks to fall through the cracks so we look for organizations doing good things and try to help them. We also support a community education partnership that gives small scholarships to well qualified but economically challenged students where a few dollars give a good kid a better future.

Environmental and conservation orgs--international, national, and local--refugees, peace groups, local homeless and poor, Planned Parenthood, Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontièrs, our various schools, Public Radio, etc. The usual lib stuff. I would hesitate to suggest anything without knowing where your deepest sympathies lie.

Keith, this is potentially a very useful thread. If some of find we are simply cancelling each other's contributions out, we could just save our money.

OM, you remind me that I should plug Nadia Alawa's work called Nuday Syria. She brings food, clothing, baby formula, etc, to even quite challenging areas.

We did what I think is a creative project where Adele's class collected food and clothing, helped load the shipping container that was taken to the country.

We had Nadia speak to Adele's class describing the plight of the refugees in exchange for an honorarium that was donated to her aid group. We auctioned off the "naming privilege" of the donated goods at the school's annual gala.

http://www.nudaysyria.net

We concentrate on local charities where we actually meet and get to know the people involved face to face. We also concentrate on organizations where my serial volunteer wife has been the president of the board. (For some reason any board she joins, she gets elected quickly to the leadership role.)

That said I am going to look into that one where Larry's daughter is involved. I really like supporting organizations where I get a good reference from someone I know (I think I know Larry.....kind of.)

The whole fake charity thing pisses me off. One of the "wounded warrior" ones got some support from me only to find out the leadership kept 90% of their funds for themselves. That really opened my eyes and caused me to vet the hell out of where I put the money.

We tend not to send money off to very large organizations as we rather keep the money locally. (Planned Parenthood is an exception as is Southern Poverty Law Center.)

We really like organizations that help disadvantaged people, although we do give to libraries, land trusts and the World Wildlife Fund.

Charity is good for the soul.

kdh wrote:OM, you remind me that I should plug Nadia Alawa's work called Nuday Syria. She brings food, clothing, baby formula, etc, to even quite challenging areas.

We did what I think is a creative project where Adele's class collected food and clothing, helped load the shipping container that was taken to the country.

We had Nadia speak to Adele's class describing the plight of the refugees in exchange for an honorarium that was donated to her aid group. We auctioned off the "naming privilege" of the donated goods at the school's annual gala.

http://www.nudaysyria.net

They look like good folks.

Last year, we asked German friends about people doing resettlement work there and got some names. We gave a substantial contribution to one group, which I think was international, and I can post the name if anyone's interested. We will be sitting down to do our charitables next week.

We don't pay much attention to the overhead number. I figure it's what they get done that matters, not how badly they pay their staff.

Orestes Munn wrote:

kdh wrote:OM, you remind me that I should plug Nadia Alawa's work called Nuday Syria. She brings food, clothing, baby formula, etc, to even quite challenging areas.

We did what I think is a creative project where Adele's class collected food and clothing, helped load the shipping container that was taken to the country.

We had Nadia speak to Adele's class describing the plight of the refugees in exchange for an honorarium that was donated to her aid group. We auctioned off the "naming privilege" of the donated goods at the school's annual gala.

http://www.nudaysyria.net

They look like good folks.

Last year, we asked German friends about people doing resettlement work there and got some names. We gave a substantial contribution to one group, which I think was international, and I can post the name if anyone's interested. We will be sitting down to do our charitables next week.

We don't pay much attention to the overhead number. I figure it's what they get done that matters, not how badly they pay their staff.

First class pay for effective staff is good, first class travel for the board is not OK in my view.

We give to and volunteer at local homeless and food kitchens. We also give to two local youth marine organizations, the local art, maritime and auto museums, public TV and radio stations and a Seattle based cancer research and care center.

http://youthmarinefoundation.org

https://tacomaboatbuilders.org

http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org

http://www.fosswaterwayseaport.org

http://www.americascarmuseum.org

http://www.fredhutch.org/en.html

Orestes Munn wrote:Keith, this is potentially a very useful thread. If some of find we are simply cancelling each other's contributions out, we could just save our money.

Just me, but I won't give to anything related to politics. Not to campaigns certainly, or to any organization that's politically biased or feeds on biases. Fortunately that still leaves a whole lot of ways to help.

Orestes Munn wrote:Last year, we asked German friends about people doing resettlement work there and got some names. We gave a substantial contribution to one group, which I think was international, and I can post the name if anyone's interested.

We are.

Oh my Kim a picture paints a thousand words. I think this is rare, hopefully.

Isn't that disconcerting?

Keith. Thanks for the thread. I think the universal message is that those of us fortunate to have comfortable lives need to do what we can for those in need.

kdh wrote:Oh my Kim a picture paints a thousand words. I think this is rare, hopefully.

That's what the SPLC fights and they have been rather effective doing it. They bankrupted that idiot in Northern Idaho!

kdh wrote:

Orestes Munn wrote:Last year, we asked German friends about people doing resettlement work there and got some names. We gave a substantial contribution to one group, which I think was international, and I can post the name if anyone's interested.

We are.

Will post.

The SPLC has been on our list for years for a token contribution. We may up it this year.
Just looked through our records from last year and, for refugees, we contributed to Save the Children and Mercy Corps.

My opinion is that the US takes dreadful care of its poor - worse than many supposed less developed countries - so I keep my support local.

http://community-concepts.org

These guys do a great job and are starting an investment fund for small businesses. They understand in the coming political climate they will need to reduce reliance on funding or foundations.

Jamie wrote:My opinion is that the US takes dreadful care of its poor - worse than many supposed less developed countries - so I keep my support local.

http://community-concepts.org

These guys do a great job and are starting an investment fund for small businesses. They understand in the coming political climate they will need to reduce reliance on funding or foundations.

YES! Local is good.

One of our favorite groups (Susan served three terms as president of this organization.)

http://ivcbainbridge.org

We donate to the yacht club junior programs and the sailing foundations. There are zero folks on staff and all the money goes to stuff for the kids. In addition, our large club has a scholarship fund, again there is zero overhead spent and 100% goes to funding the kids of the employees. We've put a lot of kids through college.

Last year my oldest daughter visited an elephant orphanage in Kenya, it motivated her to give me a "sponsorship" of a baby elephant. I was hooked. I've given a heap of sponsorships to others this year. While I haven't visited (yet) I trust my daughter's selection process.

https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org