Which charity?
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If you are/have donated got Haiti relief, which organization did you donate to? If not Which organization do you trust to use your donations efficiently? I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
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If you are/have donated got Haiti relief, which organization did you donate to? If not Which organization do you trust to use your donations efficiently? I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:
I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
I donated to the Red Cross. I guess maybe that wasn't the way to go after all. My brother recommends these people, but I've never heard of them. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/[^] All I know is they were also around for Katrina doing some stuff. So, at least it's not some fat guy in a back room smoking a cigar at a casino talking about mobsters and thumbing money while coughing up a lung to a picture of how much moola he just got online from donations from people trying to do the right thing while he plans to go to Hawaii and buy a new car and put his kids in school so they can learn the true vale of ripping people off that had good intentions.
Jeremy Falcon
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If you are/have donated got Haiti relief, which organization did you donate to? If not Which organization do you trust to use your donations efficiently? I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
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If you are/have donated got Haiti relief, which organization did you donate to? If not Which organization do you trust to use your donations efficiently? I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
A good site to see trustworthy charities (although it is US-centric) is Charity Navigator[^] FWIW, I donated to Doctors Without Borders. Red Cross would also be a good donation, IMO.
-------------- TTFN - Kent
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If you are/have donated got Haiti relief, which organization did you donate to? If not Which organization do you trust to use your donations efficiently? I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontières (doctors without borders). In this kind of disaster, I think it's better to give to large organized organisations that know exactly how things work.
This signature was proudly tested on animals.
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If you are/have donated got Haiti relief, which organization did you donate to? If not Which organization do you trust to use your donations efficiently? I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
I hadn't heard about it before but everywhere I go I see the Red Cross getting slammed, reportedly they take money in times like this donated for a specific disaster and simply pool it all together, it doesn't necessarily go where you intended it to. Also I've heard that the administrative costs of the Red Cross are now so high that only 30% of donations actually ever get to the "end user" so to speak. I don't know if this is true or just the latest internet rumor mongering but I've seen it consistently now on many reputable sites. Often people site the Charity Navigator which someone else has, seems like a good idea.
"I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter." — Blaise Pascal
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If you are/have donated got Haiti relief, which organization did you donate to? If not Which organization do you trust to use your donations efficiently? I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
Im using Red-Cross - primarily because, the company I work for will match my donation $$ 1 for 1 'g'
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I hadn't heard about it before but everywhere I go I see the Red Cross getting slammed, reportedly they take money in times like this donated for a specific disaster and simply pool it all together, it doesn't necessarily go where you intended it to. Also I've heard that the administrative costs of the Red Cross are now so high that only 30% of donations actually ever get to the "end user" so to speak. I don't know if this is true or just the latest internet rumor mongering but I've seen it consistently now on many reputable sites. Often people site the Charity Navigator which someone else has, seems like a good idea.
"I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter." — Blaise Pascal
John C wrote:
reportedly they take money in times like this donated for a specific disaster and simply pool it all together, it doesn't necessarily go where you intended it to.
AFAIK That's a rather strong distortion of the facts. Most of the money being given for Haiti via the american red cross will be spend over the next few months filling warehouses for supplies for the next disaster; but that's because they're emptying all the warehouses full of stuff bought earlier for this one. Funds above what it takes to restock the warehouses are spend on supplies that get streamed out as events continue. At the scales the RC operates at in a major disaster you can't buy everything you need off the shelf and have an acceptable response time. Funds given and funds expended end up being roughly in line and partially depend on how you do your accounting anyway. eg do you use the value of stuff when it was put into the warehouse, or what it costs to replace it for the next disaster.
John C wrote:
Also I've heard that the administrative costs of the Red Cross are now so high that only 30% of donations actually ever get to the "end user" so to speak.
The American Red Cross[^] is 90% efficient; which is a very high rating. I've heard some of their other branches have much poorer scores but don't have any citations.
3x12=36 2x12=24 1x12=12 0x12=18
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If you are/have donated got Haiti relief, which organization did you donate to? If not Which organization do you trust to use your donations efficiently? I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
I donate to Save the Children, and World Vision. It annoys me when people try to tell me how much of what they take goes to admin, even if those stories are true, I assume these charities ask for the amount they need to make a difference, and for sure, no matter how much of it gets to the end destination, I am doing a lot more good than I would by not donating. Funny enough, Save the Children wrote to tell me my three ongoing donations had all been cancelled at my request. I made no such request, I called and they reinstated them, but could not tell me why they got cancelled.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.
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If you are/have donated got Haiti relief, which organization did you donate to? If not Which organization do you trust to use your donations efficiently? I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
As a recently retired, long time Director of our area United Way, I have sent my donations to them for distribution. I know they've received a lot of bad press, but most people fail to realize that those United Way organizations which have committed such offenses are not related to any other United Way. All are community-based, mostly volunteer groups who, in normal times, focus on local needs. But in times of great need elsewhere, all resources are marshalled for the greater good. United Way does not perform charity work; it provides a means of gathering donations and distributing them to the front line charities, and those include Red Cross, Salvation Army, various food banks, and refugee services. Even if you cannot afford to donate a large sum to a group performing services in Haiti or other parts of a sufferring world, donations can be arranged through payroll deductions to be spread over a year, and I know from experience that you never notice the difference in paychecks. You can also direct which charities will receive your donations. Wastage is hard to measure. Normally I would suggest you steer clear of groups with administrative costs more than 25% of gross donations, and you should aim lower if possible. But keep in mind that there are fixed costs of maintaining any organization at all, and times change. For instance, when I became a director, we had gross donations of $900,000 a year, and an administrative cost of 15%. After 9/11 our donations dropped to $300,000, and though we let go 2 of our 4-person staff, admin costs rose to 30%. The vast majority of costs are in soliciting donations - travel, telephone, printing campaign materials, advertising, etc. Ironically, staff members are often large contributors, and we lost the donations of the two we had to let go. The point being, try to look for a historical cost level, not just the past few years, when selecting a charity to support. Other than religious groups, you can't realistically expect people to dedicate their lives to raising money for free - they need to eat, and they need material to work with in order to raise funds. Our own Red Cross sucks, frankly, but we at United Way still support them because they fill a need that no other group can. The community needs them, despite their unpleasant quirks. Don't let a few cases of waste cause you to turn away. These things happen to any organization, but if their track record overall is good, take a chance on them. The world needs all you can spare... :)
"A Journey
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If you are/have donated got Haiti relief, which organization did you donate to? If not Which organization do you trust to use your donations efficiently? I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
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If you are/have donated got Haiti relief, which organization did you donate to? If not Which organization do you trust to use your donations efficiently? I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
Living 3 mins from the sea in Wales, the RNLI is the only charity organisation I currently support. Neil.
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If you are/have donated got Haiti relief, which organization did you donate to? If not Which organization do you trust to use your donations efficiently? I normally donate to my local red cross but there have been a few cases of wastage so I am looking for better organizations, if any?
Shelterbox[^] are well worth considering.
I hope you realise that hamsters are very creative when it comes to revenge. - Elaine
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Ye Gads. What about the Red Cross merits slamming me like this? The Red Cross is a no more inefficient than any other large humanitarian organization. If you think your new-out-of-the-woodwork charity is sending 100% of your donations to Haiti... you are deluded. The Red Cross -already- have the essential materials on hand. They also already know how to get it there. Gee I wonder if it'd be nice for them to buy replacement materials for the NEXT disaster. Are they perfect? No, the group is huge & yes occasionally there are people who cause hiccups. However, they defiantly are not running a scam like so many other "charities" out there. -- Ian