I'm learning how to effectively give to charities. This year I
did a fair amount of research to find efficient organizations on
GuideStar
and
Charity Navigator. I also
asked Mefi
for some ideas for specific charities.
Then I made donations via
American
Express: it's convenient, has good research, and has a reasonably low
transaction fee.
I hope it's not tacky to talk about this, but in trying to figure out
what and where to give I had a hard time. Most of my friends don't
talk about this kind of thing, so I thought maybe this blog post would
help the conversation. Here's the charities I came up with:
- Services for those in need
-
Homeward Bound of Marin: homeless services
San Francisco Food Bank
St. Anthony
Foundation: homeless services
ModestNeeds.org: microcharity
My Two Front Teeth:
Christmas toys
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
Save the Children:
international aid
American Red Cross: Hurricane Katrina
- Services I use
-
Wikimedia Foundation
KQED: public radio
Reed College: my alma mater
- Social causes
-
Human Rights Watch
ACLU Foundation
The Point Foundation:
gay student scholarships
Electronic
Frontier Foundation
Google has a great employee
gift
matching program, which is part of my impetus to put this all
together. Mostly it feels good to do. I wonder whom I've forgotten.