Which climate change organization should I donate to?

November 16, 2006 7:49 AM

We would like to contribute to an organization that is dedicated to alleviating global warming. Ideally a nonprofit but any organization that takes action in this direction would be fine. I'd prefer that it be something I could research online or find a rating such as those available on charitynavigator.com. Any ideas? Thank you!
posted by walla to Grab Bag (8 answers total)

Have you taken a look at the environmental category on charitynavigator and sorted by rating? I know the description fields are brief but they should give you some idea of what the organization does.

Is EESI the kind of thing you're looking for?
posted by amarynth at 8:17 AM on November 16, 2006

I don't think any charity has any direct impact on global warming. Only governments have the power to alleviate global warming.

For your donation to be worthwhile, I suggest donating to your favourite political candidate who supports climate change legislation. Assuming you're in the US, donating to an environmentalist candidate in a close-run winnable contest seems the most efficient use of your money. It's a shame you're asking this just after the mid-term elections — that would have been a good opportunity for this.

Another possibility is donating to an environmentalist pressure group. However, the green lobby is never going to be able to compete with the big-business lobby in Washington, so I suspect helping to elect a relatively environmentalist senator/congressman etc would be more worthwhile.
posted by matthewr at 8:20 AM on November 16, 2006

i like carbonfund.org, which "supports climate-friendly projects that directly reduce a specific amount of carbon dioxide emissions" and in that, feels satisfyingly direct.
posted by judith at 10:25 AM on November 16, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks everyone - these are all the kinds of ideas we are looking for, and carbonfund and EESI both look interesting. Does anyone know of a good information source about environmental interest groups and/or organizations like EESI? Charitynavigator does not evaluate them.
posted by walla at 11:14 AM on November 16, 2006

Actually, EESI is on Charity Navigator. Their evaluation is here.
posted by amarynth at 11:53 AM on November 16, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for the heads up, amarynth - I did find EESI, but I'm still having trouble with interest groups. I know of a couple of influential ones, like the Sierra Club and the NRDC, but other than that I'm at a loss.
posted by walla at 12:20 PM on November 16, 2006

Best answer: I recommend the Union Of Concerned Scientists, a good environmental organization that puts weight on scientific study and practicality instead of politics or myth.

The UCS are proponents of reducing greenhouse gases and fighting climate change. I'm a member and I know that they do good work.

Some other reputable orgs that also might interest you are:

Natural Resources Defense Council
The Nature Conservancy
The Sierra Club and
The Wilderness Society

I hope you find one that you suits you. The environment is very important to humanity and needs your help.
posted by owl at 1:08 PM on November 16, 2006 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks again everyone - these were all great. I think we may go with Union of Concerned Scientists but we will look into all of these.
posted by walla at 2:14 PM on November 16, 2006