Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Philanthropy

Am I alone here?

holdenjordahl — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:28:58 -0800

Anyone know of a way to quantify (by region, nationally; individually, collectively; percentages, ballparks numbers, quotes, et cetera) how non-profit theatres are faring, say, from the past year year or two to now, in the pursuit of foundation money? Assiduous though my efforts have been, I need to put my to-date dismal efforts into perspective for myself and soon, methinks, for others. Thanks.

What's a good, trustworthy online charitable cause that I can donate to in $1 increments?

JamesJD — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:20:15 -0800

What's a good, trustworthy online charitable cause that I can donate to in $1 increments? I don't like giving money to homeless panhandlers because I feel that panhandling is a blight on communities and because I think my money could be more effectively applied toward other, more deserving charitable ventures.

But I never actually end up donating to other causes, and that's something I'd like to change. I want to start donating $1 to an online charity whenever a homeless person asks me for money.

I'm looking for a website that I can donate to, $1 at a time. Can you think of any worthy causes with secure sites?

A tale of philanthropy gone bad.

calumet43 — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:16:40 -0800

Looking for the name of a classic short story about a person returning to their hometown and giving people gifts that unintentionally do more harm than good. I remember reading a short story in junior high school about a person who returns to their hometown and gives the people there gifts that unintentionally cause harm. The only gift that I can remember is that the town drunk was given a bottle of very good booze and it caused alcohol poisoning because the local doctor had been watering down the drunk's booze for years. The rest of the gifts have similar consequences. I think that it is a classic American short story but it has been almost 40 years since I have read the story so I could be mistaken.

How can I preserve Douglas Adams' typewriter?

The Shiny Thing — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:51:36 -0800

How can I preserve Douglas Adams' typewriter for the ages? And more generally, how do museums handle item donations and loans? The typewriter on which Douglas Adams wrote The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy is for sale.

I'm sorely tempted to buy it (how often does something like this come up for sale?!), but a) I wouldn't have a clue how to store or preserve it; and b) an artefact like this should really be on display in a museum somewhere.

So my question is - if I bought the typewriter, how would I go about loaning it to a museum? And more generally, how do museums deal with offers of loans or donations?

(I'm actually semi-serious about this. If you have any contacts in museums who I could talk to, shoot me a MeFi-mail.)

How can I find funding for a school?

LakesideOrion — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:33:16 -0800

How do you find private / corporate funding for educational institutions? I'm trying to raise money for a fitness facility at a local high school. This is a great project with very cool and worthy kids...

In addition to the standard high school fund-raising activities (bake sales, etc...), I'd love to be able to secure additional funds through grants, corporate sponsorships, promotional opportunities, etc.

I've search the Web with pretty poor results. I'm wondering if there is a better way to do this sort of research. Is there any sort of clearing house for this type of funding?

Any thoughts and pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Hive!

Show me the money!

bitteroldman — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:37:38 -0800

With all the charities/organizations in the world doing wonderful things, why isn't the world getting any better? Or is the developing world better off? Disclaimer: This is NOT a knock on charities or other similar organizations. I am a big fan of philanthropy and look forward to the day where poverty and other suffering will be eradicated.

There are a lot of charities and organizations doing a lot of good things in this world. There are also a lot of good people sending their hard earned money to these charities.

I would think that there are a lot more of such organizations today than there were 30, 40 or 50 years ago. Yet it seems that people of the world still continue to suffer.

Today I heard that an amount equal to 25% of the money spent on bottled water would be enough to provide drinking water to all the people of Africa who need it. A few years back, I heard that if we spent the same amount of money on the 3rd world as we do on cigarettes, poverty would be eradicated.

I would think that over the years, billions if not trillions of dollars have been sent with the best intentions to those who need it.

So where has all the money gone? Are lives actually getting better overall? Are conditions improving? Or does it continue to get siphoned off everywhere? Why do things seem to be getting worse rather than getting better?

_{somewhat off topic, on the other hand, I heard that due to the advances made in cancer treatment, if Terry Fox lived in the present time, he never would have lost his leg and pehaps might have continued to live for a long time. In this case, at least all that money spent on cancer research is showing some measurable results!}

How Do I Choose Who Gets The Charitable Donation?

Robert Angelo — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 16:46:45 -0800

How do I choose between two equally worthy charities to receive my donation? Today I was making out some year-end donations to a number of charities. Some of them are organizations I have supported for quite some time, and a couple are new ones that I have learned about due to life experience this year.

One of the areas that I decided to add to my giving this year is animal-related charities, specifically organizations that support animal shelters and animal adoption. But how do I decide which one? To choose from, I have both national and local versions of the Humane Society and the SPCA, as well as a number of other very similar and worthy organizations.

I've looked up a couple of these organizations on Guidestar, and quite frankly, I don't understand what I'm looking at. I don't know how to read an IRS Form 990 and I don't want to learn. I'd love to see a pie chart for each group that showed me a breakdown of where their money comes from and how they spend it, but I didn't see that online. [Maybe it's in the Guidestar "beta" version reports that didn't work in my browser...?] What am I missing? Or is there a better web site to look for comparison information, since Guidestar seems to be geared more to philanthropic professionals than to the general small-donation public.

And of course, it's not just this issue, but on a greater scale, how do I choose among competing worthy causes without having to spend an undue amount of time educating myself about each charity involved?

There are a couple of other issues (hospice, for example) that I wanted to donate toward where I ended up choosing a national seemingly-reputable education-oriented group in lieu of a local care provider.

Please note: This question is not seeking advocacy on behalf of any particular charity. Rather, it is seeking insight on how to choose among worthy charities. If your comment seeks donations to any particular charity, it is not answering the question. Ultimately, what I want is a method to help me identify a handful of organizations that I feel really good about, and to whom I can donate for years to come.

Volunteer work from home?

moira — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 12:10:24 -0800

Help me help others from home. I find myself on an enforced hiatus. For the time being, my formal education is on hold, and I will not be working. Browsing the internet is all well and good, and there are plenty of things I can do for entertainment and personal edification, but I have a real need to do something I consider meaningful. The best way I've found to fulfill that need is to help other people out or fight what I perceive as injustice. My education has been geared towards that end, and I've done quite a bit of outside volunteer work. With this temporary change in situation, however, I'm at a bit of a loss.

What I'd like is some help with brainstorming on other ways I can do this kind of thing from home. Extra income from this would be nice, but not necessary. So far, I've come up with tutoring or possibly some kind of language exchange.

Some pertinent details: I'm not in a position to donate money. I am not degreed. I have a one-week-old babe who will be keeping me regularly occupied (read: interrupted). For the unforeseeable future, I will be physically incapacitated. This essentially means no lifting or walking. I am a smart and resourceful woman. In your suggestions, please err on the side of things that might not initially seem possible, as there may easily be a workaround or variant.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Why should philanthropy be inconspicuous?

I Foody — Wed, 17 May 2006 19:43:35 -0800

Generally it seems frowned upon to allow information about the extent to which someone supports charity enter the public sphere. What is the reason for this or if that is too obvious the origin of this belief? It seems to me that conspicuos philanthropy is treated as though it is less socially appropriate than conspicious consumption. People are more comfortable talking about how much they spend on various extravagant luxury items than how much money they give to charity. Both luxury goods and charitable gifts have the ability to serve as markers of social affluence, and both generally provide little utility to the purchaser/giver apart from the socio-psychological benefits. This modesty strikes me as ultimately harmful since more people would likely give to charity if it was not so taboo to discuss it. Why the stigma? Is this common across different cultures?

Where can I find a php developer to donate some time to a Peace Corps project?

brokekid — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 14:46:53 -0800

Where can I find a php developer to donate some time to a Peace Corps project? I’ve started a project on Ning 9http://corpsrequest.ning.com) where Peace Corps volunteers around the world can post requests for help on various projects. We try to use local resources and materials but often what we need is not available or just not there. There are needs for materials, funding, virtual volunteers, hopefully this site will help volunteers fill those needs. I need some serious php and css help though so I can get this project off the ground.

Where can I find funding for Peace Corps projects?

brokekid — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 13:42:01 -0800

Where can Peace Corps volunteers go to find funding for projects that they want to carrying out? Volunteers aren't given very many resources to locate funding to initiate projects. Where can a volunteer go to find organizations or funding sources?

What's the best way to donate to tsunami victims?

donovan — Tue, 28 Dec 2004 01:10:23 -0800

What's the most effective way to help Tsunami victims with a donation? CNN lists 25 groups willing to take a donation. How do you decide who to give to?

Planning a Silent Auction

crush-onastick — Tue, 05 Oct 2004 08:12:51 -0800

out of my depth: i'm on the holiday benefit planning committee of a local philanthropy which advocates for architectural preservation, on the silent auction and raffle subcommittee. tip, suggestions, approaches for getting businesses to donate goods for the auction? tips for getting people to bid? when you go to charity gigs, what do you like to see? we're keeping entrance ticket prices low (in part to encourage membership among young professionals, students and others not in high income brackets), but also because we hope people will participate in the auction if they haven't already spent a bundle to get in. we expect to have enough booze donated for an open bar. what else can we do?