Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with charity

Help us choose a charity!

springo — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:07:14 -0800

Anyone have any information about how good World Education is as a charity? What about Ashoka? We have gotten a small charity gift card for Xmas. Since we don't have an established charity to give to, this means that, in effect, we have been given a charity-organization research project. Truly the gift that keeps on giving.

We have narrowed our choices down to two: World Education and Ashoka.

Before we choose, does anyone have information about either of these organizations that might influence our decision one way or another? Personal stories are great. Biases and opinions are welcome. We'll even consider hard data, too, if you don't think that will be too much of a bummer.

Thanks for any help you can give us.

Marketing Gurus, please help!

skewedoracle — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:23:40 -0800

How would you promote a web site for a charity fundraiser? I am involved with a small group promoting a charity fundraiser website that is running from now until April 30th. We have a very limited budget. The charity is a good one that is fairly well known among the gamer set. We are looking for good ways to involve online communities and groups that have a lot of people that check them out. Thoughts on how to do this? I don't want to self link, so if you want specific details please feel free to memail me.

It is better to give than receive

Scientifik — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:41:14 -0800

What are some "good will" alternatives to Christmas in Denver? What's something I can do in or around Denver that will be beneficial for someone less fortunate this Christmas? I'm open to pretty much open to helping with any job or task. I'd prefer something through an organization but ideas for random acts of kindness help as well.

Best Fundraising Websites for School for deprived kids in Colombia?

lapsang — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:43:49 -0800

Best Fundraising Websites for School for deprived kids in Colombia? Yesterday I visited a small independent school in one of the poorest part of the city of Cali, Colombia.

The school is part of a formal, but small, foundation and cares for literally the most abused kids from 3 to 16. It is well-run, modest and is often the only source of food, encouragement and hope for many of the kids. The stories I heard from the in-house psychologist were horrific: incest, armed 7 year old gang members, extreme trauma and deprivation. The school of 130 kids is run by a Catholic nun (somewhat renegade compared to her brethern it seems) and teachers who accept to live on below minimum wage. They also ran a hostel but have temporarily closed it because of financial constraints. The nun made an interesting point with regard to the boys in the school ...that the school is the only reason they are not already in violent street gangs - and thus 'we are helping reduce a vicious cycle of violence here'.

I want to help (for free) the school raise funds and also in an advisory capacity. Right now however they have to deal with basic fundraising and making up a major deficit next year. I love kiva.or but I don't think it is appropriate in this case because the school does not produce goods or services for sale.

To help with fundraising I want to reach out to people on the internet and would really appreciate if you could point me in the direction of websites that can provide fundraising services. So far I know of:

http://givemeaning.com/
http://myphilanthropedia.org/
http://www.justgiving.com/
http://www.facebook.com/93dollarclub - is also an interesting possibility

Wondering if you can point me in the direction of additional online resources to help with fundraising?

Music/musicians or music & kids related charities?

You Should See the Other Guy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:19:23 -0800

This season I would like to raise funds for a music/musicians or music and kids related charity. I'm aware of Sweet Relief, Music Box Children's Charity, and Rock for Kids. What are some others that you would recommend? In addition, there was a music/kids related post on the blue I can't find... an older guy who makes instruments for free--hundreds over the years... anyone recall? Thanks!

Looking for awesome charities for holiday donations

rmd1023 — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:25:15 -0800

One of the things I do as holiday gifts for folks is make donations in their names to charities. I prefer to use lesser known (and/or local) charities, that are doing awesome work and have a focus of interest to the gift recipient. I'm looking for more ideas. Suggestions? I'm in the US, in Somerville, MA. Charities/programs I've used before include adopt-a-penguin, local homeless shelters, arts in reach (to whom i first donated in soulbee's memory), and a group helping mentally retarded folks in western MA. (Inter)Nationally, yeah, there's MSF/Doctors Without Borders and Heiffer, but they're both pretty high profile.

I learned about the Fistula Foundation on the blue recently, and that's an example of a group I had not heard of before who are doing great work. What other awesome charities out there are doing great focused work that I've never heard of? Tell me your favorites!

Please help me come up with some great fundraising ideas so my co-workers and I can help feed DC's homeless.

DrDreidel — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:55:26 -0800

I need some fundraising ideas to help feed DC's homeless. Every year, my office of roughly 200 people is split into two teams to "compete" against each other to see who can raise more money to donate to the DC Central Kitchen. It's a great cause, and the competition is very friendly. I've been tasked with coming up with a few good ideas to raise money.

So far, here's my ideas:

- Charity Kareoke - everyone who attends has the option to buy songs at $5 a pop. The twist is that you don't have to sing, but can choose to assign the song to someone else.

- Keg Party - after work happy hour, charging $10 at the door. We're able to get a good deal on a keg though a contact at a beer distributor.

- Book sale - We're encouraging people to bring in books that they've read to sell to they're co-workers.

Has anyone had success with office wide fundraising?

Running for the Greater Good

ginagina — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:11:07 -0800

Philly Runners: How do you combine running and volunteering? I'm working on compiling some resources for runners in Philadelphia. One aspect I'm having trouble with is finding ways to combine running and volunteer work. I know about Back on My Feet (http://www.backonmyfeet.org/) but I'd like to find other Philadelphia-based organizations that need people who run (dog shelters? after school programs, etc).

Thanks for your help!

What to do with this national network of volunteer fundraisers?

metajc — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:24:00 -0800

People want to help us raise money. How do we help them help us? I just started working for the relatively new US branch of an international charity non-profit. Although our charity is very well-known everywhere else in the world, few seem to have heard of us in the USA. That said, suddenly, our small fundraising office in the US has been inundated with requests from college student groups and others who want "fundraising packets" (non-existent) so that they can go out and get us money!

Happy as we are, we need a standard operating procedure, some kind of model to use. We have one street team to use as a model and a heck of a website ... but I'm interested copying an existing model.

Who has a good one? Who are the experts in this? Legal stuff to be concerned with?

Happy medium or nurturing the beast?

bitteroldman — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:28:32 -0800

I can't seem to find sweatshop-free or second-hand clothes in the style that I like. How about this alternative? So I really wanted to make a push to purchase sweatshop-free clothing and started to do some research into what was available. Read a lot of discussion with a lot of valid points being made on all sides of the argument.

Not to mention, the style of clothing that I am looking for is more dressy and I can't seem to find any stores or Websites that sell dressy, sweatshop-free clothing.

So then I thought to myself, what if I bought my clothes regularly, but for each article of clothing I buy, I make a donation to a charity in the country where the clothes were made (we're talking about 30-50% of the price I pay for the clothes)?

My rationale is that when I make the donation, I have a pretty good idea where it's going; but if I buy a dress shirt that says "Made in Wherever", I have no idea what the conditions of the factory are like.

So on the surface, it seems like an interesting idea, but is it a good idea or is it the equivalent of whipping a child and then feeding him/her?

I want to do what's right, but damn it I'm still wearing the clothes I bought when I first met my better half, and that was 11 years ago!

What would it take to set up a scholarship prize?

jonesor — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:33:25 -0800

What would it take to set up a scholarship prize fund for a particular school in a developing country? I was recently in Africa, where I visited a community school in Lesotho.

I learned that the cost of sending children on to high school there is prohibitively expensive for most kids' families (~US$60/yr). To me this is a small amount of money, so it got me wondering about the logistics of establishing a self-sustaining scholarship prize, or fund of some kind, to send, for example, the 5 brightest kids per year through school.

This is all just a vague idea at the moment, but what would be involved in setting up such a scheme?

I'd be interested in examples both from the developing world and from elsewhere.

It would all need to be self-sustaining and above-board legally-speaking, and run from the UK.

Who invented the amateur athletics for charity drive?

IndigoJones — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:19:23 -0800

Run, walk, jump, for Charity! Who first came up with this unlikely yet popular idea?

Where do they get their money?

Diablevert — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:04:04 -0800

How do I find out who's been giving grants to a non-profit foundation? I'm doing some research on a foundation, considering applying for a position with them. One of the things they're looking for is someone to help with grantwriting --- and I'm wondering how to find out who they're getting grants from currently, to better understand how they see their mission and what funding options they're already pursuing. I've had some success digging up one of their major donors though googling, and I know they have an endowment, but I'm not sure how to find out about the rest. I've looked up their filings with the state charity regulator, but they don't seem to list the names of the granting organization, and neither does their annual report.

Does this site exist?

visual mechanic — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:02:53 -0800

Is there a website that allows you to post your reason/story why you need cheap / discounted airfare and then allows other people to donate frequent flyer miles to you? Kind of a democratic way of setting up needs with excess miles? Seems like a good idea - and something I kind of need right now - but I can't find anything like it.

Free use music

white_devil — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:37:39 -0800

I’m trying to find some creative commons or free use music for my GF to use on the video she did for Facebook as a fund raising tool for her Susan G Komen 3 day walks in October. She originally wanted Lady Antebellum’s “I was Here” but couldn’t because of license issues. I’m trying to find something in that same vein. Any suggestions of online resources or magic Google-fu would be appreciated. I read this previous question but had little luck and I have tried using the CC search engine but with crappy results.

Charity Gifts

Raybun — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 05:12:32 -0800

How do I give to a charity without a professional fund raiser taking a big bite out of my donation?

Operation Smile Approved?

jsonic — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 11:44:26 -0800

Operation Smile: I saw the commercial, and want to donate. It appears to be quite legitimate. Can anybody vouch for it?

I have two friends; their parents are (separately) dying. How to help? Neither are in U.S./U.K./CAN.

taz — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 05:04:37 -0800

I would like to help my friends, if I can; two of them are individually dealing with incredibly stressful and sad health-related situations related to their parents. Friend one: I know her very well (via internet). Her father is dying, and it's end-stage, but it may take months and months. It's a terrible situation, because he's at home (as per his wish), and when he can speak, only says he wants to die. They have medical care, there's not a problem of money, but in terms of emotional pain and stress for her and her mother, it's dire. Their extended family live on another continent, and my friend's closest friends have all moved far away recently, so it's really just her and her mom dealing with this, essentially in isolation in terms of emotional support (and her mom is an expat, and I understand how this can be even more isolating and limiting). How can I help her? Are there any books that were valuable to you if you were any sort of similar situation? Is there an online forum that is high-quality, smart, helpful, warm, for people in this position? I doubt that there are support groups where she is, or much of that sort of help at all. (If you want to know what country, email or memail me, but I'm pretty sure it's not promising.)

My friend is a very smart, strong woman, career-successful in a highly sexist culture, so has an amazing amount of daily stress with her job, and must remain always calm, cool, always in control... which makes me worry about her even more, since now she has to also practice the same stoicism at home, day in and day out, and night after night. I know she can barely sleep, and there's no possibility of getting away from it. She can take time from the job, but she can't go away, and that would just leave her at home 24/7 with that special suffering.

Any advice about how to help very gratefully accepted.

Friend 2: I don't know so well, an internet acquaintance from a BB, and he might well be scamming, but I really don't think so. (2.5 years at that site* and always generous and giving as a poster; never talking about his personal/private stuff at all; never talking about money or any personal trouble at all. An on-topic friendly, helpful guy.)

His mother needs a transplant; he has most of the money, but lacks about $5,000 U.S. He appealed to the BB we both frequent, but of course the discussion was shut down. I told him to check out Modest Needs, after checking that they had "outside of U.S." and also "urgent health care" categories. But he told me that they do not extend their services to his country (India). Is there anything similar that he might look into? It just kills me that $5,000 might save his mom's life, though, yes, I realize that this is repeated a million times all over the world.

Don't worry about me, I don't have money to give away, but if there is any other sort of organization that vetts requests and makes it easy to donate (paypal), or any other options to check out, I'd like to tell him about it.

*: This BB is not metafilter or metachat; the person is not a metaverse person

What charities have APIs or allow users to write programs that donate to them

racecar — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:18:28 -0800

Is there any non-profit or charity that allows you to programatically donate? E.g. I run a website and when users do certain things, I'd like to say "proceeds from such actions go to a good cause." Right now, I'm doing it by hand. I've seen Kiva come out with an API, but it's mainly for showing off their transactions, no money changes hands. I'm sure charities take PayPal?

Processing payments quickly

RobotVoodooPower — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 06:58:22 -0800

What are point-of-sale solutions for a charity auction? I'm helping a local charity collect payments for this year's fundraiser. They do a silent auction, and after it closes everyone rushes up to the front to pay and collect their item. There usually are about 150 transactions to clear.

In the past they have used multiple laptops with cellular modem cards (the venue has no Wifi) to collect credit card payments via Paypal. Can anyone recommend a better solution? I was thinking iPhones with point-of-sale apps might work, but have no experience with these apps or their respective backends.

Help us rebuild our office Email/management setup.

damiano99 — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:38:55 -0800

Small Office/Outlook Filter: I'm part of a small, family-run non-profit organization and we're attempting to drag ourselves, screaming, into the 21st century. Right now the main email is AOL and has been for years. (I know, I know.) We want to transition to a setup that allows us to have our own emails, yet share calendars and tasks. With our setup, what advice can you give on our setup? (more inside) Our office is split. 3 of us are in one city and the 4 is in another. We would like to maintain an address book, calendar and task/to-do setup that can be shared by all of us, while still keeping personal things private. Because of securty, it looks like to forgo Google Apps and go with a hosted Exchange server. We all have decent experience with Outlook and everyone already has 2007 on their machines. The problem with all this is that, 2 of the us (the "bosses") currently share an email on AOL which they monitor together. It can be confusing because our main office email is there and then they also get their personal emails on it, which makes it difficult to separate for each person.

What is the best way to handle that? Should we create one address for the office that is the catchall that we can all access and give them their own personal address? What other options are there and what pitfalls should we be wary of?

Will my Nintendo Wii fit into the donation envelope?

pecanpies — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:06:04 -0800

What shall I do with a new but unwanted Nintendo Wii? Without going into too much unnecessary back story, suffice it to say I now have a brand new Nintendo Wii that I have no intention of using, or even opening. I have no one in my immediate circle of friends and family that I can give it to, for various reasons (some wouldn't use it, others are too busy, some I don't know well enough to give a $300 gift, etc.), so I think I'd like to give it away. But how?

I think a charity or orphanage might appreciate it, but I'm not sure - I realize it's going to be an outdated console soon, and even if they had a Wii, they might not have the funds to purchase additional games. I'd definitely like to give it to someone deserving, but don't think I'm really in a position to be judging who's "deserving" or not. Any ideas regarding a group or organization that could actually make good use of a Wii? Bonus points if they're anywhere in Kentucky (I'm in Louisville).

(Also, I highly doubt this will be an issue, but this is not a pathetic attempt to sell the Wii, and I will not respond to any offers of money, kittens, bacon, etc., no matter how tempting.)

Mentor Me To Improve The Lives of Others, Hivemind!

Lipstick Thespian — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:34:50 -0800

Help For A Newbie Charity Campaign Coordinator? I may be asked to administer a local basic services campaign here in town next month, and need the help of the hive mind.

I need to hear from community organizers, project coordinators, non-profit directors, etc. about how to minimize mistakes and streamline an already-successful project.

What advice can you give me about marketing, planning, volunteer organization, and strategy to make the most of a campaign?

What problems would you like to help someone avoid if given a chance?

I want to hit the ground running with this and build on its progress.

Feel free to memail me for further details, questions, etc.

And thank you!

Where can I donate a car to be used for auto repair training?

EatenByAGrue — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:55:04 -0800

I'm looking for a charity that will take a non-operational car, use it to train people in auto repair by fixing it, then sell it or give it to someone that needs a car. This is in the SF bay area. I realize that the tax law no longer treats car donations favorably, and I'm not really interested in how much of a deduction I get. Nor does it matter to me what the charity is, as long as it's for what I think is a good cause.

I'm mainly looking for two things:

(1) that the proceeds from the car's sale (or the car itself, if not sold) go as much as possible towards the charitable cause, as opposed to a middleman; and

(2) that the charity provides disadvantaged individuals with an opportunity to learn a marketable skill by teaching them for free or at a reduced cost how to fix cars, and specifically the car being donated.

I seemed to remember a radio ad from a few years back when car donations were all the rage describing a charity operating according to just this scenario, but I don't remember it and all my web searches have only turned up organizations outside of California. Thanks for the help.

Help me put my money where my Favorites are!

haltingproblemsolved — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:43:01 -0800

My taxes should pay for health care for all Americans, but they don't. I can donate $1,000 right now; what organization will use that money most effectively to provide care for uninsured/underinsured people in the United States? This thread made me check my finances and realize I can afford to help. Ideally, I'd like to find something with a broader scope than Remote Area Medical, but RAM seems to do a tremendous amount of good per dollar even with the limited services they can provide. The Children's Health Fund covers more territory and scores high on Charity Navigator, but its size, mission creep beyond providing care, and sources of corporate support make me skeptical. Most of the other charities I've found are local free clinics in places that aren't near me. What other organizations should I consider?