Best charitable organizations for the homeless in Boston?

January 28, 2005 7:46 AM

My girlfriend and I are opening a savings account where we can put away some money to give to a charity for the homeless. We live in Boston--what organizations should we be looking at around here?
posted by josh to Society & Culture (10 answers total)

Pine Street Inn and Rosie's Place.
posted by ericb at 7:51 AM on January 28, 2005

Pine Street Inn is a great organization that my wife and I have donated to in the past. You can find their mission statement here.

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posted by gregchttm at 7:52 AM on January 28, 2005

Third for Pine Street. They're awesome.
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:54 AM on January 28, 2005

If you do not live in the City of Boston itself, check with your local town hall to find out if there is a food pantry or other relief organization in your own community that would benefit.

(Not to detract from the good work of Pine Street Inn, Rosie's Place, the Greater Boston Food Bank, Project Bread, or any other worthwhile charity.)
posted by briank at 8:09 AM on January 28, 2005

I like Habitat for Humanity; they have a Boston chapter.
posted by Doohickie at 9:03 AM on January 28, 2005

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but instead of opening a savings account, getting basically no interest, and bolstering the bank's coffers, why not simply donate modestly every week or month? Many organizations have 'planned giving' programs.
posted by stonerose at 10:25 AM on January 28, 2005

I suggest you check Guidestar's database of nonprofits before deciding on any one charity. I find it helpful to look at their 990 forms to see how much of the money they accept as charitable donation goes to administration or overhead.

I think this is a beautiful idea, and I congratulate you and your GF for being such great citizens.
posted by terrapin at 10:39 AM on January 28, 2005

Response by poster: stonerose, we were planning on setting up an automated debit from our checking accounts to the savings account at the credit union I use, so that it becomes sort of a no-brainer; and that way we figured we could add to the account if we felt like it pretty easily. (The credit union where I am lets you open a savings account with no minimum--so you can create accounts for all sorts of things, like saving for vacations or what have you.) For whatever reason, the idea of savings up and then giving annually or quarterly is just more appealing; I'm not sure that I could say why, except that I think both of us hate the drop-in-the-bucket feeling, even if we know intellectually that it adds up over time.

But, that said, I'll definitely look into planned giving and see what that's like! Maybe that is a better solution.

And Guidestar looks great--I will definitley check that out.
posted by josh at 10:52 AM on January 28, 2005

My girlfriend and I have been giving gifts in people's names for holidays, etc. to Rosie's place for some time now. We really like the work they do and the mission of the organization in providing services for women and families.
posted by spaghetti at 4:17 PM on January 28, 2005

I worked in the housing industry in Boston, and if you're interested in helping a specific population, here are my favorite programs:
North Suffolk Mental Health Center runs a fantastic transitional housing program for people with mental illness. All of my clients who went from this program into more independent living situations (via Section 8) continued to receive great supportive services from an excellent staff of caseworkers. This was my favorite organization to work with (along with the State Dept. of Mental Health.)
The Committee to End Elder Homelessness has done some wonderful projects in partnership with developers, etc. to create affordable housing for seniors. I toured their Ruggles Street units and Upham's Corner (see projects here) and they did a wonderful job. They even got rich Bostonians to adopt each of the rooms at Upham's Corner to decorate with furniture, etc. They were beautiful and their tenants were so happy with them.
And Victory Transitional Housing runs an excellent transitional housing program for people with AIDS.
I love the Pine Street Inn, but they are so well known in Boston that they get way more donations than some of these other programs. So, if you are interested in donating to a smaller organization - these are my suggestions.
posted by sophie at 3:21 PM on January 29, 2005