I favor the locals. The local Salvation Army, the soup kitchen, the Meals on Wheels, the Food Bank, the local animal shelter. Only when there is some doaster, and then I donate to Doctors without Borders or the Red Cross.

Keep your money close to home, and take care of your neighbors.

Guide Dogs for the Blind. Salvation Army and the Red Cross.
We have a well run local food bank also.

Check out Charity Navigator which will tell you how much each spends on administrative costs.

I belong to a small non-denominational Christian church that only has 36 members. Our project is to maintain a long term rehab type homeless shelter where up to 30 men can stay while they get situated into new job and set some money aside to be able to afford an apartment and get back into mainstream society again.

There is absolutely no paid staff in our organization. 100% of all the monies we take in is used to maintain the facility and provide meals for the occupants. Even our chapel is a small room in the homeless shelter so all the members of the church are personally aqauinted with the individuals we are assisting.

When the men first come in we help them get whatever necessary medical attention they need. Once they are on their feet well enough that they can work they are required to get a job and we require them to pay 20% of their earnings as a rent and put another 20% in a savings account at a local bank in their name so they will have seed money to go forth when they are ready. Typically they stay with us about 7 months before they are ready to go out into society again.

Being a Christian activity we do feel that everyone should have some form of spiritual guidance in their lives weekly so they are invited, but not obligated to attend our church services. If they happen to pursue another faith we not only encourage them to continue to do so, we even provide them transportation to and from their services.

I always donate to Easter Seals (they helped us when it was urgently needed many years ago.) I also do March of Dimes and Camp Courage, the latter because I have known some young people who have been there. I suppose my favorite is the Salvation Army.

I agree with keeping money local, I donate to the Salvation Army, Red Cross (note-you need to direct the money to the local chapter expenses if you want it to stay local), our Women's Help Center and Hospice. There are a lot of small local concerns we support as well, especially the animal shelters.

www.chemoangels.net All volunteer organization. Donations are used to keep the computers running and to cover shipping costs to send items to patients. No salaries are paid from donations.

I usually donate to our local food pantry. We are a small community and it is surprising how many families they help. Also when a family member or friend does one of the cancer walks I always sponsor them.

Of the money that goes to several congregations of my denomination that I've had connection with, half is earmarked for service and development abroad ... as I'm aware of the hell in which much of the world lives, at present: a good portion of it of man's devising.

I support Medecins Sans Frontieres, as well, plus the Salvation Army, also the Red Cross, both of which work locally, regionally, nationally and internationally, sometimes designating part of my contribution for service abroad.

Also the Canadian Food Grains Bank.

I support a number of medical, research, social and educational agencies, as well.

Using a substantial part of my income for that, plus support of some political entities, has enabled me to pay no federal income tax recently, and only a small amount to my province.

Much of the payment to the province is for health coverage, which I was pleased and thankful not to have needed through scores of years of my life until recently. But I haven't resented making contributions to help diagnose and treat others who, having in many cases not only required heavy medical services, but may have had to suffer loss of income at the same time. I think that we could call that double jeopardy.

ole joyfuelled ... which may help build and preserve one's health

Good suggestions, all.

Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) and the local City Of Hope hospital are ones we support.

Purple Heart and local, mostly church-run, charities where my donation stays local.

NEVER to a "charity" that telemarkets or does mass mailings. I refuse to give my money to people who then spend it on harassment.

I too worried about overhead costs, etc... but I never understood the concept of people giving to "charity" wanting it to go to the people in their area. That concept almost seems a little selfish and uncharitible to me. If it indirectly helps to benefit me or my nieghborhood, I'm not sure that's really true charity. I mean of course if you are doing a food drive or gathering clothing for families of a fire in your area, the stuff will probably stay local and that's great, but when giving money, and when push comes to shove, I prefer to get the most bang for my buck and deep down I think the children in the US have more government programs to help take care of them (that we are already paying for through taxes).

What makes Johnnie in the next subdivision over more important than Abai in Ethopia? I mean yeah your $5 may buy Johnnie a new pair of shoes, but it may help save Abai's life.

I don't know about administrative costs, but I've always kind of had a place in my heart for Operation Smile. I don't care that the child is not in my area and most probably thousands of miles away; I think it's a great cause and the money spent is probably well worth it.

I use the Salvation Army......for natural disasters like the earthquake in Japan or locally, to help for those in need in our community.
I also donate to our county's food bank.
I believe charity begins at home.

Carla35, if more people like you contributed at home to local groups perhaps the recipients would not need government programs in the first place.

"Operation Smile" does not meet standards for charitable accountability. And they certainly advertise a lot.

Here is a link that might be useful: Operation Smile analysis

Recently, my home town newspaper ran a series of articles about local charities. I was amazed at all the orginizations, churches, businesses that are involved in helping those in need. What I learned in the articles has greatly changed my thinking about one particular charity.

The annual United Way campaign supports many known, local groups, but I didn't agree with my donation supporting 'Catholic Charites' when I donated to support the others. I am not Catholic, nor do I agree with some of the Catholic teachings/beliefs.

What I learned was, that in fact, it is Catholic Charities that keeps most of the other worthwile do good groups going. At least in this community a need is presented most often first to CC and they in turn investigate that need and find the most appropriate solution from among all the other charities. The possible resources to fill a need are many and change daily in accord to the type and how many are in that same need. I found it mind boggeling the challenges that local charities of all types face meeting the immediate and some times long term needs of those in my home town. So Catholic Charities now gets a big thumbs up from me.

I will continue to support the charities close to home that support those less fortunate that me and my family. That includes the local humane society and the VA Hospital.

I give a lot to the local school organizations. I quit buying the stuff they sell and instead just give the parents or kids a check to their organization with the kids name in the memo. I know that kids are sometimes required to raise so much money and to me that is their proof. I know that the kid doesn't get the 'prizes' but the parents appreciate, even when the kid doesn't.

Local ones like the SA and Community aid. I donate clothing all the time. I also like animal charities liked the Humane Society and Best Friends.

Like many here, I'm not a big fan of donating my hard-earned money to pay salaries, lightbills, buy pastries for the office staff (yes, I've seen that one in action), etc when it could be doing so much more good.

The easiest way to avoid those problems? Is to give directly to those in need. EVERYONE knows someone or some family who has hit hard times, who has lost their job, or suffered a medical crises that's wiping them out, or has other needs. I just give directly to them--if you're worried about money being misused, you can pay a utility bill for them, or get them a grocery store gift certificate (well, that works around here--grocery stores don't sell alcoholic beverages). Obviously, you get no tax write-off for directly helping those in need, but 100% of the money is being used by those who need it. And that's the main point, isn't it? If we'd all take care of those we know who need a little help, there'd be a lot less need for the government, and the professional charities to do it.

I like the American Cancer Society and the March of Dimes. I used to give to the United Way when I was working and then specify which of their charities was to receive it.

I give to charities in my area that serve basic needs of people -- locally because I can observe directly that they squeeze their nickels. (I also read their annual reports.)
I don't give to national charities or any abroad. I don't give more to animal rescue while *people* are in need of food and shelter.

My favored charities provide food, shelter and hospice care to those I know they have vetted for need. Three charities each get a lump of my money once a year. I live in a affluent suburb; United Way gets a lesser amount to help here. (My charities serve people in Chicago and in our county.)

I contribute regularly to the local Food Bank and Gospel Rescue Mission's shelter for abused women and children. I also make smaller donations to a small residential home for men who are elderly or disabled. Many of them are veterans who have no family and no other place to spend their final days.

I donate to the local "food pantry". it was started by a local church and then later subsidised by the Village. The Village Hall supplies space in a couple of building its owns. Most of the labor is volunteers. Many of these volunteers are retirees since the food-pantry is opens to the clients before noon and closes by 5 pm. There is one paid adminstrator, a village employee with a few low paid staff members. Overhead is low. Several local churches support the activity.

Although it is named, Food Pantry, it has a stock of donated clothing as well.

I don't think it is selfish to help out those here at home. There is only so much time and resources and sometimes we are so busy helping others that we fail to help those who are hurting around us. Also, I sometimes feel that we hurt other countries when we go in to 'help'. We ruin their way of life and then they become dependent on us.

We donate to Salvation Army and then locally. I prefer to give to a person or situation in need rather than big groups with a lot of overhead. We've been impressed by a couple of teachers who have gone out of their way to help students learn. We find out from them what would help them to do their job better and then we donate things like math and science equipment. Also, there is enough tragedy locally where someone loses a job or a house burns down. I prefer to make a significant donation to something like that rather donate to organizations where I feel my donation isn't put to the best possible use.

I favor a couple of locals -- Salvation Army and
the Humane Society.

But, St. Jude's is my favored. I know...it is large
with lots of Administrative costs, but that is necessary
with the expenses of having the very latest in Cancer
treatment for kids. I figure my donations can go to
the admin. costs, while the huge donors can pay for
the new equipment, meds, etc. I have seen first hand
the wonders they perform. To me, it is worth every
penny they can get. Just my opinion, of course.

Thanks for letting me post.

St. Judes!!

Maybe around this time, when credit card bills related to Christmas are appearing, is not the best time to be carrying on a substantial discussion of charities, but some of you may find some useful info here that you may have missed on first appearance, upwards of a month ago.

Still time for an additional New Year's resolution or two ... and some other-related ones can be useful in our community, whether local or covering a wider area!

ole joyful

Lazypup, your work is outstanding.

Who were the founders of your program and when?
Are any of them vets?

I too am careful which organizations I try to help. Some are local, others are specific. Since the Minot flood occurred I along with other are amazed who helped out and are still helping out. In fact this chapter of the Red Cross lost everything, building, manager lost his home and all the stuff but any money that came in went directly to flood victims. In this particular disaster, they seemed to be everywhere and were amazed to see the cooperation between charities, social groups and the community and the state. And it is still going on. I cannot believe how much has been accomplished.

Salvation Army always and St.Judes hospital and just recently The Wounded Warriors project.

My favorites are our local Ronald McDonald House and Food Bank.