Giving Tuesday
8In the days after Thanksgiving, there are Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and next Giving Tuesday. It's a little less commercial in nature.
Do any meh-tizens have plans for tomorrow?
- 14 comments, 35 replies
- Comment
In the days after Thanksgiving, there are Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and next Giving Tuesday. It's a little less commercial in nature.
Do any meh-tizens have plans for tomorrow?
I think I have met my obligation with the money I spent rescuing a dog this weekend. But I'll spend some time answering surveys for charities on Surveymonkey and share the link at work for that grain of rice site.
Here's a suggestion:
http://13deals.com/store/item.php?id=35765
Donate a 50x60 Fleece Blanket to Local Shelter - We will donate to local shelter and outreach programs in our local area on your behalf. Thanks in advance for considering! $3
@moondrake I've done a lot of business with this site and their parent company, Jammin' Butter. I always add a few bucks to my purchase to "buy" blankets, hats, gloves. even toothbrushes, and dog treats, for thier various charities.
@Teripie I like shopping with companies that do charitable work. I also usually add a couple of charity purchases to my Jammin' Butter carts.
@moondrake And I'n always a sucker for the mystery item. I spend a couple more bucks and get interesting crap to regift. Though I did keep the little radio/flashlight thingy. It's been very useful.
@Teripie I've done that a couple of times and then been all "WTF?" when I find this odd thing in the box. I am a packrat and I have so much crap around my house that I resist that sort of thing most of the time. My favorite thing they sell are the wallet pop-up light bulbs. They are so useful for traveling. Hotel rooms with their blackout curtains and heart of darkness bathrooms. These are bright enough to find the toilet paper without being so bright they break my half-sleep.
@moondrake I have a couple of these. In my last order it was a Xmas tree that popped up and lit. Very festive!
@moondrake Done!
Most of my financial support goes to the Salvation Army and the Boys & Girls Clubs. But that's by payroll deduction, so I thought something additional would be in order, considering the season. There are so many that it's hard to narrow down to what I think would be the best choice.
What do y'all do? Do any of you have charities or non-profits of choice?
When I was poor, I had to rely on local animal charities for help. So that's where most of my charitable dollars go. But I work in social services and I know which non-profits in my community are hurting, which ones use their resources most effectively, the nature of the clients being served and their needs, so I make my other charitable contributions based on these specific criteria. IME, all the national charities are pretty well-funded. Which is not to say that they don't do good work and use your money well. But there's a push-pull with national charities and it mostly goes like this: the national organization spreads the money around based on deficits among its sub-entities. So your contribution will be spent as promised in your community, but it will likely result in that amount not coming to your community from national. You are helping other people, but likely not those in your community. With smaller, local organizations, all the money donated stays in your community. It's kind of a crap shoot as to whether these are good organizations or terrible ones. But if your United Way, Community Foundation, Junior League, City government or other local funding source supports them, you can reasonably rely that they have done their homework and they are a decent organization. So a big question is, how important is it to you for your money to increase services in your community, versus increasing services on a national level? For some people its about the cause, like donating to cancer research or Make a Wish. But a lot of people are community driven in their contributions, yet not cognizant of the dynamic when donating to national organizations. Sorry to be so longwinded.
@moondrake Good things to consider. I would also add that it might be worth a brief run over a company's financials (all 501(C)3 nonprofits' financial reports are public) and you can see how they're spending their money. If overhead is taking up a disproportionate amount of their budget, for example, it might be worth finding someone who will put the donation to better use.
@Kleineleh - I think Charity Navigator has the info you seek: http://www.charitynavigator.org/
@KDemo Thanks for that, it looks like a really helpful resource.
@KDemo That's useful for big charities, but I tried five local charities and none were listed. Non-profits are required to post their IRS form 990's online, and that's a useful document to review if you are serious. If you are a little less committed, any organization applying for funds with your local United Way will have to disclose the administrative percentage from their 990 with their application. Just don't get carried away in that, organizations with very low admin ratios may not be well managed or have appropriate checks and balances on financials. I generally view 10-20% admin as acceptable. http://www.npccny.org/Form_990/990.htm
I give to various ones over the year depending on the cause and how I found out about it.
The one I give to every year is the EFF, because they do amazing work and are sorely needed in today's world.
Some others I've given to are Project Night Night (familiar to the Gishwhes team), a local library, my alma maters (tax deductible), the Software Freedom Law Center (who handle donations for numerous open-source projects), and a number of the worthy causes friends, family, and people I know online pass along.
I'll be (hopefully) rescuing a dog from my local animal control tomorrow. I visited him twice today and think he'll be a good fit in our family. He passed the biggest hurdle today when he met my Boxer. So, between his fee, vetting and neuter, my non-existent extra funds will be tied up in the best way possible.
@PurplePawprints OOoh! Best to you and the critters!
@PurplePawprints Pictures! Pictures! I need to get a photo of the Pekinese we got from the local Animal Rescue on Sunday for my mom's birthday.
@PurplePawprints we have 4 dogs that we got from a rescue that rescued them from shelters where they were on the e list. We quite literally spend more in vain one healthcare and food than we do on ourselves. We will be giving the rescue $100.
tried to edit comment. No worky on iPad
@moondrake Here's a pic and a video. :-) He's settling in nicely, and my boxer is being her jealous self, but she's handling better than I expected. :-)
@PurplePawprints Double kudos for rescuing an adult dog.
@moondrake Haha Thanks! I've had a puppy or two over the years and want nothing to do with that headache. My last three adoptions were all adults. This guy is going to need some major obedience training, but his only negative behaviors (so far) is not coming when you want him to. He is sweet and mostly calm, doesn't chase the cat and puts up with Roxy's occasional grumps and jealousy growls.
@PurplePawprints I've mostly done senior rescues. Prior to Simba, my last rescues were a 9 year old Dane with cancer, an 11 year old Irish Wolfhound whose owner had cancer and was going to hospice, and a 9 year old Borzoi. Giant breeds frequently die by 9 and rarely live past 12 so these dogs were all quite old and hard to place. But very well behaved. My cat is also a senior rescue, although she came from the streets so no one knows how old she is but probably pushing fifteen. When Topaz died and I applied for a new adoption I was offered Simba because at 5mos old he was slated for euthanasia at AC due to extreme dog aggression (frenzy on lead) and they needed a home with a proactive owner and no other dogs or kids. He took two years of daily hard work but I was able to bring him under control (although never extinguish the behavior).
Which ones are real? I almost gave to one that called but... They realy put me off when they wanted to know in advance what I would send. Kinda made me feel like an ungrateful child asking how much did my gift cost?
I like to help but I want it to go to the cause not the phone bank.
@silverqueen @Moondrake had some good ideas about going through United Way, Junior League, etc. to find reputable charities. The FTC has some tips on how to sort out the scams at http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/feature-0011-charity-scams I personally won't give money to anyone unless I know for sure who they are and what they are going to do with it.
@silverqueen - I just added this info above, but Charity Navigator is great for sorting out organizations that acutally put donations to use for their cause, and not for overhead. http://www.charitynavigator.org/
@KDemo Thanks!
@silverqueen Just seriously, keep in mind that some "overhead" (aka admin) is needed to run the operation well. I have seen many organizations fail because they were running too lean and didn't hire qualified staff, couldn't keep the staff they had because they were grossly underpaid, were working out of spaces that were not suitable to the task, scrimping on important things like liability insurance, couldn't properly service grant obligations and lost funding, and one destabilizing event and they were done. Worse are the ones with insufficient administrative depth to maintain proper financial checks and balances and ended up with someone running off with their money. selecting for exetremely low admin in making charitable choices can be a destructive behavior as it pushes these charitable oragnizations into poor business practices to assume the correct posture for fund raising.
One of my favorite non-profits is Covenant House. They're an international network of shelters and support services for homeless, runaway, & "at-risk" youth. I am partial to Covenant House Missouri in STL because I know them and what great work they do, but there are locations all across the U.S. and into Latin America. I am just disappointed we don't have any place as good as them here in Dallas
@moondrake @Kleineleh @PurplePawprints @silverqueen @dashcloud Thanks all you guys.
I've been thinking about this, and I think my alma mater is a good choice. There are also some online services I think are useful necessities, specifically in my case, the Mozilla Foundation and the Wikimedia Foundation.
The Wounded Warrior Project is another charity I think helps a lot of people that have put it all on the line, then get lost in the quicksand of the VA. Maybe it's just because I'm a vet that I'm partial to this, because I don't particularly like our war policies, but we still owe a lot to the people who serve.
In any case, even though I tend to be a sarcastic old curmudgeon, I really think that all the meh folks could make a little difference in each of our little corners of the world.
BTW, I don't know how the banners show up on these forum topics, but that one is great. Thanks to whoever is responsible.
@2many2no Not dismissing any other suggestions, but I use wikipedia all the time. I've been on a History-Lite reading kick lately. Any known issues with what they do with donations? Don't car that much if they send executives to Carribean junkets, I'm worried about them killing puppies, or hiring Kanye West for their Christmas party. I cannot support such horrors.
@2many2no My dog and I are a pet therapy team and we currently visit a day resource center for seriously mentally ill adults. When I retire in January I plan to request a rotation at the Wounded Warrior project. We have a big military hospital and a big miltary base, so I understand our Wounded Warrior project is a sizable one.
@G1 They have high marks on Charity Navigator.
I tend to donate year round, and do random things throughout December. I dig the idea of advertising a "giving" day as the antithesis of the "buying" days, though.
@Thumperchick Yeah, it is pretty impressive. I think the idea originated with 3 wise men, but evidently they didn't have a very good publicist. Where was the Internet when they needed it? It could've gone viral!
@2many2no "Three weird gifts you can give a baby messiah."
@SSteve Gold's pretty good. Any place, any time.
When I was a child I was misdiagnosed with cancer three times. My mother decided to take me to St. Jude. While I was there, I learned that they pay for any part of treatment that you cannot pay for. They put us up in a hotel, paid for our food, and if we couldn't have afforded it, would have foot the bill for the medical treatment. While I was there, they did tests that nobody else thought to do, and found out that I did not have cancer.
This place was a miracle, and they do incredible work. It was actually years later that I learned that St. Jude was the patron saint of lost causes. These folks have already been given up on, and they are given a second chance there.
Just my two cents. They are who I donate to whenever I have the chance.
@Morgue Your two cents are priceless.
@Morgue Glad they were wrong about you having cancer all three times. That must have been scary for everyone. I am on my third cancer…this last one has no cure. St. Jude's is a good resource for kids as is Ronald McDonald's house (free housing for families with kids with cancer and other serious illnesses). I wish they had something like this for adults. The Hope House provides free housing for cancer patients and many cities have one. Unfortunately Houston does not (MD Anderson Cancer Center is where I go and is in Houston) so I often sleep in the ghetto van (my 1990 minivan) in Walmart's parking lot, couches in hospital lounges that are hidden away, their parking garage if I have a really early apt… Bringing Hope Houses to more cities would be really helpful - donating to them would help. Also, presuming you can verify it is true, sites like gofundme, wecaring, etc. often list families/individuals who are really struggling and could use help if you are more into helping individuals than an organization. I know my gofundme account is the only thing that has kept me in health insurance (no medicaid expansion in this state and at the moment I don't make enough for a subsidy). When I read some of the stories on there, presuming they are true, it makes me feel lucky in comparison.
@Morgue I love St Jude, they have done wonderful things for so many people! FYI - if you like The Melting Pot they are doing their annual Donate $10 get $20 deal.
@Thumperchick Ooh, I may have to. All of my forays into fondue turn into fondon't. cough I'm so sorry.
@Morgue we call them fondates. So uh, forgiven.
Another fitty bucks to Wikimedia foundation. Maybe something for St. Jude's. Also an educational donation to my old school. I gotta get the paperwork for matching donations from my corp.
Some years I "buy" chickens, ducks, or geese for the adults on my gift list. www.heifer.org is a great place for a different type of gift.
@Teripie Oh, yeah, I love these guys!
@Teripie: Great comment. My son and I usually do this in each other's name in lieu of gifts.
I was just about to post about Heifer International but @Teripie beat me to it. Two other national organizations I like are charity: water and Donors Choose. I've helped a few projects at my old grammar and junior high schools.