Thank you for all the feedback in the Giving Tuesday 2017 thread. Next year, I will start this discussion sooner in November so that I can have a list ready on time. When possible, I used Charity Navigator to vet charities, and favored those that showed good financial performance, meaning they put a high percentage of funds to charitable use. Here’s the list:
- Morris Animal Foundation, animal welfare ($20)
- Best Friends Animal Society, animal welfare ($20)
- UNIDOS Disaster Relief and Recovery Program, Puerto Rico ($20)
- Electronic Frontier Foundation, civil rights ($20)
- American Civil Liberties Union, civil rights ($20)
Begging dog, by Ron Henry Photography, licensed under CC BY 2.0
Thank you for including Best Friends Animal Society. I have supported them for many years. The fact that they’re a no-kill shelter for ALL kinds of animals is what makes them so special. Also the fact that they’ve sent members of their organization to other cities to help make their rescues no-kill shelters is another reason why they need all the support they can get. They may not be as big as some other organizations and don’t get as much publicity but that doesn’t in any way limit them to all the good they do for ALL animals. If our members haven’t visited their website before, please do so now. Donate directly to them and receive a quarterly magazine covering many of the different species they care for and wonderful adoption stories plus much more information.
Just wanted to second this wonderful organization located in Kanab, Utah. They are always there to help save animals after natural disasters around the country. They also took in the Michael Vick pit bull dogs and rehabilitated most all of them when everyone else wanted those dogs put down.
LOVE them so much. Nice to get their emails, too. And you can go there for a vacation and look after animals. I would love to do that some time.
I took everyone’s recommendation and donated.
Yay, great choices Not Mike!!! So good to see lots of enthusiastic givers on this site.
Yes, great choices! I like the idea of us all calling out our fave charities.
I prefer Kent County Emergency Services Team, but that’s just me locally *hehe*
I had lots of fun helping choose recipients with you guys yesterday. Learned about great new orgs – thank you!
You rock, NTMTOM!
Love the idea of doing this thread earlier next November. People had some great ideas, with worthy organizations that we might not know about.
Gave some to Wikimedia Foundation too, since I use several of their websites frequently.
Update: All donations made. Thank you to all who participated and we’ll do this again next year.
Thank you Mike, you’re the BEST!
You rock, Mike. Though I didn’t contribute to the other thread; I was going to second ACLU and animals.
I usually give something to Heifer Project on my mom’s behalf for Christmas.
For the past few years I’ve donated $100 worth of books to Barnes & Noble’s holiday book drive – I make it a bit of a game to try to get as close to $100 without going over, and I always have a theme (I’ve donated books every year since 1997 but the $100 thing is more recent). I checked tonight to see where the store by me is sending their books, and they are going to Hurricane Relief to rebuild libraries in Texas and Puerto Rico. Not sure what my theme is though. In the last few years I’ve done evolution, art, and music. I was thinking of something more general; maybe young readers or classics, or Newbery winners… I’m open to suggestions. I get 40% off until December 10th so I gotta decide by then…
Young readers, Allein!
There’s a great young activist who started collecting books about black girls and donating them to public schools. Representation of POC in kids lit needs support. Her recs are here: https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/02/26/467969663/wheres-the-color-in-kids-lit-ask-the-girl-with-1-000-books-and-counting
That’s awesome! Young Readers it is! I will look for those. Thanks!
Just did a little math…most young readers paperbacks are in the $5.99-$7.99 range; so at $6.99 with 40% off plus tax I can get about 22 books for $100 (actually 22.33, but I don’t think they’ll let me buy 1/3 of a book 😛 ).
Great choices. I’m going to add EFF to my list–thanks for the reminder that they do great work. I’m upping my donation to the ACLU this year – sometimes I feel they’re the only thing standing between us and utter disaster.
My animal charities are local – I give to a guy named Paul the Cat Guy, who does TNR in feral colonies around NYC, and catches the kittens and gets them adopted. He’s kind of amazing–has been reducing the size of some colonies on his own. I came across him on Facebook.And I support the Wild Bird Fund, a local bird rescue and rehab.
Adding another note, we all care a lot about animals and their care, [Bat Sanctuary!!} but I worry about the humans, particularly the elderly.
So I typically donate to the local Meals on Wheels. I’ve had family volunteer for years and I’d do it but hey, I gotta work. The present administration though, is supposedly looking to cut their funding and needless to say, they’re very vulnerable to rising gas prices.
Always feel for these isolated individuals without family or who don’t want to “worry” their families. Instead these volunteers are too often their only contact with the world and are the ones who notice if they’re ill, cold or worse.
I’ll have to donate late but I’m going to donate to a local animal rescue. It’s so encouraging to see so many of us giving so enthusiastically. You all make me smile on a daily basis.