Hurricane Harvey Donations

[LifeHappens]

Fellow Mustachians, I will be making a donation to help people affected by Hurricane Harvey. We all know the usual places that take donations during natural disasters, but some of those organizations may not be the most efficient at using our little green soldiers. Often, locally based orgs are better at getting our money directly into the field and helping those in need.

This thread is for making recommendations to organizations you know are well positioned to directly help storm victims.

For my contribution, this article from Slate recommends several local orgs including food banks, a diaper bank, and animal shelters. Having no contacts in that area it looks like a good start, but I'm sure there are others.

[Noodle]

Here's an article from the Texas Tribune that lists a few more options. https://www.texastribune.org/2017/08/28/hurricane-harvey-relief-efforts-how-help/ Help is desperately going to be needed--a lot of neighborhoods flooded that are not in established flood plains, and therefore homeowners didn't have flood insurance. And of course, Houston has a lot of residents in poverty who just couldn't afford it.

[SoundFuture]

I'm a local on the NE side of Houston and there's a wonderful local charity called HAAM (Humble Area Assistance Ministry), if you take exception to religious charities I understand. It's been operating here since before I was born, is consistently ranked 'A' and 'A+' in all of the charity review services. It provides a food pantry, shelter, resale store (proceeds go back to it's other charity programs), English language classes, computer literacy courses, life skills courses, financial literacy courses, literacy courses, bill supplementation (for the elderly and those with severe disabilities), resume writing assistance and review services etc.. The guy who runs the place's salary is publicly available and is par with local school teachers.

I don't know exactly what they're doing for the hurricane/tropical storm, but I know they're right in the middle of it. I also know that anything you give to them will be spent here for the the people here.

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=15415
https://www.bbb.org/houston/Charity-Reviews/charity-local/humble-area-assistance-ministries-h-a-a-m-in-humble-tx-61000043/

I don't usually plug for charities, but I have these guys on auto-billing to send them money every month because I believe in what they do and how they do it (a lot of their philosophy is actively working with people to help them get themselves to self-sufficiency, not just perennial "life support").

[LifeHappens]

Thanks for the recommendation, SoundFuture. I saw your update in the check-in thread and I'm glad you're safe.

As things progress from rescue to recovery, there will be volunteer groups coming in to help homeowners clean out and rehabilitate their homes. I've done some of this and I know what hard, hot and dirty work it is. If you come across any of these groups, could you share who they are with us? The volunteers do not get paid, of course, but they need donations to purchase tools & supplies and to feed everyone.

[Khaetra]

Feeding Texas (http://mailchi.mp/ac80c17d9660/harvey-food-banks) has direct links to local food banks in Houston, Corpus Christie and surrounding areas that were hit hard.

Texas Diaper Bank (http://www.texasdiaperbank.org) helps distribute diapers, wipes, etc. for both adults and babies.

Austin Disaster Relief (https://adrn.org/disaster-relief/hurricaneharvey/) accepts monetary donations to help rebuild.

Amazon Smile:  If you buy frequently from Amazon (or have friends/family who do), choose to use the smile.amazon.com link and choose a charity that will receive a donation each time you purchase anything eligible (I have yet to really find anything that isn't!).

Let's not forget that even though donations are pouring in now, when the cameras are gone and folks start to rebuild the needs down there will still be great.  I know people will again be generous when it comes around holiday-time, but these folks will still need help in January, February , etc.  I already made a donation to the Red Cross so they can help immediately but I also plan on donating to some of the places above regularly.

[SoundFuture]

Thanks for the recommendation, SoundFuture. I saw your update in the check-in thread and I'm glad you're safe.

As things progress from rescue to recovery, there will be volunteer groups coming in to help homeowners clean out and rehabilitate their homes. I've done some of this and I know what hard, hot and dirty work it is. If you come across any of these groups, could you share who they are with us? The volunteers do not get paid, of course, but they need donations to purchase tools & supplies and to feed everyone.

I'll keep my eyes peeled. I know a guy at church that runs a home restoration business (based on small fires and home leaks), who if I know as well as I think I do, is likely to have all of his resources deployed regardless of ability to pay.  If I see him soon I'll find out what coordinated recovery effort, if any, he's involved with.   

Khaetra has a great list as well. If you donate physical items try to get some of the least thought of items like feminine hygiene products. Even in "normal" times, those products are fewer and further between than you'd think when people donate.

[SunshineAZ]

Thanks for starting this thread, I was going to look into a local TX charity so that I could donate because I prefer local charities to the huge ones like the Red Cross.

When the Red Cross came to our area due to a large wildfire, we already had some centers set up and running for displaced people who were settled in and waiting to be able to go back to their homes.  They came in like a bull in a china shop and threw out all the food that had been donated by local restaurants, changed all the rules, told people with pets they had to leave, etc.  They did NOT make any friends in our community after that fiasco.  We were fortunate that we had family to stay with, but the people who were there were seriously PO'd. 

[Whiskey]

https://www.aspca.org/news/aspca-prepar ... ue-efforts

They need our help too. I donated yesterday.

There's even an Amazon Wish List that's easy to help fulfill:

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1 ... _go_nav_hz