What is your favorite charity?

[nbock]

This was inspired by the "Let the Roaring 2020's begin" blog. Two questions for all you wealthy philanthropists out there:

1. What is your favorite charitable organization and why?

2. Can anyone provide feedback on my new favorite charity: EdenProjects.org ? 

They claim to be able to plant 1 tree for $0.10. Seems to check out based on my tertiary research, but they are not listed on GiveWell.org, possibly because they are too small or too new?

The basic concept is that they focus on areas that are extremely poor, very biodiverse, and have ecosystems in immediate danger. To me this seems like a win/win/win, because they fight extreme poverty by hiring the world's poorest to do the work, fight climate change by planting trees (in a much more cost effective way than other charities), and fight habit/species destruction by focusing on extremely sensitive areas.

Would love to hear others' opinions. My personal goal is to plant 1MM trees this decade, but I want to be sure my money is used effectively.

[Eilonwy]

I generally like to give to local organizations, since they usually are doing the most with the least. Though for the past few years, most of our donations have been going to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the SPLC and so forth.

This one sounds like a worthy goal, certainly. I'm actually looking for a organization focused on climate change to give to, so I'd welcome recs too.

[Moonwaves]

One recommendation I'd have with regarding to planting trees is to really look into what is actually needed in a particular area. And at what kind of trees are being planted and how. Native trees and natural regeneration of woodlands, for example, as opposed to fields and fields of pine. The trees need to be left in place to grow and not just cut down again in ten or twenty years.

Another example: I've read recently that there are problems in the UK because of plastic covers used to protect young plantings from grazing but then never being properly removed.

Environment: Plastic tree guards a plague on new woodland (You don't need a subscription to read this but you do need to register and log-in. I have a gmail address I set up just for this kind of annoying thing.)

The Woodland Trust has published an emergency tree plan

Wetlands can also play a very important role as carbon sinks. Here's one of the first articles (from 2016) that came up in a quick google search of a study on how to stop invasive birch destroying wetlands. Can we effectively stop the expansion of trees on wetlands? Results of a birch removal experiment

I was looking at the givewell site and it does seem to focus more on charities helping to eradicate poverty. If you think the Eden Project fits that bill, there is a section on their website where you can apply for consideration. You could ask the Eden Project if they are interested in doing that.

[nbock]

One recommendation I'd have with regarding to planting trees is to really look into what is actually needed in a particular area. And at what kind of trees are being planted and how. Native trees and natural regeneration of woodlands, for example, as opposed to fields and fields of pine. The trees need to be left in place to grow and not just cut down again in ten or twenty years.

Another example: I've read recently that there are problems in the UK because of plastic covers used to protect young plantings from grazing but then never being properly removed.

Environment: Plastic tree guards a plague on new woodland (You don't need a subscription to read this but you do need to register and log-in. I have a gmail address I set up just for this kind of annoying thing.)

The Woodland Trust has published an emergency tree plan

Wetlands can also play a very important role as carbon sinks. Here's one of the first articles (from 2016) that came up in a quick google search of a study on how to stop invasive birch destroying wetlands. Can we effectively stop the expansion of trees on wetlands? Results of a birch removal experiment

I was looking at the givewell site and it does seem to focus more on charities helping to eradicate poverty. If you think the Eden Project fits that bill, there is a section on their website where you can apply for consideration. You could ask the Eden Project if they are interested in doing that.

Many a good point there. Eden has addressed most of the issues in terms of native species, long-term viability, etc.

I took your advice and suggested that they try for a listing on Give Well; awaiting a reply.

[Sailor Sam]

Personally, I donate to:

- St. Jude, because kid’s shouldn’t get cancer, and their families shouldn’t be beggered if they do.

- The Fistula society, because women shouldn’t be shunned and live in pain for want of a simple surgery

- Smith College scholarship fund, because they gave me wicked big amounts of money, and I’m (still!) paying it back

- local SPCA, because I like animals.

That covers local, national, and international.

[BanjoAndy]

Guitars In The Classroom - A great organization that puts musical instruments in the hands of kids, then trains the teachers to play and bring music into their classroom. 

As to the why - I recently took up busking (playing banjo in the subway) during my commute.  Thinking about how my son had come home from school recently and said there was never any music in the classroom.  So as people started to put money into my case I decided I was going to find a good charity to donate it all to.  I love music - it has brought me peace during the toughest times and helped me find lifelong friends.  I also think that (as research shows) playing music as a kid helped me do better in math and science (two other passions of mine).     

One of my highlights of 2019 was when I received an email from a teacher with pictures of all her students smiling and playing ukuleles, which I had helped purchase. 

[Eilonwy]

Banjo Andy -- that's awesome!

[Dr Kidstache]

You might want to check out the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at UPenn https://www.impact.upenn.edu/
They produce guides for donating for maximal impact overall and in specific interest areas you might have like education, environment, health, etc. Lots of charities mean well but they don't actually accomplish meaningful change.

[Eilonwy]

That sounds like a great idea but you sure have to jump through a lot of hoops to get to the information.

[Car Jack]

I'll state my favorite and worst.

Salvation Army.  I give to the local branch who has classes and help for local homeless and families.  Their CEO makes $13,000 a year.

Worst: United Way.  They are a marketing company, pure and simple.  They extort money from corporations and make employees minions with managers shaming employees into giving.  What good do they do?  Well, first, they pay their CEO who made $1.7M in 2017....yes, close to Two Million Dollars.  Then they pay their employed minions and champagne brunches and private jet trips.  THEN, they take what's left and dole it out to the real charities who have whatever overhead they have.  And those charities sometimes do good things for people who need help.

[mtn]

Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Imagine your kid is sick, and needs to be in the hospital for an extended period of time (or even just 2 nights). Imagine that said hospital is 45 minutes away, or 450 miles away. What are you, mom/dad going to do? You want to stay with them, but you can sleep in a chair at the hospital, or get a hotel room at $60-$200 a night... That is either uncomfortable, or expensive.

Enter Ronald McDonald House. Free room for mom and dad and siblings. Meals are provided. So are snacks. Living rooms in the place. Laundry facilities, including detergent. Volunteers cooking for you. Truly a godsend. When I first got into the room with my parents (my daughter was in the hospital across the street, my wife stayed with her), I just started weeping out of gratitude. They ask that you contribute $10 a night. We did. Afterwards we donated a lot more, because we were able, but they don't require any donation and there is no judgement whatsoever.

They'll forever be my favorite charity - and as an added bonus, it got my Dietitian wife to approve of McDonalds.

[tyrannostache]

Nationally and globally, I give to SPLC, ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Nature Conservancy and Doctors Without Borders.

Local:
I donate to my local land trust, which works incredibly hard to make sure that this town continues to be surrounded by incredible wild land for recreation and wildlife habitat. They just created a new city park that opened bike access to miles of trails.

I also donate to our local domestic violence shelter, because these places are severely underfunded and overutilized, and domestic violence has been on the rise in my community.



@Eilonwy, what aspects of climate change action are you interested in addressing with your giving? Research? Clean energy? Political advocacy? Wildlife habitat/environmental conservation or mitigation? Agriculture?  I can point you toward some organizations that are working on these different areas. Climate change is such a big topic, there isn't one organization that's tackling every aspect. All of the big-name environmental orgs (Sierra Club, Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Environmental Defense Fund) are addressing it in one way or another, and there are a lot of newer, smaller groups that are working to make change in different areas--and smaller donations can go farther in a smaller organization.

[solon]

Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Imagine your kid is sick, and needs to be in the hospital for an extended period of time (or even just 2 nights). Imagine that said hospital is 45 minutes away, or 450 miles away. What are you, mom/dad going to do? You want to stay with them, but you can sleep in a chair at the hospital, or get a hotel room at $60-$200 a night... That is either uncomfortable, or expensive.

Enter Ronald McDonald House. Free room for mom and dad and siblings. Meals are provided. So are snacks. Living rooms in the place. Laundry facilities, including detergent. Volunteers cooking for you. Truly a godsend. When I first got into the room with my parents (my daughter was in the hospital across the street, my wife stayed with her), I just started weeping out of gratitude. They ask that you contribute $10 a night. We did. Afterwards we donated a lot more, because we were able, but they don't require any donation and there is no judgement whatsoever.

They'll forever be my favorite charity - and as an added bonus, it got my Dietitian wife to approve of McDonalds.

I've never been into poetry.

Except once.

The poem that was written about Ronald McDonald House makes me cry every single time.

This is the House
Where families meet
To continue their lives
To eat and sleep
To find their strengths
And dry their tears
To look forward with hope
To the better years
This is the House
That becomes their Home
This is the House
That love built

[Eilonwy]

@tyrannostache -- I don't have a particular area of interest, just would like to give money where it would help the most.

[imadandylion]

The Nature Conservancy, they basically do what my idealistic self always wanted to do, which is buy up land and conserve it.

[msbutterbean]

Two organizations that are new to our household's giving this year:

https://brigidalliance.org/ -- "The Brigid Alliance arranges and funds confidential, personalized travel support to those seeking abortion care in increasingly hostile environments. "

https://togetherrising.org/ -- "Together Rising transforms collective heartbreak into effective action." That description is a little nebulous, but this is where I go when there's something in the news that moves me. I've been impressed with their nimble infrastructure and creativity.

[Archipelago]

That sounds like a great idea but you sure have to jump through a lot of hoops to get to the information.

@tyrannostache -- I don't have a particular area of interest, just would like to give money where it would help the most.

This link is a nice synopsis of cost benefit analyses done by people much smarter than you and I.
https://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/sites/default/files/post2015brochure_m.pdf

I give to the Against Malaria Foundation and Doctors Without Borders. Extremely high ROI for every dollar donated. Both of these charities are managed exceptionally well.

https://www.againstmalaria.com/Default.aspx
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

[NorCal]

I did a few volunteer events with the National Foundation For Teaching Entrepreneurship.

It’s a good program that teaches (mostly) lower income students how to write a business plan and start a business. A few of the students I judged had even started real businesses and were making real money as high schoolers.

[Cassie]

The Gospel mission which is a local homeless shelter. My other is Salvation Army. Some people don’t like them because they are Christian based but they helped so many of our clients by giving them a place to live, fed them and put them in a work program to gain skills as well as drug/alcohol counseling.

[314159]

I favor organizations which do the most good¹ per dollar, such the Against Malaria Foundation or other charities endorsed by Givewell.org. See https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities for a list of recommended charities, or https://www.givewell.org/giving101 for the ideas behind effective altruism.

¹ the "most good" is, of course, subjective, but I find my values align with Givewell's fairly well here.

[Fi(re) on the Farm]

I give to the local homelessness support organization, my local land trust, a local community farm committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system and to the food pantry down the road. They're all small organization that run on a shoestring budget so my money actually makes a difference.

I'm with Car Jack - I hate the United Way, they don't actually do anything but collect money from donors, take a cut off the top and give the remainder to charity. It's just as easy to give directly.

[mspym]

Local- the domestic violence shelter network in my state
National - a tree-planting initiative in my country - they focus on planting natives that are indigenous to the planting area. International - Doctors Without Borders.

[Fishindude]

I keep my charitable giving pretty local.   We donated most of our stimulus check just recently.
Sent a check to a friend who is going through cancer treatments and is buried in medical bills, sent some to our local animal shelter and sent some to our local food pantry.

Most of the big nationwide charities have big overhead and layers of management, so much of your donation never makes it to the intended party.