…to do your shopping on Amazon.com and still get your stuff by Christmas; but, heck, most of you people are probably already on Prime anyway and as such are not particularly under the gun yet.
So, here: my charity suggestions.
- Toys for Tots. They’ll always take cash donations.
- American Red Cross. Disaster relief; enough said.
- And… I wanted to do a clean water charity here, but I’m still trying to figure out which one is the best one. Sorry about that.
Feel free to offer suggestions.
Clean water? All I could think of was the disaster the Chinese communists made of that country’s water supply. I doubt that dead pigs and birds gives the water a pleasant taste
as an alternative, or to supplement the Red Cross, the Salvation Army is very good at providing efficient aid.
Heifer International is also a good choice IMHO.
Local animal shelters can always use donations, whether $ or goodies for the critters. 🙂
Hope for Paws (out of Los Angeles, California – run by Audrey and Eldad Hagar) does an incredible job rescuing abandoned/homeless animals off the street, from trash dumps, vacant lots, etc. Google them and you’ll see some great heartwarming stories, the latest being the one about rescuing “Miley” a homeless dog, living on a trash dump. I first learned about them after seeing the story of their rescue of Fiona, a blind dog.
I was wanting to donate to them and this put me over the edge so I did. There are so many good causes. It is hard to give to all. I just know that the vet bills can be really high for this kind of care and rescued dogs can make the best pets because they are so grateful.
Salvation Army is a favorite of mine too. I usually hit up the bell ringers every time I can rather than a single contribution. Want the bell ringers to feel like they aren’t wasting their time.
The rescue stories from Hope for Paws are amazing, and the fact that they do so much to save the animals really touches me.
Good point about the Salvation Army. Hadn’t thought about helping the bell ringer to not feel like they’re wasting their time, but I usually hit all the kettles too. It’s also easy to wish them Merry Christmas!
Wounded Warrior Project
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Let’s not forget them, even if you can only spare them a prayer for peace.
I’ll also second the recommendation for Heifer International. There are tons of worthwhile organizations out there — give to *someone*, even if it seems like an easy choice.
Blood: Water Mission has been a favorite mine for lent. Their projects can be found here: http://www.bloodwatermission.com/projects/
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A $4 latte for 40 days is $160. $1 gives one person water for a year so $160 = water for 160 Africans.
I’m a fan of FilterPure. http://www.filterpurefilters.org/
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They aren’t precisely a “pure water” outfit, although they’ve been doing water filtering in Haiti and Dominican Republic for quite a while, and appear to have found a partner to take their idea to Africa.
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They’re not a charity, per se, although they do take donations – they are a business venture. They start factories, create jobs, and sell their (elegantly simple) product .. because what someone pays for they value.
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One of the smarter clean-water outfits I’ve seen, and the members of the board I’ve met are definitely not in it for some emotional “feel good” fix.. they are interested in helping people get up the first rung.
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Mew
I like http://www.watermissions.org/ personally. For one thing, they are local (for me). Another, they are always there for everyone in need with clean water when they cannot get it themselves (think: Haiti, Katrina, Indonesia Tsunami, Japan Tsunami, etc.). Good People there that deserve my money for all they do for desperate people everywhere.