The Where to Donate Quandry

I'm trying to decide where to send my donation toward the relief efforts. Everywhere I look, I'm seeing us steered toward the American Red Cross. Art said I should check the Charity Navigator. They do give you lots of helpful charity advice. I do believe I will wait a tiny bit first to see what the charities' plan of action is before I decide where to send my money. Right now they're evaluating what and where aid should be directed toward. Some charities are directed toward short term aid and other toward long term assistance. You should also make sure your donation is going specifically toward the Japan Earthquake Relief.

I just saw this interesting information which is great.

March 14, 2011 02:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time
MasterCard Worldwide Provides Support for Japanese Relief Efforts
PURCHASE, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--MasterCard Worldwide announced that it will provide support for the Japanese relief efforts following the tragic earthquake and tsunami. Interchange fees on Japanese relief donations that are made using U.S. issued MasterCard cards to the following organizations will be waived: American Red Cross, AmeriCares, Doctors Without Borders, International Rescue Committee, Save the Children and World Vision.

In Canada, interchange fees on Japanese relief donations that are made using Canadian issued MasterCard cards to the following organizations will be waived: Canada Helps, Canadian Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, International Rescue Committee, Save the Children and World Vision.


I'm leaning toward the IRC (International Rescue Committee), Doctors Without Borders or perhaps the American Red Cross. My cousin in Hawaii told me that several Hawaiian banks have established funds that will go toward the Red Cross efforts in Japan. We'll keep monitoring the situation and make our decision in the next couple of days.

(Art just showed me a news article warning people to be cautious of scams that have suddenly popped up. The article said to be wary of online solicitations, watch for phony names, examine web addresses, don't pay in cash, check with the charity, resist pushy demands and do your homework.)

By the way, isn't it incredible how there hasn't been any cases of looting going on? Everybody seems willing to wait patiently for hours in lines that stretch to eternity for food and water, sharing whatever they have. I wish every disaster could be met with the same determination and desire to survive together.

POSTSCRIPT: My friend, Nancy just sent me an e-mail suggesting Direct Relief International. It does indeed sound like another great place to send donations.

Charity Freebees?

I'm cleaning up a lot of the unopened mail that Art has been accumulating now that I'm organizing his office/desk for him. He's busy right now with a tiling project for our home renovation and the pile of papers he's set aside has become a bit daunting for him.
In his mountain of mail were quite a number of charity requests. One was from the Easter Seals. Ummmm... this is what was in the envelope: stationary pad, stickers, Easter Seal stamp stickers, letters, some kind of certificate... Puhleeease. This is even more reason why I wouldn't donate to them. There's obviously too much operating and advertising costs. I'm going to assume just from this envelope that a whole lot of my contribution may not be going where you'd want it to. You know that a LOT of people will just throw this away. The waste. I'm keeping the stickers and stamps for KC to play with next month. I don't think I've ever received mail from anybody with an Easter Seal sticker stamp on it. Why do they do this?

The Season for Giving

People often ask us to contribute to their favorite charity. Unfortunately we have a system that we stick to and just hope everybody understands.

We collect all requests that we get for contributions throughout the year. We then sort through them all. We could get over six requests from the same organization. That aggravates us because it's such a waste of paper and materials.

We line them up alphabetically and then make our choices from what we read or have heard. Then Art researches the organizations to find out how they operate and what percentage of the contributions actually go toward the cause and not toward advertising or "administration."



Then we decide how much we want to allocate and send off our contribution. This works best for us. Otherwise we'd be contributing a far higher percentage to breast cancer research (which is also important to us) because there are so many people who ask that we contribute to their runs or walks. Art did the Y-Me Breast Cancer Run on Mother's Day every year in Chicago with Tif. We like to handle our contributions carefully so that our money is used appropriately and that we've given enough to all the charities and organizations that we want to support.

Still, I feel badly when people ask that we contribute to their cause and I have to say we'll take it under consideration.

And yet... we still contribute to many of the Salvation Army kettles that we see everywhere. Oh well! It's the season for giving.