What's Your Favorite Charity?

I help support a children's home in India that my dad co-founded. He has been doing mission work over there for about 16 years now. About 90-95% of the money goes directly into the home and other mission projects and people that donate money can specifically earmark how they want it spent. My son and I are going over to India next week, both to help out and for my son to visit his dad and family, who still live over there. I will occasionally donate money to US charities, but it isn't a regular thing.

American Diabetes Foundation and ASPCA.....my daughter had an onset of diabetes when she was a child and I love animals to pieces...plain and simple.

The Vietnam Vets and Veterans Association. I support and appreciate our vets - it is something that is near and dear to my heart. So I do what I can to help the active duty, retired and former service members.

I volunteer my time, go visit vets in the hospital, take them stuff to help them feel better (I hope), donate my items and give money.

I also love the Patriot Guard. I love that they are there to protect the families of our fallen soldiers.

I give to charities that show where the money goes - if only 10% goes to the charity and all the rest is eaten up in overhead, etc. they don't get my money. I will not donate to United Way for this very reason.

What's your favorite charity?

Heifer International - I love that they help people by giving them the tools to be self-sufficient. I donate annually at Christmas time and get gift cards that I can give out to people telling them about what was given in their name.

http://www.heifer.org/ourwork/our-work

My two favorite charities are the Ronald McDonald House and the American Heart Association. My middle son was born with a complex congenital heart defect. He spent the first 30 days of life at a Children's Hospital and we spent it at the Ronald McDonald House. We do 2 AHA walks a year. My son (now 3) is a 'spokesperson' for the AHA in the greater Kansas City Area. He has been in print advertisements and is the guest of honor at the 2012 Heart and Stroke Ball.

We give items of need to the Ronald McDonald House (toilet paper, cleaning supplies, bottled water, etc). I know our donations impact the house we stayed at. It is a 45 minute drive, so volunteering at the house is not feasible.

We raise money for the AHA. Research saved my son's life and there is still a need.

Find a charity that speaks to you--one that has impacted your life.

I support a local homeless shelter and various children's and animal charities.
People might be surprised to see how their favorite charities stack up at:
www.charitynavigator.org

Children's Hospital Seattle. They saved my son's life.

Red Cross

DoctorsWithoutBorders (I used to schlep meds and supplies to this and other NGOs out back of beyond. Places where you have to backpack in supplies because it's in a warzone or nofly zone. You get choppered into a "safe area" load up, and bring supplies to NGOs, villages, etc. There are volunteer jobs that do this, but this was when I was private military, so it was my job to see shipments through.)

Northwest Harvest

I have a number of favorites, but I guess my top non-profit organization is Canine Companions for Independence. CCI raises and trains dogs to help people with mobility problems or hearing problems.

We just applied to raise our tenth pup, so I guess we like it a lot!

I'm kind of in the middle about impulsiveness. I was raised around some people who refused to give to charity or to people in need, so I guess I reacted in the other direction. However, I do like to check up on organizations, and the Internet makes it easy to do. On the other hand, when cute kids show up at the front door raising money for their schools, I'm impulsive - especially when they can really tell me what the money is for.

Other non-profits I like a lot are Goodwill, ARC, Partners International (a Christian organization that partners with small aid projects all over the world), and our city's pro-life pregnancy center.

I love the Salvation Army. What I like about them is that they have various programs that help people eventually help themselves, e,g, they teach people how to repair goods that are brought in for donation and they also have a drug rehab program that I think is really good (I am biased, I have known people who used it)
Additionally, we also give to the Hannah Boy's Center. They do a lot with the kids and have a good track record.

Lion's Club International

The Smile Train. They provide desperately needed surgeries for cleft lip, cleft palate, and several other facial deformities to children who lives are dramatically affected by such conditions.

If I could possibly volunteer, I would, but for now money will have to do. My mom is so precious, she asks for donations to be made to Smile Train in lieu of birthday and Christmas gifts from my dad, my siblings and I.

We plan to give in some instances and we also give impulsively whenever we see a dire need in our community.

It is very interesting to read where people donate their money and their time! Each person's heart is moved for different needs and it makes my heart happy just to read all the responses you have gotten.

Great question, BTW!

Besides buying cookies and candy from various scouts, the longest charity I've helped is WHAS Crusade for Children. For years, the tv donated the air-time for the crusade run in June (those many places collect throughout the year) when the fire trucks roll up and drop their donations - and many folks donated their time as well, so that only 4% of any of the donations went to any type of administrative type expenses = so 96% of monies actually were used the way folks intend! If you go to the local NICU, you'll see much of the equipment was furnished this way -- and they do so much else! It was just a local Kyana thing - but has expanded thanks to the internet and all even to overseas as military folks "took" it with them!

Then it would be the Salvation Army - they show up for "work" without all the fanfare of the Red Cross.

SPCA - love animals. I volunteer my time - they are so helpless, forgiving and just want to give someone their unconditional love :)

I do little but constant and I hope my little grain helps.
I donate clothe and baby/kids stuff and furniture to the Salvation Army.
I donate to the Teleton in Mexico once a year.
I donate my kids book to public schools and libraries
Every day I use my FEED bag and my UNICEF grocery bag ( I like to think people would see it and maybe support how they can)
and 5 years ago I stared buying my Christmas presents from places like St. Jude, Unicef and FEED
On my old daughter's school, ones every month parents would send can(s) of food for Feed America, the new school doesn't have it I would like to suggest that in our meetings.
My favorite charities are the ones that are for the good of kids,

I sponsor children through both Compassion and World Vision. When there is a disaster like the tsunami, we give to World Vision. They are both well run. I occasionally give to Food for the Poor.

We give donations of goods to the Salvation Army or to our church garage giveaway where people can get the items they need free of charge. I like the Salvation Army because of the good programs the donations sponsor.

Over the years, I have given to Planned Parenthood, Human Rights Campaign, ASPCA, PBS, Environmental Defense Fund, and NPR.

I strongly believe in Habitat for Humanity.

I know when a family works hundreds of hours toward their sweat equity they develop home ownership of the home, they learn their home from the inside out, they work their butts off to build a house that becomes a home.

I believe that as they make house payments they feel a sense of rightness, that they are paying back what help they got plus some, etc....

A Habitat branch starts out with nothing and can rely on the community for donations of land, structures, monetary donations for supplies, etc...to start up. Once they get a family they start building or rehabbing an existing home. They use the supplies/donations they have a get going on that first home. Once that home is built, usually at little or no cost, the family starts making a monthly payment and that money is funneled in to building another home for another family. It rolls along, the more that are helped the more that can be helped.

A potential home owner family applies to the program. A person from the Nurture committee calls them back and does a preliminary application on the phone to see if they even qualify. They have to have a stable income where about 30% can be put towards home ownership. That includes house payment, insurance, repair fund, utilities, etc...all aspects of owning a home. Once the Nurture Committee decides the family fits the criteria of a potential family they present the family application to the Board for approval. They discuss any concerns the committee may have such as an abundance of over due bills, lack of strong credit, etc...they may make some plans at that time to add some credit counseling classes that can be offered to the family head so they can learn new skills, they would count those class hours towards their sweat equity too if they choose to take them.

The Board and Nurture Committee work alongside the whole family to help them to be able to own their own home. The family is expected to make a regular house payment. At the time of the finishing of the house the Board meets and tally's the bill for the house costs. Every nail, screw, board, piece of sheet rock, etc...is counted . The total cost of the house is sometimes not the sale price although in a lot of HfH branches it is. They make no profit off the sale of the houses. In some areas of the country the sale of a house, if it is way below the cost of the other houses can cause the value of the other homes to go down and that is not the goal of Habitat. They want the value of the whole neighborhood to go up due to having nicer homes.

In each branch the Board makes the determination of the sale price of the home. The family starts making payments to the HfH branch and that money is used to build another home. It becomes larger and better able to help more and more families.

I support Habitat by volunteering to sort and handle plea letter mailings, I donate refreshments at the work sites, I take snacks and drinks to the workers, I go and work for families I like or feel like they need some more family to help build their sweat equity hours, each person that signs in as their family can contribute part of their hours for the family of their choice. I also can donate materials and sewing skills to help make curtains for their windows, I can take workshop classes on how to paint and not make a mess, how to hang sheet rock sideways, I can help by teaching some basic nutrition or cooking classes to the parents so they can make healthier meals for their families, I can do all kinds of things that don't require me to bang a hammer although if that's what they need they have taught me how to do that with out making holes in the walls too....lol.

We give to a lot of organizations, and now we're considering really consolidating and making a bigger impact with fewer charities. Our "issues" are hunger and kids, and we like to give to local organizations so we give to the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Meal on Wheels, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Chicago, Children's Memorial, Make-a-Wish of Illinois and Ronald McDonald House (locally).

We really use Charity Navigator so that we see how efficient the organizations are with their fundraising expenses and to see that most of the contributions are used for services and not administrative costs or overhead. We also like charities that do outcomes research to show the impact for the dollars they receive.

I give my time to my son's school. Now that my oldest is 4, we can do the Family Pack at the Food Depository. Once they're all old enough, my plan is for the family to serve holiday dinners at a soup kitchen. I just got an email from Daily Candy about a volunteer group aimed at SAHMs so that you can bring the little ones along: morethanmilk.org

I love CBN and St Judes Childrens Hospital charities.

I tend to give "local". I love to volunteer for, and give money and supplies to, our local Boys and Girls Club. Ours is a wonderful source of education, leadership training and homework help, as well as offering many sports and computer opportunities.

And I never pass up the chance to give to children selling anything! (Only recently have I stopped taking the cookies or candy. Thank goodness they'll take the donation anyway.)