Best places to send the money?

[jducoeur]

Having gotten the results from the Carolingian Archers to the Rescue thingy, I now owe a pledge check for Katrina relief. I'm curious about whether anyone's heard any particular positives or negatives on the charities involved. The default is to send it to the Red Cross, but I've sometimes found that there are more appropriate outlets for some humanitarian crises. (Yes, I'm going to take a quick trawl through Charity Navigator; I'm mostly just curious about whether there's any interesting word of mouth...)

Comments

[tpau]

habitat for humanity will be rebuilding, they are nifty

[43duckies.livejournal.com]

I know that Red Cross is mainly involved in immediate disaster relief, as in food and shelter. They're not involved in rebuilding. Habitat is certainly a good idea. I recall seeing a list of other charities that are also involved in rebuilding, I'll poke around and see if I can find it.

You could also see if fema.gov has a list of charities. Many news organizations have a page of Katrina charities on their websites also.

[meranthi.livejournal.com]

America's Second Harvest is good. They use most of the money for the actual charity.

Here's a list of Katrina charities from the BBB Charity page

Habitat uses about 1/4 for fundraising, though they are generally a nifty charity since they build houses.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

Second vote for Second harvest.

[new-man.livejournal.com]

A third vote for Second Harvest.

If you're looking for a less traditional, more direct approach, give it to me. On Nov,4, I and a couple of friends (also friends of yours), are driving down south. The plan is to stop in Atlanta, rent a trailer, load the trailer with purchased or donated goods, and then drive down into NoLA (or parts thereabout) and distribute them. I have a couple of contacts down there; I'll have more by November.

There's no tax write off, but at least you know the money is going directly to where it's needed -- because I'm driving it there.

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

I've been sending all the funds I've raised to the American Veterinary Medical Foundation's disaster relief team, but I also know that's a pretty special-interest sort of group....

[chriso.livejournal.com]

Even better, donate to a local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity in the Gulf Coast area - I believe more of the money given to local affiliates goes to rebuilding. You can find several in the area by going to http://www.habitat.org/local/

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

When I give donations in my sisters' names to charity in lieu of birthday presents, I usually give to the local affiliate -- more $$ in the local pot.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Many people in Arlington have been donating to Reader to Reader, which gets books to kids.

Remember, wet and moldy books are not good to read. :-)

Maybe your favorite librarian would get a kick out of that. I, myself, would donate to Habitat or Red Cross. (In fact, I did donate to Red Cross.)

[mikekn]

Our shire donated to Direct Relief International. They provide medical resources and have a great record of efficient use of donations.

[elizabear.livejournal.com]

http://www.citizenactionteam.org
http://www.ottosangels.com

Both are organizations that have adopted shelters and organizations in the areas getting less attention, and the money is going 100% to pay for the gas and tolls to ship donations down by donated trucks.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

A bundle of ideas from Network for Good