Ask HN: Could you recommend a charity? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Could you recommend a charity?

19 pointsTravelTechGuy28 comments

I'm looking to donate a small sum of money. I'm looking for a charity that meets the following criteria:

1. Actually helps people in need.

2. Uses the money you donate towards helping people, not salaries and marketing.

3. Allows donating using PayPal/Google Checkout/Other digital payment option (I just don't trust IT volunteers with keeping my CC safe).

4. And finally, has to be non-naggy (i.e., the fact that I gave once does not mean you can spam my inbox with repeat requests).

Would appreciate your suggestions (and opinions of my criteria).

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http://www.givewell.org/ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GiveWell) is in the business of evaluating other charities.

I think on (4) you can only win by using one-off email addresses.

Not if you use PayPal and they get your email from them.

https://watsi.org

Meets all of your criteria, and 100% of your donation goes directly to providing care for those in need. They are also radically transparent; a google doc link is on their site showing where every dollar is spent.

I second Watsi.

_ 100% _ is given to the people in need

Chase Adam's Startup School talk on Watsi is well worth watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlT3UhC7NwQ

I've given to Watsi before and gotten follow-up emails, violating criteria 4.

I would recommend having a separate "spam" email address for donations and other such sign-ups.

To stay meta, 'GiveWell' evaluates charities [1] and produces a small list of recommended charities every year [2].

[1] http://www.givewell.org/how-we-work [2] http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities

You should check out effective altruism

https://www.effectivealtruism.org/

Focus on donating to high impact charities that use the money effectively

About your first point: Evaluating how effective a charity is can be incredibly tricky, especially when they operate in a culture that's foreign to you. To be able to judge well, you would need to see them in action as well as have a thorough understanding of the situation on the ground. (An approach that worked brilliantly in one place can be the exact wrong thing to do in another situation, for example.)

In my experience, tiny one-project charities often do some of the best work, because they are often closer to the community and the day-to-day life of the people they serve than the big, global charities. Having said that, only the big charities have the necessary resources to tackle the big problems... I guess that's a tension we just have to live with.

BTW, I'm glad to hear you thinking about donating, we need a lot more people who do!

I personally donate to the Against Malaria Foundation. There is plenty of evidence that it's an effective charity. It's the top recommended charity from GiveWell. They mentions that you're probably giving someone's son/daughter/brother/sister an extra year of life for every $70-$100.(hell of a deal if you ask me)

http://www.givewell.org/charities/against-malaria-foundation

Gloucestershire Young Carers.

A carer is someone who provides care for someone, but who is not paid to do so. The person getting care is normally disabled, and often a relative. A young carer is someone under the age of 18.

These children face significant amounts of ignorance, not just from student colleagues but also from some teachers.

And they face tricky problems. When a child reaches 17 - 18, and is thinking about going to university they feel guilt about leaving their cared for person, and also about putting younger siblings into the caring role.

I recommend the Gloucestershire branch because they're closest to me, but there are others around the UK.

Here's their website: http://www.glosyoungcarers.org.uk/

Here's their twitter feed: https://twitter.com/Glosyoungcarers

I'm not sure they meet your criteria for option 3, but I'm sure they can work something out.

(I have no connection to this charity. I don't work for them, and I don't get any service from them.)

> Uses the money you donate towards helping people, not salaries and marketing.

How exactly do you intend to spend money helping people if not paying salaries? Any time you spend money you're paying for either a product or service, and either way that money goes for paying people's salaries. (Unless you just want to give money to people directly as basic income or whatever.)

There are charities that get their base costs covered by yet other investors and can claim 100% of donations go to the cause. https://www.charitywater.org/100percent/ for example has fancy New York offices they can use for free.

Don't they pay people to dig wells and/or buy folks the tools to do so?

Thanks mtmail! I spent the last 20 minutes reading their material, disclosures, and the Charity Navigator review (https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summar...) - and decided to donate to them. You made my day!

This is a good read about the topic: http://overheadmyth.com/

"In 2013, GuideStar, BBB Wise Giving Alliance, and Charity Navigator wrote an open letter to the donors of America in a campaign to end the Overhead Myth—the false conception that financial ratios are the sole indicator of nonprofit performance. For our second letter, released in October 2014, we invite the nonprofits of America to do their part to focus donors’ attention on what really matters: your organization’s efforts to make the world a better place. We ask nonprofits and the social sector at large to join us as we move toward an Overhead Solution."

When I was younger I decided that there were too many charities out there, and that when I get stopped in the street, or saw an advert my money would get diluted if I were to give to them.

On that basis I picked three charities, and when it is the right time of the year I give money to them, and only them.

One of the charities I chose is the RNLI, the only charity that saves lives at sea - http://rnli.org/

I picked them because they quite literally save lives, at their own risk. And while sometimes that might be because people go to sea with no knowledge, much like people go climbing mountains in their shorts and get caught out by snow, I think that they do a job that SHOULD be done.

Anyway you might prefer to pick something local, something that helps/impacts you, or you might be open to anything, I can't guess, but the lifeboat association is one choice I thought was good 20 years ago, and I still think that.

Your local Makerspace would love to get a donation I'm sure...

Disclaimer: I run a Makerspace, but I don't make any money from it at all.

https://tikayhaiti.org/

http://blogs.barrons.com/penta/2014/08/29/how-to-wisely-give...

All the money goes towards care. Right now the founder (an infectious disease doctor who is uncompensated by the charity and frequently pays for charity expenses out of pocket) is in Haiti to help with the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew and help prevent another cholera epidemic from recurring.

https://tikayhaiti.org/hurricane-matthew/

I volunteer for them as well (for some technical things, like the website.)

I am helping to raise money for Feedback Madagascar, http://www.feedbackmadagascar.org/eng/index.php

Endorsed by Sir David Attenborough.

Here is a list of what they do: http://www.feedbackmadagascar.org/eng/whatwedo/

In a nutshell, they are helping the environment through education to replant the local forests. These trees are a key part of the silk production, which they harvest and sell.

The are also improving education and healthcare in one of the poorest countries in the world.

PS They have a trusted party to handle the credit cards.

Having got to know a few people who have made careers out of working for MSF I can unreservedly say they are one of the brightest lights for helping the most vulnerable people on Earth. I would highly recommend looking into them. http://www.msf.org/en/donate

Here's a breakdown of their financial expenditures http://www.msf.org/sites/msf.org/files/msf_finance_summary_2...

Do you know anybody involved in charity work? I personally only give to charities that I have personal connections to. (Although I have plenty of those connections, so there's no shortage to choose from ;-) )

The hospital ship is one of the greatest charitable concepts for me.

http://www.mercyships.org.au/on-the-hospital-ship.html

Imagine every wealthy country supported one of these traveling around the world.

http://www.savebyseva.org

Active right now in India, giving trauma treatment to freed child slaves.

They are collaborating with Kailash Satyarthi (Nobel Peace price winner 2014).

http://shaukatkhanum.org.pk/donating-to-us/

Money will be spent only on patients if you donate in zakat catagory

Doctors without borders and Engineers without borders

Zuck's charity.

kidds kids

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