Ask HN: Where did you donate money in 2018?
The year is reaching its end and many people feel its the best time to donate money. If you donated money, which organization received it in 2018?
They have an Underground Railroad of safe houses to smuggle people out of NK. Then they resettle and provide support. Finally they film documentaries of their life in SK, put them on USB sticks, and smuggle that back into NK to spread discontent and undermine the system.
Usually the way to work around this is to have a large benefactor that agrees to use their funds for overhead/admin/advertising, and then they can say 100% of your donations goes to programs.
A sort of necessary pain for non profits because a "bad" program ratio costs them donations.
Full disclosure, I'm a dues-paying member and active volunteer.
They basically provide Search and Rescue (SAR) "lite" and vehicle recovery on Colorado Forest Service roads and Jeep trails free of charge. They try very hard to not compete with either traditional SAR teams or commercial towing services and instead fill a gap between the two.
Having personally been on 60+ missions over the past two years, they're doing incredibly good work helping people out on their worst day, reducing the burden on traditional SAR teams, and in more than a few cases saving lives. At least 50% of the missions I've been on have been people that simply got in over their head and didn't know what to do. Being able to get them and their vehicle home is a fantastic feeling.
edit: A lot of SAR teams are self-funded or funded via grant money that can disappear, so if you can donate to a local team please do. They desperately need the funding to continue doing the work of saving lives
- Doctors Without Borders
- Direct Relief
Global health problems is where I'm most interested in donating money. I split my money between those two primarily to have a little diversification from idiosyncratic risks to a single operation.
These occupy the vast majority of my charitable giving. I give or have given in the past much smaller amounts to a smattering of other charities: Wikimedia, Give Directly, ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Lambda Legal, Girls Who Code.
Also: I'm an avid crossword solver, and over the last year or two some puzzle constructors, as a way of doing good, have started offering packets of crosswords in exchange for donations to a cause. The original, I believe, was Francis Heaney's Puzzles for Progress http://puzzlesforprogress.francisheaney.com/ for broadly progressive causes, but I have also seen Queer Qrosswords https://queerqrosswords.com/ for LGBTQ charities and Women of Letters https://www.pattivarol.com/women-of-letters/ for feminist charities. If it tips you over the edge to donate, do it and go get some puzzles!
- Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summar...)
- Houston Food Bank (https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summar...)
- American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summar...)
- Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance (https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summar...)
- A small dog rescue in Houston
- A small charity for women who are victims of sex trafficking in Austin
I also supported a number of projects (like Homebrew) via Patreon and Humble Bundle though those were not charitable contributions.
Neither is for any gain but seeing it first hand is such a great experience that you're inclined to do more. I usually advise people to take care of issues locally first. I also support the cause of supporting remote regions and less covered issues when I travel to such places. Don't want to just give money and "be done" with it - there's more to the cause and a nice conversation can also go a long way.
Respectively https://cheetah.org https://oxfam.org https://iapf.org https://hrc.org https://thirteen.org https://www.buffalo.edu
The Jimmy Fund (http://www.jimmyfund.org)
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (https://www.stjude.org)
Feeding America (https://www.feedingamerica.org)
I gave to some political causes as well, but the value of those are far more subjective.
https://www.northwestharvest.org/
They both have a very high rating: https://www.charitynavigator.org
I donated because ALS is a horrible disease that has so few treatment options despite the fact that a lot of research has been done. Having your muscles waste away to nothingness is a fate that nobody should be doomed to.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Salvation Army
A local pet food bank