Ask HN: Where is your favorite place to donate to?
It's the last day of the year, which means it's the last day to get in those tax deductible donations (here in the US at least).
Where do you like to donate?
Where do you like to donate?
I have given money to an 501c3 organization that helps former prisoners reintegrate into society. It gets most its money from the government and has a very short list of donors because it's not a fashionable cause.
Personally though I know anybody who "goes straight" after having been involved in crime and prisons has made a major accomplishment, just like a person who had been addicted to alcohol or heroin and gone straight. So few people succeed. The other day I was thinking of someone who had victimized me and many others 30 years ago and who I know did time. I don't know where he is, if he is still alive, or still in jail. If I heard he had turned his life around I wouldn't just forgive him, I would celebrate him and commend him because I know what an accomplishment that is.
On the other hand I haven't given money to the United Way. At times I've known the leadership of our local United Way and thought they were pretty good people and I knew they were funding good things, but I felt they had enough people giving them money.
I think many of the best opportunities to give are not the tax-deductible 501 c 3's. I think there are structural reasons why many of these organizations can't target problems at the root and can become a philanthropic-industrial complex. For instance the Gates Foundation does a lot of good things but really countries in Africa need to be building capacity in governments accountable to their people if things are really going to get better. NGOs taking over their role doesn't help with that, it just makes the culture of corruption more sustainable.
I've often done charitable things directly.
We've boarded troubled people in our home when they had no place to go. I hesitate to associate this with the term 'polyamory' because no sex was involved, yet it is very much an extension of the family beyond the nuclear and traditional extended family.
I honnestly think the best thing we can do for these countries is restrict immigration. We're taking in their smartest and best. They aren't going to be helping their countries and contributing to it with our current system.
> We've boarded troubled people in our home when they had no place to go. I hesitate to associate this with the term 'polyamory' because no sex was involved, yet it is very much an extension of the family beyond the nuclear and traditional extended family.
polyliking?
In the case of one person my son was in a bit of a developmental crisis because he was an only child and my wife and I could not give him the experience of having to deal with an unreasonable person who didn't behave like an adult, which he really needed to moderate his behavior.
As we planned, she became like a sister to my son, challenged him, and helped him to improve.
So we just didn't give her a place to live, we integrated her into our family, she benefited from our stability, but also added a certain kind of chaos that taught my son to be accepting of the bullshit you get in life. Partially I was motivated by a feeling of responsibility to help people but also believed our family could benefit from a stressful but rewarding experience and it did. The word "love" means many things, and in certainly we loved Emily.
EFF: https://supporters.eff.org/donate/year-end-challenge--S
During the pandemic, we've been leaving large tips at local restaurants when we get food to go (no eating in for us!). So not donations in the traditional sense, but certainly in the spirit.
Anti-Terror Police Project - https://antipoliceterrorproject.org/
Lots of journalism: Hechinger Report, Grist, ProPublica, NPR, etc. They're not perfect, but they're necessary.
(I also pay for subscriptions to individual journalists such as Matt Stoller, Emily Atkin, etc., but those aren't tax-deductible.)
A lot of people I respect just do GiveDirectly, which is about as simple as it gets. Money goes into the pockets of people who ask.
There is also a bit of self interest because as unlikely as it seems there is a possibility that at some point in the future, I may find myself in a situation where I am in need of a warm meal and a kind hand.
A relatively small amount of money for software and/or hardware can have a great impact in education.
Cash for those who lack it, to use in whatever way they see fit