Who do you give to, and why?

[Blind groper]

On the subject of personal culture.

Do you donate money regularly to charity?
What charity do you donate to?
Why do you choose this charity?

Personally, my favourite charity is the Fred Hollows Foundation. I give several times a year to them. The reason is that my donation can do more good, than with other charities. Fred Hollows is a specialised charity that does nothing but cure cataracts in impoverished nations. Cataracts make literally millions of people blind each year, in third world countries. This charity uses cut price methods of fixing them (they own their own lens factory, for example, making lenses for a few cents each, compared to hundreds of dollars, if bought through western sources). Thus, a donation of $25 can restore a blind person's sight. If I give $500 a year to them, there will be 20 people who are now blind who will see again.

[Gallstones]

The NRA
Gun Owners of America

To increase lobbying strength and keep the pressure on any who would try to curtail gun rights in the US.
United we stand and all that.

[Warren Dew]

I give to a wide range of charities, but the biggest donation is usually to MIT, my alma mater. I started doing that back when tuition didn't pay for most of the cost of an MIT education, and I figured I should pay the rest of the cost from the presumed benefit to my salary. Recently I've started diverting that money to other educational charities because I think MIT has not been spending its money as wisely or frugally as in the past.

I also give to a bunch of environmental charities - including some which are not legally "charities" because they are too activist, like Greenpeace - the ACLU foundation, and the Heritage foundation.

[Warren Dew]

The NRA
Gun Owners of America

To increase lobbying strength and keep the pressure on any who would try to curtail gun rights in the US.
United we stand and all that.

I used to joke that I was an NRA member to defend my second amendment rights, and an ACLU member for the other nine amendments.

I don't actually pay for my NRA membership any more, having plunked down four digits for a life membership when the NRA was gearing up for Heller. Best money I ever spent.

Meanwhile, despite their saccharine politically correct rhetoric, the ACLU continues to come down on the side of constitutional rights for everyone, not just for leftists, in cases like Skokie and Citizen's United.

[Hermit]

My latest donation went to the Wikipedia. Unfortunately it's not tax deductible. The one before that went to Ron Williams. He took the federal government to high court about its funding of evangelists to work among children in government schools and won. The government changed the laws and kept ploughing on with that scheme regardless. So, now he is taking it to court again, and I chipped in again. This too is not tax deductible. Previous to that I donated to Community Aid Abroad / Oxfam and Greenpeace. Since donations to both of those is tax deductible, I have records of them, and they are easy to look up on a spreadsheet I set up for budgeting and bookkeeping purposes when I did some subcontracting. I just had a look. The amount is well into four-digit territory.

The Fred Hollows Foundation is a very good organisation to contribute to. It gets audited on a regular basis from outside. The reports are publicly available and they show that it is run with minimal overheads and very effective. The benefit goes chiefly to those most in need and least able to access medical facilities to have their trachoma treated. Hollows, a New Zealand born ophthalmologist, set up the foundation a year before his death, and it is continuing the programs he started. Be warned, though: As if being an atheist wasn't bad enough, he also was a member of the communist party in the 1950s and 60s.

[Warren Dew]

My latest donation went to the Wikipedia. Unfortunately it's not tax deductible.

I don't know if it's a different legal entity from Wikipedia, but donations to the Wikimedia foundation are tax deductible in the U.S.

Previous to that I donated to Community Aid Abroad / Oxfam and Greenpeace. Since donations to both of those is tax deductible

Donations to Greenpeace are not tax deductible, although I think they were a couple decades ago:

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/suppor ... tions/#tax

However, apparently there's an organization called the Greenpeace Fund, to which donations are tax deductible.

[Hermit]

Differences between the USA and Australia, I suppose. The Australian Taxation Office maintains a list of Deductible Gift Recipients. It also allows tax deductibility for donations to political parties. Greenpeace is not a political party in Australia (though we have one that represents and advocates the aims laid out by Greenpeace, formally named Australian Greens), but it is listed as a GDR. The Australian branch of the Wikimedia Foundation is neither a GDR nor a political party.

[FBM]

Somaly Mam Foundation in Cambodia. They rescue child prostitutes from abusive situations and give them education and vocational training. I can't remember how/when I discovered them, but it struck me as something that needed to be supported and encouraged, seeing as how the Cambodian gummit doesn't support them.

[Warren Dew]

Differences between the USA and Australia, I suppose. The Australian Taxation Office maintains a list of Deductible Gift Recipients. It also allows tax deductibility for donations to political parties. Greenpeace is not a political party in Australia (though we have one that represents and advocates the aims laid out by Greenpeace, formally named Australian Greens), but it is listed as a GDR. The Australian branch of the Wikimedia Foundation is neither a GDR nor a political party.

Possibly more sensible than the U.S. policy.

[Pappa]

It's been a while since I last donated, but the only charity I regularly gave money to was Survival International. They help tribal peoples around the world gain ownership of the land they live on, and lobby governments on their behalf.

[Svartalf]

I can't even afford to support Rationalia, No way I can find charity budget in my empty purse.

[laklak]

NRA, of course. A couple of police and firefighter benevolent organizations, because despite what they say those stickers on the back window do get you better treatment at a traffic stop. ASPCA, Napier Horse Rescue, Save Our Seabirds and Mote Marine Laboratory.

[MiM]

Living in a Nordic welfare state, my favourite charity is definitely taxes. The old Swedish proverb "love your taxes" isn't as stupid as it looks, as those taxes pays us a whole lot in return.

Wikipedia is on my regularly funded list. They do more good in this world than anyone can imagine.

[Blind groper]

I used to support Greenpeace but stopped about 30 years ago. The reason for stopping is the Greenpeace opposition to a lot of essential development. For example : to nuclear power. More recently (the last 18 years) Greenpeace have been opposing genetic modification, which I think is one of the waves of the future, which will help to make a better world. I do not like any charity I support to get too political.

[JimC]

I used to support Greenpeace but stopped about 30 years ago. The reason for stopping is the Greenpeace opposition to a lot of essential development. For example : to nuclear power. More recently (the last 18 years) Greenpeace have been opposing genetic modification, which I think is one of the waves of the future, which will help to make a better world. I do not like any charity I support to get too political.

There is a somewhat Luddite tendency running through the extremes of the Green movement...