Charity Navigator
During this time of the year, there are a lot of fundraising drives as people try to share the holiday cheer with the less fortunate. I always try to stick to the more well-known charities since I’m always weary of how certain groups use the money donated to them. It’s unfortunate that we live in a society where we have to worry about that but whatever I can give, I would want to make sure it is being used correctly!
Anyways, I’ve found a great website called Charity Navigator. They rate charities on how efficiently they use their money and is a great resource to use to know your money really is going to a good cause. You can search by charity and see the rating from 1 to 4 stars. There are also other interesting lists like the list of 2009 CEO Compensation for large charities. I had no idea you could get paid 100K+ working for a charity!
They also have a great top 10 lists page including the Top 10 Charities with the Most 4-Star Ratings:
1 Carnegie Institution for Science
2 Cornell University
3 Harvard University
4 Christian Foundation for Children and Aging
5 University of Southern California
6 Breast Cancer Research Foundation
7 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
8 YMCA of the Greater Houston Area
9 Goodwill Southern California
10 The Scripps Research Institute
I’m happy to see the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Goodwill of Socal on there!
Anyways, I will be copying my wedding photographer’s idea (Caroline Tran) and will be donating $1 for every (non-spammy) comment I receive on this post from now until December 15th! When you leave a comment, if you’d like, tell me a charity you support and I will pick one charity to donate all of the money to. This will be a great way for me and other readers to learn about other great charities out there. :)
Posted: 23 November, 2009 in Cool Links.
Comments
Comment from hakushaku
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 6:35 pm
I’m a big fan of Kiva, myself. Its just like Charity….except I get my money back! You get the warm feeling of being a good person, without the pesky inability to by beer that giving to normal charities brings.
Seeing as Paper just got back from the Vet, and I get to pay ANOTHER $700 just for doctors to tell me that the tests have conclusively proved he is, in fact, a dog, I would recommend the charity of donating to your local Hakushaku this holiday season. The letters you get back from me are 10X as funny as whatever those orphans from Guatemala will write. I mean, they probably don’t even us proper grammar.
Think about it.
Comment from hakushaku
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 6:35 pm
And also, I just want to make sure you’re not…
Comment from hakushaku
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 6:36 pm
..too stingy with your giving….
Comment from hakushaku
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 6:36 pm
…..this year.
There’s my $4 for charity.
Comment from mouse
Posted: November 24, 2009 at 11:32 am
does hakushaku’s comments count as spam? great link kim. i myself have been making most donations through events such as the bike ride, other people’s marathons and fund-raising efforts. our work also sort of forces us to. they run this campaign where it is “encouraged” to do a monthly check deduction to a charity.
Comment from hakushaku
Posted: November 24, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Buy \/14GR4 now!
Comment from Lisa
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 10:37 am
I’ve been looking for a charity resource like this for months! But I’m Canadian, so will have to keep looking…