Non-religious charity options

[Tradd]

I’m looking for one or two non-religious charity options to donate to. I already regularly support my local food bank. I don’t trust the Red Cross as their fund raising tactics have been shown to be sketchy.

What was the charity that helped feed people in war zone and such? World Central Kitchen?

[iris lilies]

I give to local charitable organizations, I don’t look for the national or international ones.

I’m not saying you are wrong, I am just telling you what I do. I have a long list of groups for my donations, all having to do with animal welfare or preservation of historic buildings. I don’t give to human centric organizations.

[Tradd]

I give to locals charitable organizations, I don’t look for the national or international ones.

I’m not saying you are wrong, I am just telling you what I do. I have a long list of groups for my donations, all having to do with animal welfare or preservation of historic buildings. I don’t give to human centric organizations.

You just reminded me I could donate to the WI Historical Society and designate my donation to the maritime preservation program - I already volunteer as an editor for shipwreck and other survey reports.

[hana]

World Central Kitchen works with local chefs in war zones or natural disaster areas across the world. They're currently in Ukraine, Gaza, and Mexico (Hurricane Otis) and Afghanistan (earthquake). They have a 100% rating on Charity Navigator.

Links to website, Charity Navigator, and their 990 filings below.

https://wck.org/

https://www.charitynavigator.org/ein/273521132

https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/details/

Hope this helps

[iris lilies]

You just reminded me I could donate to the WI Historical Society and designate my donation to the maritime preservation program - I already volunteer as an editor for shipwreck and other survey reports.
Yes! That sounds like a good cause. Is that organization run by the state though? If so, they may not be able to accommodate targeted donations.

[Tradd]

Yes! That sounds like a good cause. Is that organization run by the state though? If so, they may not be able to accommodate targeted donations.

Yes, it’s run by the state. They can do targeted donations. I’ve seen that before when I’ve renewed my membership.

[Tybee]

As a teacher and big believer in education to improve people's lives, I give to colleges that have programs that educate people to go out and work in their community--I give where I work, and I also give to a Native American college that is not local to me.

[sweetana3]

I am partial to Doctors Without Borders. One of the very few charities that actually turned down donations when they had "enough" during a crisis.

I stick mostly to local charities where I can get information from the source and watch the action taking place. I found a small group helping those needing a lot of support, mostly homeless. Pourhouse.org.

[jp1]

You just reminded me I could donate to the WI Historical Society and designate my donation to the maritime preservation program - I already volunteer as an editor for shipwreck and other survey reports.

That sounds perfect for you. It’s worthwhile and also near and dear to your heart.

[mschrisgo2]

I donate to children’s cancer research and care, specifically, St Jude

[happystuff]

Alzheimer's Disease Research, St Jude, Doctors without Borders, Operation Smile, a local rescue mission, a kidney transplant circle organization (forget the name), and my temple. They all have touched family in one way or another.

[catherine]

Secular places I donate to are Friends of Dog Mountain, NRDC, Friends of the Earth, Deep Green Resistance, and our local arts center.

hana, I have donated to World Central Kitchen--a wonderful cause for sure.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I don't know a way to donate without getting forever and ever on someone's snail mail list etc. (and maybe email, phone etc. but email is easily fixed with unsubscribe). If there is a way, I don't know it. So it's just not worth it to me. This may not be very nice, but remember they choose to run charities this way, as harassment campaigns, rather than something you just donate to once or many times and forget it.

[iris lilies]

I don't know a way to donate without getting forever and ever on someone's snail mail list etc. (and maybe email, phone etc. but email is easily fixed with unsubscribe). If there is a way, I don't know it. So it's just not worth it to me. This may not be very nice, but remember they choose to run charities this way, as harassment campaigns, rather than something you just donate to once or many times and forget it.

Generally, it seems to me that the big organizations are the ones having the ongoing dunning communications. The little organizations are lucky if they have enough organizational skill to maintain their 501 C3 status. If they send me a thank you acknowledgment, I think they’re doing well.

Several of the places I donate do send me regular communications because I am a “member “. this pertains to two parks, an historic house, etc.

I do like the regular digital communication from the elephant sanctuary in Tennessee, because they give footage links to film footage of what the elephants are doing. Even though the elephants are doing pretty much the same thing all the time, I still like to see them now and then, especially our local girl Flora.

Also, ANM, The organizations I can think of with sophisticated communication packages give the option of digital only.

related to this, I am trying to get off the call list of the Red Cross for giving platelets. I’ve already investigated giving platelets, and I cannot do it, my veins are not physically appropriate for that. I’ve asked them twice to take me off the list. If they call me a third time, I’m going to raise some hell and threaten to stop giving whole blood.

[Rogar]

I don't know a way to donate without getting forever and ever on someone's snail mail list etc. (and maybe email, phone etc. but email is easily fixed with unsubscribe). If there is a way, I don't know it. So it's just not worth it to me. This may not be very nice, but remember they choose to run charities this way, as harassment campaigns, rather than something you just donate to once or many times and forget it.

Not all non-profits are created equal in this respect. Part of the issue is that it's hard to tell which will deliver the various annoying promotions. NPR has not been too bad. Maybe an unsubscribe to a couple of email streams or a phone call to stop snail mail. Junk mail from my alma mater has been moderate and a phone call about once a year. I stopped sending them money a few years ago, but still get things. The Nature Conservancy has been minimal. I once gave to a regional environment groups and am fairly certain it triggered every bleeding heart environmental group sending junk mail in the northern hemisphere. I get a lot of junk from the NRDC, but consider it a worthy organization. When things get especially annoying I've made phone calls to the source, which seems to usually work. I understand how it can be a deterrent and any more try to limit the organizations I give money to.

[iris lilies]

Not all non-profits are created equal in this respect. Part of the issue is that it's hard to tell which will deliver the various annoying promotions. NPR has not been too bad. Maybe an unsubscribe to a couple of email streams or a phone call to stop snail mail. Junk mail from my alma mater has been moderate and a phone call about once a year. I stopped sending them money a few years ago, but still get things. The Nature Conservancy has been minimal. I once gave to a regional environment groups and am fairly certain it triggered every bleeding heart environmental group sending junk mail in the northern hemisphere. I get a lot of junk from the NRDC, but consider it a worthy organization. When things get especially annoying I've made phone calls to the source, which seems to usually work. I understand how it can be a deterrent and any more try to limit the organizations I give money to.
Back in the day when I gave to NPR, back before the Schiller scandals, I found their mailings and dunning letters quite annoying. Now the entire station annoys me as there was yet another scandal, this one local, that just pissed me off. But there are certainly times that I listen to NPR.

And just this week I got something in the mail from Planned Parenthood and I haven’t given to them in over a decade.

I also remember that I gave the caller from Planned Parenthood very specific messaging they could use with me that would be effective, but they never used it. I wonder how long it will be until AI gives these giant organizations the tools to be very, very very targeted in their fundraising ploys instead of reading from a script.

[Rogar]

I suppose if a person didn't want the publications or tax deductions most places could arrange for an anonymous donation.

Recently, NPR has dropped off my donation list in favor of a small community station that actually plays good music without the long drone of news and commentary. I get an email or snail mail about once or twice a year from them. My donation to public television is well worth it for the Passport features.

[Tybee]

That's been freeing, to settle on my two or three educational charities and focus on them for a while. Maybe not forever, but for now. So it's in my plan, and I don't have to worry about mailings--the one school sends me really nice thank you notes and my employer just notes it on my paycheck and once a year thanks us employees who do the auto-withdrawal, but no big deal. They are both in my new charitable donor fund so when I die, they will all get a third. It won't be much, probably, but it will be a surprise to two of the schools and that is fun to think about!

[IshbelRobertson]

I send donations to Save The Children, Wateraid and Medicins san Frontieres.

[Tybee]

Have been donating to things that were meaningful to my mom as put some inheritance money into my donor advised fund. So far charities that were local to where she grew up and went to college.

It's really fun to go on the Schwab list and look at charities for a certain area. Like her high school has a baseball/softball charity for those programs and she was on a softball team in high school. I figure it's her money, and now she gets to support things she enjoyed in her life.

[bae]

I donate mostly to/with a donor-advised fund with my local community foundation.

Each year they give me a scored-and-vetted list of worthy local projects, and I pick the ones that appeal to me to disburse my funds to.

Makes things so simple and easy.

[littlebittybobby]

okay---i donate to the save-the-packards foundation, since it's a VERY worthy cause. but yeah---i'm sick of all those other "legitimate" charities where the Director rakes in $950,000 per year and has all his family on the board, and things never change. yup.

[early morning]

We don't have much to spare for charitable contributions, and we avoid religious donations, unless requested in lieu of flowers at a funeral or memorial. And not even that, if supporting a cause the deceased supported is in conflict with our values. We donate to NPR, PBS, a local animal shelter, local flight museum, and the occasional go-fund-me or emergency type of appeal. We also support by membership a local shaker museum, farm/environmental park museum, large local historical museum, local flight museum, and an author/illustrator house museum. When we visit a park or historical museum, we always put something in the donation box. As I said, we don't have much to give, and we want to be sure we're supporting things that are important to us.