If you were going to start a charity tomorrow, what would you want to do? Who/what cause would you want to help? Just wondering what Soxtalk's opinion on this is, I'm not really sure myself but personally I think the homeless would probably be it for me.

I'm also partial to gardening and stuff, I think it would be cool to help set up community gardens and stuff.

Something like Make a Wish Foundation, but specializing more in professional sports/celebrities, etc.

 

If I could have a dream job, I always thought it would have been the Community Relations/Charitable Giving director of a major league baseball team.

 

 

My 84 year old mother just had to have her 15 year old dog euthanized, so I'm always sensitive to any animal-related charities.

 

Kiva.org is interesting...the whole field of microfinance and group/team borrowing.

 

Somaly Mam's anti-trafficking charity in Cambodia.

http://www.metafilter.com/132895/Sex-traff...-Mam-Foundation

 

Oops, take that back.

 

Aaron Jackson, one of the CNN Heroes back in 2007 or 2008...he used to live in a homeless shelter and has done a lot of good with his organization, "Planting Peace." I talked to him a number of times on the phone but I simply couldn't agree to live in a Cambodia child trafficking shelter (that, and the fact that it's a more appropriate role for a woman) for no or almost no salary.

 

 

Wounded veterans and families of soldiers who died in combat.

1.) All about those who served our country. Wounded Warriors

Also families of those killed in war.

 

So many good causes out there, though.

Children's hospitals.

Feeding the poor/homeless.

Helpsavepets.org My wife and I volunteer there and last year we placed 1000 dogs and cats in new homes. In fact, I will be bugging you all in the next few weeks about a comedy show we are hosting for a fundraiser in Aurora. One of the raffle prizes is 4 seats in the Home Plate Club section! it will either be a door prize going to one of the 200 tickets to be sold or a general raffle prize. Depends on what else we get donated before the show.

Down syndrome

Ronald McDonald House

We donate to a dozen or so different charities a year, some of them are ones people would be familiar with: St. Jude's, Mercy Home (Park Ridge). Another couple are specific places where we know people involved - my wife's uncle runs a Haiti mission that has built a school and some other stuff (I also went to Haiti myself once and helped them set up the first internet "cafe" in the entire province, in the school administrative building.

 

I tend to favor environmental causes, but a lot of national organizations (Sierra Club for example) spend a TON of their money on lobbying and the like. There is one exception though - The Nature Conversancy. They also do some lobbying (they all do), but to a much smaller extent, and they use a different model for most of their spending. They actually go out and either outright acquire, or purchase easements of different types, for land they want to protect. They use their own or other scientific resources to study the land to see what it needs to be healthy, comes up with a future plan for it, and the plan dictates who the sell it to and with what easements. Once the land is sold, they move onto the next.

 

I just really like that, instead of spending most of their money complaining to other people, they use most of it to actually DO something.

 

I've given time to three on a regular basis... Our local VFW, a scholarship foundation, and I used to help a lot at our YMCA before it closed down.

I'm already really involved in a charity that benefits local kids with developmental disabilities. Our goal is to provide continued life support well after they are pushed out of the schools and funding and programs are cut off from their families. It's been extremely rewarding through the years and I have brought in many other folks who have gotten involved as well.

 

https://opportunityknocksnow.org/

We donate to a dozen or so different charities a year, some of them are ones people would be familiar with: St. Jude's, Mercy Home (Park Ridge). Another couple are specific places where we know people involved - my wife's uncle runs a Haiti mission that has built a school and some other stuff (I also went to Haiti myself once and helped them set up the first internet "cafe" in the entire province, in the school administrative building.

 

I tend to favor environmental causes, but a lot of national organizations (Sierra Club for example) spend a TON of their money on lobbying and the like. There is one exception though - The Nature Conversancy. They also do some lobbying (they all do), but to a much smaller extent, and they use a different model for most of their spending. They actually go out and either outright acquire, or purchase easements of different types, for land they want to protect. They use their own or other scientific resources to study the land to see what it needs to be healthy, comes up with a future plan for it, and the plan dictates who the sell it to and with what easements. Once the land is sold, they move onto the next.

 

I just really like that, instead of spending most of their money complaining to other people, they use most of it to actually DO something.

 

We donate to them as well.

 

Usually we do Oxfam, Red Cross, one or two local food banks, and we donated to the charity alpha is associated with last year.

My cousin lives at Misercordia, so our family does a lot of work there, summerfest and the sort.

We donate to them as well.

 

Usually we do Oxfam, Red Cross, one or two local food banks, and we donated to the charity alpha is associated with last year.

I, and the dogs and cats, thank you for that!

 

Red Cross, Lung Cancer and Alzheimers gets money from me as well.

Surf Riders Foundation, Boy Scouts of America (local unit, not to national) United Way, our church, and basically every kid that puts an order form in front of me.

1.) All about those who served our country. Wounded Warriors

Also families of those killed in war.

 

I'm with you on this

Electronic Frontier Foundation

A really cool organization that I worked for from 1999-2002 is Youth Volunteer Corps of America.

 

It's kind of the middle/high school version of AmeriCorps or the domestic Peace Corps, as way of explanation...or City Year, if you're familiar with that organization.

Probably a food drive type place. There is one here in Orlando that can buy $9 worth of food with every $1 donated.

 

 

 

I'd call it the Human Fund.