Good charities?

Last year I asked what charities people like, and that was really helpful and interesting.

So I want to repeat the topic again. As I asked last year: Does anyone want to mention specific charities? Or mention other things that might not strictly be charities, but might be “good deeds” that readers would be interested in?

174 Responses to Good charities? (Leave a comment)

  1. I’m pretty partial to DownhillBattle.org, fighting for artists against RIAA

  2. We like “Friends of WFP” since they use 92.7% of all the donation toward the program expenses. See – http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=7696.

  3. Childs Play – Gets games to sick kids in hospitals who may not be able to have contact with the outside world. You can pick items to be sent to hospitals around the world so 100% goes right to the kids.

    http://www.childsplaycharity.org/

  4. We like “The Linus Foundation”!

    http://www.linusfoundation.org

    Since beginning in 2005, The Linus Foundation has disbursed over $50,000 to local non-profit organizations in St. Louis, New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Through fundraising events in each of these cities, The Linus Foundation has raised awareness and support for a variety of local programs that help children reach the full power of their own potential.

    These donations have fully sponsored two summer youth baseball teams in Harlem, provided much needed school supplies to under-funded public schools in St. Louis, brought 300 grade-school children on a 4-day trip to Historic Williamsburg, VA, supported a summer Squash program for inner-city youth in Philadelphia, and provided physically challenged children the opportunity to participate in adventure sports in Chicago.

  5. Kiva and Trickle Up. Both focused on micro-entrepreneurship. And Kiva is especially cool for web people since they use the web very well.

  6. I donate to my church who then donates to various charities, disaster relief and others in need of help. 100% goes to those in need

  7. Heifer International (http://www.heifer.org) provides farm animals to families in developing countries, enabling them to start businesses and break out of the cycle of poverty. It’s a fantastic organization. You can donate anything from a couple of rabbits to a water buffalo.

  8. CCI Enterprises: http://www.ccienterprises.org/ (the SEMpdx charity of choice for 2007). CCI is a non-profit organization that facilitates career and personal development for adults with disabilities in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area.

  9. The Hunger Site [http://www.thehungersite.com/] provides food every time you click on their site (food paid for by ad sponsorship). Simple – you can also buy products from the various sponsors.

    Being Irish, we contribute to the world charity Concern [http://www.concern.net/] who for many years have been at the forefront of the world’s most needy and developing countries.

  10. This is more of a second-hand recommendation, but http://givewell.net has some interesting research on the effectiveness of charities in a few categories.

  11. A couple of your commenters last year recommended Heifer International (http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.195980/k.D164/Give.htm), which allows you to assist developing areas in ending hunger and building sustainable agriculture by donating, amongst other things, farm animals. It’s a very well-run organization.

    I can also recommend the Project Valour-IT effort (http://soldiersangels.org/valour/donate.html) from the Soldiers’ Angels charity. This project configures voice-enabled laptop computers for servicemen and women who’re recovering from combat-related injuries, particularly to their hands and arms (hence the emphasis on voice-controlled software). The blogosphere has mounted major fundraising campaigns for Project Valour-IT for the past two or three years.

  12. I worked at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in CT for 4 years. Its a camp for children with life threatening illnesses. Here is their site:
    http://www.holeinthewallgang.org/

    It is pretty much the best place I have ever been. I highly recommend anybody getting involved with them.

  13. First, I’m considering donating my old car to my local public radio station or another non-profit that can provide it to a needy family. It’s in good shape but wasn’t going to make a dent in my payment had I traded it in.

    Secondly I’m continuing my work with animal rescue, particularly http://www.aussierescuega.com. Breed-specific (and generic) pet rescues are vital in helping our local communities control the growing pet population, maintaining the best characteristics in every breed and occasionally training an animal for therapy work in nursing homes, hospice care and childrens’/terminal wards.

  14. The Amani Childrens Home (http://www.amanikids.org/). Some of my work colleagues recently climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and raised money for them, but they really do need everything they can get to keep the home running.

  15. The 100 Clubs give cash donations to families of public service personnel who are killed in the line of duty:
    http://www.100clubchicago.org/directory/club_list.asp?state=California

    Warrior Weekend offers paid weekend vacations to wounded vets:
    http://www.warriorweekend.com/

  16. We give our old cell phones to a women’s shelter, and substantial monetary donations to the local Humane Society and also a tiger rescue shelter in Arkansas that we discovered some years ago.

    I heard about this site on NPR the other day; I think it’s a pretty cool idea – more people should be doing things like this. You play a vocabulary quiz, and every time you get a correct answer, 20 grains of rice get donated to the United Nations World Food Program. Doesn’t sound like much, but apparently it really adds up. I now have my 14 year old godson doing vocabulary drills here – and *liking* it!

    http://www.freerice.com

  17. Fisher House provides low-cost lodging and humanitarian aid to American military families who need to travel and/or stay away from home for medical treatment. http://fisherhouse.org/

    Also, St. Jude’s Children’s Cancer Research Hospital is a great charity, name is pretty self-explanatory. http://www.stjude.org

  18. Inveneo (http://www.inveneo.org/) who are helping provide access to information and communications technologies — telephony, computing, Internet access — in remote/rural parts of developing countries.

    Slightly off topic but when trying to donate money to them via Google checkout we found out that G checkout doesn’t take non-US credit cards? What’s with the anti 90% of the world population attitude Matt? 🙂

  19. CHASE supports families with life-limited children

    http://www.chasecare.org.uk

    We had a young boy in one of my children’s class pass away recently, it affected everyone terribly – but now, in a very positive way, his memory is helping the children think more about other people and how they might help them. CHASE do a great job for supporting families in very difficult situations.

  20. What a great thing to do, Matt! I really like the Women’s Bean Project in Denver. This charity works with women to teach them job readiness and life skills getting them ready for employment and self sufficiency. They work to break the cycle of poverty and unemployment. The women make wonderful soup mixes and other gourmet foods that are sold to the local community. You can look at their “product line” at http://www.womensbeanproject.com/online-store.html.

    I also work at the University of Colorado Foundation, and there are many wonderful ways to support the students & faculty here or at your own alma mater. Don’t forget that a contribution to a scholarship fund can go a long way to help with the rising costs of higher education. A contribution to faculty research can….well…change the world.

    I am a lawyer by training (but not “at heart”). I help donors make tax-smart gifts. Three great tips for your readers? If you can, give appreciated stock. You will get a tax deduction AND avoid the gain on the stock. If you are giving outright, consider putting something for charity in your will. You can probably make a larger gift that way, perhaps even create an endowment. Finally, if you are over 70 1/2 (any of you out there?) take advantage of an opportunity to give a gift directly from your IRA without having to pay the income tax! This opportunity is a “gift” from Congress which ends when this year ends.

    Happy Holidays Everyone!

    Kristen Dugdale
    Wife of that “RentVine Guy”

  21. Remembering the Google homepage links to information resources regarding Tsunami and Katrina devastations – it appears that the Red Cross has always been one of the most essential global charities.

  22. I like SmartKids. They try to provide talented children in the third world that do not have enough money to continue their education after primary school. Theytry to spend as much of their income as possible towards this goal, e.g. when their volunteers need to travel somewhere they do so at their own costs.

  23. We give money to the local Interfaith Council (they are all over the place) because they help families out with emergency bridge loans. This keeps people from losing their phones, apartments, or cars. Thus they do not become homeless or unemployable.

    The loans are just that, loans, with nominal interest and a repayment plan. Thus the recipients do not swap their pride for handouts. Also making them better citizens.

    I understand the repayment rate is much better than the one “enjoyed” by College Foundation. Which says a lot.

    Felice Navidad.

    -OT

  24. The Ronald McDonald House…Jay and I used their services when our son had open heart surgery and we met so many families who would have been unable to stay with their children while they were in the hospital without losing everything. In addition to providing families with a place to stay, they had free meals donated by other local charities and tons of toys for the children.

    http://www.rmhc.org/

  25. We donate to our church, some of which goes on to other charities, and also to our local Habitat for Humanity affiliate, which seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness. Habitat have built over 200,000 affordable houses worldwide and more than a dozen in our area; I’ve met a number of folks who have become owners of Habitat houses and have heard how it has changed their lives (and often has changed the neighborhood, as well) for the better. We also volunteer on building workdays several times a year.

    http://www.habitat.org/

  26. http://turningwheelsforkids.com/ is a great fun thing to do, but you missed it this year.

    and http://projectpurr.org/ are our new tops

    and your local animal shelter, county animal services always need more help.

  27. I spend a bit of time helping our local America’s Second Harvest
    http://www.secondharvest.org/
    http://www.helpendhunger.org/

  28. We actually volunteer for this one and would like to see more people become aware of it:

    The Epilepsy Therapy Project.
    http://www.epilepsy.com.

    The ETP was founded by a group of fathers who children suffered from epilepsy. They were frustrated by the lack of public awareness, new treatments and on going research into new therapies. These guys are spending their valuable time and money to try and promote new research and therapies for all epilepsy suffers.

  29. Cool, thanks for that link, Brian.

  30. we donate monthly to http://www.mochaclub.org – its amazing what they do with $7/month – the price of two mochas. they can either 1. feed one person for a month 2. educate two kids for one school term 3. provide one person with what they need to survive malaria or 4. provide clean water to someone for an entire year. the periodic updates they send about where the money has gone are truly amazing.

  31. I’ve opted to go back to my university and work with their scholarship programs. I feel like I can trust where that money is going and I know the value it presents, having taken advantage of many scholarships and graduating from the program. Just my 2 cents.

  32. 1-800-CHARITY CARS takes donated cars and gives them directly to people in need. I know them and they do a good deed everyday.
    http://www.800charitycars.org/

  33. It’s been around for a while and as such doesn’t have the “newness” of other charities, but since my sister is a cancer survivor (15 years now and counting) my #1 charity is the American Cancer Society.

    Alternatively, you could always just donate to scholarship funds at the UNC Computer Science Department. I’m sure Tim Quigg could set something up for you. 🙂

  34. This one is fun and free.
    Answer questions. For Each word you Get right they donate 20 grains of rice to the UN. Great Concept!

    http://www.freerice.com

  35. Mustache4Cash (and this year Color4Kidz) is a fundraiser to support Denver area youth charities. Each year in the month of October Gentlemen grow mustaches and Women color their hair in this innovative approach to fundraising. I am proud to have participated the past two years providing free web hosting and web application design. Check us out at http://www.mustache4cash.org. A big thanks to our 2007 participants raising over $100,000!

  36. Well Matt, a “smart” deed would be to invest in an startup Internet marketing company named Brane that´s located in São Paulo, Brazil. It will generate new jobs, bring american/dutch experience to Brazil and most important: MORE FUN. 🙂

    But that wouldn’t be charity.. 🙂

    As to a good Deed… You could visit the Brazilian Google office. And my good deed to you will be to take you out for a dinner in a great Brazilian Restaurant. 🙂

  37. I’m partial to the wolf education and research center WERC

    http://www.wolfcenter.org/

  38. You could always donate to the one laptop per child program. I think right now you can even get one for yourself too just by donating $400 – $200 of which is tax deductable.

    http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/give-one-get-one.php

    Donating to your old Alma matter is always a good one – especially if they’re selling bricks like Michigan is / was doing.

  39. Smiletrain – 100% of your donation will go towards programs that help children, 0% will go to overhead. The free cleft surgery your donation will help provide, is a true, modern-day medical miracle: It costs as little as $250 and takes as little as 45 minutes. You do not need to donate $250, but it’s a little that goes a long way.

    http://www.smiletrain.org/site/PageServer

  40. With Google .ORG right there, you already have an outlet for suggestions 🙂

  41. I would recommend you go with Health Freedom USA. They work very hard to keep our freedom safe from forced drugging.
    http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php
    They really need people to stand behind them.

  42. Children’s Miracle Network. Major fundraiser for Chilrdren’s Hospitals across the country. http://www.childrensmiraclenetwork.org/

  43. I’m a fan of oxfam/heifer international, make a wish, acs, and the hemophilia foundation. Smiletrain is another good one too.

  44. Strycker’s Bay Neighborhood Council in NYC is one of very “grass-roots” organizations on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The have help hundreds of families stay in their homes despite gentrification and the over development of market rate and luxury housing.They provide programming for families that support their self-help efforts. The staff are experts in help families avoid homelessness, securing work supports and the provision of comprehensive youth development services for children ages 5-21. Check out the website

    http://www.stryckersbay.org and their program blogs

    stryckers.blogspot.com

    and

    lacasakids.blogspot.com

  45. And…by the way…regarding my stock comment above…give stock instead of cash. You will get a tax deduction and avoid the capital gain. And…if you REALLY love that stock, and you just KNOW it is going UP UP UP…. well, then, use the cash you were going to use to make the gift to buy more of the stock! You get a tax deduction, avoid the capital gain, and get NEW stock with an increased cost basis. Hey hey….smart donor!

    Kristen Dugdale (Wife of “That RentVine Guy”)

  46. The African Well Fund is an effort put together by a group of U2 fans and they are doing amazing things to help people in inland Africa get what we all take for granted: access to clean water.

    http://www.africanwellfund.org/

  47. It’s not as much of a charity as it a way to give a gift to someone, and a charity. I’m giving this gift card to several people this Christmas, but the catch is that the recipient has to give 10% of the money to a charity of their choice.

    http://www.givingtreelife.com/

  48. http://kidswishnetwork.org does some great work granting wishes for sick children

    http://soschildrenscharity.com helps orphans and abandoned children around the world

  49. Matt, Xmas time would be great opportunity for Google to link to a list of charities on their Home page.

  50. My online kids business contributes to:
    – online kids safety – http://www.netfamilynews.com
    – digital divide: one kid one computer
    – the neediest in my local community via http://www.feedingbroward.org
    We support the same charities every year with increasing amounts.

  51. http://kiva.org/ – Microloans to small businesses in 3rd World countries.
    http://www.Heifer.org/ – Heifer international. Gives livestock to poor villages that they can use for long term food (milk, eggs, breeding, etc).

    For those that recommended the free rice. By my calculations, for every dollar of rice he is donating, he is pocketing Much more than that.

    -J

  52. Celiac Disease is my charity- my kids have this, so it’s personal … and I’ve raised over $20,000 for the University of Maryland with my Christmas Lights – yea, go figure – crazy, but cool. Read details (with some HO-HO-HO!) on their site here:
    http://somvweb.som.umaryland.edu/absolutenm/templates/?a=45&z=5

    And surf on by the totally free (and totally fun) Controllable Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease here:
    http://www.komar.org/cgi-bin/christmas_webcam

    And rest assured that with three live webcams, we’ll be keeping a close eye out for Santa on Christmas Eve … so if Google wants to link to it as part of their Holidays Doodles, would be great to have the extra eyeballs! 😉

    Best Wishes and Merry Christmas Matt,
    alek

  53. BTW, assuming you don’t disable referers, hit the second link above for a special pop-up for the Matt Cutts fan club … what are the members of that called again?!? 😉
    alek

  54. Besides my church, I like to give to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition

    http://www.ovarian.org/

    My site collects funds and sends $ monthly. I match it at the end of the year.

    BTW, Matt, just wanted you to know that Santa came early to me via Google. Thank you for your help! My site’s pages are ALL back in the index AND my SERP have my site at #1 for the keyword once again. (I had lost that 1.5 years ago). Thank you thank you thank you for sending Google Santa my way.

  55. I would go for a cause that is not as popular and very difficult if one wants to take up. New Ark Mission helps people living on streets, terminally ill, decaying alive and no one to take care of. Running through their slide show and a couple of Youtube videos will show us how fortunate and blessed we really are.
    http://www.newarkmission.org/

    Another organization called Akshaya Patra Foundation provides meals to over 800,000 underprivileged school children everyday in India. Truly a gigantic effort and needs all the money they can get.
    http://www.akshayapatra.org/

  56. Peta and the RSPCA is Australia

    Dale
    http://dzrbenson.com/blog/

  57. As more and more people discuss climate change and green house gases – I think the Union of Concerned Scientists is great:
    http://www.ucsusa.org/

    Also like the Sierra Club: http://www.sierraclub.org

  58. Matt

    Pardon the irony here, but how about the Electronic Privacy Frontier Foundation, http://www.eff.org/issues/privacy. I know they haven’t always been on the same side as Google in the courtroom, but you should appreciate the power of data mining and the need to protect individual privacy in the internet ages more than most people.

    Jonah

  59. Yup Jonah, I’m a member of the EFF.

    Everyone, I really appreciate all the great suggestions. My wife asked me to say thanks for her too; she’s gotten some good ideas from reading the replies here.

  60. http://www.greengeckoproject.org/ Run by people who just wanted to help the needy, its not religious based, its not helping people in your own backyard… its real charity to strangers for no promise of heaven or brotherhood because within same nation

  61. http://www.gemeinsam-gegen-kaelte.de/ is a project where homeless people in Germany do get blankets or sleeping bag cause many of them do not want to sleep in the homeless centers. As many of them freeze to death – this is a good alternative.

  62. The real estate agent I’ve partnered with just started a program of giving back and a few of the charities we’ll be giving to are:

    http://www.habitat.org/
    http://www.sickkids.ca/
    http://www.davidsuzuki.org/
    http://www.cancer.ca/

  63. I just tried posting some links but I’m guessing the spam filter may have nuked my post.

  64. And now the post is there making me look like an idiot 🙁

  65. I know it’s a UK charity, but Cancer Research UK are absolutely amazing – it’s fairly regularly I hear of research hailed as groundbreaking that turned out to have been done by them.

    For environmental issues, nobody beats the impact of Greenpeace. You may disagree with some of their methods, but they get things done in a way that no other charity does.

    For geeky charities, why not donate to something like the Apache foundation?

  66. id say OXFAM as they concentrate on low level long term work to improve poor communities – and not flashy vanity projects like OLPC.

    Working to give communities access to clean drinking water and supporting communities devastated by HIV/AIDS in Africa for example.

  67. Salvation Army, Greenpeace, The Get-Bush-Out-Of-Office-Fund, Red Cross, or even gift cards for Katrina victims. I think that if people can skip the charity and donate directly to the needy, it’s a better situation.

  68. Hi Matt,

    we (Delta Cultura Cabo Verde) are a NGO based in Cape Verde, Westafrica and try to close the gap. Information Technology is the future and could help LDCs like Cape Verde a lot. But we need more support by all stakeholders. The Cape Verdean Government is “very interested” but not able to finance and support our project. We appreciate any feedback!

    More informations about the Digital Media Designer Project of Delta Cultura:
    http://deltacultura.org/digital_media_designers_CV.pdf

  69. Greenpeace, Médecins Sans Frontières.

  70. My 2 favorite charities are Children’s Miracle Network, on a national level and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta,on a local level.

  71. Matt,

    This has been suggested before, but let me try it again.

    Lets make it a tradition; each year during December you install AdSense spots on your blog. The revenues go to a charity of your and Mrs Cutts choice.

  72. My family started adopting another family this year and it was a lot of fun. My wife and I helped contribute to two separate families this year via our parents adopted families. We had fun and I got to get rid of my old Playstation 2 and some old games…but only the age appropriate ones.

  73. Matt,

    We always give to http://www.caringbridge.org, they sponsor free sites for people to keep in touch during family crisis. I also like to donate to the Chemo Angels http://www.chemoangles.com, they help cancer patients through rough times and do an especially nice job helping children.

    Happy Holidays 🙂

  74. There are two that I like. The first is an actual charity: Operation Blessing. Great charity and they help in a lot of causes.

    The second is a plug for cancer research using spare cycles on your computer. Compute For Our Children’s Future

    G-Man

  75. I like Operation Sauce Drop ( http://carolinasauce.stores.yahoo.net/opsadr.html ), which sends free boxes of spicy sauces and treats to the troops stationed overseas.

  76. Omar Yesid Mariño

    I think that sponsor a poor child is always a great way to help for a better future. You can check this: http://www.children.org

  77. Support http://one.org/ a campaign to make poverty history!

    Happy Holidays everyone

  78. Range Fuels – one of the first folks doing cellulosic ethanol in the US (and indeed the world is watching) – this work has the potential to bring a great deal of conflict in the world to an end – either by a) reducing the dependence of us westerners on oil (as you spoke about in a recent blog post re: the price of fuel) or b) encouraging other countries to ‘get in on the act’ – ala the X-Prizes – and get together to sort out our energy issues.

    All the best,

    doc

  79. Polly Klass Foundation in California. Being a Dad of a pretty young girl of about the same age this horrendous crime really hit me at the time.

    David
    Charlotte NC

    Matt have a nice Christmas and thanks for the posts

  80. http://www.apopo.org are one of the most innovative organisations I’ve seen in a long time. They train rats to detect landmines and explosives. Rats, can cover much more ground than humans and speed up the job enormously. They can also test samples brought from suspected mined regions such as roads in order to declare them free of mines.

    They’re also working on detection of disease in samples.

  81. Matt,

    One of my best friends was in a near-fatal car accident in October of this year.
    He was in a coma for about 5 weeks, but has since woken up and is beating all odds coming back from a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). He is currently undergoing rehabilitation and even though he has a brain injury, Mike is makig us all believe that he can recover 100%.

    His hospital bills have been covered in part by Medicade, but the rest the family will have to make up and they have at least a year of rehab in front of them.

    If any of you would be so kind as to visit WeLuvMike.com , read his daily updates posted by his Mom and Dad. Read the comments left by his family and friends. If you care to donate, you can do so right on the top right hand corner of the sidebar, through PayPal.

    Happy Holidays and thanks for the opportunity to share my friends story.

    -Jim McNelis
    He was in the process of changing jobs and was left without insurance.

  82. Someone had already mentioned, “The Hunger Site” above, but I’d like to echo how cool it is to “click for food.”

    One of the sites that I frequent year-round is a website called, Do One Nice Thing. http://www.doonenicething.com, which is a site dedicated to doing once nice thing every Monday. They often link to a slew of other places that help out everyone from the soldiers in Iraq to endangered animals.

  83. Great Charity helping throughout Africa. Warning, the website has some very difficult to view pictures.

  84. Sorry here’s the URL, http://www.missionariesofafrica.org

  85. One of the best organizations out there that is still not widely known is called kiva.org. It’s great! So what Kiva allows you to do is “sponsor a business” in the developing world. What this means is that you support working poor as they try to achieve financial independence. The unique part about it is that your “loan” is actually repaid in the end which then allows you to put that money towards sponsoring another small business. Check it out: kiva.org

  86. I support my state and local hospices. Many of these organizations base their entire budget on donations, so anything they get is appreciated. And if you’ve ever had to use their services, you know how important their job is. In what for most families is the worst possible situation (the eminent death of a loved one), these people provide comfort and care for the sick as well as counseling and support for friends and family of the patient.

  87. I would like Google to allow our Adsense accounts to send money directly to charities we choose/list in some sort of widget, I have a couple sites that that I would enjoy tranferring the clicks to a “cause”. That would be really cool, it would even be neat to send money to a Google supported project like solar thermal research and development.

  88. Great post Matt as it “is the most wonderful time of the year” for people to think about charities.

    Just today I donated to the Orange County Rescue Mission of California. Orange county alone has over 35,000 homeless people and most are families with over 9,000 homeless children.

    I live in Laguna Beach which is in “the OC” and quit often I see homeless children sleeping in the parks and such.

    The Orange County Rescue Mission URL:
    http://www.rescuemission.org/

  89. I like Kiva.org. Its part of the microfinance movement.

    It’s not exactly a charity since you aren’t giving the money but you are lending it to a small business person ( a lot of them are women) around the world. You lend in $25 increments and they are borrowing between 300 and $1000, paying back in 4 months to a year or so. When they pay it back, you can take the money back or lend it to a new person. You can see their bio and picture etc.

    I haven’t read all the posts in this thread, so I’m sorry if this is duplicate content.

  90. Wish I could just update my post above but thought it important to respond to Aaron Pratt’s comment right above mine…

    Aaron why don’t you set up some pages about the charities you want to promote with direct links to the donate pages and run Adsense on those pages so Google Ads will even give more related info?

    SuddenlySara’s Charity:
    http://www.rescuemission.org/

  91. Matt,

    In the Bay Area we have Giving 2.0 by Stephanie Trimble. She is also doing it in conjunction with the South Bay Geek Dinners.

    http://giving20.wordpress.com

    – tony

  92. Colin Samuels mentioned sustainable agriculture…

    I’d like to add helping spread John Jevons method for growing vegetables in a sustainable way with just a shovel and a few hundred dollars (Google his name + Chatanooga). It can help alleviate immediate hunger problems in the poorest corners of the earth. We were able to raise beds with 4 times the amount of vegetables compared to conventional methods in a quarter of space… and with no chemicals.

  93. Andrus Children (http://www.andruschildren.org/): For more than 75 years, Andrus has been a proud provider of programs and services for children and families throughout Westchester County and our tri-state area. Under our corporate umbrella of the Julia Dyckman Andrus Memorial, our Campus, Community and Mental Health Divisions reach 2500 children and families every year with a broad spectrum of preventive and restorative services for families and their children from birth through adolescence.

  94. The North Texas Food Bank feeds the hungry in North Texas and their Charity Navigator rating is a solid 4 stars. Good people just trying to feed the hungry. After all, some people pray before dinner, while others just pray FOR DINNER.

    http://www.ntfb.org

  95. The Autism Society of America.

  96. Matt,

    Where is Adam Lasnik? is he still at Google?

    Last post he posted on his blog was on Sunday, July 29, 2007.

    And Adam’s last post on WMW was on Oct 7, 2007.

  97. First time commenter here, but I had to mention my charity of choice, Compassion and Responsibility for Animals (CARA) Philippines- http://www.caraphil.org . The situation of stray cats and dogs in Manila is terrible- even among the so-called “elite”, there is a marked LACK of compassion and responsibility for them! CARA does good work.

  98. i like the united way.

  99. I’ve got three charities I support:

    Cancer Research UK – having lost family and friends to cancer I’ve done a few weird things to raise money in support of their esearch programmes.

    http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/

    British Epilepsy Association (Epilepsy Action) – another personal one – my wife’s epileptic.

    http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/

    and Emmaus UK, charity that supports the homeless. This one I support because they take a more constructive approach to the problems of the homeless, not just providing handouts.

    http://www.emmaus.org.uk/

  100. Well a good one that is perfect for this user base is Recycling for Charities. Everyone has an old cell phone laying around in a drawer, so donate it, take a tax deduction and help a charity.

    http://www.recyclingforcharities.com

    A 501c3 non-profit that takes your old cell phones, pagers, PDA’s, iPods and digital cameras and environmentally recycles them while providing a donation to the charity of your choice.

  101. San Diego Center for the Blind and Vision Impaired is our candidate http://www.sdcb.org/

  102. http://www.MuslimHands.org is my favorite, no BS site.

  103. kiva is the best. Highly recommend

  104. Any animal charity!

  105. I applaud you opening this thread, Matt.

    I focus my support on two charities:

    1.) Justice for everyone:

    http://www.amnesty.org/

    2.) FINCA Village Banking:

    http://www.villagebanking.org/

  106. I set up a free website (Santa’s Rules) for parents, that helps encourage young children to behave well. In a modern household, many parents work long hours and they need all the help they can get, that’s why you see tv shows like Supernanny becoming so popular.

    Not everyone can have (or needs) Supernanny, but for those that want a nice simple star chart and to be able to share a Christmas wishlist with family or friends online, Santa’s Rules is an easy option.

    If you would like to use the site or have a brother/sister with young kids the site is at: http://www.santasrules.com

    It may not be doing as much good as a charity, however I would like to think it is a ‘good deed’.

    Merry Christmas all!
    Geoff.

  107. Harith – I think perhaps I can help there –

    Adam’s definitely still around 🙂

    I’m led to believe that the whole Webmaster Tools / help team have been super active at conferences etc over the last couple of months.

    I get a bit excited when all is quiet there – it often means good news for us webmasters – last time things went a bit quiet we got a whole raft of new goodies in the webmaster tools console 🙂

    Happy holidays –

    doc

  108. My wife passed away from breast cancer so I’m partial to Susan G Komen.

  109. dockarl

    Hopefully you are right and we shall hear again from young Adam Lasnik soon 🙂

    As to Matt, I think he is heading to Nebraska. Its the In-laws turn this year 😉

    I wish Matt and all friends a Happy ho-ho-holidays!

  110. I’m big into a K-12 private school in North Miami Beach FL. They have a 6 Million Dollar budget and only 65% comes from tuition. You can send checks to Toras Emes Academy of Miami 1025 NE Miami Gardens Drive North Miami Beach Florida 33179 or you can just go to http://ytcteam.googlepages.com/donate to donate.

  111. We usually give to goodwill….

  112. Readers might want to read the story at http://millionsoulsaware.org. It has the goal to rais awareness with 1 million people on a certain topic: in this case refugee camps worldwide.

  113. I go for anything for children, poor children, sick children, etc.

  114. “Apologies if I already mentioned this.”

    This falls under good deeds.

    As most of you know radiation causes cancer. That means radiation whether caused by an atomic bomb, or an x-ray at the doctors office. One of my patients while working on his PHD invented a way of taking a mamogram with about 1 400th of the amount of radiation previously needed.

    I don’t expect you will find any accurate estimates on this, but I would guess that some thousands (or much more) of women each year die of breast cancer world wide that was caused by the radiation received by their mamogram they had done to look for breast cancer. With this new technology, that number should drop by some exponential amount.

    The technology is currently owned by his old university and should be made publicly available over the next 5 years or so.

    It was a simple use of math and materials to actually, factually save lives for centuries to come. His name is Chris Parham M.D. Merry Christmas all.

    dk

  115. One thing I would like to see more bloggers do would be to write about humanitarian and social issues.

    I have started a series called “Humanitarian Friday.” As the title suggests every Friday I write about a humanitarian or social issue and provide links to worthwhile organizations that are trying to make a difference.

    Check it out: http://www.mytropicalescape.com/

    Happy Holidays,
    Mark

  116. animal charity ? it is stupidity, while thousands homeless human child exist

  117. I recently did a holiday special from my website in which a portion of each sale went to The Make a Wish Foundation. I found them to be a reputable charity for a good cause – helping kids with life-threathening illnesses.

  118. Work with RamaKrishna Mission is also a good idea regarding Charities – . http://www.ramakrishna.org/

  119. So it seems, Matt is still at Omaha with the in-laws. The presents were great and the food was wonderful 🙂

  120. It’s nice list of charity, I would like to add http://change.org one of the great community for nonprofit organization.

  121. I have donated and would recommend a charity in Bangalore called New Ark Mission (http://www.newarkmission.org) rescuing and rehabilitating dyeing destitute on the roadsides.

    Happy Holidays!

    Dr.Sathya Balan

  122. Good list of charity came over here. Not sure anyone mentioned care.org?

  123. There are so many, but http://www.tigertrust.info/ and http://www.mstrust.org.uk/ are a couple of my favourites. The Sumatran Tiger Trust because “There are probably less than 400 Sumatran Tigers left in the wild today”, as they say on their homepage. It will be a huge tragedy if we lose them.

  124. No one mentioned Wikimedia. Of course, it’s not a traditional charity, but donating to them helps education in some countries and supports the Wikipedia project.

  125. Hi:

    A little late on this one.

    Boy Scouts of America.

    Happy New Year.

    Ted Z

  126. I think what Glenn Allsop did over at Viper Chill was pretty charitable. Putting his social networking talents up for free to any charity that wanted his assistance. If you want to read the full story its over at:

    http://www.viperchill.com/blog/using-social-media-for-a-good-cause/

    Happy Holidays!

  127. Great idea, Matt! After a great deal of research, we chose Samaritan’s Purse at: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

  128. I one have one rule to follow: 100% of the proceeds should go to the end recipient. There are a few out there, but not enough of them.

  129. http://www.rnib.org.uk/

    Trachoma is one of the most common causes of blindness – yet it is easily preventable with a specific tetracycline. However in the developing world currently 150 million people are blinded from this wretched disease. http://www.sightsavers.org/What%20We%20Do/Eye%20Conditions/Trachoma/World1324.html

    Sorry to sound like an ad however from first hand experience the suffering and pain is unbelievable (the eyelid turns inwards, and the lashes rub on the eyeball, resulting in scarring and eventually blindness). In combating this disease the RNIB are the unsung heroes who do not have a Bono or Bob Geldof promoting them. Instead they quietly get on with saving thousands daily from this evil and unnecessary disease.

  130. My son.

    We recently moved and it has been very hard on him. You see, we moved to another country (Germany) so my wife could be closer to her sick mom and unfortunately, it required all of our financial resources just to make this move possible. (we were not “rich” to begin with) We also moved here to raise our 12yr old son in a safer, more family oriented society. So far, he has been great, externaly, about the move but internally it has been a struggle. Part of the struggle has been due to our finances as I am currently unemployed after 6 months as I learn a new language and search for an “English” speaking job. Yes, we are aware that $$ does not solve all problems and we do let him know on a daily basis that he is loved. I just wish we could afford to upkeep his basic “kid” needs. No thrills, just the basics. A computer with cad woould be nice as he wishes to design cars for a career or become an architecture when he grows up. Can never start them too early on their career paths, I believe. Of course, some winter boots would also be nice… 🙂 Need to keep him on target before HE loses faith in his visions.

    No easy task, this move, but one that we know will pay off in the long run for our son as he develops a worldly view to complement his excellent mind.

    Enough about us.
    Thank you everyone, especially Mr Cutts, for listening to a father’s concerns.
    J
    ps
    anyone need an American contact in Trier, Germany!

  131. My email if interested:

    jonbeme@gmail.com

    spam will be deleted, of course.
    Thanks again.
    Have a great day.
    J

  132. Hi Matt, is there anyway I can ask you something privately? I’m not a “fan” who’s just looking for your private email – I really have just one inquiry that I think is important and would rather not draw so much public attention to it right now. My goal is to get a definitive answer to something so that unsuspecting bloggers can avoid potential harm to their site development. I am not looking to get anyone in trouble – I just think they didn’t know any better when they did what they did and were maybe blinded by a little greed for backlink love… and a lot of newer bloggers uneducated in SEO and SERPs, in general, could unwittingly be negatively affected.

    Thanks,
    Sam

  133. The S.P.I.R.A.L. Foundation (Spinning Potential Into Resource And Love)

    Since 1999, The S.P.I.R.A.L. Foundation has financed humanitarian aid projects with the proceeds generated by income producing handicraft workshops. Currently 500 Vietnamese and Nepalese are employed with fair wages based on an hourly rate and not on piece-work.

    All net proceeds from the handicraft sales are returned to Vietnam and Nepal to fund primary health care, medical and educational projects, giving to those involved in the production process a sense of pride that comes by helping and sustaining many others, in even greater need than themselves.

    URL: http://www.spiralfoundation.org

  134. Came across this topic by coincidence.

    We spent Christmas working on the website for Tiana Farmer (it’s now six days old) – http://www.helpingtiana.co.za – and if anyone out there has any more ideas or can help spread the word it would be really welcome; we feel a bit desperate given the timescales involved. You can contact me through the website itself. We are getting some responses and donations, but pretty much ALL of South Africa is on holiday right now and it is all a bit scary trying to make an impact in such a short time.

  135. The Elias Fund
    http://www.eliasfund.org/

    The Elias Fund is a 501 c(3) non-profit organization that provides hope and opportunity to Zimbabwean youth through education and community development. We believe there is great strength in active community and education and the combination of the two creates positive effects in people’s lives. Through community centers in Zimbabwe consisting of school tutoring, medical aid, sports activities, general life skills, and nutritional aspects we work with primary through secondary level students and identify potential university level scholarship recipients through our programs.

  136. I donate to a few charities throughout the year.
    I like donating to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, UNICEF and American Red Cross.

    http://www.bcefa.org
    http://www.unicef.org
    http://www.redcross.org

  137. I always give to Valley of the Kings Sanctuary and Retreat [http://www.votk.org/]. They do so much for the animals in their care.

    Thanks for all the wonderful charity links!

    Happy New Year!

  138. In a recent blog post http://www.seochris.com/charity/ I posted my a charity link. I put up a link to Wake Up Walmart. This is due t the recent publication of Sams Club going after the SEO and SEM industry. This will degrade the industry in one way and make the rest of us look like Target!!!

  139. I would like to recommend: http://www.feedyourfamilyfeedtheworld.com/

  140. My best friend has spent the last two years over in Uganda with the refugees that have been displaced by their 21 year civil war (the government vs the LRA). After hearing all his stories, and seeing all his photos etc, I’m especially sensitive to any Charity or business that benefits these people. The charity that he was working with while he was over there was Invisible Children ( http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php ). He also started a socially proactive business to benefit these people called Acholi Beads ( http://acholibeads.com ), and while it’s not a non-profit, it does amazing things for the Acholi people. You can read a bit about his thoughts as he returns to the states on the Invisible Children Blog: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/blog/2007/12/13/21-months-later-a-reflection/

    Also, I’m not an expert, but if you have any questions or want more info you can always contact me: http://xavisys.com/contact-us/

  141. Best Friends
    http://bestfriends.org/

    The Wilderness Society
    http://wilderness.org/

    Defenders of Wildlife
    http://defenders.org/

  142. Good post for this time of year Matt.

    This year, I donated goats for my family rather than purchase needless articles of clothing etc for them.

    I donted them thru world vision after reading about various charity organizations…….world vision seemed to get a lot of good reviews.

  143. It is great to see that so many people care about charities. I live in one of the poorest countries in the world and most people in South Asia cannot dream to have 3 decent meals a day.

  144. If you are a horse lover or horse race fan you should take a look at Old Friends, a non-profit thoroughbred retirement facility for retired racing stallions. It’s the only facility that takes stallions and it’s open to the public so you can get up close with some great racing stallions.

  145. The Prem Rawat Foundation, http://tprf.org/ , is wonderful, because it helps people in need all over the world. One thing that I really like about the foundation is that the money it raises really does get to the people who need it. TPRF’s board members are volunteers, and they keep the overhead to a minimum. I think people like that, because I know that if I give my money, I really would like to know that all of it gets to those who truly need it.

  146. For charities, Invisible Children http://invisiblechildren.com for a company that does “good deeds” Acholi Beads http://acholibeads.com

    Both work to help the refugees in Uganda that have been displaced by the 21 year civil war.

  147. I have heard about WorldVision. They are really doing a good job for disabled Children across the world. I thought it would be best if we can help them bring joy into those Childer with our donation.

  148. It is great to see that so many people care about charities, I donate at online auction charity so that I know the money goes where there it is needed.

  149. Here is a good one, Family to Family organization, that does an excellent job. The families sponsor one or more poor families and provide groceries and other items every month. http://family-to-family.org/

  150. There is a charity in NH called Sustainable Steps. They help senior citizens and disabled people with heat, food, medicine, etc. They also have a job training program for low income people and a program that helps people who have lost their jobs and have to pay their rent or house payment.

  151. City of Hope and the Humane Society.

  152. Hi

    For all your readers in the UK there is a great charity which helps children with life threatening diseases have their wishes granted. It is a superb charity. Visit their site here http://www.whenyouwishuponastar.org.uk/

    Hope your readers pay it a visit

  153. All As One http://www.allasone.org/ is an amazing organization in Sierra Leone that I have done fund raising for in the past. They operate a Children’s Center (orphanage), school, and medical clinic. Please view the information pasted below for more information:

    Children’s Center:

    Immediate Intervention and relief for the urgent needs of the children, who face incredible odds for survival. For many, it is their first chance to enjoy a real home. Individual Care for every child. They receive specific and appropriate help in all areas – nutritionally, educationally, and medically. Personal Contact from the All As One staff. Caregivers are within arm’s reach of the children, and provide loving, one-on-one care.

    School:

    The All As One school enrolls children living at the Center as well as kids from the nearby community. Children are instructed in pre-school through eighth grade in the subjects of English, Math, Literature, Social Studies, Science, Arts, and Physical Education. The school employs Sierra Leonean teachers and the class sizes are small for maximum learning potential.

    Medical Clinic:

    Our professionally staffed clinic provides much-needed medical assistance and treatment to all the children at the Children’s Center. Our clinic also serves our local staff and others in the community. We have registered nurses on duty 24 hours a day, and doctors who oversee the work of the clinic, intervening in serious cases. We also have opportunities for doctors from other countries to visit Sierra Leone for short-term visits to provide extra care.

    Please visit AAO’s web site and consider donating to their worthy cause!

  154. I wonder what “The Get-Bush-Out-Of-Office-Fund” could do?

  155. Hey, Duncan Riley also pointed out a good one: the Frozen Pea Fund.

  156. I would recommend CAP (Christians Against Poverty) based in the UK

    They basicly help people get out of debit, not by giving them money but by teaching them good money management, they have loads of offices through out the UK, but have started to open them internationally. The also stand between the person in debt and the companies chasing the money. They are worth a look! http://www.capuk.org/

  157. I too donate 10% of my income to my Church who then donates to many charities, disaster relief projects and others in need of help. 100% of it goes to those in need.

  158. How can we tell where the money is really going?

  159. Not visiting the blog for long. So catching up.

    Besides – I am involved with charities in India and sponsor the website of a 22 years old non-profit NGO ( http://www.skskolkata.org ) working for indigenous & tribal children in India. 😀

    In this age of information super-highway, there are still people who live in medieval periods and all of us must help to bring them to modern life.

  160. Donating to orphanage is always a good thing. I don’t do donations online though. I usually go to the place in person and make donations.

  161. there are too many rich people who can made some donation.

  162. Check out http://www.carshelpingamerica.org. The charities they support speak highly of their efforts. They go the extra mile and really try to get the most for donors and charities. It’s a Win-WIn. They are members of BBB and have been in business 5+ years without a complaint. Not easy to do in the car business. They charities range from large Red Cross orgainzations to small local food pantries and everything in between

  163. I always like to give to Samaritan’s Purse… The thing I like about them is that a large portion of the money you invest is actually used effectively instead of 40% going to marketing, 30% going to staff like most operations.

  164. Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) situated in India Gujarat Ahmedabad does a great job of running diploma and short term job oriented courses at very low fees and weekly lectures which are free of cost to attend.

    This helps the unemployed youth to enhance their knowledge and get good jobs.

    AMA also helps the students in getting jobs.

  165. Please help spread the word about a 2011-12 Charity Bicycle Ride for Homeless Children in Nepal and India … we need riders, sponsors, supporters, and Couch Surfing members to participate in making this event happen. Thanks … Dhane Blue

  166. I have used UK debt charity http://www.debtadvicefoundation.org to help me sort my finances out. The UK has an issue with commercial orgs earning a lot out of other people misfortune. Charities like this are great. The UK is lucky, we have a few good ones. I am ot sure what the situation is state side.

  167. I think that it is important not to forget about Africa when we hear all the time about Japan. And always remember that charity begins at home.

  168. Being a huge football fan and having a strong belief that organize sports play a huge part in a childs life – I often tell people to look to the NFL’s charity programs. You can learn more at http://www.nfl.com/community

    Thanks – Excellent topic Matt!

  169. Wow Matt.. even your blog isn’t spared by the comment spammers eh!!!

    off topic, yea yea, I know!

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