Ask HN: What charities do you contribute to?

[kaptain]

I'm looking for a reputable charity (i.e. their efficacy rate is relatively high) to donate to. I'm curious to hear what HN donates to. I'm looking towards something in the environmental space but I'm really open to anything.

[houseinthesky]

Electronic Frontier Foundation

I used to have a larger list, but it seems like every non-profit that reaches a certain size or age starts to drift, until one day you see their current projects or grants and realize a lot of your dollars are going to tangential projects.

[poulsbohemian]

Recommendation: Look for something local to you if at all possible. I find it much more satisfying when I know the people who are going to be doing the work and I can directly see the results of the donations or volunteer time.

[iamthemonster]

I'm not saying you are wrong, but I personally took the completely opposite approach on the basis that I live in a comparatively high socio-economic area so you need more dollars to make an impact. I chose Medecins Sans Frontieres who primarily work in poorer countries because I believe they make more impact to people's lives per dollar spent.

[unmole]

> find it much more satisfying

Isn't this optimising for feeling good over doing good?

[poulsbohemian]

I encourage you to reconsider the tone and context of your post.

[Avshalom]

Personally: Planned Parenthood, RAINN, SPLC, ALCU, AICF, DWB, Albuquerque healthcare for the homeless, road runner food bank, Albuquerque meals on wheels, Albuquerque heading home.

But generally I would recommend your local food bank as a good default charity.

[susiecambria]

Food charities, yes!

I DO think it's worth understanding the structure of food/hunger charities, at least in the US. In many places, there's a central food bank and then lots of smaller food pantries. Typically, food banks get the big bucks, have the big events, and give/sell food to pantries, etc. The pantries are run by houses of faith, service organizations, etc. and are open a few hours a week.

I was surprised to learn that a number of people in my area rabidly oppose the regional food bank, saying that pantries must buy their food from them, arguing that the food should be given. Having worked with a food bank in DC, I understand that food banks have the power of the purse to buy food at a discount no pantry could dream of getting. And because food banks have a distribution network, they can also handle large donations of soon-to-expire food, etc.

I've tried to explain to food bank opponents that it's a better deal for the pantry to buy food from the food bank; the pantry will receive more for their money. But there's no convincing them. Which is fine.

Anyway, the point is to understand the system and make an informed decision about where you want to donate.

[silisili]

None with any cadence. I'll always throw money at St Jude when I see a collection bin, though. I remember an old man telling me all about their good works and charity when I was younger, and it stuck with me. They seem really solid.

Like you, I just don't trust most charities, and haven't taken the time to deep dive.

[RecycledEle]

As a teacher I used to tithe to my classroom. It drove my coworkers and bosses nuts that I had everything I could want and they were fighting over whiteboard markers. I could tell who the crooked administrators were because they would say "Give me the 10% and I'll spend it better than you can" or "We'll deduct 10% from your pay check and use that for the district; same thing."

Now that I am between jobs and interviewing, I am tithing to my local church.

I may go back to tithing to my classroom soon.

[qup]

I donate to a children's home that is a couple of blocks from my business.

They help troubled kids, lots of pregnant teenagers there, things like that.

I don't try to min max my donations. The organization is doing work that nobody else is doing, that I want to see funded. I don't particularly care if they're maximally efficient.

[sneak]

Givewell is the correct answer. They spend a fixed percentage researching the most impact-per-dollar in reduction of human suffering, then they put the other 97% or whatever each year toward that one thing.

Give to Givewell.

https://www.givewell.org/

[gagzilla]

Love their mistakes page- https://www.givewell.org/about/our-mistakes

Most startups could learn to maintain a page like this.

[jlturner]

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. Aquarium aside they’re a major oceanographic research center and might be what you’re looking for in the environmental space. https://www.mbari.org/

Edit: Just to add, they are a 501(c)3 non profit, you can donate here https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/join-give/ways-to-give/g...

[Njyar]

I recommend giving to small and local organizations, big organization and NGOs are full of corruption and a small amount of the money given actually ends up in the hands of people who actually deserve it.

[susiecambria]

Planned Parenthood, PTAs, other local orgs as things come up.

Have throttled back for the past three months because we are supporting a single grandmother with custody of three grandsons (1, 4, and 12) with the middle one in the hospital with cancer. Have been paying their bills on and off and cooking dinner and snacks for them. With food costs as high as they are, something had to give and so charity took the hit. I do, however, donate handmade quilts and table runners to most orgs when they're doing fundraisers locally.

[xupybd]

I like the idea of local charities that you can see and know you align with.

Personally I give to my church. They align with my values and I see how active they are in the community.

[SonOfKyuss]

Not as much as I would like, but when I do, I mostly contribute to local public TV and radio stations. Also children's medical charities like St. Jude.

[Avshalom]

Oh yeah I guess PBS might count, 6 dollars a month gets you PBS Passport which is a pretty bad app but a lot of content. It's my only streaming service.

[andrewf]

Last year: SF-Marin Food Bank, Redwood Empire Food Bank, SF CASA (lawyers for foster kids), Internet Archive, Oakland's video game museum (https://www.themade.org/) and a museum ship in SF (https://www.ssjeremiahobrien.org/).

[no_butterscotch]

FIRE: Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

[sloaken]

I found a few rating organizations, because my biggest fear was the money was being wasted. They all listed unbound, as the top 3 for effective use of money. Basically sponsoring a child. I auto send money on a monthly basis, so I consider it like a bill / expense and do not fail to provide.

[sloaken]

Here are a few sites I used:

The tried and true: https://www.consumerreports.org/charities/best-charities-for...

https://give.org/ Report reminded me of various tech were they validate you have good practices. But did not investigate the actual money trail.

https://www.charitynavigator.org

Now Forbes does not list it in the top 100 which surprised me.

I did my research about 4 years ago.

[drakonka]

Up until about a year ago I contributed to The Good Food Institute, Sheldrick Wildlife Fund, and Nonhuman Rights Project. Now it's things like Come Back Alive and occasionally grassroots fundraisers for the Ukrainian military.

[epirogov]

I am sponsoring neighbor children to visiting local museum events.

[kleer001]

My local city library

Erowid.org

[unmole]

Effective Altruism is the worst form of philanthropy except for all those other forms that have been tried.

[adamquek]

I'm donating to my workplace. More specifically to the hospital fund that aims to support the needy.

[bdangubic]

st jude’s hospital

[ryanchants]

Planned Parenthood, EFF, and the NRDC

[bartvk]

Micro financing; Kiva.org

[silisili]

Don't get me wrong, I like what Kiva does in theory, but it's definitely not charity. They mainly just partner with 'microloan' companies in poorer nations, who themselves can be pretty relentless about collecting their money back.

They often have pretty ridiculous interest rates, such that if you don't make a ton of money from it, you're trapped in debt for a long time. And yes, they'll come to your home to collect. Think of it as basically more aggressive payday loans. To be clear - not Kiva, but their partners.

[codegladiator]

unicef