Assistance

[substitute]

I finally donated to Habitat for Humanity's Katrina rebuilding fund. I think they'll actually put the money where they say they will, and there's going to be a lot of people without housing.

I just can't stomach the American Red Cross. They lied and killed people during the early AIDS years, they drive up the price of blood by selling it to brokers, they take money for causes and spend it how they wish, and they charged my grandfather for coffee during the First World War. BLEAH.

Thanks to rroseselavyoui for the list of donation possibilities. I actually went direct to habitat.org because I figured that site probably shaved a bit off the top.

Comments

[stimps.livejournal.com]

Thanks for doing the research on this, iggy! It's always hard when you're trying to donate money from a foreign country.

p.s. I'm so disappointed about the coffee thing. =( WTF?!

[namja.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I go down to the Red Cross and help clean and reorganize their response trucks, time is something in my price range as far as donations go, and at LEAST I know where my donation went.

I actually didn't know that much about their antics during the early aids years, but I wasn't even ten yet, so that wasn't something I was paying a lot of mind to at the time.

[vertamae.livejournal.com]

This is the first time I've heard anything negative about the Red Cross. I was going to give them $20 or so - are you saying I shouldn't?

[substitute.livejournal.com]

I have been told that if you donate to the Red Cross you should donate directly to your local chapter, because they're more likely to get the money to the place that you're donating for. Otherwise it will just go into the big general Red Cross fund.

I personally can't donate to the Red Cross. I know that their volunteers often do great work, but the organization is a socially regressive, arrogant throwback to 19th century Christian charities and I don't trust them.

[rroseselavyoui.livejournal.com]

The site I linked gives you the option of telling them exactly where you want your donation to go, so that might help as well.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

Sadly, the American Red Cross has a history of taking cash for a disaster and using it for whatever they want. Happened with the 9/11 appeal and with the SF quake too. Apparently it's more likely to help if you give to your local chapter. I'm just through with them, though.

[rroseselavyoui.livejournal.com]

Most of the other general relief options were religious, so I went for the least common denominator.

[substitute.livejournal.com]

I'm not about to donate to the Salvation Army, but I'd rather have Jimmy Carter's people building houses than the American Red Cross buying themselves some new office furniture.

[scromp.livejournal.com]

Yep, I overcame my distrust of the Red Cross after 9/11 thinking that a centralized quick response was best, and they wound up "repurposing" it. Never again. I sent an equal amount to a friend in DC who just went down to the Pentagon and asked some firefighters what they needed, and went to Wal*Mart to get it for them. Guess which I consider money well spent?

I have donated to AmeriCares since then, who seem to be really damn efficient and on the ball. They're also pretty communicative about what they've been doing with it.

This time I'll do another one to the Humane Society as well, since, well. yeah.

[rroseselavyoui.livejournal.com]

They do, about 3% of your contribution, to offset the cost of processing it. Whatever, I don't actually mind...two charities one transaction, sounds okay to me.