Best Charities to give to?

[prohornblower]

Some day, I'd like to have enough scratch laying around to be able to donate to charitable causes.

However, there are so many out there to choose from. Perhaps as I get older, a loved one will suffer from Diabetes, or cancer, or whatever, and I may feel inclined to give to those (ie: Michael J Fox/parkinsons..).

BUT, if I don't have any reason to give to any one cause, to which would be the most righteous to give?

There are causes that tend to help older people (arthritis, cancer, Type 2 diabetes), but then I think that kids are suffering and they haven't lived 60+ years yet. Is it better to give to causes for kids?

What about things that are pretty much incurable? Is it useful to give to those causes? Or futile? Is it better to give to a cause that could end up actually improving someones life? Or just keep someone happy for their last few days?

Etc...thoughts? I know giving to any charity is a good thing, but there must be some that are better than others? Like, IMO, people who donate to animal charities are just plain stupid. How insensitive. Shouldn't your own da.mn species come first and foremost? I think so.

[madnak]

Look for special promotions and such. Usually you can find a way to get some company to match you dollar for dollar. Or you could find a charity auction and get a trinket out of the deal. Stuff like that.

Beyond that, look into what you're passionate about. Charities aren't all "feed the homeless" types of deals. Personally I donate a lot to producers of free software. I also contribute to Penny Arcade's Child's Play (http://www.childsplaycharity.org/) charity. I'm a gamer and computer geek, so that makes sense. You could also donate to organizations that may not be "charities" but are still interesting to you. Political groups are the classic example I think. I can recommend the ACLU, NCSF, Cato Institute, I think you get the idea. Some research programs also accept donations if I'm not mistaken.

Believe me, whatever you're passionate about, you can find someone who does good work in that area without "support from on high." Help them out.

[Copernicus]

[ QUOTE ]
Look for special promotions and such. Usually you can find a way to get some company to match you dollar for dollar. Or you could find a charity auction and get a trinket out of the deal. Stuff like that.

Beyond that, look into what you're passionate about. Charities aren't all "feed the homeless" types of deals. Personally I donate a lot to producers of free software. I also contribute to Penny Arcade's Child's Play (http://www.childsplaycharity.org/) charity. I'm a gamer and computer geek, so that makes sense. You could also donate to organizations that may not be "charities" but are still interesting to you. Political groups are the classic example I think. I can recommend the ACLU, NCSF, Cato Institute, I think you get the idea. Some research programs also accept donations if I'm not mistaken.

Believe me, whatever you're passionate about, you can find someone who does good work in that area without "support from on high." Help them out.

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ACLU and Cato..what a surprise!

[madnak]

This isn't the politics forum. C'mon. Why don't you recommend some of your own organizations if you don't like mine.

[Copernicus]

[ QUOTE ]
This isn't the politics forum. C'mon. Why don't you recommend some of your own organizations if you don't like mine.

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I only donate to 1 charity and it isnt one anyone else would be interested in supporting unless they adopted their child from there.