Welcome to the Charity Splurge 2011 Challenge!

Thank you for visiting this blog! I'll be doing my best to introduce you all to interesting humanitarian causes and worthy organizations to support. Once a month I'll promote one, and you and all your friends will challenge yourselves to splurge on some charitable giving.

See the links at the left side for more information, and the showcases are in the entries below. Here is a badge (with other colors coming soon, thanks to Crystal Rider!) that you can display on your own website or blog to spread the others and help them say "Yeah, I can do that."



Happy splurging this year!

CS2011 Wrap Up

Now that this year and this project are drawing to a close, I figured it would be good to post my own wrap up and final reflections. Originally I had thought of having this being an ongoing project, but it turns out it's very difficult to even pick out twelve causes among thousands!

Charitable giving is more effective when you chose fewer causes to give more to anyway, so I plan on leaving this project up as a reference and guide for people who would like to get involve but aren't sure what their primary interests are, or even what is out there that would interest them.

I'm happy to have done this, but I'm learned some of the downfalls of having such a wide giving portfolio as well. Evidentally, at least one of the organizations I gave to sold my contact information out (and I've got a good guess which one) and I've received direct mailings for foundations for multiple different diseases and starving children--I even got one today in German! But really, if someone is going to spend the money to send me not only paper, but pennies and tote bags, I don't really think my contribution is needed!

Over the course of this project, I've determined which ones mean the most to me and which I've had the best experience giving to.

While I'm not planning on regular additional contributions out of my own pocket (for now), I will continue to recycle my microfinancing loans for Kiva and keep using GoodSearch for Love146. The North American Friends of the Asian Rural Institute reached out to me about getting more involved, and I'll be doing some volunteer Japanese-to-English translations for them as needed. I'll continue to sponsor a HeroRat, I just don't know yet if it will be Chosen One or one of their up-and-coming stars.

Not that I'm capping my giving to just these organizations--as local needs arise throughout the year, I'm likely to participate as I see it worthy to. Sometimes it helps to be flexible, too. Last March while I was helping at a fundraiser for relief for Japan some ladies dropped off some women's clothing and diapers. In an emergency situation abroad it's just not efficient to send physical goods, so I gave them to a local crisis pregnancy center and then contributed to the fundraiser for about how much the goods were worth. I wound up giving more out of pocket than I planned, but it honored those ladies' generosity and wound up helping someone else in the process. If you're open for these things, the opportunities will come.

Generosity doesn't have to be planned, and I don't think it should be. When it comes to development and putting your money where it's going to be most effective, though, you're going to have a wider and deeper impact by making a plan. If an organization can anticipate a regular amount of support each month, that helps them with their financial planning. If you focus all of your charitable giving for the year to only one or two causes, then the amount you contribute will be able to go further rather than being stretched thin.

It's a sad fact that most normal people can't afford to give as much as they'd love to. Just because I'm not giving to all of these organizations again doesn't mean I don't care about the work they're doing, which is why I'll continue to advocate and bring them up whenever there seems to be an appropriate place to do so. Sometimes getting someone else aware of something will do more than $10 would.

Nevertheless, let's not forget how quickly $10 will add up when put together with other peoples' $10. Generosity never has to be about the amount.

Happy giving, everyone.

December's Showcase: Institute for Transportation & Development Policy

Look, I'm not being cliche for December! I'll bet you weren't expecting the final showcase to be about public transportation.

This is a good example of how societies can be dramatically improved--efficiency-wise, environmentally, and from certain standpoints, economically--and is a "good idea" that "should happen," but is faced with a lot of resistance when it comes to real-world application.

For instance, I live in Colorado Springs. I would love to to see my city become more of a hot-spot tourist destination because it would bring income into the city and because we've got some pretty nice sights here to share (even though I've seen the Garden of the Gods so many times that it's just normal landscape to me, I've enjoyed sharing it with exchange guests my family has hosted). Frankly, however, our public transportation options suck, and while there are walking trails that go on forever, it's not pedestrian-friendly for everyday life. If you don't have a car, you're pretty much stuck.

Even if people complain and say "we need better public transportation here," no one is really willing to give up the convenience of their cars or pay higher taxes to establish better systems. Sigh... such is the story of many good ideas.

It might just be because of the utter lack of it here, but I really like public transportation (and I am very stubborn about not wanting to get a car, but that's mostly because I don't want to pay for a big piece of metal that will continue to cost me money in loan payments, maintenance, insurance and gas, but that's really just a matter of me whining). I mentioned in the previous entry that I love Japan, which I do, and I love the train systems there. Sure, I had to walk a lot (and got soaked a few times in typhoons), but I could pretty much wake up, decide on a little town to go check out, and then find a train to take me there.

I also love China. To be a little more specific, Hangzhou is one of my favorite cities in the world. It's part big-business and shopping and part tourist destination (for good reason, but I digress). While I studied there for three months, I could go pretty much anywhere. Granted, that was because there were cheap taxis everywhere, but most things I needed on a regular basis were within easy walking distance, and the air-conditioned buses went almost everywhere I ever wanted to go. There were many days when I would just start walking for miles, see where I would wind up and what kinds of places I would discover, and when I felt satisfied, I just needed to find the nearest bus stop and I knew I'd have a way back. It was nice to have both freedom and security.

Part of what made it so walkable was that a lot of the city was planned to accommodate people without cars (that's not to say they don't have congestion problems, though). One of the ways they've done this is to implement a city bike-rental system. You sign up for a card which has a certain amount of cash put on it, and you use that card to unlock and pay for bikes that fill stalls all around the city. You use it for a certain period of time, and then you can just return it to the nearest stall. You can read more about that system here.

Why do I bring this up on a blog about humanitarian organizations aiming to alleviate poverty? Because good ideas should be shared, that's why! But if good ideas are going to work, they need something to back them up, and help see them through. Sometimes that requires a think tank. Hence, this month's showcase is the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP). They work with governments and developing cities around the world to make informed plans for more effective public transportation to support growing city populations.

Cutting down on carbon emissions is just one goal. They also want to make transportation safer, and enable the underprivileged living in big cities to have access to what they need without having to buy cars and get stuck in traffic jams--more transportation options means more possibility for employment, which means more means by which to support oneself and one's family.

And I'll state it again--public transportation makes any city more attractive to tourists! Plagued with problems as it is, we live in a remarkable world, and I'd like to see more people enabled to go out and mingle with it.

Payment Procedures

You all probably know the drill by now. Go to the DONATE page, and be ready with your credit card. Part of what ITDP does is make publications about more effective transportation, and you'll be able to share their knowledge when they send you their annual magazine. After all, ideas should be shared if they're ever going to become more than that!

November's Showcase: Asian Rural Institute

While this is a blog aimed at anyone in any developed country, frankly, most of the people I know reading this are American--which means "November" is synonymous with "Thanksgiving," which further translates to "duh. Focus on a food-based organization this month." Fine. I'll be cliche and focus on food.

Food is under appreciated anyway. I say this not in the good old guilty way we're used to hearing (that we have an abundance of it here and starving children halfway across the world would love to take our obesity problem off our waists) but that it's one of the most constant needs in our lives. We will always need it, and we're constrained by our need for it multiple times a day. We can go without proper shelter or bathing or clothing, but those lacks won't typical pain us as fast as a lack of food will.

Nevertheless, it's one of the most enjoyable needs we have! It's immediately satisfying, it comes in almost limitless variety, and it brings people together. If you want to take the wonder of food a bit further, let's consider for a moment how the earth's ecosystems are so perfectly designed so that one creature's digestive system actually supports other creatures on the same food chain (and tangent food chains). It's so complex but works so well! (And on that note, I've always pondered how indebted we are to plants, because this whole system would fall apart if it weren't for photosynthesis).

I love food. If I had enough disposable income, I would be a dedicated foodie (or just hire a private chef, and someone to wash the dishes).

I also love Japan, and cultural exchange, and focused organizations that work to help the underprivileged around the world help themselves. Extra points if said organization is environmentally responsible. These are all things that make the Asian Rural Institute (ARI) cool.

In a nutshell, they bring leaders (50/50 gender ratio) from rural communities around Asia (and Africa and the Pacific!) to the farm in northern Japan for a nine-month training program to prepare them to bring sustainable farming methods back to their respective communities. It is an accredited school, so they do plenty of research in addition to their daily chores to tend the farm, which includes crops and animals. The community lives on the food that they produce together.

Of course, they were affected by the earthquake last March, and perhaps more so affected by the radiation from the Fukushima plant (they're located in Nishinasuno, Tochigi, between Tokyo and Fukushima). While the radiation levels in their soil are higher than normal (still safe, though) and their facilities had some damage, they were still able to welcome this year's participants as planned. Kudos, ARI.

Something else cool about ARI: You can join them for a while! Their volunteering program is fairly flexible and can put people with a variety of talents to work. (Hint hint: this is a good way to go study Japanese, but you don't need to know any Japanese to participate.) You can read more on the Volunteer page.

Hopefully this was a little more surprising than just another giant "feed the children" organization. While I think there will always been some need for handouts--be it in villages in Africa or in our local soup kitchens--there are really too many of those organizations to pick just one. My suggestion is that if you do choose to give to one, make sure that what they're handing out is nutritional (like enriched peanut butter) instead of just a tummy-filler.

Payment Procedures

To give from America and have your gift be tax deductible, visit the partner site and give here. You can scroll down and see what kinds of specific needs the money goes towards.

They do have a $25 minimum donation requirement, as do many other organizations. Frankly, it is more effective to pick a single cause or two and give more to them instead of giving a little to several different organizations, but this blog project is for sampling purposes and only challenges everyone to $10 a month. If $25 is really going to make you uncomfortable, then you can fulfill the challenge by supporting your local soup kitchen. Granted, this is a cliche month to do that and they could use help all year round, but the local underprivileged need and can enjoy food just as much as everyone else.

October's Showcase: Love146

If you're like me, the first thing that comes to mind for October is Halloween. Let's talk about something that is truly scary.

Out of all the causes I have listed in this project, human trafficking is one of the issues that stirs me most. I'll spare you the horror stories and tell you about how I started learning more about this.

Fundraising idea!

About a year ago, I attended a couple monthly dessert houses. A member of the group would host them at their house and 30 or 40 people would come, usually all young adults. Local artists would display their work, local musicians would take turns at the mic, people would talk, and a dozen or so people would volunteer to bring desserts and teas. Each dessert house would have a cause or organization for the theme, and time would be set aside for someone to introduce an organization and what they do. Cash donations were free-will, but $10 was the suggested amount.

Actually, it was after attending one of these dessert houses that I got the idea for this blog! Love146 was presented at the first one I attended, but I found out about a few others at these as well.

Why is it called that?

This story I will pass on because it stuck out in my mind. When the people who started the organization were doing an undercover investigation of a child prostitute house by posing as customers, they were able to view the young girls from behind a window to choose which one they wanted, and then pay for different things they could do to them. The girls were all wearing dresses with numbers pinned to them, and they had lifeless expressions. All except the one wearing the number 146, who still looked like she had some fighting spirit left in her. She left such an impression on them that they kept her number, but they never did see her again after that.

There are plenty of horror stories, and human sex trafficking--of grown women, boys and girls who are barely toddlers, both sold knowingly or tricked--is a very widespread problem, but it's very difficult for governments to do anything to stop it. They lack the resources to go after traffickers, track down the victims' families, or even have any place to put the victims. Frequently the victims are too ashamed to return to their families, and after being repeatedly raped and undergoing multiple forced abortions, both physical and mental recoveries are very difficult.

What does Love146 do?

It is not Love146's position to go in and expose the traffickers, but they are able to educate the locals so as to prevent them from unknowingly feeding the system and allowing their loved ones to get hurt, they're able to perform research on the system, and they are able to provide after care for the victims once they are rescued.

At the safe houses, the victims receive medical care, education, professional counseling, and perhaps most importantly, care, comfort and understanding. The purpose is to take them from the depths of darkness to a point where they are able to sustain themselves with new skills and make a new life for themselves. I've read the details of what kind of care they provide, and indeed, this seems like the safest kind of place many of the victims could hope to get to.

Prevent horror stories

Part of the reason I bring this up is not just to support Love146, but also to spread awareness. This is not just a problem in Nepal, it's likely a problem in your own 1st world city.

There are two kinds of trafficking you should be aware: local people being trapped and forced into providing sex or pornography material, and people from abroad being kidnapped and brought to where customers have more money to spend on them.

In both cases, you should be suspicious if someone--like a waitress, dancer, or masseuse--is not allowed to talk to anyone, or if the owners seem especially defensive if anyone asks about them. Part of the way they keep a hold on their victims is to prevent them having the chance to call for help, or to threaten them into silence. This is generally true of both international and local cases.

Please, please take a look at the SlaveryMap to see what kinds of cases have been reported recently in your area. There is also more information on this site about how to report suspicions to the right authorities.

This is definitely the topic of this project that I get most emotional writing about. Besides supporting the work Love146 does, please keep your eyes open and spread awareness about human trafficking.

Payment Procedures

Giving is pretty straightforward: Make a donation here, and also check out their store, Facebook cause, and texting options at the bottom of the page. They're also on GoodSearch, which I'll be using again this month.

September's Showcase: One Laptop per Child

Well, but this time school has started again in the United States. Kids are strapping back on their backpacks and skipping or trudging to school where they'll be overwhelming with recess dilemmas, school lunches, and an overwhelming amount of information available through computers. No matter how much we argue until we're blue in the face about the quality of the education they get, you have to admit, at least they're getting one, and technology has become an indispensable part of that.

Which brings me back, of course, to economic development and how you have to think about it from many different angles for it to be effective. This month's focus is education.

The more educated a population is, the higher earning potential it has, the better quality of services it can provide, and the lower the child mortality rate. Thus, more widely available education is good.

Issues with getting kids to school and making sure girls are equally educated and providing teachers are entirely different complex issues with a number of solutions already in action around the world, so let's set those aside and just focus on the quality of the education.

We'll switch gears for a moment: globalization and technology. These are also things we can argue ourselves blue in the face about whether they hurt or help societies (especially in developing nations), but we can safely say they exist and they are changing the world, and if the world wants to develop, it must adapt to them.

Therefore: more educated populations need to have applicable skills, which means that they must be able to use technology.

Kids do have a knack for figuring out technology, as Sugata Mitra's experiments reveal. He embedded computers at child height in regions where children probably had never seen computers, and they would gather, play with them, and very quickly figure out how to use them. But computers are expensive and breakable! How can you bring computer and technological communication skills and internet access to kids all over the world, even way out in Micronesia?

One Laptop per Child fixes that. They provide small, highly durable (I cannot stress enough how durable), energy efficient, and education-oriented laptops to underprivileged children all over the world. Yes, even in the United States! They are not cheap, of course, and for that reason they are not handed out like toys. They are tools to help make educated individuals, and from there, educated populations.

Then we can start arguing about brain drain and outsourcing. Well, in any betterment of society, nothing stays simple. At least this organization has a very simple, straightforward function.

Payment Procedures

While the default donation page requests donations of $50-$1000, you still have the option of entering a lower amount of your choosing. For $199, you could also pay for an entire laptop and receive a card crediting you (or whoever you give in the name of) for it. You could also give stock, but that's not my area of expertise. I'm a cheap graduate who can only afford to work with cash.

August's Showcase: Seeds of Peace

This is likely the charity I have put the most thought and concern into. Considering that this is the month of Ramadan, I wanted a peace-related cause to feature. Choosing Seeds of Peace was difficult for two reasons:

1. Peace is difficult. Peace is really, really difficult and messy, and many well-intentioned peace operations don't have the impact they aim for (or at least the ones that do succeed frequently are given due credit because someone else is always ready to take credit for the successes). Even considering the rise in privatization of peace negotiations, it is hard to find an organization that stands apart from everything that I wish to fund.

Seeds of Peace sticks out to me for a few reasons. First, it is recognized (although not as much recently), and it does active work where it is needed, such as in the Middle East and South Asia. Second, it's not a "feel good" kind of peaceful way of bringing people together and wishing for peace. Rather, it takes youth from conflict-prone areas and provides training and workshops for future leaders in addition to providing friendships from group they previously held prejudices toward. They don't just hand them a diploma and congratulate them on finishing the program and get ready to welcome the next group--they provide a network of support and regular updates to their graduates. The purpose is to build consistent leaders for peace within the affected communities, not to try to bring peace in from outside. This is why I really like them.

2. The second reason this was a difficult decision was because I'm taking a risk on this one and breaking my own rule for only supporting financially sound organizations. Sadly (and startlingly), Seeds of Peace has a zero-star rating on Charity Navigator. I spotted this several months ago, but I have been following the organization since then to see if they would make any changes.

Sure enough, they have. They've hired a new head of development, which is a good sign because one of the major strikes against them was that they hadn't been growing for a few years. I've watched them add new ways to give (which I'll get to) to make sure they stay connected and relevant. They've also posted an official response to the Charity Navigator rating which addressed everything they were rated poorly on, and how it has been addressed and has been improving since that information was collected in a year of restructuring. It was the response I had been waiting for that answered all of my own questions about the course the organization is taking.

Charitable organizations, like any other kind of organization, can make mistakes, hit low points, and find it necessary to restructure themselves. I've seen it happen to companies who still remained good companies at their core, but did take some time to recover. In light of the state of the world economy, it's still happening to plenty right now. I believe enough in the work of Seeds of Peace and the angle it takes to want to support now while it is in need, but shows many signs of taking action to fix its problems.

Payment Procedures

Of course, I'm doing my $10 directly on the Make a Donation page, but this is where it gets interesting!

As you see here, they have arranged five ways for you to shop, set up wedding registries and do general internet searches like you would anywhere else, only using those particular sites will pay the organization of your choice! I highly suggest checking out those links even if Seeds of Peace is not your organization of choice. Though it's hard to break the search engine habits I already have, I am committed to using GoodSearch throughout the month of August for all my personal searching needs.

July's Showcase: Surfing the Nations

It's the height of summer now, and so what could be better to do that help support a humanitarian cause? Well, surfing, of course. Of the wet variety, not the net variety. Now wouldn't it be great if you could combine surfing and humanitarian causes?

It's already been done in Hawaii, Bangladesh, Israel, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Indonesia through Surfing the Nations. Their purpose is not to protect the world's beaches by beating off sharks (I wouldn't advocate an organization that functions at another group's expense!), but to spread a love of surfing to socially serve at-risk youth and families. This organization was started by a couple who loved to surf and do humanitarian work, and it is considerably smaller than many other organizations I've been advocating, but reaching out to someone who is lonely does not require large numbers of people, but passionate people. Sadly, I'm not a surfer, and I don't know I share that level of passion, but I can at least financially support those who do.

Based in Honolulu, they run a soup kitchen there and run programs for at-risk youth in surrounding areas, and when they do their missions abroad, they not only spread the love of surfing but bring along clothing, supplies and toys for their host communities. They've established a satellite center in Indonesia to continue serving the community there by reaching out to the most ostracized of society.

So... that's totally sweet, dude.

Payment Procedures

Donations are handled through Egiving's secure systems, and you can select how you would like your money to support them--building upkeep, community impact, etc--and pay with a credit card here.

They are currently running a capital campaign to renovate their food kitchen and community center, take a look at their plans!

June's Showcase: Water for People

With summer and gardening coming up fast, many of us here in the US have a common problem: the price of water is increasing, so it leaves us with little choice but to turn to xeriscaping and to take shorter showers, or just gripe and pay the extra costs. At least many of us have that option to ensure that we'll still have clean water.

This is the part where we feel guilty, because millions of people don't have such easy access to clean water, regardless of how much we might have to pay for it. Compared to how much more it's going to cost us to use as much water as usual, or considering how much money we'll save by letting our grassy lawns die, $10 to help less fortunate people around the world have a better shot at access to clean water isn't that difficult.

Out of all the water charities out there, I think Water for People is one of the best developed, accountable, innovative and most able to make an impact. They are a 4 (out of 4) star rated charity on Charity Navigator, and they oversee a number of different kinds of water projects in Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, including the project that first caught my attention, the PlayPump. In a nutshell: kids play on merry-go-round at local elementary school, this powers a pump to access clean ground water, the water goes up into a storage tank which has income-generating advertising space on the outside, and people pump clean water out through a tap, and the village has clean water. Ta da! See more about the business model for this project here.

Of course, as creative as many water projects sound, just like any development project, they don't run quite as planned in the original business model. That's why Water for People measures their success in terms how many people their projects at serving not only at the start of a project's completion, but 3, 6, and 10 years afterward to make sure that it's not only meeting original targets, but growing.

Payment Procedures

Go to the DONATE page, and fill in your contact and credit card information as usual. They ask for $25 amounts, but have the option to type in your own $10 amount if you so choose.

If you aren't comfortable giving on a credit card, you can also give with stock or by mail according to the instructions on the web site.

Happy giving, and here's a toast of H2O to you all.

May's Showcase: ORBIS

Imagine yourself at that dinner party where you really could care less about the bake sale at some kid's school or the marathon fundraisers you don't have the time or effort for. The conversation comes to you. Sure, you might be out-done, but at least you'll sound interesting when you answers, "Who, me? Well, I give to a flying optometry hospital."

You don't even have to bluff. Won't you look smart when you can tell people about ORBIS? As part of their mission to save sight on three continents, they do indeed have a flying eye hospital, equip with sterile operating room and recovery room, laser treatment room, and classroom space to educate local people about how to save sight. This traveling hospital is staffed by volunteer doctors and primarily provides surgeries to children, people blind in both eyes, and people who otherwise would not be able to afford a surgery.

The ORBIS mission to save sight for the world isn't limited to their flying hospital. They have six regional offices around the world, and they fly doctors out to educate local optometrists, health officials and NGOs. Usually, their training programs will last three years, during which time they instruct them on method for diagnosing eye problems, treating them, and performing surgeries. This is part of their capacity building strategy, which maximizes their impact by letting local people take over and help themselves with the tools and training they are given. This is probably a large part of the reason why they have a 4 out of 4 star rating on Charity Navigator!

Here is what else they say about their capacity building program:

* Training eye care professionals in the prevention and treatment of eye diseases prevalent in their region and ensuring that these skills are effectively put into practice

* Strengthening the different types of eye care institutions, such as hospitals, medical schools and eye banks, so that they have the tools in place to continually deliver urgently needed eye care services

* Introducing health care financing systems, such as tiered payment plans, so that even the poorest of the poor can access sight-saving surgery

* Providing ophthalmic equipment, such as digital retinal cameras, indirect ophthalmoscopes and operating microscopes, and training staff to properly use and maintain this equipment

* Advocating on behalf of legislation promoting and supporting eye health on the national health care agenda

* Generating public awareness that some forms of blindness can be prevented or treated and don’t have to be accepted as fate

In the past 26 years, they've already provided over 900 of these programs! You can read some of their success stories here.

As you can see, they've assisted people losing their sight to cataracts, injuries, and a number of different causes, and yeah, it's great that they can see. It's something we all tend to take for granted until it's gone. Consider how one change--restoring someone's sight--can allow them to support themselves in the future. Poverty alleviation requires removing things standing between people and the ability to help themselves, and blindness is one of those things that can be treated.

Payment Procedures:

Go to the DONATE NOW page, and make your credit card payment from there. Or, if you're not from the United States, you can select from one of their other regional sites listed on that page.

You also have the option of donating frequent flier miles! I'm doing money for now, but I might see about doing something with my United Mileage Plus miles. Hmmmmm.

For those of you cool enough to be ophthalmology professionals and airplane pilots, you can also volunteer your services for ORBIS! The rest of us can still do fundraising and advocacy.

April's Showcase: Cross International

We all know there are starving orphans out there and disaster-stricken poor communities out there, and we all know there are a bunch of organizations asking for money to help take care of them. It's such a daunting issue that it's very hard to fathom which organization could possibly be more worthy than all the others.

So what would make Cross International special?

Besides the breadth of their experience and needs that they discover and find ways to meet, what is most impressive is that according to Charity Navigator, 98.3% of their funds go to project expenses.

That means that for every dollar you give, 98 cents goes into action, while only 1 or 2 cents will go to administrative and fundraiser costs. This is pretty significant; out of all the noteworthy charities I've looked into, I haven't seen any other with administrative cuts kept quite so low. It takes a very dedicated, selfless group of people to accomplish the work this organization does without much compensation.

Before the earthquake in Haiti in early 2010, Cross International had already been very active there, including housing, feeding, and educating orphaned youth--a very far off notion to most of our minds, as those of us without experience have trouble imaging the amount resources necessary to care for 82 orphans, while paying 175 teachers and helping 18 other schools in the city provide education to 6,600 other impoverished children. This is only a sample of their operations in Port-Au-Prince alone, not to mention their other projects in that city and in the rest of the world!

When the earthquake hit last year, my parents and I discovered Cross International while doing a thorough comparison of other organizations responding to the disaster, and felt that our dollars would be use most directly with Cross. This isn't meant to demerit all of the other organizations who responded, but choices must be made, and I think this was a trustworthy choice.

Certainly, many people are interested in contributing to countries hit by more recent disasters, such as Japan (see previous post for more on that) and Burma. Let's not forget how much other communities still need attention, even after their time in the headlines has passed. Furthermore, let's not be rash with sympathy-driven given. Do always take the time to investigate where your funds are going and how experienced any given organization is in a given area!

While I am making an effort to choice organizations that anyone can be comfortable with contributing to, it is easy to recognize right away that this is a Christian organization--not that that changes the good work they are doing, I would still be happy to support them if they were atheist or Jewish or Muslim. Nevertheless, they are Christian and do what they do because of a religious calling, and frankly, many of the other most productive organizations with this focus are also Christian in nature (World Vision is another favorite of mine for their youth-oriented advocacy and fundraising approaches). Let's not let faith or creed be divisive.

Part of the reason they are able to keep costs so low is because many of their spokespeople are retired pastors who travel and make appeals on behalf of the organization, usually at regular church services, so must of their donations come from other Christians. On that note, I was already looking into Cross more for this blog project when a priest came to give a homily about it, so I asked him afterward if there is any time of year when they are most of in need of donations. Of course, they're in need all year round, but he suggested to feature Cross for Holy Week.

So, Christian-readers, you know what is this month! Palm Sunday is April 17th, and Easter is April 24th, putting Good Friday on April 22nd. Not only would that be a good week for you to consider something bigger than the usual $10 I ask for you all to consider, but to suggest it to your families and fellow parishioners.

As for my equally amiable other readers, I still encourage you to maximize your gifts' effect by giving to Cross because so much of it goes directly to the people it serves. When you tell your friends and challenge them to give, consider it a boost to your esteem that shows you're open-minded.

Payment procedures:

Go to their donation page.

They have a number of options, whether you would like to find a specific project to support (there is a variety of approaches in a variety of locations), or there are options if you want to donate tangible goods, such as jewelry or timeshares, or if you want to make them a Facebook cause, or donate via PayPal or the mail or over the phone.

Or, if you want to do it on a credit card and don't have a preference which project it goes to, you can just choose their single gift option, plug in your information, and then just wait for your receipt to hold onto for your tax deduction!

Japan Earthquake/Tsunami: Brief suggestions

Not all giving is planned, but disasters do merit it. This isn't a full entry, but rather my executive summary of everything I've just looked into:

AmeriCares: Already has extensive experience with Japanese earthquake relief, 99% of the donation will go to program expenses (as opposed to administrative or fundraising expenses). 4 out of 4 star rating on Charity Navigator. Although we can designate it to disaster relief, there is no place on the donation page online to designate it specifically to Japan.Give here.

Convoy of Hope: A "first responder" disaster-relief oriented organization, active in other recent quakes and provides funding to like-minded organizations as well. Also a 4 out of 4 star rating, 92% goes to program expenses. There is a place for comments on the donation page so I assume you can use that to designate it specifically to Japan. Give here.


Global Giving: They are not doing any action themselves, as they primarily raise funds to give to organizations they deem appropriate. I don't know what these organizations are and can only trust that they're worth it. Nevertheless, they are running a campaign specifically for Japan, and this might be appropriate for a general fundraiser. It seems somewhat popular. Give here.

Although I've done research outside of Charity Navigator to try to get more complete pictures of organizations, they still know what they're talking about and they have very practical advice for how to respond. Please read this page before you decide where/how to give: See here.

EDIT: We have already raised over $3,200 here for our Japanese club/ Valparaiso University fundraiser, and we have decided to split funds between the Red Cross and Lutheran World Relief. My biggest concern is that because of lot of red tape, not every organization that wants to help in Japan will be allowed in. We included LWR because we are a Lutheran school and for many of the people we were aiming the fundraiser at we figured they would appreciate that choice, but I at least feel somewhat confident that the Red Cross will be able to do something in person.

March's Showcase: HeroRAT

Yes, you read that correctly. Rats that are heroes.

Allow me to introduce you all to the rat I am sponsoring:



His name is Chosen One, he is a Giant African pouched rat, he was trained in Tanzania, and now works for peanuts in Mozambique. So it's a little different from when I used to have pet rats, but none of my fancy rats could sniff out landmines. Can you say that you have a landmine-sniffing rat?

Good news: You can! Or you can least say that you sponsor one. Because Apopo, the organization which runs HeroRAT, is based in based in Europe, they can accept direct monthly and/or yearly contributions in Euro, but for those of us in American, we can go through their partner to give in US dollars and receive a tax deduction (more payment details later). To sponsor the rat of your choice for a year, it costs roughly $6.70 per month, or one payment of $80. Because this is one of my favorite organizations I have encountered, I have committed to the extra cost instead of just $10.

Being a sponsor comes with perks, too! Thanks to the help of his organization, Chosen One sends me thank-you letters and progress reports through out the year to let me know his own and his colleagues' successes, complete with his paw print as a signature.

So what does Chosen One actually do?

Because of their heightened sense of smell and intelligence, as well as their sociability, rats can be trained to locate buried landmines that have been left over in abandoned war fields. They alert their trainers, who then dig up and deactivate them. Once they have cleared an area, it's safe for people--and business development!--to return without fear of losing limbs and lives in surprise blasts.

But isn't that dangerous!?

That's another advantage of using rats: they aren't heavy enough to set the landmines off! To date, they have not had any rats accidentally set off any landmines. Both on and off the field, the rats are treated very humanely, and are even introduced to the villagers in the localities where they work, shifting perceptions of people who only thought of them as pests.

Some other advantages: while rats can bond with and trust humans in general very well, their bonds aren't quite like that of a dog, so it is easy to have them switch trainers if necessary. Furthermore, they use a local species of rat. Because they are native to the area, they are also well adjusted to the dry heat and diseases in the area, making them a better fit that animals trained elsewhere and brought in.

But that's not all!

In additional to training rats to sniffing out explosives (they've already cleared 796,178 square meters of land, including 861 landmines, 374 unexploded ordinance and 6,216 small firearms), they also train rats to detect tuberculosis (TB). In Sub-Saharan Africa, 50% of TB cases go undetected, but in 2010, the HeroRats found 594 TB-positive cases which were initially missed by traditional diagnostic methods. According to World Health Organization projections, they've helped prevent at least 5,940 new cases of TB.

This organization is one of my favorites because it's very effective and a little nontraditional (not to mention I've always been a big fan of rats). Their correspondence with me so far when I've had questions has been quick and friendly. While I will probably continuing sponsoring rats with them, I understand that this isn't for everyone. That's why I still encourage you (and your friends!) to contribute $10 to their overall costs.

Payment procedures:

Go to the tax deductible donation page.
For those of you in the US, scroll down to the bottom and follow their instructions for giving with their US partner, the King Baudouin Foundation United States (and yes, this will be tax deductible--save the receipt that will be sent to your e-mail inbox!).
From there, specify the amount you would like to give (and then tell all your friends so they do the same, of course).

If you would like to adopt a rat, see the selection.
Once you give according to the instructions above (you'll want to do $80 for the year), forward your receipt to herorats@herorat.org and tell them which rat you would like to sponsor. They will sent your certificate and updates from your rat to the e-mail address you provide to them. (You can also do this as a gift for someone else!)

For information about HeroRAT operations: See here.
For information about Apopo's work and research: See here.

February's Showcase: Engineers Without Borders

In trying to do what is right for the world, we each must accept our own limits. As for me, engineering is something that goes completely over my head. I've had two engineering roommates who were very passionate about their subject, but the only thing I learned (besides an enthusiastic lecture about concrete) was that engineering students simply do not require as much sleep as normal people (that's meant in the most admirable way).

In my admiration for engineers, I've loosely followed the Engineers Without Borders team at Valparaiso University and participated in a couple of their fundraisers. Every year they host a pancake breakfast, but my favorite fundraiser was a table they had set up in the student union for a week with pictures of a few local male figures with and without mustaches. You can vote for whether you preferred someone with or without it by putting however much change or cash you wanted to into the respective voting cups, and for each one, the guy would have to keep a mustache or keep it off for the following month. Sadly, the two I voted for wound up not being very popular, but I still like the idea for a fun and easy fundraiser. That also prompted me to look more into the organization.

Engineers Without Borders is an international organization which functions just as it sounds like: they provide engineering projects where they are needed. They're broken down into chapters throughout different countries, but for simplicity's sake, I'm only introducing the EWB-USA. They are further broken down into over 250 chapters, 180 of which are university chapters. Here is a basic introduction from their web page which sums it up nicely:

Dubbed the “Blueprint Brigade,” by Time Magazine, EWB-USA grew from little more than a handful of members in 2002 to over 12,000 today. EWB-USA has over 350 projects in over 45 developing countries around the world including water, renewable energy, sanitation and more. These projects are completed in partnership with local communities and NGOs.

Sounds nice and broad... and hard to fathom quite the breadth of their reach. Never fear, for you can still have control over where your $10 gift will go! If there is a certain region of the world, or certain kind of need, or even a certain school that you feel particularly tied to, you can easily navigate their donor page to select schools or projects, and then read reports on those projects, including a break down of the costs, the background, the need and the response, as well as follow-up information on the project. Some of the projects already in progress also have photos! While most of the projects I checked out did provide this information, many of them do not provide much information. Realistically, this may be because those projects are still in their early stages. Keep this mind when choosing a project.

Can't decide? I'm with you there. You can also choose to give to a general Project Grant Fund, or by giving directly to the EWB-USA to cover technical review, project management, travel support and administrative costs. Gifts made to any part of the organization, however, are matched 100% by the board of directors and corporate advocates until their $150,000 fund is depleted, with the matched part that they contribute going straight to the general fund.

What is matching?
Matching is when one party agrees to match another party's contributions by some set amount. In this case, if you give $10, the board of directors will give $10 to match your gift dollar-for-dollar, thus making it a $20 gift (their contribution is specific to the organization as opposed to a specific project, though your contribution will still go wherever you want it). Quite often, large corporations or philanthropists will offer matching up to a certain amount collected from individuals or until a certain date. This is done to stir up more support from the average people like you and me, so that's a good opportunity to take advantage of if you're not sure when to give.

Some employers also match their employee's eligible charitable giving, depending on their policy. For instance, on a 50% or fifty-cents-to-the-dollar policy, an employee could give a $10 gift, and the company will match by half that, $5, so that is automatically a $15 gift. If matching is available for something you'd like to support, take advantage of it!

Payment procedures:

Go to the donation page.

You can select where you'd like to give from there. If you're searching for your school or local chapter they should be easy to find by state, and they should have information posted about their projects. If you'd like to search by project, you can first search by country, and then there will be a list of projects to click on to find out more about.

Each one of those pages will take you to a page to pay with a credit card and enter your information so that you can receive your receipt (you'll need that later to get a tax deduction!). You can also give in honor of someone else or contribute stock, donate by shopping with online retailer partners, or give through the mail or include them in your will. More information is about each of these options is easy to find on their donor page.

With that all having been said, those of you outside of the US can find out more about them at their international page: http://www.ewb-international.org/

Finally, this organization is not affiliated with Doctors Without Borders. EWB builds hospitals and supplies clean water and power and sanitation services to them, but doesn't operate them.

January's Showcase: Kiva

Here is our first challenge of the year! For those of us misers who have trouble adjusting to the idea of giving away money, this is a great one to start the challenge with because in most cases, the money will come back to you.

Kiva is a highly transparent micro-lending service to entrepreneurs in countries around the world. I've been a Kiva member since 2008, and I've watched them steadily grow in popularity. Apparently, it was named as one of Oprah's favorite things of 2010. That's for good reason, because it's an easy way for middle-class people to help less privileged (but highly capable) people to help themselves. To date, they've financed over $100 million in loans.

How does micro-lending work?
Entrepreneurs in poorer regions of the world can come up with business plans, either for businesses they already have or ones they'd like to start, and talk to local Kiva partners to ask for loans. After the local partners determine their credibility and likelihood of being able to successfully repay the loans, they finance them, and provide information about the clients to Kiva.

Kiva posts the information about the entrepreneurs (the amount of information can vary depending on the partner), and people like you and me can browse through them and select who we would like to provide funding to back-fill the loans. This can be done for as little as $25, and usually a group of about 15-30 lenders can completely back-fill the loan.

The entrepreneurs have very reasonable repayment schedules and are not charged any interest, only the principle. As they pay the loans back, that money is put back into your Kiva account. You have the option of reloaning that money, or withdrawing it. It's yours to do as you want with it when it comes back to you. There is always the chance of default due to business failure or the outbreak of violence or something to that effect. I wouldn't worry much about that, because they have a 98.91% repayment rate.

I know I said that I'd be asking $10 from you all per month, and that these loans are at least $25. I'm still asking you to contribute $10 to Kiva as an organization to help them continue their work. $10 will more than cover their costs for facilitating one $25 loan for you. You always have the option not to give to Kiva and just pay for the loans as well.

Kiva cards are also great gift options for the person who has everything! It's like a gift certificate and giving in a loved one's name all rolled together, because they get to choose who they're going to finance.

Currently, I am supporting Leiner Rodriguez Olivera and Teofilo Cesario Verdesoto Arevalo. Olivera, 24, is a student in Peru who helps her mother run a grocery store, for which she asked for a $700 loan. Arevalo, 41, lives is Ecuador with his wife and three children. He took out an $800 loan to buy agriculture supplies for the various crops he raises, and his dream is to grow cocoa (which had me sold!). You can click on their names to see their pages and progress, including pictures!

In the past, I've also supported a wholesaler in Azerbaijan, a group of women selling rice in Cambodia, and a man raising livestock in Tajikistan. They've all paid back their loans 100%.

Payment procedures:

You will need to make an account on the Kiva website: http://www.kiva.org/
That way, once you put the money in, they will automatically put it back into your Kiva account as it is repaid so you can easily loan it back out or, should you chose to, withdraw the money for your own use. They will also keep track of your stats and who you've given to the past. You will be informed as payments are returned to you. You can pay via credit card or via PayPal.

Because the loans are made under the assumption you'll get them back, the money you lend out is not tax deductible in the United States. However, money donated to the Kiva organization is! Keep your receipts!

Have fun browsing and picking out whose business you want to support, and happy splurging!