# Donations for humanitarian relief



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Which organizations are you donating to? Note that many organizations don't mark donations for specific disasters.

The war in Syria continues, causing the biggest humanitarian disaster in recent decades. There are over 10 million people in Syria fleeing their homes. I've seen figures of about 13 million people in need of assistance (food, shelter, medical).

Last year I donated to:

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders
Humanitarian Coalition (care, oxfam, plan, save the children)

I like MSF in general. Looking at their financial statements, most of the money is going to African relief efforts. About 8% of their program money last year went to Syria-linked fallout. Hard to tell how much they are prioritizing Syria this year.


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## new dog (Jun 21, 2016)

This may help people in choosing a charity.

http://www.moneysense.ca/save/financial-planning/2017-charity-100-canadas-top-rated-charities/


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Thanks new dog, that looks like a very nice resource!


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## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

Kiva for +5 yrs. Although it's not really donations as the money gets repaid and relent over and over

I donate my personal time and energy on humanitarian aid so I don't feel the need to pay for it as well


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## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

new dog said:


> This may help people in choosing a charity.
> 
> http://www.moneysense.ca/save/financial-planning/2017-charity-100-canadas-top-rated-charities/


Great link. 

My two main charities are Canadian Red Cross and Plan International Canada. The Red Cross received 5 As. Plan International received a combination of Bs and As. 

I have been thinking about making changes. The link will come in handy.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Thanks. I will likely donate to the Canadian Red Cross this year, possibly also Humanitarian Coalition.

I keep wondering what kinds of amounts people are donating to charities (people like me earning around 100K -- not fabulously wealthy business people with million $ salaries)


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I donated $150 to the Canadian Red Cross, but that's all that my budget allowed.

I read their Annual Report and financial statements, and I like that a significant amount of their money goes to domestic health programs including a focus on senior health and support services. Their biggest categories of spending have been: community health & seniors domestically, international relief, and disaster management.

You might also find this interesting, Statistics Canada's report: Charitable giving by Canadians
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2012001/article/11637-eng.htm
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/89-652-x/89-652-x2015008-eng.htm

The data from a few years ago shows the average charitable/non-profit donation is $446 and the median is $123. In 2013 the average donation was $531. This article from December 2016 says charitable giving in Canada has now dropped to a 10 year low, though this is based on tax filing data.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3130108/c...a-drops-to-10-year-low-according-to-tax-data/


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

I target specific local charities such as women's shelters, SPCA and the like that I can 'identify' local needs for, along with certain local non-profit initiatives such as the Okanagan Rail Trail to help get the walking/biking trail built. I also give to the CRC on targeted efforts such as the Fort Mac fire fund. I do NOT give to any charity that has large administration/funding solicitation costs associated with them (per MoneySense). Annual giving is typically well within the 4 digit range. 

One that I now feel partial too because of my recent direct experience in Botswana is http://www.rhinoswithoutborders.com/ where effort is being undertaken to re-introduce the white rhino to Botswana et al to help keep it out of South African poacher's reach and to bring numbers back up.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

james4beach said:


> Humanitarian Coalition (care, oxfam, plan, save the children)


I'm wondering if anyone has been keeping up to date with Humanitarian Coalition. If you know about them, can you share your thoughts?

They sent out a campaign to attract donations for the Indonesia earthquake and tsunami -- a terrible disaster that's unfolding. But whenever I look at this kind of marketing, the main question in my mind is: does donating to this org actually send money towards those relief efforts? How effective is a dollar of donation?


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## ian (Jun 18, 2016)

We have used that review for the past several years. We reviewed our giving. We moved much more of our giving toward the Calgary Interfaith Food Bank and give less to faith groups and to those groups that we previously donated to that have a poor rating.

We want our giving, just as we want our day to day spending, to yield as much value and benefit as possible. That, plus the fact that there is a lot of need in Calgary despite the wealth.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

I have found many of the international organizations, a lot of them money doesn’t go to where it should. After working with the Red Cross for some natural disasters, I was really impressed. 

I primarily donate locally and have my kids do a lot of fundraising and community service to local areas. For more global charities, I tend to do Red Cross, or I know of people who do international community service and I will donate to them.


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## Karen (Jul 24, 2010)

I will never again donate to the Red Cross, I donated to them years ago when the terrible tsunami in Asian occurred, and I read media reports about a year ago saying that most of the multi-million dollars the Red Cross received for that disaster is still sitting in the Red Cross's bank account. Then, there was the case of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. I sent a donation to that as well and read a few months ago that the Red Cross had built only a very few (I believe it was three) permanent homes with the multi-millions of dollars in donations they had received for that disaster. That was the final straw for me; I now donate only to charities that I know something about personally, such as Doctors Without Borders and some local groups such as Covenant House and the Union Gospel Mission - I don't agree with the UGM's religious beliefs, but I like to support the dinners they provide for homeless and needy people at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Curious where else people are donating to, currently? I am thinking the Red Cross this year. Last I looked into, donations help both domestic & international efforts.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Donation levels are lower among younger people: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/charities-donor-aging-1.4932252

Personally I think it's natural given the economic situation of young people. With no job stability, no pensions, high debt burdens and very significant uncertainty about the next months/year, it's harder to make meaningful and routine donations to charity. For example if I had job stability and the comfort of a pension, I wouldn't have to think twice about donating a few hundred $ each year. But instead, I consider my ability to give on a year-by-year basis. This has been a good year and I will be donating a few hundred $ to the Red Cross.


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## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Thanks for the reminder with this thread about annual donations.

No comment on the story in the link.


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## AltaRed (Jun 8, 2009)

As I mentioned further up thread, I support local and regional causes that I can identify with, and that do not have high* overhead, and in fact, often have less than 5% overhead/G&A. I do not give internationally as we have enough local needs close to home.

* with one exception, the Red Cross on specific appeals like the 2018 BC Wildfire season and before that the Fort MacMurray fire, and which have matching donations from corporations or governments. I abhor all the big national charities with high overhead, huge executive salaries and the like.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

This is what we did this last year and in the upcoming months.

I had two colleagues personally go to third world countries for humanitarian causes. One ‘‘twas for an orphanage and school in Haiti, and he was building some stuff at the school. Because the organizer knows the principal and director of the school,p and orphanage, we sent supplies they asked and as a family donated the gifts to for about half the orphans. I hope to see the Xmas pictures when I return to work. He personally brought the gifts in hockey bags, so I knew it would meet its intended audience. Interesting though, he said they almost didn’t make it through because of players, amend militants. 

My other coweorker, does a lot through engineers without borders. She was raising money for efforts, we donated directly to her.

My kid have chosen a passsion project for school. She realizes how lucky she is, and wants to help kids in Crisis. She will be supporting a local children cottage. She has been raising fund, and has asked family members if it’s alright to donate part of her Christmas and birthday presents, her younger sibling is also supporting her. 

As I have said before, support a charity that you have a connec Ion with or means something you.


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