# Govt matching humanitarian donations for Syria



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

I just learned about this, though it's old news. The government has set up the Syria Emergency Relief Fund.



> For every eligible dollar donated by individual Canadians to registered Canadian charities between September 12 and December 31 in response to the conflict in Syria, the government will set aside one dollar in the Syria Emergency Relief Fund


They note on the web page that the government _does not_ donate to the charity. Rather, when YOU make a donation to an eligible charity, the government sets aside one dollar for the Relief Fund.

Can anyone recommend a charity that they believe is an effective way to contribute to humanitarian aid for displaced Syrians? One I am considering is Unicef's Syria campaign


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Note that Charity Intelligence Canada (_warning_: photo of dead child) has some top pick charities, and lists: Doctors Without Borders Canada, UNHCR, Islamic Relief Canada

e.g. MSF/Doctors Without Borders page on Syria

I am planning to donate a few hundred dollars but I want to make sure my charity dollars are well spent. Any thoughts are appreciated. Is the Charity Intelligence information reputable?


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

I know Doctors without Borders is very well looked-upon as a charity that does a lot of really good humanitarian work. I can't speak for the Charity Intelligence site.


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## Davis (Nov 11, 2014)

The humanitariancoalition.ca is a group of five charities (Oxfam, CARE, Plan, Save the Children) that have banded together to reduce fundraising costs in raising money for disaster relief. Donations qualify for matching funds from the Government of Canada (formerly known as "the Harper Government").


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Also see this article from the Center for High-Impact Philanthropy. There's a list of recommended charities at the bottom, many of which have been mentioned above:

http://www.impact.upenn.edu/how-can-i-help-syrian-refugee-crisis-qa-with-emily-arnold-fernandez/

Effectiveness has very little to do with overhead (some of the world's least effective charities have very low overhead rates, while some of the most effective have relatively high overhead costs); in a case like this you want to give to organizations with lots of experience, boots on the ground, and local presence/connections in the affected countries. Giving via the humantarian coalition that Davis linked to above would probably be my choice personally, but any of the charities listed at the end of the article I linked to above would probably be a good choice.


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## fatcat (Nov 11, 2009)

i give to doctors without border every year as well as oxfam and then local charities
i highly recommend https://www.canadahelps.org/ which makes it easy, all electronic and allows me to give anonymously


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Great tips everyone.

I just phoned MSF / Doctors Without Borders in Toronto and they said that their donations *will not be matched* by the Government of Canada. This is because they want to maintain purely private donations with no government linkage, in order to maintain neutrality in the conflict. That seems wise actually because they are operating in an active war zone and for their safety, I agree that MSF should remain totally neutral


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

Any organizations that protest bringing syrian "refugees"....?! I'd donate there ....:biggrin:


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## Davis (Nov 11, 2014)

Those organizations probably got their start protesting against accepting what they would have called 'Jewish "refugees"' in the 1940s. If you want to keep that sort of company....


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

I think anyone fleeing: a)civil war; b) murder by religious fanatics; and c) collateral damage by NATO bombing raids (no matter how well-intentioned); can rightly be called a refugee. And there are several million of them at last count.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

Better donate to SIOC and Pegida Canada
https://www.facebook.com/SIOC-Stop-Islamization-of-Canada-113065962075296/
https://www.facebook.com/Pegida.canada/


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

gibor. I opened this thread regarding donating to charities who are actively working on humanitarian efforts -- that means to ease pain & suffering of people in need by doing things like donating supplies, medicine, short term housing. Emergency relief, etc. Nearly all of these charities we've talked about so far are engaged in numerous efforts throughout the world, so one doesn't really donate specifically for "Syria" anyway, but rather to an effort such as Doctors Without Borders who are saving lives in many places.

What you're posting about is a totally different thing. I hope you see that they're different ambitions. You have a right to want those things too but we're talking about different things.


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## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

OhGreatGuru said:


> I think anyone fleeing: a)civil war; b) murder by religious fanatics; and c) collateral damage by NATO bombing raids (no matter how well-intentioned); can rightly be called a refugee. And there are several million of them at last count.
> 
> 
> Those organizations probably got their start protesting against accepting what they would have called 'Jewish "refugees"' in the 1940s. If you want to keep that sort of company....


France took in millions of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East and look how that is working out.


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## Davis (Nov 11, 2014)

The Economist magazine (18 October 2015) reports that of the 750,000 refugees that the U.S. has taken in since 9/11, the number that have been charged with terrorist activity in the U.S. has been 0.

So how is that works out for the U.S.?


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## mf4361 (Apr 11, 2015)

If you are donating money, donate directly on their website so all of your money goes to the pocket of charity of your choice. CanadaHelps takes 3.5% of your donation. Not saying these fundraisers are leeches, they do great work to broaden donors base and they, too, need to survive. But if you already have a specific charity to donate to, donate directly to them.

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/why-canadahelps/our-fees/


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