I'm curious if any of you have a favorite organization which you support as a means to helping those with less,and why. My favorite is Plenty. They are based at the Farm in Tennessee. It is a grass roots organization which does more with less. I have a hard time donating to groups where certain employees get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. You can find them at www.plenty.org We also support Habitat for Humanity. I like the idea that they are helping people who are willing to help themselves.

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

Answers

Habitat for Humanity is a great organization. My boyfriend and I support a local group called Family, which provides all sorts of services from a food and clothes pantry to hotline assistance, assistance with job training, detox, community awareness etc. There's another local group called Angel Food East, which is sort of an extension of God's Love We Deliver, a Meals-on-Wheels for people living with AIDS (boy, wouldn't some of the folks at CS have a fit about THAT). I used to deliver for them a few years ago. You do have to be careful who you donate to. I write about real estate in New York City, and there's a big scandal going on at the moment concerning Hale House, which was in its day a completely awesome (in the truest sense) organization. Clara "Mother" Hale would care for the children of drug-addicted mothers in her Harlem apartment--as many as 22 kids at a time, living with her . The city sold her a couple of buildings for $3 (yes, three dollars), the understanding being that those buildings would be used to further her work. Well, Mother Hale died a few years ago, and her daughter it seems has been renting apartments out in the buildings at market prices! Actually,she was charging fairly affordable rents for New York, but those were supposed to be the equivalent of government-subsidized housing for mothers trying to get back on their feet. Rosie O' Donnell drew a lot of attention to the case when she pulled her sponsorship of the group, after an internal investigation of Hale House got a failing grade from her organization, For All Kids.

Speaking of which, Newman's Own, run by Paul Newman, has raised something like $100 mllion for charity. What a guy!

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

Plenty has done mega stuff in Latin America, I know they were there back in the 70's during the Farms heyday as a commune. My husband is an electrician and has done volunteer work for Habitat. I kind of pick and choose from individuals to small organizations, I use to give my fair share to United Way because they helped me out one time years ago, but I decided a few years ago that I didn't like giving to a big organization. I go to the local Unitarian Chruch from time to time and donate to them.

Blessings, Judy

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

I donate to lots of organizations, but my FAVORITE is The Tropics which takes in unwanted birds (parrots and the like). Darn few are qualified to care for these birds (they aren't "easy" like dogs and cats). They can't be "returned to the wild", they're only here because of human action, and they need complex and expensive care.

Since this is the kinder, gentler forum, I probably won't get blasted here, but just in case, I will mention that I donate to organizations that help people too. But you asked for my FAVORITE! ;-)

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

Oops, I'm sorry, I went back and read JZ's original post. I sort of misinterpreted it. My favorite way to help other people with less is to contribute to local food pantries.

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

Well, to us animals ARE 'other people", and when we can, we suppport animal welfare (WELFARE, NOT animal RIGHTS idiots like PETA and their ilk), principally Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. We live right up the road from them and know how the money gets used - very efficiently.

We also contribute to local food banks, hospital thrift shops, etc. I like keeping it local, charity begining at home and all that.

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

Yeah, we try to keep it local too. I donate $ and time to my local church. Presently, we are working on getting set up to provide counseling, clothing, and child care to help lower-income or return to work moms that need a helping hand. We also donate to homeless shelters and the local food bank. My husband is president of one of the local service clubs, so between my work at church (which he doesn't go to much and definitely doesn't belong) and his work in the service club (which I don't go to much, nor belong!) we donate a *lot* of time. We also support our local library, both with time and $. We have been politically active at various times (I suppose the Democrats will be calling themselves a charity pretty soon! groan....) plus through getting speakers for our local groups, we try to expose ourselves (what a weird way to phrase something!!!) as well as others to the many worthwhile organizations around....like wildlife rescue and community supported agriculture, etc. Whew.

So little time, so much to do.....

I agree to try to keep it local. Not b/c more people need it here, but it's much more effective!

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

Solar Cookers International. Teaches people around the world how to cook and boil drinking water using solar cookers instead of stripping the forests of wood. Perfect for 3rd world sunbelt countrys....Kirk

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

We give to lots of groups too, but I think my favorite one is Heifer Project International. They give really poor people animals with which to start supporting themselves, teach them how to care for them and make money with them, and require them to give away a certain percentage of the offspring to other families like themselves.

-- Anonymous, April 10, 2001

Great to hear about them thats doin. Kirk and Earthmama, do you have an address, email or otherwise or the solar cooker or heifer proj organizations? Thanks jz

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

I, too, support the Heifer project. Always thought the name kind of sells them short but they do wonderful work because they provide poor people with animals and the know-how to raise their own food and even sell it to make money. You get to choose what kind of project you want your money spent on. The one project that really jumped out at me was the setting up of bee hives to raise honey as well as to provide the pollination for their crops and gardens. I like programs that help people help themselves instead of just giving a handout for nothing.

I also like both Global Business Women's Capital and Women's Village Banking. Both of these organizations give start-up money to women in developing companies to help them start a home business. They also teach them how to run the business. The types of things they do would be to give a woman enough money to buy some wool to spin and make into shawls to sell at her local market. The businesses are very small and probably don't even need a hundred dollars each to get started. Just seems like a good way to help women feed their children without being dependent on a husband to support them.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

Here's the website:

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

Trying to help out here:

heifer project

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

Thank you, Joy! I need more practice......

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

Hmmmm.... Charities... Well, some local orgs, like the sheriffs and the Boise Mission. I donate clothes and stuff to goodwill if I haven't remade them into other things. I spend some money at Ecology Action each year, but don't really 'donate' to them.

Usually - I wind up asking for donations... I take in strays and am a 're'habber.' Just getting into it out here, though, and don't have the space like I did back home. Used to raise and rehab raptors, too.

Looks like I might actually get some gov't help in THIS state - they have some programs I'm looking into. With the reintroductions of wolves and bears up here - and the consequent short-sighted shootings of them - I can't wait to get onto some land where I can start working with the larger animals!! Illinois doesn't have all this stuff....

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

This year I'm participating in "Plant a Row for the Hungry", that is I will be participating if anything grows in my garden. (I'm another first year gardener like Betsy). Our grove has a community service project where we make preemie blankets and caps for the local childrens hospital. And since I've started woking on simplifying my life and cutting down on my possessions I've been giving lots of stuff to Goodwill! The local Pagan community here usually does a couple of food and clothing drives a year, one in association with International Pagan Pride Day and another around Halloween (to help combat the negative images we get in the media that time of the year). I also give money to Alley Cat Allies, which is an educational organization dedicated to the humane management of feral cat communities in urban areas.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

We use blackbeautyranch.org as our "tax write off" charity for taxes, we got our donkeys through them, what a beautiful place! But for charitable work I just help folks out. I do most of my vetting for free, give goats to kids starting out, and also donate a doe to the kid goat giveaway program at a college out here. I also send folks stuff for no reason, sent a bunch of yeast to a gal on the other forum. I am babysitting an infant for a gal while she finishes a class in High School, it is the difference between her getting a General Diploma and an Honors Diploma which means she will go to college. We also through our company (Handyman Services) do lots of work for both the elderly and MMR adults in our community, including tours of our farm for the state preschool program. If I had the money I also would give food to our food pantry here in town, I just love that it is not religously affiliated, and you don't have to answer a whole bunch of questions to get anything you need. In their boxes for help they also give cleaning supplies, laundry soap and toilet paper, along with "real" food that kids will eat. Course my husband says "If you had real money to help, you would have no money, you would give it all away". Maybe that is true, but I also know this is why God always provides for us and we have never been without. Vicki

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

I choose to help the world's wildlife who are indeed having less and less to sustain them each year. I support The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and Northwest Environmental watch. I plan to leave my estate to one or all of these organizations since I refuse to have children to help overpopulate the earth.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001

I also like both Global Business Women's Capital and Women's Village Banking. Both of these organizations give start-up money to women in developing companies to help them start a home business. They also teach them how to run the business. The types of things they do would be to give a woman enough money to buy some wool to spin and make into shawls to sell at her local market. The businesses are very small and probably don't even need a hundred dollars each to get started. Just seems like a good way to help women feed their children without being dependent on a husband to support them.

Colleen,

Are your two affiliations associated with something called the Grameen Foundation?

I've heard of Grameen and had thought of supporting them but was curious as to what others thought of them.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001