Oxfam

[annuin]

I just noticed something interesting. In the wake of this earthquake and the tsunamis and such, silverthoughts had links up to some charities, including Oxfam. Now I'm no stranger to their name, especially not as they've been an institution that I've known of since before I was even old enough understand what they actually did, but I hadn't actually been on their site before. I just noticed that you can donate in memory of someone, and they'll also send a card to the person you're remembering, or their family. They also have the options for donating in name of someone's birthday or the holidays and other such things.

In my case I'm considering donating in the name of Merijn, the family friend who died tragically earlier this year. It would be a nice way of being able to give aid to people who need it desperately, as well as add a personal touch to it too. You can even pick where you want the money to go... from wherever it's needed most, which right now would likely be south east Asia to projects in Ethiopia, Sudan, Haiti, Southern Africa etc.

Not that one needs an additional reason to donate to a worthy cause, but something just struck me about the fact that you can dedicate it to a person's memory.

Comments

[silverthoughts.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Oxfam is great. I don't go for a lot of organizations but this one I rec out a lot. They haven't done anything to make me disagree with yet.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've never heard anything bad from them. And assuming the statistics on their site are to be believed, the majority of their income actually really goes to the causes, not to running the charity itself. And that part is the part I often find disheartening about a lot of charities or not-for-profit places... when you look into it, they might spend only 10% or less of their income on what they should be, which really makes you wonder why you bother.

[tanthe.livejournal.com]

I found this link which is helpful:

http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html

The toprated charities they list on that page spend 75% or more on the actual causes and related stuff, and 25% or less on the actual charity management costs. So these are the ones that get a high effectiveness. I believe the charities on that list also get bonus points by the American Institute of Philanthropy for gladly supplying them with the requested financial statements etc. about their charity. So the actions of above-board charities.

It was interesting to see that stuff like Unicef and the WWF weren't listed among the charities, the American Red Cross though was.

I do get the impression though that these are mostly US based charities that they are rating, so I'm not sure about foreign based charities. Maybe there are other sites that would do similar reviews for more localised organisations.

[silverthoughts.livejournal.com]

I knew about Unicef and WWF. This is why I don't donate money to them especially Unicef. I remember reading an article once that stated that Unicef's money and resources do not go to the people. They are handed to the governing body for distribution and well....some governments are corrupt and not all of it goes to the people.

This is also for that whatever that charity is called. The one where you can adopt a kid from some third world country for $1? It also goes to the governing body for distribution. I don't trust governing bodies to truely give them all to the people because most of these governments are corrupt.