My personal, anecdotal experience is that the best charities to donate to are the ones that clearly communicate what their goals are, can demonstrate the good their work does, and are transparent about how they spend their money. I find it tends to be smaller charities that are more effective at this, because their narrower focus means they can explain what they do more succinctly. A charity that says “we rescue all the orphaned seal pups in this geographic area, and it costs £X to rescue, rehabilitate and release one seal” is much clearer about where your money goes than “we help alleviate poverty” without any explanation of who’s being helped when, where, or how (if at all. Far too many charities just spend donations on advertising for donations.)
Don’t get caught up in promises of vague, non-specific goals. While it might seem like “ending poverty” or “world peace” are the best things to donate to, these are often rather abstract goals that may not even be achievable. The “small stuff” is less grand, less eye-catching, but it’s actually these small acts of good, often on a local level, that will actually make the world a better place. Do consider your local charities, the ones who are working directly in your community: that might be your local food bank, hospice care for the dying, wildlife rescue, habitat restoration, keeping the library open, etc. Look for the charities where you can clearly say “yes, the place I live in will be better, and the people in my community will be happier, if this charity succeeds in their goal.”
A lot of people will say “don’t donate to animals/environment when there are so many humans that need help”, and I would urge you not to listen to them. A charity that spends all of your donation on helping hedgehogs or cleaning up litter is doing more good than a charity that says it’s helping children in poverty but is actually spending almost everything on advertising. A good charity will be able to demonstrate the positive impact it’s having on the world, regardless of whether it’s helping children, adults, animals, or the environment.
Not exactly a charity per se, but many open software projects are in dire need of funding. If there is a piece of software you really like that makes your life easier, consider donating.
Otherwise, stuff like the Trevor Project or similar sound great.
Best in what way? I think it’d depend on your world view etc
edit: oh and this’ll naturally depend on where you live too
The best charity is subjective, it depends on what you think is important (protecting the environment, education, …)
That being said, before you give, you should do due diligence by looking up the charity you’re considering. These resources can help you verify a charity is effective, doesn’t waste money, and isn’t a known scam.
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Charity Navigator rate charities: https://www.charitynavigator.org/about-us/
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Better Business Bureau rate companies and charities. https://www.bbb.org/search?find_country=USA&find_text=red cross&page=1&sort=Relevance
I respectfully offer that the Better Business Bureau is not a reputable source. They rate companies and charities in the same way Yelp rates businesses. They offer fees for ratings and the complaint process does absolutely nothing. I’ll let you do the google sleuthing on it, but please, do not use them for anything.
Charity Navigator, Candid, and ProPublica offer far better tools for assessing charity. If you’re paywalled from navigating some of the tools provided by Candid or other big entities, you can try your local library as they’ll sometimes have access.
Finally, the “best” charity in my line of work (I research these things) depends on three things:
- % of contributions spent on administrative overhead
- % of revenue spent on ED/CEO compensation
- Measured program effectiveness in the service area
And you should absolutely read what @frog@beehaw.org has contributed. Clear mission/value/goal/program alignment, transparency, and accountability to the public are, generally, praise worthy organizations. Those that do not provide annual reports, 990s, and other important information on their websites are, in my research/experience, generally doing something questionable if not illegal.
Well said! And just to add to your advice, for any UK-based people reading this, the place to check charity information, including the trustees’ annual reports, financial statements, and audits (if applicable) is the gov.uk charity register.
So relieved to see my usual charity to donate to (K9s for Warriors) is highly rated on charity navigator. I was hoping they were a good one.
My other one is Lockwood Animal Rescue Center, but they have a tiny bit lower score.
Thank you for sharing the site for charity navigator. Ultimately I agree that the best charity is subjective. I heard about those two from other people and they’re subjects I feel passion about.
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UNRWA could use it especially now
I just donate to GiveWell. They treat charity as an optimization problem for minimize dollars spent per human life saved.
Recently, this effective altruism philosophy has gotten a bad reputation because of the support techbro grifters, and wacky long-termism. But GiveWell seems to be distributing the money to reasonable causes: mosquito nets, maleria medication, vitamin a, cash for vaccines
If it is to your tastes, Cory Doctorow is currently giving an extra promotional effort for EFF by offering a bunch of his books at DRM-free downloads as a charitable Humble Bundle: https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/03/humbly-bundled/#eff-too
Even without the book-bonus, I think EFF is a worthy cause… but I also think hedgehogs are a worthy cause, so your mileage may vary (https://savemetrust.co.uk/our-work/saving-britains-hedgehogs/).
Secular charities, like the United Way, or personal mutual aid requests.
The religious charities use your money to lobby for their beliefs to be enforced in secular law.
Kiva
I have monthly donations setup for ACLU and the Internet Archive. Both do great work