Shopping for a Good Charity?

The end of the year is coming soon, so we all need to get in our tax-deductible Charitable donations before December 31. Here are some of my favorite (and please comment on your favorite ones too!)

Tip: before donating, always check the Better Bureau Business for the specifics of the charity. You can find out if they are legit, what percent of your funds will go to administrative costs, their mission statement, their standing with the BBB, what they ate for dinner last night, their first grade report cards…etc.

Side note: I’m pretty sure bureau is the hardest word in the world to spell…thank goodness for spell check. Shouldn’t we have a limit on how many vowels can be in one word? I propose a new law: one word cannot contain more than a 0.42 vowel to consonant ratio.

World Vision: We sponsor a child named Inginir Yishak (pronounced Engineer Yee-shack) in Ethiopia. Last Christmas we wanted to send him something special, so we called World Vision and they recommended a cow for his family. So we paid them $100 and they bought a cow, a soccer ball, and some clothing material and sent us a picture with Inginir, his Dad, and all his gifts. It was so cute! I highly recommend this organization.

Blood:Water Mission: Every dollar you give provides a person in Africa enough clean water for an entire year.

Locks of Love: They provide hairpieces to children suffering from any type of medical hair loss. I’ve donated hair to them about 3 times, and congrats to Courtney Baker who just donated 10 inches (and who’s haircut looks amazing)! Locks o' Love need Lots o' Money to actually create hairpieces from the donated ponytails.

Second Harvest: "to create a hunger-free America." It’s easy to donate food around the holidays, but don’t forget that people are hungry all year round!

American Red Cross: Since I am terrified of needles and have ridiculously low blood pressure, I will probably not donate blood like my wonderful husband Eric. A good alternative is donate money anytime someone you know is going and you (like me) are too chicken to give blood (there is no shame in being a chicken!).

Local/Childhood organizations: When I was little I went to Camp Horizon in Leesburg, FL. It is an amazing place and I have such wonderful memories there – so I try to give a little back to them. Try to think of an organization that has personally or spiritually helped you, and give back!

Please comment with some of your favorites!