What are some organizations I can donate to?

Question

I am from a club called world of difference. and we have money to donate...i was just wondering if we can donate to any particular program

Answer 1

The clubhouses of america we are kinda un known the clubhouses are for the mentally ill. I am a member of New reflections house in tooele Utah. We are always looking for donations. Here is a website you can visit I don't know if it's the new reflections one But it's for the club houses check it out

Communities Creating Opportunities for People with Mental Illness

What is a Clubhouse?

A Clubhouse is first and foremost a community of people. Much more than simply a program, or a social service, a Clubhouse is most importantly a community of people who are working together toward a common goal.

A Clubhouse is a community intentionally organized to support individuals living with the effects of mental illness. Through participation in a Clubhouse people are given the opportunities to rejoin the worlds of friendships, family, important work, employment, education, and to access the services and supports they may individually need. A Clubhouse is a restorative environment for people who have had their lives drastically disrupted, and need the support of others who believe that recovery from mental illness is possible for all.

http://www.iccd.org/ClubhouseDirectory.a...

Answer 2

Please consider our non-profit organization, it's called Beauty for Ashes. Our mission is to provide adult women who are or have been, in the criminal justice system and are at-risk of re-offending with the opportunity and resources they need to maintain a productive, transformed life. Just think of the lives that will be changed just by helping one mother make better choices for her family.

Answer 3

Teen Challenge is a wonderful program. It is not just for

teen-agers, they will accept any age. There are even a few that will take mothers with their children as well as centers for very young children.

If you are not familiar with Teen Challenge, it is a faith based rehab center, created for drug addicts but has grown to include just about any addiction there is. The recidivism rate is the best of any program that deals with the problems they do.

Not only can you donate money and receive a tax receipt but most of them have a second-hand store where you can donate clothing/household items and even old vehicles.

Answer 4

A local Kiwanis Club would have knowledge of community projects that could use a helping hand.

Answer 5

here is a research group trying to find a cure for all kinds of disease  you have to donate computer time ..not money...http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

Answer 6

Disabled American Vets. It's one of the few that I try to send even $10 since we don't have much at the moment.

Answer 7

RAMUSA.org is a wonderful organization.  60 Minutes did an article on them a few months ago.    They manage their money very well.  I was impressed.  

Mission

The Remote Area Medical® (RAM) Volunteer Corps is a non-profit, volunteer, airborne relief corps dedicated to serving mankind by providing free health care, dental care, eye care, veterinary services, and technical and educational assistance to people in remote areas of the United States and the world.

Founded in 1985, Remote Area Medical® is a publicly supported all-volunteer charitable organization. Volunteer doctors, nurses, pilots, veterinarians and support workers participate in expeditions (at their own expense) in some of the world's most exciting places. Medical supplies, medicines, facilities and vehicles are donated.

Answer 8

You can donate to any program.  The latest numbers from IRS show 904,313 charities (501c3 public charities) are registered with them.  This does not include charities under $25,000 in annual revenues or about 1/2 of the local religious organizations doing charitable work.

With almost 1 million charities out there, with a little research, you can decide who you want to give to, which organizations are legitimate, and which are actually using the money for the programs they say they are.

Charities are categorized by "field of interest", ie,  arts, human/social services, education, religious, health, etc.   Within each of these fields, of course, you will have homeless shelters, child abuse, pre-school children, after school tutoring for elementary children, food pantries, hospitals, programs for the blind, etc.  

Have your club members make a list of "areas of interest" they are interested in supporting.  These could be local or national, but you can probably make a bigger impact locally.  

Compile the list of all of you member's areas of interest and have them rank them 1-10 (like voting).  Take the top 3-5 and have people do some research on them.

To help you do your research, go to guidestar.com .  This is a site that posts nonprofit charities tax returns and information about each one.   All you have to do is sign up and create your own password.....it is FREE to look at charities contact information and their tax returns--ignore any of the stuff on the site you have to pay for.

Go to the advanced search option.  If you want to look up organizations in your city, enter your city name, and enter the area of interest, say "blind", in the search term field.  You can also choose to look up organizations by state or just all U.S.   You can also just look up all the charities in your city and that would be a good list to start with.

Once you do your search, a list of organizations matching your search terms will come up.  Click on one and you will see their contact information, programs they offer, and some successes they have had over the past year.

Scroll all the way down almost to the bottom of the page and you will see their 990 (which is the tax return charities file). Click on the most recent year listed.....most would be only 2006 by now since most 2007 returns are not filed yet.

The front page will show you contact information, total income and total expenses and any profit or loss they made. The second page is where you will see spending breakout by programs, administration, and fundraising costs. There is even a page on which the charity has to list salaries of anyone paid over $50,000, so you can look at their higher paid staff salaries.

Further in you can see who is on their board of directors, which would be especially helpful to see if you are looking only in your city.  You or your club members may know some of these people.

The most important thing is there are tools out there you can use to be more certain your contributions are being used as you are told they are going to be used, in a financially responsible manner.

As in any field, there are bad apples out there, but those are the ones that make the news and, by far, not the majority of charities doing good work. My suggestion is to ask questions, visit the top 3-5 on your list, do your research, and make an educated decision of where to put your charitable dollars.

You and your club members will feel confident you are making a difference with your charitable contriutions.

My best.  Hope this helps, Teresa