Seriously thoughtful Donation for Haiti - to whom do I donate?

[Katti's Cat]

I have donated previously through the thread / link provided by Nate but I want to give more. My problem now is, I don't know to whom I donate the money.

The reason: I want the donations to go to Haiti and being used somewhere else. Through previous donations I have made experiences that left a sour taste in my mouth as I felt that my money was not used as I intended.

My instincts would make me donate to Medecins Sans Frontieres as the medical situation in Haiti is absolutely appalling atm but even they don't guarantee that the money will be used in Haiti.

Do you know of a organisation that will use the money in Haiti and Haiti alone? And yes, admin fees will be deducted. I am aware of that. But I figure that if even only 50% of my donation is used in Haiti, that's 50% more than they would have had without my donation.

And yes, I have checked the 'Hope for Haiti Now' website - not sure that I want to support them due to the organisations they are sending the money to.

And yes, I considered downloading the relief concert on iTunes but I figure if I get something for my donations, it's not really a donations. (I still will download some of the concert).

[daffy4u]

You can try charitynavigator.org. They have a rating system for charities with pie charts showing how they spend their money.

I donated to local charity in my area that took supplies to Haiti (turned out they were a 4 star out 4 rated charity).

[happy_terd]

Maybe someone should organize a donation thread sticky with the proper info here in the forum to answer all of that. I think it would be neat to see something like that and would be willing to send a few bucks if I knew the ins and outs. I have the same questions you have.

I am certain that I do not want to trust my donation to go through the white house like they advertised on the radio.

[Moejoe]

You might consider Ben Stiller's charity Stillerstrong, they were working in Haiti before the earthquake hit to build schools, and now they're helping with relief.

http://www.stillerstrong.org/

[Katti's Cat]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

You can try charitynavigator.org. They have a rating system for charities with pie charts showing how they spend their money.

I donated to local charity in my area that took supplies to Haiti (turned out they were a 4 star out 4 rated charity).

Thanks for the link - it's a start for me to look at organisations.

Being in Australia I can't donate to the local charity as they all give to organisations I don't really want to support.

[Katti's Cat]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

You might consider Ben Stiller's charity Stillerstrong, they were working in Haiti before the earthquake hit to build schools, and now they're helping with relief.

http://www.stillerstrong.org/

Have bookmarked his organisation and will look into it for later - at the moment they don't need schools but shelter, food & medical supplies.

[Sweetpea]

Here, in the Netherlands, we have a national bank account, which is opened for certain catastrophic events all over the world. The money that is put in there, only goes to that cause.

[Katti's Cat]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Here, in the Netherlands, we have a national bank account, which is opened for certain catastrophic events all over the world. The money that is put in there, only goes to that cause.

Sounds like a good thing. We can donate here too but it goes to charities that will then use the money. And as mentioned, I am rather picky these days who gets my money.

But I have now made up my mind. Rather than sitting and analysing it to death I have decided to split the money I wanted to donate and have given it to 2 charities:

1. One is 'Medicine sans frontriers' for immediate relief - yes I am aware that they may use the money elsewhere but I believe they are a worthy course at any rate (no link - just google if interessted and charity in your country will pop up);
   
2. The other is a small charity 'Yele Haiti' - this donation is to assist haitian (?) people after the first crisis. http://yele.org/

Took me a while to work these out, but I am now happy with my choices.

[daffy4u]

I was going to point you toward Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti site until I learned they were having some issues. That's when I decided to send you to charitynavigator.org

[Katti's Cat]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

I was going to point you toward Wyclef Jean's Yele Haiti site until I learned they were having some issues. That's when I decided to send you to charitynavigator.org

Thanks for that - I had already found out some of that in my research but decided despite that to donate to them as they are doing good work on the ground level. Hadn't read this article though but would be a shame if they have really gone overboard with the admin fees. Not so worried about the payments they made to themselves as I have nothing to compare them with, i.e. I don't know what it would cost to rent / hire from a third party.

Lets, hope that at least some of the money donated makes it way to the Haitian people.

[LS650]

They gave the American Red Cross only 3 stars. I donated a fair chunk of change to the Canadian Red Cross - I wonder how they compare? The site above doesn't list them.

[Katti's Cat]

Originally Posted by LS650

They gave the American Red Cross only 3 stars. I donated a fair chunk of change to the Canadian Red Cross - I wonder how they compare? The site above doesn't list them.

Not sure about the American & Canadian Red Cross, but I have some issues witht he Australian Red Cross - on several occasions they admitted to using donations for other things than the for what the donations were collected for (Bali Bombing & Tsunami Relief being only 2). That made me unhappy with them - which I was for other reasons too. So now I don't donate to them any more for specific occasions and they are fairly low on my list of charities.

[kindlekitten]

they have a ton of overhead, other outreach programs and so on. they're great for what they do locally, but not necessarily focused giving

[Katti's Cat]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

they have a ton of overhead, other outreach programs and so on. they're great for what they do locally, but not necessarily focused giving

Yep was aware of that - but at least the money goes to Haiti. That's why I gave to them for the time after the immediate crisis which I covered through Medicine Sans Frontieres (at least I hope so). The last reports we are getting here on the news is that Medical Supplies and Medical Staff are still not sufficient to ease the suffering of those hurt.