If you were going to donate money to....

[sheldonm]

As many of you know, I have a huge collection of original jazz photography; many pieces of it signed by musicians. I have thoughts of selling or auctioning some prints for the hurricane relief.....lf I were to do so, where would be the best place to donate the proceeds.....Red Cross, Jazz Emergency Relief Fund.....or?????

If you were buying the print, what would sway you?

Thanks for the help!

Mark

[catesta]

St. Vincent de Paul

Or, I would try and find some charity organizations (with soild credentials) closer to the affected areas.

Edited October 2, 2005 by catesta

[jazzbo]

As I mentioned earlier, Salvation Army from personal experience and observation.

And if you were living here in Austin, I'd say the Capitol Food Bank. I've been supporting them about 15 years or more monthly. A great outfit.

[Eric]

What catesta said. Personally I dislike the thought of X% of a contribution going to "administration" which you can't avoid with a "national" charity.

Edited October 2, 2005 by Eric

[sheldonm]

Thanks for the tips guys! I'll dig into it in the next few days.

Mark

[robviti]

As I mentioned earlier, Salvation Army from personal experience and observation.

←

lon, with all due respect, the salvation army gets none of my money. their ongoing discrimination against gays and lesbians has been well-documented. hell, they have even been sued by their own employees who were non-christian for discrimination!

[micha]

CharityNavigator.org is a helpful website that does breakdowns of various charities, including % of donations that go towards overhead and descriptions of what they do with the money they receive.

They have a section listing Four Star rated charities specifically for Katrina relief. When I made a small donation last month I ended up going with Direct Relief International, though there are a bunch of others that also looked good.

[jazzbo]

js, that's fine. I honestly hadn't heard about those charges of discrimination etc.

I just saw them helping out on the spot (on two spots) with big hands and hearts and efficiency, and I contributed hoping to help them to do that.

I've big concerns about the Red Cross, but I think had I witnessed them in action in such a situation I would have donated to them as well.

The Capitol Area Food Bank here is a great outfit that I have been donating to for years and years. When I first came to Austin the famine in Ethiopia had really turned fierce. Having lived there years before it was really bothering me. Even our church personnel had been kicked out of the country. I looked all around for a way to contribute. In this area they were the only outfit that both seemed to know of the problem and to be helping by sending food. I have been supporting them ever since.