Charitable Organizations

[froggygrrrl]

I would like to buy Christmas presents for children or an entire family in need this year. So far, I can only think of the Salvation Army or Toys for Tots. What other charities come to mind that I can choose from?

 

[olena]

Check with your local children and family and foster care services. Every year, my sorority sisters and I adopt a teenager in foster care for Christmas through their Secret Santa program. Usually the teenagers are overlooked and many of them are about to leave the system and need help and items to set up house for themselves. One year, we were able to get a tire store to help us buy new tires for a car. They also do funds for incidental purchases....like class rings, school yearbooks and prom expenses.

Here's a link and there is bound to be an equivalent in your area.:
http://www.cherokeesanta.org/

I applaud your generosity....

 

[jlima]

I would like to buy Christmas presents for children or an entire family in need this year. So far, I can only think of the Salvation Army or Toys for Tots. What other charities come to mind that I can choose from?

Try Catholic Charities.

 

[mamajoan]

Check to see if your county has a CASA. Court Appointed Special Advocate, agency. We work with abused and neglected children, who are in the foster care system. Our CASA takes donations and provides Christmas gifts for all of our CASA kids. Our kids range from infants to a bit over 18 if they are still in the system. You can ask for a child to provide specific things from his wish list or you can donate general items that could go to anyone for which we provide services. Your donation would be greatly appreciated and believe me.. our kids appreciate any and everything that they recieve. Most of the kids we work with have had hellish lives before coming into the system.

May I also recommend gifts for kids in your local juvenille detention center. These kids are most often forgotten about, yes they are in detention and are being punished for something, but sometimes just knowing that someone cared .. makes a difference for that kid.

If you wish to donate for an entire family you can check with your county dcfs, They could provide you with a family .. no names or addresses, maybe just gender and age and a list of needs/wants.

those are just a few ideas.
Happy Holidays...

 

[golfgal]

You could also check with local churches to see if they have a needy family or a giving tree that they sponsor.

 

[quentina]

I second looking into the foster care program. I have 2 kids that I got from Concern. During our time with them, I learned alot of things. One of the top is that not ALL foster families treat their foster children as their own. Now, there are MANY who do and go above and beyond but some should really not be foster parents.

Our agency, TRIES to provide 5 gifts to each child and it is all based on donations. If the foster family does regular purchasing, you can deny the gits from them. We did this however, we had to make our gifts available to our caseworker for verification (to make sure we really had gifts, I guess??).

Since my experience, we have since stopped exchanging gifts at work and my coworkers buy toys for the kids. Everyone loves it..........

 

[Mom23Disneybelievers]

Go to your local elementary school/middle school and speak to the nurse. They know who the neediest families/children are. She can give you the gender and age of members in the family and you can "adopt a family". I ask for a family that is struggling...working family that is just not able to make ends meet. I know that there are many programs available to people receiving public assistance, and so I prefer to help a family that would otherwise go unassisted. I also do not want to know who the family is, just the gender, age, shoe size and clothing size, and toy interests. A food basket goes with it too...to help them with their holiday meal.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

Visit this website for help in picking a charity. Lots of helpful information:

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

 

[DVCLiz]

Check to see if your county has a CASA. Court Appointed Special Advocate, agency. We work with abused and neglected children, who are in the foster care system. Our CASA takes donations and provides Christmas gifts for all of our CASA kids. Our kids range from infants to a bit over 18 if they are still in the system. You can ask for a child to provide specific things from his wish list or you can donate general items that could go to anyone for which we provide services. Your donation would be greatly appreciated and believe me.. our kids appreciate any and everything that they recieve. Most of the kids we work with have had hellish lives before coming into the system.

May I also recommend gifts for kids in your local juvenille detention center. These kids are most often forgotten about, yes they are in detention and are being punished for something, but sometimes just knowing that someone cared .. makes a difference for that kid.

If you wish to donate for an entire family you can check with your county dcfs, They could provide you with a family .. no names or addresses, maybe just gender and age and a list of needs/wants.

those are just a few ideas.
Happy Holidays...

Just wanted to second CASA - my daughter's sorority chose CASA as their philanthropy and DD21 has done a lot with the program over the last 4 years. It's a great and worthwhile place to make a donation...

 

[froggygrrrl]

Thanks everyone for all of your suggestions! There are many charities and organizations that I never would have thought of myself. There are so many people in so many different situations that could use some help that it is a little daunting to try to figure who to focus on.

I would like to get in the habit of helping others year round, but think that helping a family in need have a nice holiday this year is a good way to start.


Please keep the charities coming if you can think of any more!

 

[KandD]

How about a local domestic violence agency/shelter?

 

[karen l]

Our church has a "Giving Tree" on the altar. We take gift tags off the tree that have a gift written on them. For example, a tag may say - white baby doll or
size large children's sweatshirt. We purchase the gifts & bring them back & place them under the tree on the altar for delivery. It's so awesome to see the gifts fill the side of the church. This is great for me because I can't afford to do an extravagant gift but I can purchase several smaller ones. Also, Toyrus usually collects gifts in a box for the Marines Toys for Tots program.

 

[4nana]

For local: I agree with schools, churches, and shelters. Our county has had to set up more shelters this year, so are on our list of donations.