Think about not donating just to 'Haiti' relief.

[testifyoncruises]

When making out a donation, I want to make a plea to you to indicate it is for unrestricted use. When you mark what it is to be used for, a legitimate charity is bound to use it just for that relief.

However there are many times when the money received far exceeds the need. For instance, Doctors without Borders now has enough funds to cover what they can do in Haiti for the next decade. There are many many other parts of the world where those funds can be used.

The Red Cross after five years still has a half a BILLION it is bound to spend for tsunami relief.

I am very wary of this telethon that George Clooney and MTV are organizing. I would advise everyone to look into the records of how the money from the 9/11 telethon were spent and what was kept for administration.

 

[crashbb]

After the 2006 Tsunami, Doctors Without Borders sent me a letter (may have been an email, but I think it was regular mail) asking permission to move my donation to their general pot, since they received so much earmarked for the Tsunami.

I thought it was a great idea for them to do.

I've also seen donation slips where there is a check box saying something to the effect of "if my donation isn't needed for this specific aim, I give permission for it to be used for other causes".

 

[Keli]

I'm carefully looking at which organization I give my funds to as well. I want one that traditionally has very low percentage used for administration costs and a couple other criteria.

 

[Carly_Roach]

Bumping