Nonprofit of the Month: Oct '09

In case you were wondering: while my blogging has been despicably poor, my monthly donations have not stopped. The only month I really had a money problem was July, from all that running around I was doing in the summer... and even then, I managed to give about 66% of my usual donation amount. I forget where I left off, so let's just start with last month.

I had trouble in October coming up with the nonprofit that I would like to donate to. I'm really inclined to go back to my favorite one (re: here), but I know that there are other worthy causes and I wanted to get through a whole year before cycling back around this time.

So after wavering back and forth between a hunger charity (that might be next month), my church, and something local, I decided to donate to the United Way of Western Crawford County.

This one was a little different - I've heard of them because of the work they do with local nonprofits with whom I was looking to volunteer when I first moved here (that never happened, sadly). I actually couldn't even find this specific branch on Charity Navigator to learn about their charity rating, but I wanted to take a chance.

I think sometimes we get caught up in big movements - specific types of cancer issues, saving the planet, feeding the world's poor - and we forget how important it is to help the community around us. I chose the United Way because they work not just with one issue but instead they work with one community. There are many organizations that they support - the Red Cross, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Scouts, etc. - but always the local chapter of these organizations. I'm not clear on exactly how it works, maybe like a grant system, and maybe it's not as efficient as giving directly to those organizations... but I don't know how I would choose just one local organization. This way, maybe my dollars can touch every organization, or go to the one with the greatest need... or however they do it. I trust it that choices will be made wisely.

So that was October! Get excited for November, I just did it last night and it was much different and more interactive than all others.