Charities of the Months: Dec '09 and Jan '10

I had to do a retroactive December 2009 donation - by the time I made up mind, it was January - so it will just have to count towards 2010 tax-wise, but I swear that was 2009 money. :-)

Did I tell you that I personally hand-wrote 677 holiday notes to the high school students in PA ZIP codes 160-163, 170-196, and the states of NJ and DE? Well, I did. And let me tell you, that's enough to drive a person crazy. Truly, the only thing that got me through that was NPR/Chicago Public Radio's This American Life podcasts. Bless them for keeping their archives, and for keeping them free.

My debate here was whether this is is an ok recipient of my nonprofit project. They aren't saving lives here - they're just improving them. Kind of like a luxury, really. And shouldn't my money go towards the truly needy?

But if I followed that logic to the letter, I wouldn't give to my alma maters, either. So I went for it. Besides, if they go out of business then they're all out of jobs... and then they really are truly needy. :-)

To round it out, I split the monthly allowance with my church then, too. Even though the normal pastor wasn't there and it was all about things I don't necessarily agree with. That's a story for another day.

December: check.

And talk about helping the truly needy: January should be obvious. I had to send money to Haiti somehow, so I combined that effort with a preexisting desire to support Doctors Without Borders, which happens to be one of my mom's nonprofits of choice. What I appreciate about this organization is that most of their mission is to actually get in there and medically treat the injured; many other organizations do more community-organizing and relief aid such as food and shelter and essentials. It would be so heartbreaking to be able to feed and clothe the living, but not have anyone to heal the dying, so I think they fill a very important niche with real doctors.

I urge you send money to Haiti, too - however much you can afford, and through whichever organization you support.