How Private Is 'Private Charity'? Private charity may be more accurately described as "private donations coupled with involuntary, tax-financed public subsidies." And it's not fair: "very low-income people paying only payroll taxes get hardly any leverage for their donations. Very high-income people in states with high income-tax rates – such as New Jersey and New York – can through the tax code virtually double the money funneled to a charity per dollar of their own sacrifice." (previously)
posted by kliuless on Jan 17, 2011 - 39 comments

Giving What We Can is a movement founded by Toby Ord , a 31 year old Oxford academic on slightly more than average income who plans to give away a million pounds during his lifetime. [more inside]
posted by philipy on Dec 13, 2010 - 52 comments

A New Career of Caring, Started in Death on 9/11. Brooke Jackman was a 23 year-old assistant bond trader who was one of 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees to die on the morning of 9/11/2001. In her memory, her family created a Foundation in her name, dedicated to promoting literacy, especially among elementary school children in New York City. Today, 'first responders' from New York's Police and Fire Departments "took some time off from their day jobs to read aloud to children at the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan, as part of the first ever Brooke Jackman Foundation read-a-thon." [more inside]
posted by zarq on Sep 7, 2010 - 11 comments

"Out of the blue, in the middle of a recession, the phone rang. What would it cost, the caller asked the founder of DonorsChoose.org, to fund every California teacher's wish list posted on the Web site? The founder, Charles Best, thought perhaps the female caller would hang up when he tossed out his best guess: "Something over $1 million," he told her. A day later, Hilda Yao, executive director of the Claire Giannini Fund mailed a check of more than $1.3 million to cover the entire California wish list, 2,233 projects in all, with an extra $100,000 tossed in to help pay for other teacher needs across the country. (DonorsChoose: previously on MeFi) [more inside]
posted by zarq on Sep 3, 2010 - 82 comments

"Sure, Bono and Richard Branson can change the world. But there are millions of individuals making a difference who are not rich or famous." The Christian Science Monitor's ongoing Making a Difference section focuses on "that unheralded community – 'to honor the decency and courage and selflessness that surround us.'” [more inside]
posted by zarq on Sep 2, 2010 - 4 comments

"Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett are asking the nation's billionaires to pledge ... at least half their net worth to charity, in their lifetimes or at death."
posted by grumblebee on Jun 16, 2010 - 145 comments

Giving away $10 every day to a different stranger for a year isn't as easy as it sounds, but Reed Sandridge is attempting to do just that, for a project he's calling "The Year of Giving." He then documents their stories and what they plan to do with the money on his blog. [more inside]
posted by zarq on Apr 21, 2010 - 33 comments

Tom Williams: Hired by Apple at 14. His full story? — not quite… What he doesn't mention in his monologue is that his current project is reminiscent of GiveWell, with similar origins in high finance. He responds. (via)
posted by blasdelf on Jul 7, 2009 - 45 comments

davos 2006: Is Red the new blue? GAP, NIKE, American Express and Bono get together to save Africa from Aids. Bono, asked if he was being used by big business, replied that he was not a "cheap date."
posted by twistedonion on Jan 26, 2006 - 55 comments

Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? Who is changing the world more for the better? Some people believe Bill Gates and Microsoft are the Spawn of Satan, while others praise him for his philanthropy. [subs. req'd] Steve Jobs has more buzz on the internets than Bill Gates and a near religious following for his products with Apple. One might not give like the other, but one definitely is much more Zen-like.
posted by Mijo Bijo on Jan 25, 2006 - 92 comments

Gift hub - Connecting Funders, Active Citizens, and Advisors. Phil Cubeta, who is known to many as the weblog world's Happy Tutor (et al.), wants to stop just talking about philanthropy and actually do something. Now this a Corporate Guy that I actually respect. He's recently decided to 'go from satire to sermon, from noting problems to working for solutions,' and brought together some other smart and influential people to talk about philanthropy, activism, volunteerism, charity, social movements, civil society, and emerging democracy, and is one of the people organizing an Open Space for Giving Conference in Chicago. Can a webby philanthropic bridge be built between the chaotic, emergent ferment in the wired world and the world of corporate wealth? I don't know, but I wish him luck.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken on Apr 13, 2004 - 2 comments

Donors Choose "Public school teachers use Donors Choose to propose resources for their students. Concerned individuals like you can then select a proposal to fund."
posted by FunkyHelix on Mar 22, 2004 - 14 comments

Earth to Bill Gates: Thank you This little editorial that appeared recently is (obviously) dancing on the fringe of cheesiness, but it begs an interesting question about philanthropy and the world's richest man. Gates appeared on Bill Moyers' NOW last night, and was reasonably candid (he used the phrase "failure of capitalism"), mentioning more than once that he intended to give away ~95% of his wealth, mostly to aid public health. Our perceptions of his politics aside, it would seem as if Gates intends to go out with a humanist bang.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly on May 10, 2003 - 41 comments

Bill & Melinda Gates' $24 Billion Charity "The Gates Foundation often makes grants only on condition that governments or other nonprofits match them, and requires that recipients meet regular goals for performance—or risk losing their funding. (That hardball approach has met with criticism from some members of the philanthropic community, who argue that holding people to ambitious standards may make sense in Redmond but not in places where millions can’t read.) And experts have calculated that improvements in health care themselves have a huge ripple effect in the poorest countries: if parents believe their children will live longer, they save more and reproduce less. That will help create capital for investment, which will spur more development and so on, in a "positive feedback loop," as the techies like to say in Redmond."
posted by owillis on Jan 31, 2002 - 41 comments

Minnesota man claims losing sons, one in WTC, one in traffic accident and collects $6,000 in donations. Reporter hears story, checks on it, finds no corroborating evidence. Fabricated? Granted, the man didn't ask for money, but what should he do now? If you had given him money, what would you want him to do?
posted by yesster on Jan 16, 2002 - 10 comments

Holiday season comes to all, including those without an Amazon wishlist. New York Cares has a Secret Santa program where volunteers pick up letter(s) from [a] child(ren) from homeless shelter(s) and buys them gifts requested in the letter(s). There is a similar program in Charlotte, N.C. The Chicago Bar Association co-ordinates one such program in Chicago with the USPS. Salvation Army runs the effort in Annapolis. While not quite giving toys, Canada Post organizes a letter from Santa program. I am sure there is something similar near where you live.

[As G-d/Allah would have it, this year both the eighth night of Chanukah and Eid-ul-Fitr, the feast celebrating the end of fasting during the month of Ramadan, will fall on December 16^th. An $18.00 gift can feed "a month's worth of nutritious lunches for an Ethiopian child in Israel." There are also other Israeli/Jewish charities. There are various Muslim charities and organizations that help the poor and war-torn Muslim women, children and orphans around the world.]
posted by tamim on Nov 30, 2001 - 17 comments

GIVER BEWARE! If you're gonna give, don't get taken. The New York branch of the Better Business Bureau has some useful material on how to spot scams over legitimate charities. "As awful as it sounds, there may be those that seek to profit from this misery." Useful tips and information are also available at Give.Org, the Urban Legends Resource Center and the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. Maybe I'm just too cynical, but even the legitimate charities sound like scams to me. Why are there so many "disaster relief funds" forming? Wouldn't it be easier if there was just one place to give? Why all these middlemen?
posted by ZachsMind on Oct 10, 2001 - 6 comments

America: A Tribute To Heroes Special/telethon airing across all four networks to raise money for 9.11 this Friday from 9pm to 11pm. Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Deniro, Jim Carrey and more celebs than you can shake a stick at.
posted by owillis on Sep 19, 2001 - 21 comments

GreaterGood shuts down. I wondered why hunger site, the rainforest site and all the rest had been undergoing 'routine maintenance' all week.
posted by rebeccablood on Jul 21, 2001 - 16 comments

The global distribution of income is becoming ever more unequal. One of the proposed solutions? More charity by the ultra-rich.
posted by schoolie on Jun 18, 2001 - 10 comments

This IS the scientific definition of the whammy... The Scully Marathon is coming soon to an area near you - worldwide, fans of the television series The X-Files are getting together to watch ten of the best shows ever made, as well as raise money and awareness for neurofibromatosis. Don't miss the boat, Starbuck.
posted by ZachsMind on May 11, 2001 - 20 comments

Bill Gates' dad in NY Times Mag Q&A on bequests, estates, philanthropy and work ethic. (He's involved in administering his son's charity activities.) NY Times link, so free registration or your own personal backdoor required.
posted by jhiggy on Mar 21, 2001 - 1 comment

Donate a Mammogram! My aunt sent me this URL so be nice. =) If you go there and click on the button, a woman gets a free mammogram at no cost to you. Corporate sponsors pay for it. Only one free mammogram donation per person. Sure it's corny but it's for a good cause. Besides, it is every man's sacred duty to do what he can to insure all the world's breasts are in top form. =)
posted by ZachsMind on Jan 6, 2001 - 15 comments

Search Engine Northernlight Donating Ad Revenue to Hospital One of my favorite search engines, Northernlight.com, is doing some benefit work -- during the week of October 14th through October 20th, searches on Northern Light will benefit the Duke Children's Hospital. Pretty cool -- and they're a good search engine, too.
posted by metrocake on Oct 16, 2000 - 2 comments